Speaker 1: Apoge Production.
Speaker 2: I'm Mickie Fisher and welcome to the Village Crazy Lady.
Speaker 2: People are talking to me and they are not physically
Speaker 2: in this room, so just strap in for that.
Speaker 3: Can't call me crazy because I said it first.
Speaker 2: Whoever's trying to come through, whatever messages need to come through, like,
Speaker 2: just bring it on.
Speaker 3: Let's do it.
Speaker 2: Crazy Crazy Crazy, The Village Crazy Lady Podcast. Hello, gorgeous legends,
Speaker 2: and welcome to another episode of the Village Crazy Lady.
Speaker 2: This week, I have an incredible guest in who is
Speaker 2: going to educate the shit out of us. I've got
Speaker 2: Rebecca May, who is the period coach. We connected about
Speaker 2: over a year. Well it was well over a year
Speaker 2: ago now actually a couple of years. Yes, Oh my god,
Speaker 2: that's gone so fast. So even though I'm someone who
Speaker 2: has grown up in a family of all girls, like
Speaker 2: literally the eldest of four girls and only our mum
Speaker 2: raised us, I knew absolutely fucking nothing about my cycle,
Speaker 2: like literally nothing. It was a surprise every single time
Speaker 2: my period came. I have ENDO, I have PMDD. I've
Speaker 2: always had like so many issues around my cycle. I've
Speaker 2: only got one fallopian tube. Like there's so much shit
Speaker 2: going on down there, and I just was so unbelievably disconnected,
Speaker 2: like just knew absolutely nothing. But then I started to
Speaker 2: learn more about cycles and like why we should be
Speaker 2: why we should be learning about them just because they
Speaker 2: literally are such a significant part of our life, like
Speaker 2: because dirt, I know, like really massive. One side had children,
Speaker 2: but I only had like one or two periods between
Speaker 2: each kid because I would like get pregnant, breastfeed. I'm
Speaker 2: one of those lucky ones who wouldn't get their period
Speaker 2: again until i'd basically finish breastfeeding, and then I'd have
Speaker 2: like two periods and then I'd fall pregnant again.
Speaker 3: And I just did that a few times.
Speaker 4: Once I had.
Speaker 2: That was just my life for like, you know, a
Speaker 2: bunch of years. And then I once.
Speaker 3: I had Woody, I was like so excited.
Speaker 2: To get my period back because I was like, this
Speaker 2: is it, Like because I was like, there's no fucking
Speaker 2: way I'm having more children, like I'm absolutely done and dusted,
Speaker 2: like sew me up, no, thank you, like sent Chris
Speaker 2: off to get nuted, and we were like, you know,
Speaker 2: absolutely not. And I was like, once I get my
Speaker 2: period back, and by this time we'd connected we chatted.
Speaker 2: I'd learned a fair bit from you. I was so
Speaker 2: interested in, like everything that you had to teach, And
Speaker 2: I said to myself, the second I get my period back,
Speaker 2: I'm working with you one on one because I just
Speaker 2: want to really fucking learn and understand my cycle. So
Speaker 2: let's fucking talk about it. For status Beck, what got
Speaker 2: you into it? Like, what made you so passionate about
Speaker 2: learning about cycles?
Speaker 1: So I originally was really interested in my cycle, similar
Speaker 1: to you.
Speaker 4: After the birth of my first baby, Olive.
Speaker 1: I got my cycle back at around ten months postpartum,
Speaker 1: and something inside me was just like, I feel like
Speaker 1: I need to explore this deeper. And so I actively
Speaker 1: went out and started seeking information about this thing I'd
Speaker 1: heard of cord cyclic a living and I got all
Speaker 1: the information I could and started applying it to myself,
Speaker 1: and I found that it just changed my entire life, literally,
Speaker 1: like it made me a better person, It made me
Speaker 1: a better mother, and made me feel so grounded in
Speaker 1: you know, that first year of post pardon when life
Speaker 1: is just so crazy and like you're just learning so
Speaker 1: much about yourself.
Speaker 4: And so it was just something that I.
