Life, Health & The Universe
Life, health and the universe are all connected. In a world where we are more connected than ever, we have become disconnected from ourselves. In this podcast, along with guests, I discuss ideas in a celebration of life, an exploration of health and some wonderment of the universe.
Contact Nadine: https://lifehealththeuniverse.podcastpage.io/contact
Life, Health & The Universe
Aligning with Nature: Harness Your Monthly Cycle for Optimal Well-Being and Productivity
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What if embracing your natural rhythms could transform your life? Join us as Wendy Tabart returns to share her profound journey of aligning daily activities with her body's hormonal cycles. Having navigated post-COVID stress, a move to the countryside, and a rekindled passion for cycle syncing, Wendy offers a unique perspective on achieving balance. She discusses her dual roles as a baby swim instructor and employee at an organic wholesaler while nurturing her creative spirit. Together, we dispel common misconceptions about cycle syncing, revealing its impact beyond just menstrual cycles and emphasising the importance of understanding and harnessing one's own body rhythms.
Wendy guides us through the empowering journey of understanding the menstrual cycle through a holistic lens. Discover how the four phases—menstrual, follicular, ovulation, and luteal—each offer unique insights into managing energy levels and expectations. By likening these phases to traffic lights, Wendy provides practical strategies to enhance well-being and productivity, such as preparing meals during the luteal phase. Through her wisdom, learn to embrace the beauty of natural fluctuations and align your life with your body's natural rhythms for optimal self-care and lifestyle adjustments.
Explore the multifaceted nature of stress and its profound impact on women’s health and fertility. Wendy highlights the importance of recognising individual stress thresholds and synchronising personal and professional activities with hormonal changes. We delve into the three R's—rest, reflect, reset—during the menstrual phase to optimize productivity and well-being. Wendy's insights extend to various life stages, including perimenopause and menopause, emphasising the importance of maintaining cyclical rhythms even when menstrual cycles are irregular. Join us for a treasure trove of tips and strategies to make the most of your hormonal landscape and lead a more fulfilled life.
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https://lifehealththeuniverse.podcastpage.io/person/wendy-tabart
Welcome to Life, health and the Universe, bringing you stories that connect us, preventative and holistic health practices to empower us and esoteric wisdom to enlighten us. We invite you to visit our website, where you can access the podcast, watch on YouTube and find all of our guests in the guest directory. Visit lifehealththeuniversepodcastpageio. Now let's get stuck into this week's episode. Wendy Tabat, it's good to have you back. We were just having a little preamble before we hit record and we had our first conversation on this podcast. You helped me birth it. Really. You were guest number three in season one back in April 2022. So we're back again. I know the time's just gone whoosh but yeah, thanks for joining me again and accepting the invitation to come on and chat about what you've been doing.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you. It's so good to be here. It was such a fun, fun time we had a few years ago, so it would be great to like dig in again and revisit.
Speaker 1:Revisit exactly. And it's going to be the main topic for today, which, well, I'll tell everyone in a minute, but let's, like, have a little bit of a catch-up. What have you been doing? Because you kind of um, well, we're talking about cycles, right? Yeah, and we were actually talking about um. You asked me how many episodes I'd done of the podcast and I said I do that in seasons, so that's kind of like matches with the theme, but you've kind of come full circle also yeah, right in yeah, what you're doing.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, tell us what's been happening over the last couple of years. I know.
Speaker 2:So back in that podcast day I was very passionate, as I am again. It's reignited with um, discovering and then teaching women about cycle thinking, um, and I think, personally what happened on that journey and the kind of going through the seasons is stress. I got really done by like stress, as we all did just out of COVID, and you know that really messes with your cycle, and I had trouble like identifying where am I Like stress, like literally, just you know it puts it in its place. It's not good, and so I just kind of felt like I lost my feet. And then, as I have kind of come out of that place, a bit of a, you know, a bit of a darkish time and I have re, re, um, I don't know. Imagine my life. We have moved, we now live on property outside the city and that was my dream.
Speaker 2:I'm back on Instagram called the digital farm girl and, like I've just rediscovered that passion for cycle syncing in my own life, which I kind of was doing anyway, but just sharing it with others, especially female entrepreneurs, but all women. Yeah, so it's been a journey. I was going to say a fun journey, but I don't know, it's been a journey.
Speaker 1:You've done all sorts of things, though, like you've learned a new profession right, you were a kid swimming instructor. You still doing that no so.
Speaker 2:I had to go back to work when I moved to my farm. Yay, back to work to pay for the dream. So, yeah, I trained as a baby swim teacher. I did for 18 months, and I work currently at an organic wholesaler, which is right up my alley. I'm right into kind of natural living, eating as whole foods as we can and, as you know, clean as we can. So those parts of my life are like you. Going to work three days a week is awesome, but there's always been that creative buzz inside of me that I can never seem to kind of let it shift, you know. So here I am back, you know, sharing this passion that I think women need to hear, or something I feel like we should have been taught at school, at the basic, about our own bodies and our own rhythms, but we just weren't. So, yeah, here we are yeah, here we are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was um listening to the episode that we recorded a couple of years ago and the same thing. There's the same theme. I was going to start with this theme. Yeah, when you say cycle syncing, or when I say cycle syncing to people women I say you know, do you know anything about cycle syncing? They and I said this in the podcast a couple of years ago so I kind of repeat myself. They still think that that cycle syncing is about you being in tune with your friends, with the people you live with yeah right, not like this conscious practice no practice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's interesting yeah um, yeah, so now I kind of describe it as basically, um, aligning external activities. Um, external, I don't know your, whatever you're doing, whether it be work, how you're eating, how you're working out, how you know how you're living, what, whether it be work, how you're eating, how you're working out, how you're living, what your social calendar looks like, aligning that external with your internal rhythms. And that rhythm is our cycle. And I still constantly hear people refer to their period, as I've got my cycle, and I'm like no, no, that's just a very small part of it, like it's much fuller than that.
Speaker 2:It's much fuller and we don't know about that fullness sometimes, I think, in in the past, um, I have known, like when I was either trying to get pregnant or not trying to get pregnant, different parts of my cycle. You know you're watching for that ovulation, but actually it's this whole big 28 day cycle and it's not just that five or six days where you've got your period. So it's definitely, um, yeah, this practice of aligning external activities with internal rhythms, um, in line with that 28 day or whatever your cycle, so cool yeah, there's mind-blowing there.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's totally mind-blowing. I think one of the biggest mind-blowing things about it is, as you mentioned, it's something that we haven't really been taught to do and it's like this um thing that can literally change the way you perceive yourself, but change the, the way that you feel about, like, what you're doing in your everyday life, the, the choices that you're making when you retreat when you're more outward, all of these things that if you practice and obviously it is a practice and that's what you teach it can yeah, it can change your experience of your cycle, but also of life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely Absolutely. I mean even down to the whole like, you know, inner critic and speaking harshly to ourselves or self-sabotaging, like there's actually a part in your cycle where that naturally happens. Like if we knew that, as women, like wouldn't we be looking out for it and just being a little kinder and be like, oh, there you are. I see that's what's happening we're in these days, you know, like it just it really honestly, can affect everything, all parts of your life. So it's definitely something that I feel like more of us need to understand, like even if it's just a basic, you know, self, self-love, type of purposes. Obviously I love to take it further and talk about it, how you align your, your business tasks for female entrepreneurs, but like it really is as basic as you know, how hard do you push yourself? Like how, how? You know, yeah, how do you speak to yourself? How do you feel about what's going on?
Speaker 1:you know, yeah yeah, before we get into the, what you're actually doing with your, with your program and your coaching, and like you're specifically as you, as you said, you're specifically working with women in business or entrepreneurial women, and how they can kind of create their work work life balance in inverted commas around their cycle. But like you mentioned that you started and in in our last episode together, that you this is something you sort of became a bit more aware of and you were practicing quite a lot in your early 40s, I think you said yeah well, actually I well it was.
Speaker 2:I think it was late 30s. Okay, so I so I did some, you know, looked at the calendar a little while ago and I was like, oh, wow, so that was late 30s, which I feel is like actually very late. Imagine being in your late 30s discovering something so fundamental. So I'm so delighted when people in their 20s or 30s like cotton on or just hear it, I'm like, wow, you've just saved yourself like two decades of pain. So yeah, you've just saved yourself like two decades of pain. So yeah, I was just getting on with life.
Speaker 2:I think I had not quite very young, but like primary age kids, and I was trying to rediscover myself and had done some coaching with a lady and I remember she had a guest that talked about this cycle syncing and I was like what? And I have had really a tricky time with my period all my life like pain, very heavy, like it's just the things going on that I just cannot get to the bottom of. But anyway, because of that, I've always thought it was such a burden. It was like it was just like oh, coming again, you know, and to have someone tell me that it's actually part of something beautiful and, in fact, your actual menstrual phase can be used for good, not just bad or evil like I thought it was. It was really like wow, that's pretty amazing and like I was just taken from that moment on. So I definitely have used it in all aspects of my life. Yeah, just with, not with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the self-talk and the pushing and and just the resting, like some of it is so counter-cultural, it was like society got together and was like let's not tell women about this, let's expect them to be exactly as if they have male hormones which are so different to a female's hormones. They reset every single day. They're high in the morning, low in the evening, they don't fluctuate very much compared to a female and, like every day, they're the same person. And when you compare that to us, we have this 28 days before we reset. That's just, you know, the average. So we have this cycle that doesn't reset for 28 days. So what a man resets in one day, we reset in 28 days, and I think society and ourselves have come to expect that we behave as if we have that male hormonal profile and that's just what we think is right, that's what we aim for. And how disappointing and how devastating is it when you can't keep up with that because we're not set up like that.
Speaker 1:So you've got me talking on my passion. Yeah well, what do we do Like? As a young woman, I went to the doctors and I got on the pill, right oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's almost like a way of managing your period.
Speaker 1:So that you don't get a real one yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And even now you go, and the only thing that they want to give you is.