Speaker 1: Felt this deep calling, like I need to share this
Speaker 1: with as many people as possible, because why are we
Speaker 1: not learning this already? Like why do I Why am
Speaker 1: I nearly thirty? I was like, I think twenty eight
Speaker 1: or something like that at the time. Why am I
Speaker 1: nearly thirty? And I'm literally just learning how the foundational
Speaker 1: elements of my body work.
Speaker 3: It is literally wild insane.
Speaker 2: The fact that it's not like taught to us day
Speaker 2: dot yeah, is crazy.
Speaker 4: Like it's literally how we work.
Speaker 2: It is the thing that keeps the world literally going
Speaker 2: and keeps the world populated. And yet we're just like
Speaker 2: sneaking tampons like into bathrooms with shame, just like it's wild.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's a big part of it too, I think,
Speaker 1: is you know, the shame and trauma that we're still
Speaker 1: working through. Like I remember being like going to Woolies
Speaker 1: and being like, I need to get some tampons, but
Speaker 1: I need to be very fucking discreet because my neighbor
Speaker 1: might see me carrying a box of tampons in the supermarket,
Speaker 1: like god forbid. Yeah, right, but that neighbor is also
Speaker 1: probably going to get the same thing because she also menstruates, right.
Speaker 4: I know it may it makes sense, but.
Speaker 1: I think a big part of you know, learning about
Speaker 1: our cycle like is learning to unlearn those you know,
Speaker 1: traumas and the beliefs we have around our period being
Speaker 1: shameful and being disgusting and being an inconvenience. And I
Speaker 1: think that's, you know, one of the big parts of
Speaker 1: learning about your unique period patterns is that's a big
Speaker 1: part of it.
Speaker 4: And that's so.
Speaker 1: After I decided I really want to teach this to everyone,
Speaker 1: I want to did my menstrual cycle coaching certification and
Speaker 1: since then I've come up with a period method, which
Speaker 1: is a you know, really simple method to teach anyone
Speaker 1: how to live a cyclical life, how to learn your
Speaker 1: period patterns, so that then you can go ahead and
Speaker 1: apply that for whatever comes up, it doesn't matter what
Speaker 1: it is. And so that's the really important part of
Speaker 1: it too, is that just because you learn about your
Speaker 1: period doesn't mean it's going to fix it, right. You
Speaker 1: have to do something about it. You have to learn
Speaker 1: what your normal looks like. And that's why you're like,
Speaker 1: you know, you're saying, you saw all these posts about
Speaker 1: the lucial phase, and you saw all these things about
Speaker 1: how to you know, get rid of painful periods, but
Speaker 1: maybe they didn't apply to you specifically, because although we
Speaker 1: all have the same hormones and they you know, do
Speaker 1: similar things in our bodies, imbalance always shows up a
Speaker 1: different way, no matter like who we are, it shows
Speaker 1: up in a different way because we're all different, right,
Speaker 1: we all have different beliefs, we all have different stories,
Speaker 1: we all have different ways our bodies work, we all
Speaker 1: have different ways we.
Speaker 4: Store our emotions.
Speaker 1: Like, there's so many elements to it, and so that's why,
Speaker 1: you know, as you said, the one on one support
Speaker 1: is so key in getting to that point where you're like, hey,
Speaker 1: this isn't right, this isn't my usual period pattern. How
Speaker 1: can I really quickly self correct here and get back
Speaker 1: into a winement and start feeling really good again?
Speaker 3: And the thing is it doesn't take much. That's what
Speaker 3: I really have realized.
Speaker 2: My favorite things that I've learned, and like what I
Speaker 2: think I got out of really learning my cycle was one,
Speaker 2: working with your cycle is everything, because the second, the
Speaker 2: second I started working with my cycle as opposed to
Speaker 2: just fucking working, but then constantly like shaming myself for
Speaker 2: like why do I have such a writer's block? Why
Speaker 2: don't I want to see people today, Why don't I
Speaker 2: feel like doing this?
Speaker 3: Why am I like? And I would just shame myself.
Speaker 2: It just added like layers and layers and layers and
Speaker 2: layers of shame, which already we're like absolutely fucking frenched in.
Speaker 3: So it didn't help me at all.
Speaker 2: I was constantly just shaming myself for fucking existing or
Speaker 2: just It's like I genuinely thought that I was supposed
Speaker 2: to be in like an ovulation sort of state of
Speaker 2: being energetically all the time.
Speaker 4: And that's the fault, right, That's what we're taught. That's
Speaker 4: how we're taught.
Speaker 1: Because the world runs on a twenty four hour cycle,
Speaker 1: which is conducive to a man's hormonal cycle, right, their
Speaker 1: hormones reset every twenty four hours in the same secular motion,
Speaker 1: but it's every twenty four hours, whereas us as women,
Speaker 1: it's twenty eight days or thereabouts twenty eight days a
Speaker 1: monthly cycle. And so all these women like, yes, power
Speaker 1: to women, we can do work now, we can do
Speaker 1: all these things. But what we've done is really been
Speaker 1: detrimental to our health in the way that we've tried
Speaker 1: to like a immolate into society. But we've just tried
Speaker 1: to show up as men. We haven't done it trying
Speaker 1: to show up as women. And so that's why we're
Speaker 1: finding I'm seeing now so many people like yourself, you know,
Speaker 1: peacos burnout. Our nervous systems are absolute rex because we're
Speaker 1: just not listening to our bodies.
Speaker 4: And we don't know how to do it.
Speaker 1: People don't know how to listen to their bodies because
Speaker 1: they're told, oh, that's it's just normal to have period pain.
Speaker 1: Just suck it up and take some neurofim right, But like, no,
Speaker 1: it's not normal.
Speaker 4: It's just common. We just experienced it. So mm hmm.
Speaker 4: The doc thinks it's normal, it's not.
Speaker 2: And the way that like god, it shits me to tears.
Speaker 2: I mean, this could be its own fucking podcast. The
Speaker 2: way that the patriarchy has just created this, in the
Speaker 2: way that like women's bodies, our women's health everything, the
Speaker 2: fact that it's even like such a thing, at least
Speaker 2: in Australia at the moment.
Speaker 3: I know, in Queensland we've been lucky enough.
Speaker 2: That we've got a pretty good women's health minister and
Speaker 2: she's been doing a look for like we've and to
Speaker 2: reproductive health and like just generally around women's health, and
Speaker 2: we're like, wow, thank you, this is amazing when it's
Speaker 2: like it shouldn't be a thing where we're sitting there
Speaker 2: going like, oh my god, thank you so much.
Speaker 4: And the facts, please give us some breadcrambs, you.
Speaker 2: Know literally, and and the fact that like the pill,
Speaker 2: like we know, there's been so many of us who
Speaker 2: have experienced horror stories from being on the pill. Yes,
Speaker 2: it definitely has its benefits, and yes, like you know,
Speaker 2: we at the moment, we just need what we can
Speaker 2: as far as contraception is concerned for our autonomy.
Speaker 3: But like where the fuck is the is the men's pill?
Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Like there's just so many things. It fucks with our
Speaker 2: hormones and then we end up with all these issues.
Speaker 2: We still know nothing.
Speaker 3: About our cycle. They're just like shut it down, shut
Speaker 3: it down, shut up.
Speaker 2: But then as soon as like our hormones are affected
Speaker 2: and our cycles are affected and we you know, to
Speaker 2: come in we have fertility issues, that's when they start
Speaker 2: going oh dear, yeah.
Speaker 1: And it's so interesting because the way that they passed
Speaker 1: the pill was so dodgy, like they literally moved the
Speaker 1: standard of what was safe so that they could get
Speaker 1: the pill onto the market, and so I always just wonder, like,
Speaker 1: would that have happened if the men that were on
Speaker 1: that panel that approved the pill were the ones that
Speaker 1: were going to be taking it?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 1: And I do agree with you, Yes, the pill has
Speaker 1: a really great place for some people, but I think
Speaker 1: it's such this is a whole other podcast as well,
Speaker 1: but it's prescribed so often, and actually there's a new
Speaker 1: law in Australia which is allowing pharmacists to now prescribe
Speaker 1: this medication to people. You can walk into a pharmacy
Speaker 1: and get another, you know, refill of the pill, which
Speaker 1: is again great for some people if it's right for you.
Speaker 1: But the thing that concerns me so much with the
Speaker 1: pill is that women and even teenagers that are taking
Speaker 1: the pill are not explained the adverse effects of it
Speaker 1: and it explained what the other side of it is.