Speaker 1:Something that you put under your skin. Yeah, yeah, and it releases it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and maybe that works for some people it doesn't. It's. It's not me, I'd rather just. I would rather honestly experience what we were designed to be like, and that does come with highs and lows. It does mean you can't lift as heavy weights one week then you can the next. It does mean you'll be slower one week to the next, so you can't have the expectations that I'm oh, I hate this, I can't do as much like. It's. It's beautiful fluctuations, um, and when you start to see the beauty in it, then I think you know women have you know, can they're just in touch with them, with who they are and how they?
Speaker 1:were designed yeah so, when you first found out about it, what did you? What sorts of things did you do? Was it like, did you start by just sort of recognizing how you were feeling, or did you start to integrate some particular practices around different parts of your cycle?
Speaker 2:yeah, I think so. Um gosh, it's just trying to remember back. It's been such a journey, but I and even now I teach, I teach the theory, but then it always has to be put next to okay, Nadine, how does your body work, how are you? So it always comes with charting and like some observations to start with, and I would have started like that. I would have gone okay, there's a few things we know. We know when you get your period. It's very obvious. You know when it's finished. So there's one phase or of the four that we know.
Speaker 1:So you would start by just sort of writing that down as it happens.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yep, and I teach now. So we chart how you feel every day physically, energetically and emotionally, and so we just start to get some data, I suppose, behind that, so you start to recognize oh, after my period I actually start to like, have more energy and I start to feel great, and then something happens and then it all comes down. So we're just like observing for the first little while and I still sometimes observe, but mostly once you've done it for a little while, you know how your body responds, so you know you get it. So I always say to my girls chart, observe for three months, and you'll have great data to know.
Speaker 2:Okay, there's in your cycle there is four phases. They break it up. Everyone knows your menstrual phase that's when you bleed. Then your follicular ovulation, which we know from like you need to be in that phase to get pregnant. And then your luteal phase, which I hear more and more people talking about, and that's the most misunderstood phase I think of them all. So there's these four phases and I kind of talk about them actually like traffic lights in three stages.
Speaker 2:So there's the go stage, which is like green, you know, that's your follicular and your ovulation. You're very outward and you're very like energetic and bubbly and magnetic and you want to do things for everyone and you want to like do this, you know, chat with people. And then you switch into your luteal phase, which it's like you're contracting, and I call that the slow. So, on the traffic light, we've gone green. This is your orange phase, where you're like everything's slowing down because you know with the orange lights you should be slowing down, even though my daughter sees me go through them sometimes. And then your menstrual phase. Like you, that's your kind of red. I color code it like that. So your red phase is like you've got to stop, which is so counter-cultural, so like being told all our lives to go go go yeah, do not stop for your period.
Speaker 2:There's nothing wrong with you, you do not need to. You know you can just do everything and the whole society now has been set up so you don't even have to acknowledge it. Only internally you are, you feel sluggish. You sometimes feel physically yuck, you're like bleeding. You know like stuff is going on so, um, yeah, so we observe, like how your body reacts in those, in those different um stages, and then that gives you a framework, I guess, to know.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I'm actually on days what? Eight now. That means I'm like feeling expansive, I'm really good to like have coffee with people, to like do lives, to do interviews. But you know what, in seven days I'm going to be on the. You know the go slow and you're going to want to slow down and you're going to have to listen to yourself. So you know, we observe, we learn the, the theory, observe what's happening in our body and then, like you start applying things.
Speaker 2:So you know, I would just be easier on myself, I would do self-care, but I do it in the luteal phase, like in the go slow phase, where you really need to take care of yourself. I feel like you don't need much self-care. When you're feeling vibrant and energetic and amazing, like that, takes care of itself. That phase um. So there's just little things that you know I would put in to um to honor where I was, um, you know, maybe I would pre-make meals or something, so I wasn't under so much pressure during the go slow stage. So you know just little things here and there. And because it's on a cycle, we have so many opportunities to practice, so you do a little bit one cycle and then I'll be like, okay, next cycle I'll try again and I'll try and master that a little bit more. And you know, until the end, until we do menopause, we've just got cycle after cycle after cycle. So our body's very kind. We just take it step by step and just learn. It's good cool.
Speaker 1:I want to ask you something else, but my dog is in here and she wants to get out, so I'm just going to open the door yes, do that definitely very good back.
Speaker 1:That was great. Yes, that was really good description, thank you, and um, I think it's. I think, well, it can be hard to do something like this. It takes, um, I love that you kind of say, you know, we get that opportunity every month to reassess, re-evaluate and like figure it out, because sometimes it's like, oh yeah, that's right, that's why I felt shit last week, it's because I was pre-menstrual. Um, but you do need some, you do need some time for this.
Speaker 1:It's not like a magic pill where all of a sudden, you're going to be able to, you know, do all of the things and align everything. Yeah, yeah, you need to re-familiarize yourself because basically, what we've been doing for however many years, is like shutting a door on all of that stuff, right, and doing everything we can to ignore it, avoid it, dread it, whatever it is. So, yeah, it takes a level of commitment, um and um, yeah, like that, that first three, that first three months of tracking and and like noting things, is obviously really important because then after that, you can start creating your, your plans, your schedules, your work yeah, around and I like, I think, like you said, it's a practice, so it's something you choose to, to.
Speaker 2:Once you've got that commitment of that three months and all that kind of data done and dusted, then it's yeah, the doing is the practice and that that goes on, that goes on. And I just saw, um, I follow somebody who was talking about menopause and they said the key, that you know the one, the magic pill for menopause is rest. And I was like, oh, we get to practice that every cycle for a couple of days, um, which is when we're to stop, ish, I'm like, I mean, we all have lives, so you can't stop everything, but you can put a little pause button on and take some time. I was like, oh, we get to practice that every time we bleed, every time we have our menstrual cycle, part of the cycle, we get to like practice that and then look at that, going forward, nailing rest in that kind of menopause transition is the key. I'm like, but how hard is that? Life goes on.
Speaker 1:So it's commitment, like you said, to honoring yourself and, um, yeah, it's big, it's really big I want to talk to you about um menopause, perimenopause as well, because I'm in that phase and you would be getting close-ish. I reckon I'm in in denial.
Speaker 2:There's nothing to deny.
Speaker 1:It's all good and that's kind of one of the things I wanted to talk to you about. We had a little bit of messaging this week about that, but, like, what was the other thing I was going to ask you about? Oh, so you said that when we spoke on the podcast a couple of years ago almost three years ago actually and you've had this big life change and there was lots of stress and that sort of thing, and you've really felt that you lost sight of this part of yourself and this passion that you had. So what happened? Like, because obviously this something that, um, if women are interested in cycle thinking for themselves, it would be really good to understand like the potential pitfalls.
Speaker 1:I guess you say, yeah, absolutely, like it's not, it's not to necessarily be perfect.
Speaker 2:No, absolutely not. And I think what happened was not just that I lost sight, but that my body actually, it felt like there was a cloud. The stress created a cloud or a barrier between what your hormones would naturally want to do and what they did. Now, I'm not a doctor, I'm not medical, so I can't tell you exactly what was going on, but from experience and what I've read, stress terribly disrupts our hormones, and so what I think was happening was, you know, when I was in that expansive phase, it was really being clouded by stress. Those stress hormones were like interrupting their hormones that were up and happy and magnetic and I'm like.
Speaker 2:I don't even feel that anymore.
Speaker 1:I can't recognize that.
Speaker 2:I know that I'm in that part of my cycle because I've already finished my period and I haven't yet ovulated. This is supposed to be the good bit, you know, but that's the wrong way of speaking about it. But this is supposed to be the happy, you know, joyful time and it's not there. And I think the stress hormones they play games and they don't let those other hormones, like, do what they need to do. And so you know, I know, I yeah, so it was getting um control of the stress that had to come down. And then, as that came down and life settled, um then I was like, oh, there is the cycle again you know, it's been able to pop back through.
Speaker 2:So, um, if, if you're tracking and you're doing that observations and you're like the theory is not matching my experience, then that's when you can dig into like, well, you know, are your hormones being interrupted by stress, for example, and like are they not actually being able to express themselves? You know, I wish I could like see inside what it looks like, you know, in your body. But the more I learn and the more I read about your body, like that stress, that cortisol is not meant to be there day after day, like hour after hour. It's supposed to come and go, you know, fight the lion or whatever, but we're not meant to live in chronic stress.
Speaker 2:And you know the last. Well, people have stress for all sorts of reasons.
Speaker 1:So I had my season, yeah, right, and like entrepreneurs, business people, business women, like that could be a real thing, absolutely, but you're helping them to design their life, so that that's you know they're, they are more aligned and that doesn't happen. But interestingly, um, just in terms of the the cycle stuff I was talking to someone about it today but, um, when I was trying to get pregnant the first time, we ended up we, we did ivf in the end and then Winnie came second in, like a natural pregnancy, yeah, and we were just sort of saying, you know, interesting how your body readapts, you know, but that was a different type of stress. I was doing CrossFit and I was training like eight, probably eight times a week. Right, my body was in this stress state.
Speaker 1:So it's not just like stress can come in many different forms.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And exercise. You know, intense exercise can be another form and I know that there are other women that probably, you know, have these. Oh, I fell pregnant even in the midst of, you know, competing in CrossFit Like. I've heard that story as well, so it doesn't always affect women, but it can, and I think that's a really, really key.
Speaker 2:It's your. Everybody's body is different and so it's your level of stress. Like, maybe that amount of stress pushed you over a line into the I'm really stressed where someone else. It didn't push them. You know like it's, and it really is about getting to know your body and paying attention to what's going on with you and then taking it from there.
Speaker 1:So 100% yeah, yeah, that absolutely yeah could you give us a little bit of insight into those four phases and what sorts of things you would recommend? Yeah, absolutely, I've given too much away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no, I mean, it's so good, all this information is available everywhere.
Speaker 2:Go and look and it's all there, it's awesome. So let's start with the just with your period, because everybody knows that phase. So that's the menstrual phase of your cycle. You're bleeding and I like to think of it as kind of out, with the old making way for the new, and so during that time I do teach, I call them the three R's, and this applies business or not business, like just in our lives.