Speaker 1: They're only shown this is what this is the gold
Speaker 1: of the pill, this is what it's going to do
Speaker 1: for you. But then there's no warning of like but
Speaker 1: it's actually gonna shut down your entire hormonal system and
Speaker 1: it's not going to come back online until you stop
Speaker 1: taking the pill. So you know in twenty years when
Speaker 1: you stop taking the pill and you want kids too bad,
Speaker 1: so sad you've got pea corse or you've got endo
Speaker 1: or you have all these fertility issues and so yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that there's a really key education piece missing
Speaker 1: when the pill's being prescribed like candy, Like it's just wild.
Speaker 3: Oh, one hundred percent agree.
Speaker 2: I mean, so my story is that I was like
Speaker 2: put on all these different pills or whatever like since
Speaker 2: you know, like most people, when I was a teenager,
Speaker 2: I was going in a school camp. Don't want to
Speaker 2: get period of the school camp, so you know, that's
Speaker 2: why we start the pill. And the doctor has no worries,
Speaker 2: no problems. Here you go, you fourteen year old girl.
Speaker 2: And I went on off a bunch of different ones.
Speaker 2: They all made me feel shit, and I was like
Speaker 2: just trying out different ones and each time they'd sort
Speaker 2: of give me another one, have a crack. And then
Speaker 2: eventually I was sort of on this one for a
Speaker 2: little while, and I'd gone back to the same doctor
Speaker 2: to get the prescription and it would all go, you know,
Speaker 2: it would be fine.
Speaker 3: They didn't care, they didn't give a shit.
Speaker 2: And then I went to a different doctor one time,
Speaker 2: and she said not not with like care or anything.
Speaker 2: It might have been a man, I can't remember, but
Speaker 2: they said, oh, just so you know, I have to
Speaker 2: let you know that, you know, this pill is actually
Speaker 2: banned in every other country because it's because there's like
Speaker 2: it's been giving women blood cloths and women have been dying.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, here you go, hold but yeah, but anyway,
Speaker 2: here's this least at least they told you right literally
Speaker 2: with like eyes rolling, I just have to tell you.
Speaker 2: And I was like, here, hold the fuck on, and
Speaker 2: like I know that the FDA in Australia is quite
Speaker 2: used behind mind you, just so everyone knows this pill
Speaker 2: is still on the market. And then five years later,
Speaker 2: I literally was working in a coffee shop and there
Speaker 2: was this woman who was like coming in every day
Speaker 2: for a while, and I was just like, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm a chatter, so I would talk to her and
Speaker 2: you we'd have great yaps, and eventually she said to me,
Speaker 2: She's like, oh, you're probably wondering why, like I'm not
Speaker 2: working and I'm coming in all the time, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: to be honest, not at all.
Speaker 3: It has not crossed my mind once.
Speaker 4: I like, but yeah, we want to tell you the story.
Speaker 2: I'm like, that's literally all I think about. I'm like,
Speaker 2: it has consumed me. And she said, she's like, I
Speaker 2: had a stroke, like from a blood clot that i'd
Speaker 2: received because I was on that specific pill. I can't
Speaker 2: remember exactly the name of it, and so I'm not
Speaker 2: going to pretend to know, but I'm sure it would
Speaker 2: take you fifteen seconds to google it.
Speaker 3: And I was.
Speaker 1: Probably not the only one to be honest exactly, so
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure if you look at all the side
Speaker 1: effects on all the pill packets, they probably have that listed.
Speaker 2: Literally, But I was just like, oh my god, And
Speaker 2: as someone who is like you know, used to have
Speaker 2: absolutely fine, dandy, no worries, no problems, hormones, and then
Speaker 2: all of a sudden was taking the pill. And then
Speaker 2: I was also with a boyfriend who like refused to
Speaker 2: wear condoms, so I was just eating morning after.
Speaker 3: Pills like they were like literally lollies. And I'm just like,
Speaker 3: it makes you angry.
Speaker 2: You're like, and I'm now still like dealing with the
Speaker 2: effects of endo and all sorts of things. I was
Speaker 2: told I couldn't have kids, Like there were so many
Speaker 2: things that have gone on, and I'm still trying to
Speaker 2: fucking sort my hormones out, and I'm like, oh, I
Speaker 2: just wish instead. At some stage, someone like just empowered me.