Speaker 2:So rest, like often the first couple of days of your cycle, it's like just slow down, even if you're busy. Try and slow down, then reflect. So look back. It's when you have your period. Your hormones are very low, so your left and right brain they're just like talking, like everything's very level, so you can analyze with like just this, you know unbiased brain, okay. And so we reflect, we look back and I think what have we done, what? What have I done in the last cycle? What did I love, what did I not love, what aligned, what didn't align? And then the next one is reset.
Speaker 2:So the third r so look forward to the next cycle and make a plan. So just like you would make a plan on your calendar, you know what's coming up in November, for example, instead of looking at it as November, let's look at it as your next 28 days and let's like make a plan for what you're going to do during that cycle. So that's kind of like how to make use of where your hormones are at during your menstrual phase. As you come out of that, your like estrogen starts to increase and there's a couple of other awesome little hormones that get dropped in at the end and you start to feel like a bear coming out of a cave. You're like oh wow, and you just start to light up a little bit and you've got lots of ideas and you want to like start seeing people again, which is really cool. So that is a time, as it goes into the third phase, which is ovulation, I think that's like the climax of the expansion. To like really hang. That's like the climax of the expansion to really hang out with people.
Speaker 2:If in a business sense, like do interviews like this, you know, collaborate with people, be in front of the camera, you usually feel more magnetic, you feel more lovely, because if you think about your body during this phase, what it's doing is trying to get you pregnant, like that's the whole like thing. You're like, okay, good body's, like come on, let's, we're gonna drop an egg. You're gonna like I've got the egg. So the same like with that bit aside, that's how you're feeling. You're coming out, you're feeling excited, you're like I've got the goods, you know, um. So really use that time to like do all your people things. You like see people and like just be vibrant.
Speaker 2:And then, after you've ovulated, your poor body, if you're not pregnant, it's like, oh, hold on a minute, what's happened? And I think it gets a bit sad. So you go into that luteal phase which we often refer to as, oh, you've got PMS. You're so grumpy and I think that's what our body's doing. It's grieving because it didn't get pregnant again. It's got to like prepare for like another flush out. It's not keeping everything because you're not pregnant. And so during that time you're more inward focused and you're more into just like getting things done. It it's almost like a little bit of nesting, because it's like are you pregnant, are you not pregnant? And so you're like just cleaning up and organising and, you know, doing back-end jobs. You don't really want to be doing front-end things. You don't want to be doing your people stuff during that phase. So that's amazing to know Now what happens is we often will come out of our period and we're feeling all amazing and we'll make all these dates to, like you know, engage with people.
Speaker 2:But you've got to make them in a few weeks because everyone's busy and, what do you know, it falls straight into your contractive phase, your luteal phase, when you could not, you're like you don't want to leave the house and you're like shit, that was not good. So it's just about knowing, like knowing where, how your calendar is going to look, your actual, like Monday to Friday calendar, where are you going to be at? And trying to align some of your life or your business tasks. So they just fall into where your hormones are supporting them for your business tasks. So they just fall into where your hormones are supporting them.
Speaker 2:Um, so, yeah, so we go in the expansive kind of um follicular and ovulation then we slow down in the luteal phase and then we just like I say stop. Obviously we can't stop, but we take moments of stop when you're going through your period. So it's a beautiful cycle. You do it once and then it starts again and like when you start looking forward to that rest and that like, um, you know, reflecting and resetting of your goals every month during your period. You're like, wow, there's something good about this, like it's not as terrible as you know, I've been told all this time. So yeah, does that?
Speaker 1:give you a bit of a picture yeah, it's great, yeah, it's very good and I think that it's a good. Yeah, like um, I, when I was thinking about like starting something like this, it was like I felt a little bit overwhelming. But if you literally just start on the the day of your period, first day of your period, and you yeah, and you just use that as that springboard right to to yes to start because I, you know, I have my, for example, I have my calendar for booking podcasts, like it.
Speaker 1:If I know, like, if I have a bit of an idea, I was gonna, I was, I'm actually gonna start trying. That is is like yes blocking out certain times based on that cycle.
Speaker 2:I have got other things that's how I um booked in this time, because I was like, okay, I want to book in when I'm in the expansive phase. You know, it just brings a little bit extra pizzazz, like it's not like I couldn't talk to you when I have my period or when I'm in my luteal, but I'm just going to be a bit more. You know, I probably couldn't be bothered straightening my hair and I'm just going to have like less energy yeah, yeah, even the way you look like.
Speaker 1:I look at myself in the mirror at certain points in the in the month and I'm like I look, look amazing, you know, I feel really good. And then I look at myself and I think, girl, you look shit, I know. But part of that is actually probably I don't know like how much of that is perception and how much of that is actual reality, like how much of it is based on how you're feeling or… To be honest, I think it really is like actual reality.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying that you look like shit, but you haven't got that extra energy that like possesses you right, the spark, yeah. So I literally like if you watch my Instagram for two weeks, I'm like straightening my hair. I'm like shiny, shiny. Then if I come on live during the second half of my thing, I look terrible, but I'm like this is authentic me. I'm showing up. I don't have the pep in my step, but I'm like, again, I'm authentically showing up, it's okay. So you are very different during those times and that's the problem. When society tells us that, as like, that luteal phase is not okay, or your period, it's not okay. We don't want women to be like slowing down. We don't want them to be inward. We don't want any of this. You've literally knocked off half of your month where you feel terrible about yourself. You're being told that you're not enough, and so I'm like guys, we need to learn to love that second half.
Speaker 1:You know it's so far destroyed. It like use it in the right way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, don't try and make it do something that's not, it's not designed for. Like don't try and launch a product when you're like knee deep in your period or something like you. You don't want to do that, so there's times.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I find that that's what I find cycle syncing is. We're answering the when question. When do your hormones support you best to do this? When do they support you to do that? When, when, when? So it's not necessarily the how, it's the when of like. Okay, if you want to use them as your edge, when in the month, you know, should you do that. So I find that, yeah, it's a different question which we don't ask very often.
Speaker 1:So, yes. All right. You mentioned that you're in denial about perimenopause. You might not be in perimenopause yet, which? Is all very well but like don't be in denial. We had a little bit of back and forth messaging a couple of days ago about that. It definitely changes things up?
Speaker 2:Yes, and I have. I told you, I'm witnessing my friends go through it and there's just such a varied response to it it and I'm not scared of it, I'm just loving like the cycle and the rhythm at the moment and I still have that. I still get my cycle on the day or the day before, like when I know it's coming.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm like it's not quite there yet um but you know like it's interesting watching other people and then listening to wise people who have gone through it, and just you know, that just really struck me. When I heard that lady say the key is resting and stopping, I'm like, wow, it's so countercultural. Oh, like, just so countercultural, it's not allowed. Like, what a rebel. What a rebel if we are going to go forth and do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, I was telling someone the other day like there seems to be and very similar to when we have our cycle right that part of our life where I was saying, you know, we take the pill and we just push it. Like you're saying, we push through and we ignore it and it's like let's just pretend that's not happening. Um, perimenopause and menopause is kind of in that same, it's in a, it's in a new category, but the same things start to happen and there's so much it feels like there's like this whole fear-based messaging about it, about how awful it is, but rest is a massive key and lifestyle and stress have, yeah, big impact on your experience of it, I believe, and that whole, that whole thing of pushing through, ignoring it, um, taking a drug, you know hrt which I think that you know some people are just desperate.
Speaker 1:Some women are desperate because they do feel so bad. But those symptoms that we might experience are signs, just like our. You know parts of our period. You know our cycle. If we're having certain experiences that it can be indicators that you're out of balance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's right, and you need some alignment and like I don't want to talk too much into it because I'm not there yet, but you definitely can see it in the cycle syncing that you do have to go against the grain. So if we're still trying to live on the expectations of we have men's hormones, then we are never going to be able to align. So there's some massive changes that need to happen and I expect in perimenopause and menopause the same thing has to happen, major things. Maybe you can't go on working five days a week, nine to five, like, but that's huge, like there's big, big changes that, um, people can experience to reduce that stress and to ease into it, um, yeah, yeah, one thing that I found helpful because, um, I am sort of perimenopausal and I don't want to.
Speaker 1:I don't want to put push the conversation, conversation away from the work that you're doing. But one thing that I found helpful, because I don't always know when my period or whether I'll ever get one again, but in the last couple of years I've worn an aura ring, which is like a device. You know, lots of people are wearing Fitbits and that sort of stuff yes. And the one thing that I noticed if I was, if I am going to get a period is my HRV will drop in the week leading up.
Speaker 1:My heart rate variability will drop, yes, and my body temperature goes up.
Speaker 2:Yeah right, Quite significantly.
Speaker 1:For about seven days I'll have a big peak and then it will start to go back down and then I'll get a period. And that's one of the reasons I still wear the ring, because I, yeah, and I just wear it at night.
Speaker 2:It gives you a warning, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I definitely feel that. But another thing, yeah go, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:I'm just gonna say going into that when you don't have a cycle there, there are, um, you know, ways to remain cyclical, by following the moon cycles, or, you know, doing just keeping, keeping the, those feminine rhythms, so you can make sure you rest and you can, like you know, just be kind to yourself in those ways. So it's not the end. It's not the end.
Speaker 1:And, like, as you said, like you wish that you'd found it in your 20s, and for me, I wish I'd found it in my yeah, any time. But like it was good to find it and understand it, even for those you know the last three years or so and have a bit more of an understanding, and also for, like understanding, my clients. I've actually got an astrological diary, so it's just a regular diary, but it's got moon cycles in it and I thought I would pretend.
Speaker 2:Can I share?
Speaker 1:the cycles of the moon and how it compares, yes, um, so it says that, and you talk about seasons as well, yeah, so the full moon here is, uh, oh, the new moon is the menstrual cycle, yeah, um, and that's considered winter, and then follicular is the first quarter, yeah, and ovulation is the full moon. The full moon, and, uh, luteal is the third quarter, yeah, so if you kind of know that and you can track the the cycles of the moon, so for for me, I would have just had, with the new moon, probably just had my menstrual, yeah, um, and it definitely felt a little bit like that.