Speaker 2: They were like, hey, periods are a bad thing, or
Speaker 2: like you can go to a school camp and fucking
Speaker 2: bleed and it's not the end of the world, because
Speaker 2: we're not like, oh, my lord, that's the most shameful,
Speaker 2: horrific thing to ever have happened, you know, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: and it's just the lack of care of like we
Speaker 2: don't give a fuck up about your body.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think another really important element to the
Speaker 1: pill that not a lot of people talk about, but
Speaker 1: there was a big part of my story as well,
Speaker 1: is you know, I was similar to you, like, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't want my period. That's so annoying, Like let's
Speaker 1: just get on the pill and like squash that. And
Speaker 1: you know, took the pill, you know, did what it
Speaker 1: was meant to. But then a couple of months later,
Speaker 1: I found myself back in the doctor's office, you know,
Speaker 1: being prescribed another pill, which was any depressants. And so
Speaker 1: the correlation between from my body anyway, between taking the
Speaker 1: pill and my anxiety like really flaring up to the
Speaker 1: point where it got to like a depressive stage. Is like,
Speaker 1: it's so obvious looking back on it, but I didn't
Speaker 1: figure it out for a really long time. And so
Speaker 1: it wasn't literally until I started living sicklicly that I
Speaker 1: was able to come off the antidepressant medication. I was
Speaker 1: off the pill like a long time ago, but the
Speaker 1: after effects of it, the anti you know, the antidepressants,
Speaker 1: having the anxiety and the depression like hanging over my
Speaker 1: head that lasted for like ten plus years after I
Speaker 1: stopped taking the pill.
Speaker 2: And so sorting out your cycle and learning like living
Speaker 2: cyclically helped absolutely.
Speaker 1: I would say it was the key factor in me
Speaker 1: coming off.
Speaker 4: Like my medication.
Speaker 1: And just as a disclaimer, don't just stop your medication
Speaker 1: because you're.
Speaker 3: Like, that's not that's not what I'm saying, right.
Speaker 4: I did with a doctor as well, you know, and
Speaker 4: we weaned it off. We weaned off really safely.
Speaker 1: But you know, like during my first pregnancy, I came
Speaker 1: off my medication cold turkey because I didn't want to
Speaker 1: be on medication like.
Speaker 4: While I was pregnant and it was really rough.
Speaker 1: And then pretty much as soon as I had my
Speaker 1: first I was back on the medication because as you know,
Speaker 1: like when you become a mom, like life is freaking
Speaker 1: crazy and you're learning who you are again, and like
Speaker 1: all these things are happening, and so like, you know,
Speaker 1: straight back on the medication, and I was having this
Speaker 1: second pregnancy like and having the difference of I was
Speaker 1: already off the medication this time, Like I'd already learned
Speaker 1: about being cyclical and you know, how to regulate my
Speaker 1: mood swings and all that sort of thing, and my
Speaker 1: nervous system that's a huge part of it as well.
Speaker 1: And so having that experience of being like medication free
Speaker 1: but not having the withdrawals of even.
Speaker 4: Like the medication and things like that.
Speaker 1: This pregnancy it was just such a different experience and
Speaker 1: even like postpartum this time was so much nicer. And
Speaker 1: I do I mean, I know, you know, having a
Speaker 1: second baby, it's always going to be a little bit
Speaker 1: different because you're a little bit more experienced, right, But
Speaker 1: there's still a lot of things going on. There's still
Speaker 1: a lot of hormones, are still adjusting to life as a.
Speaker 4: Mom of two.
Speaker 1: You know, I was thrown into ten days in NICU
Speaker 1: with my baby unexpectedly. There was, you know, three weeks postpartuer,
Speaker 1: I was like just looking after two kids by myself
Speaker 1: or my support had just gone home, and I was
Speaker 1: just sitting there like, oh fuck, I've got two humans
Speaker 1: to look after.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But the way I was able to just go with
Speaker 1: the flow and just allow things to be as they
Speaker 1: were and stop trying to fight them.
Speaker 4: I learned that through cyclic a.
Speaker 1: Living like what you were saying, you learn to work
Speaker 1: with your body and you stop trying to fight it.
Speaker 4: You just go with it, and it's mumps.
Speaker 2: It starts to bleed into not to use, literally bleed
Speaker 2: bleed into every other sort of element of your life.
Speaker 2: Just the concept of like working with and not against,
Speaker 2: like when you start understanding and because I think the
Speaker 2: other thing that I've learned with like learning my cycle
Speaker 2: is I've and working with it is I've also realized
Speaker 2: that everything is cyclic. I've noticed the energy and like
Speaker 2: you start to then when you start working with the
Speaker 2: energy of you know, the planets and the astrological sort
Speaker 2: of energies and then the collective energies, you know, for me,
Speaker 2: that's sort of more what I sort of work with
Speaker 2: and I can really see it. I see that everything
Speaker 2: is a cycle and like it's so fascinating. And then
Speaker 2: instead of like trying to move through the waves and
Speaker 2: the ups and the downs and everything else, instead of
Speaker 2: trying to like fucking push against them and then hate
Speaker 2: them for being there and being like this is all fucked.
Speaker 2: Nothing's working all of a sudden when you start moving
Speaker 2: with it and you start to really appreciate the ups
Speaker 2: and the downs and the lows and the highs and
Speaker 2: recognizing that they all have a really important place, like
Speaker 2: life does start. Your nervous system starts to just like settle,
Speaker 2: Your life starts to settle.
Speaker 3: You're not trying to. You are quite happy to sort
Speaker 3: of like go with the flow a bit more.
Speaker 2: And I'm not saying it's sort of like, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm still you know, fucking crazy in so many ways
Speaker 2: and control.
Speaker 1: You're still a human, right, but we're not now like perfect,
Speaker 1: but is a lot better than it was.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly right. And it's just it feels like it
Speaker 4: feels just more right.
Speaker 1: It feels like this is how I'm meant to be living,
Speaker 1: and this is the lens in which I'm meant to
Speaker 1: be viewing the world. It's not like someone else has
Speaker 1: said to you, like, this is what you should think.
Speaker 4: You know. It's like when you do your twelve English and.
Speaker 1: They say to you, this is the book you're studying,
Speaker 1: and this is what your opinion has to be to
Speaker 1: get top marks.
Speaker 4: No, that's not how it works.
Speaker 1: Our bodies are our own bodies, and no one else
Speaker 1: knows your body like you do. And I think, you know,
Speaker 1: if you can take one thing away from this conversation
Speaker 1: about your cycle, like, yeah, you can go google what
Speaker 1: the hormones mean and what they're going to do in
Speaker 1: different phases of your cycle. But it's the most important
Speaker 1: thing you need to take away from this conversation is
Speaker 1: that you need to start trusting your own instincts in
Speaker 1: your own body and start listening to it before it
Speaker 1: gets so loud that you don't know how to fix it.
Speaker 2: One hundred and fifty percent. And there is so much
Speaker 2: that you can learn about yourself in learning.
Speaker 3: About your cycle.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about for people who are like you know,
Speaker 2: maybe you track your cycle, maybe you know a bit
Speaker 2: about your cycle, or maybe you're like us and like
Speaker 2: in your thirties and you're going, well, not us anymore.
Speaker 3: But us previously. And it's like, how.
Speaker 2: Do I not know fucking anything about my body? Can
Speaker 2: you please give us a lesson?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 1: I always find this hard to keep short, but I
Speaker 1: will do my best. But you are correct tracking our cycle,
Speaker 1: as you know, track your damn cycle. It's the first
Speaker 1: thing you need to do to start learning your period patterns.
Speaker 1: And I'm not talking about tracking your cycle on an app.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about getting my free tracker that you can
Speaker 1: come and get from your Instagram. Put the link in
Speaker 1: the show notes. So you need to start trying on
Speaker 1: a piece of paper. And that's because we need our
Speaker 1: body to slow down enough to connect to our mind.
Speaker 1: We need that mind body connection to be able to
Speaker 1: actually check in with ourselves. How am I feeling today?
Speaker 1: How am I checking in today? And that's the number
Speaker 1: one first step. That's what I was just talking about.