Speaker 1:Actually didn't really feel like doing much like I was the new moon came on friday last week and I did not want to do a thing. Yeah, right, and I did not want to do a thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah right Interesting yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like I, was very low energy for the first two days of the new moon, which kind of totally yeah. Yeah, I mean and if nothing else like just learning how to listen to your body and to not push. I mean, so many people talk about this in different ways, but just listen and be okay with honouring how it's feeling. I think that is beautiful.
Speaker 1:What other, though? I know that you've experimented and you do use other things, so you work with your entrepreneurial women and helping them in their business to use their cycle to their advantage. What other areas of your life I know that you've. Do you use it with your exercise?
Speaker 2:I'm definitely aware that in that phase, um, so pre-period, I'm aware that I'm probably not going to be able to do as much, and that's okay, I just, I, I don't, I'm not hard on myself. If I can't do it, I can't do it, yeah. And then I do have a little personal rule, day one and day two, which I find quite tricky. I just, you know, don't? I just don't go there, um, I just rest and don't try, and you know, lift weights or do anything on that day. I mean, I can walk or do whatever I need, but I know I really need to have a little break.
Speaker 2:And so last week I um, that happened and I would normally work out, and I was day two and I'm like I actually feel terrible, um, I don't like, and I've told myself you don't have to. So, okay, I have to trust the process that I'm going to make it up on the days coming forward, going, you know, beyond that, and, and I did, and it was fine, like the world did not end because I didn't do my workout on Tuesday, thursday, saturday, like I switched it Wednesday, friday.
Speaker 2:Sunday, and it was all fine, you Like the world did not end because I didn't do my workout on Tuesday, thursday, saturday. I switched it Wednesday, friday, sunday, and it was all fine, you know. So I just, yeah, I do make that little tweak there and I'm just, you know, I just know, okay, going into your those expansive, that expansive phase will just, you know, try and push a little bit harder. Could you lift a little bit more type of thing. So, um, yeah, I do that. And then I certainly certainly use it for my social calendar and just like kind of put the brakes on when, um, I know I'm not going to be feeling great, um, or just feeling low energy. And you know what, if you're catching up with your best friend who, it doesn't matter how you show up, it doesn't matter. But if you're seeing someone who you haven't seen in six months and this is your one chance, and you're like you know you're going to want to have to put in some effort, then you know I'm just like, okay, let's put it when I know I'm going to feel awesome, like why not? You know some things you can't change, but if you know that your hormones are on your side, why not use them? You know like make good use of them.
Speaker 2:I just try and go a little bit easier on myself during that contractive luteal phase, like, yeah, I might have pre-made food so I don't have that pressure all the time. I'm a bit easier on myself. It doesn't matter if we eat the same thing every third day or whatever. You know, I don't push so hard. And I think half the time this PMS that we have and the crankiness and the agitation is because we want to be looking inwards, we want to be doing our own thing, but the demands still happen around us. So we still get the mom or you know, the work demands. So if you can somehow like reduce them and I'm not saying they're not going to call but if you can reduce the stress in other ways so that the things that can't change can't change, then you're less agitated and you're less grumpy. You know the PMS is less, so the more you can sync with your hormones, I think, the less Pms will affect you. People have had, you know, positive, positive switches out there.
Speaker 1:So yeah yeah, they're good tips, um, I think, with exercise, like one thing that I've witnessed with clients. Yes, is that um well, um, you know they might be having a bad day in the gym, kind of thing, and I will kind of say when are you due your cycle? Yes, they'll be like oh yeah, because they're not cycle syncing, but then it's like.
Speaker 2:Well, you know you're not feeling.
Speaker 1:You might feel more out of breath. Is it the luteal that you call it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's actually a physiological change in our bodies where we can't produce as much nitric oxide, which is an oxygen carrying product in our bodies. So we don't produce as much when we're premenstrual in that part of our cycle. So we can feel quite breathless and and things can feel more effort and our um strength reduces. But we can if you understand that you can give yourself a bit of grace, right?
Speaker 1:yeah, it's like you said if, if you know that it's your luteal phase and it's going to feel a little bit harder than normal, even though you did x last week when you were in your, you know, in your previous phases of the cycle, yeah, it's okay, absolutely yeah, absolutely, and that it really makes me sad when I hear people, um, like it's kind of that self-hate that happens during that time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what's wrong with me? I can't lift as much.
Speaker 1:Oh, you know, I hate this, I can't go as hard, but like if we you know when you get to understand it If you change it to like oh, this is amazing, my body's doing the thing that it's designed to do, and do you?
Speaker 2:know what and you know what. Maybe you compare what you're doing in week two of your cycle with week two of the next cycle. You know not week two compared to week four, because it's just not the same, it's completely. It's like you're not the same person. I mean you are, but you're kind of like so different, like in all aspects, from week two to week four. It's like it's crazy how different we can be, and when we're expected by others and society, and then when we expect ourselves to be the same, it's like a recipe for disaster or for, like, self-loathing and self-disappointment and I was just like, oh, it doesn't have to be like that, you know, yeah, what about that's yourself free.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I. I mean, everyone knows you've got the munchies and you want to eat chocolate before you, period, right, but it's a real thing. You're hungrier then. So you know, go with that, but like, try and eat nutritious food. That's going to be, you know.