Speaker 1: Trusting your intuition. It's not oh, I'm on cycle day,
Speaker 1: you know one, and so I should be feeling this way.
Speaker 1: That's not what we wanted to do. We don't want
Speaker 1: to do that. We want to say first how am
Speaker 1: I feeling in my body? And then we want to
Speaker 1: add that layer on top what cycle day am I on?
Speaker 1: And does that kind of match where I should be
Speaker 1: is this my regular period pattern from my body, and
Speaker 1: also what's externally going on for me right now that
Speaker 1: could also be affecting that, right because that's important too.
Speaker 4: So that's what I want.
Speaker 1: To start with, is because I love giving an education,
Speaker 1: but I don't want you to take it away and say, well,
Speaker 1: I'm not feeling like that right now, That's fine. We
Speaker 1: need to just learn how to call correct a little bit.
Speaker 1: And so that's the first place to start. And I
Speaker 1: have a freebie which I am about to launch at
Speaker 1: the time of recording this, so I'm not sure when
Speaker 1: we're releasing this podcast, but it's going to have a
Speaker 1: video on exactly what to track, how to track. It's
Speaker 1: got five days of voice notes from me all about
Speaker 1: you know, cycle imbalances, learning your period patterns, how to
Speaker 1: say consistent, all those kind of things. That's jam packed
Speaker 1: full of information. And so I'll give you the link
Speaker 1: for that, and then you can go ahead and start
Speaker 1: printing your own cycle trackers and start doing that, because
Speaker 1: that's a very important first step.
Speaker 3: I love that.
Speaker 2: Can I just the writing down like because I did
Speaker 2: the same thing, and I was doing the apps and
Speaker 2: I was whatever it was kind of like, oh, I
Speaker 2: have an idea of what's going on writing down how
Speaker 2: you feel every day, and I noted and I realized,
Speaker 2: and I think you said to me sort of that
Speaker 2: first month, it's just like, oh, just that's really interesting.
Speaker 3: That's it. Sort of like that's really interesting.
Speaker 4: Three months is interesting, yeah.
Speaker 2: And because really and then but after a few months
Speaker 2: of doing that, all of a sudden you start to realize, oh,
Speaker 2: hold it. I felt like that last month. I felt
Speaker 2: like that the month before. I now know exactly the
Speaker 2: day where I basically have insomnia and I just really
Speaker 2: stuck at sleeping, and I now just go, oh my god,
Speaker 2: how nice is this.
Speaker 3: I just get to enjoy fucking staying up and reading
Speaker 3: or not.
Speaker 4: Right, And it's like that's your period pattern for you.
Speaker 1: So you could say, like, that's on day twenty one
Speaker 1: that I have that insomnia. Yeah, yeah, But then the
Speaker 1: person next to you might be like, oh, but I
Speaker 1: feel really tired that day and I sleep for like
Speaker 1: twelve hours that day. Yes, That's what I'm saying when
Speaker 1: I say like, yes, you can have education, but you
Speaker 1: can never replace your own intuition.
Speaker 3: Totally and figuring it out for yourself.
Speaker 2: And is so fucking empowering when you start to go like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, I understand my body now.
Speaker 3: Anyway, keep going.
Speaker 1: Okay, so quick overview of the hormones of the menstrual cycle, right,
Speaker 1: because obviously hormones play a huge role in how we're
Speaker 1: feeling and you know, physically, emotionally, all those things, they're
Speaker 1: all a big part of it. So cycle day one
Speaker 1: is the first day of a full bleed, right, So
Speaker 1: it's not when we're spotting. It's not like, oh maybe
Speaker 1: it's here, maybe it's not. It's the first day of
Speaker 1: the full bleed. So that cycle day one. And so
Speaker 1: when you start when you track, that's when you want
Speaker 1: to track a cycle day one and that is so
Speaker 1: that's such a menstruation phase.
Speaker 4: So that's when we have our period.