Speaker 1:Like yeah, but don't have any shame around it In a good way.
Speaker 2:No, it's just gonna happen. And if you're like trying to count calories, you know what. That week it's going to be trickier to stick to what you're doing and just accept that. You know. It's just. The whole thing is understanding and accepting that we are cyclical and our cycle takes that whole four weeks to complete, four weeks to go through the cycle. You know, if we can accept that, then just like it's just, yeah, it's amazing what can come of women being okay with that, which you know. Again, like I said, we should have been taught in school. Why were we not ever taught, you know? Um? So yay for every time someone new like listens to your podcast and learns, and yay to just some more and more awareness. And when I hear people talking about it online you know if I follow different fitness people or different food people or different business people I'm like, yes, talk about it, like, get it out there, because it's a message that just needs to be heard.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Totally agree with you. So your program not officially named in full yet which is all good.
Speaker 2:Work in progress right.
Speaker 1:Work in progress and it may change, but that's all good. It may change, but that's all good, but the philosophy is that you're helping women align their cycle and their business right.
Speaker 2:So when to slow down, when to be more outward? So what does your program actually?
Speaker 1:look like. What's it all about?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we have a great like tool to help you to know when to do things, which is awesome.
Speaker 2:And then you know it's a little mini course with like modules where I'm teaching you this is what you might be doing during this phase, this phase and this phase.
Speaker 2:Here's the dates, because you've just used, you know, your planner that I've supplied you and then just try and schedule Like it's all about the when, and then just try and schedule Like it's all about the when Schedule when you're going to record your whatever your filming, and when you're going to sit down and do the creating of it, because two different things, you know, use your hormones for that edge.
Speaker 2:So you want to like be doing your magnetic things, where you're engaging with people or going live or filming content, when you are magnetic, and then you want to use your downtime to like put it all together where you're like you know making and whatever. So, yeah, so we just go through um, like kind of the what is the cycle thinking here's your planner on so you know exactly when to do things in your cycle that's coming. It's very practical and to talk you through what you might do it. And, of course, knowing your own body is like, so important. So showing you how to do that initial tracking so you can understand and collect your own data, so it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:I love it. Very cool, very cool. And do they get any? Do you do any face-to-face coaching or online like group coaching, or is it all kind of like a pre-packaged program?
Speaker 2:Yeah, this will be pre-packaged and I love talking about it and I'm very open to where it might go. But you know, because I'm cyclical, I'm like do you know what, if I made something that's like a bit more face-to-face and the timing was wrong, forever.
Speaker 2:The timing. The time would be worse this timing, but I'm not going to say no to it in the future, but for now it's going to be this information. I'm in my DMs, I'm so happy to talk about this stuff anytime, so you know you can engage in that way. But I just want more and more women to, like you, know, kind of know that theory, know their body and then know when and how to take advantage of their hormones. So yeah, and then tell more women, absolutely, spread the news. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So so more women. Absolutely, spread the news, spread it, yeah. So thank you, no worries, so we can. You'll be in our guest directory, the podcast guest directory. Do you have a website or are we sending people to your socials at the?
Speaker 2:moment, just go to socials, yeah. I'm on Instagram digital underscore farm girl just in honour to socials. Yeah, I'm on Instagram digital underscore farm girl just in honor of um this digital world I'm in, but then also honoring that, um, that part of my life that had this massive dream and just is here. I'm here doing it, and so that's kind of the backdrop for talking about periods like so unlikely, if you know I've got this one, real farm girl by day, period, educator by night, you know like. So anyway, digital underscore farm girl.
Speaker 1:You can go find me there and yeah yeah right, yeah so I'd love to chat and the um.
Speaker 2:Just one final thing the program is ready, like it's up and running and like going we can get our hands on that link in bio, because that's like very 2000 and whatever's.
Speaker 1:But um, I'm still using that yes, but you can.
Speaker 2:You can find. You can find the link to my um, to the, to the shop front, where you'll be able to learn about the program. See what it's about. It's um. I really want this message out there. So it's going to um be priced, so it's like a no-brainer. Anyone can kind of access it, access the info and yeah fantastic, great go have a brilliant.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. I um. I think when you're moving in the um cycle, syncing circles, you kind of assume that that more women know about it, but it is still pretty. It's pretty new and so like having someone like you that we can come to to understand it better is brilliant.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for taking the time to tell us all about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you, nadine, for having me. Let's get sinking girls. Yeah, thanks, wendy. Before you go, can I ask you a small favor? If you've enjoyed this show or any of the other episodes that you've listened to, then I'd really appreciate it if you took a couple of moments to hit subscribe. This is a great way to increase our listeners and get the word out there about all of the wonderful guests that we've had on the podcast. If you'd like to further support the show, you can buy me a coffee by going to buymeacoffeecom. Forward slash, life, health, the universe. You can find that link in the show notes. Thanks for listening.