Speaker 1: And a lot of people think that this is what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about when I talk about the menstrual cycle
Speaker 1: is just these three to seven days when you're bleeding
Speaker 1: and then that's it. Then you just go about your
Speaker 1: life and then oh I got my cycle back. No,
Speaker 1: your cycle is happening every single day, right, So this
Speaker 1: is what we're going to talk about now. So menstrual
Speaker 1: phase is three to seven days usually, and it's not
Speaker 1: specifically going to end. That phase isn't going to just
Speaker 1: end when you stop bleeding all the time, because it's
Speaker 1: an energetic thing as well. So I want you to
Speaker 1: when you're cycle tracking, start paying attention to how you're feeling,
Speaker 1: because there will be a transition day where then you
Speaker 1: transition into the next phase, which is the follicular phase,
Speaker 1: which I also like to refer to as in a spring.
Speaker 1: And so this is when we're feeling a little bit
Speaker 1: more energetic and we're starting to you know, blossom out.
Speaker 1: If you think about spring, the flowers are blossoming, right,
Speaker 1: we're blossoming out of ourselves. We're starting to go a
Speaker 1: bit more outward, getting a bit more social, a bit
Speaker 1: more confident, a bit more creative, all those kind of things.
Speaker 1: And so in contrast to that the menstruation phase, where
Speaker 1: you're very inward, you don't want to talk to people,
Speaker 1: you're just really reflective, and you're really craving rest and
Speaker 1: warmthed and nourishment, those two things are quite different, right,
Speaker 1: So there's going to be like a really interesting transition
Speaker 1: phase here in the middle of those two things. And
Speaker 1: so what I find a lot of the time is
Speaker 1: people go, oh, my bleed's finished, I'm just going to
Speaker 1: go out and start being creative and frolic in the fields. No,
Speaker 1: it doesn't work like that.
Speaker 2: It's actually so interesting because I'm on the precipice right now,
Speaker 2: like I've just sort of finished the bleed, but today
Speaker 2: I'm still very like, can't be fucked being online, like
Speaker 2: wan to talk.
Speaker 3: To as few people as possible. Obviously you've made the cards.
Speaker 3: That's really great for you. Which really does feel like
Speaker 3: that people are in that phase.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and honestly, like, and so I think that this
Speaker 1: is where a lot of people come undone with their
Speaker 1: cycle health is because they try to push really hard.
Speaker 1: And this is going back to what I said before,
Speaker 1: because they should be feeling this way because they're not
Speaker 1: bleeding anymore.
Speaker 4: But that's not how your body works.
Speaker 1: And so really just like honoring that transition is really important.
Speaker 1: And so after we move from the spring phase, we
Speaker 1: move into our ovulation phase. And again, obviously ovulation is
Speaker 1: just the releasing of the egg, right, so that doesn't
Speaker 1: take three or so days, but the energy of ovulation
Speaker 1: is around about three days or so usually, and so
Speaker 1: that's our like peak status. Like that's when we're outgoing,
Speaker 1: we feel sexy as hell. You know, you're probably you know,
Speaker 1: wanting to go on dates with our partners or cocktails
Speaker 1: with the girls, or be out in the community and socializing.
Speaker 1: Like we're really wanting to be like outward and we're
Speaker 1: feeling really bloody good about ourselves.
Speaker 2: Literally me and my ovulation I'm like, who's that hot bitch? Also,
Speaker 2: I just want to like basically just like bang Chris,
Speaker 2: just like like I'm like me cocking Libido skyrocket. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm like, now's your time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly right.
Speaker 1: This is why it's important for partners to know our
Speaker 1: cycles as well. Right, Yes, they need to know these
Speaker 1: things too.
Speaker 4: Chris loves knowing for nothing else, right, this will get
Speaker 4: them on board one.
Speaker 2: Hundred other way, he knows when to like not even
Speaker 2: fucking come near me and only say nice words and
Speaker 2: like yeah, just don't poke the bear because I will
Speaker 2: rip your fucking head off, And then he knows when
Speaker 2: he can just like.
Speaker 4: Really soon they're on in.
Speaker 1: It's so true, though, And so what I want to
Speaker 1: say for ovulation energy is just be really careful here
Speaker 1: about any plans that you might be making, Like people
Speaker 1: get really fucking excited in ovulation and they're like commit
Speaker 1: to a lot of things that aren't going to be
Speaker 1: helpful for them in the next week or two. So
Speaker 1: you know, it's like if you ever wondered, like why
Speaker 1: when I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm going to catch up
Speaker 1: with all these people and I've committed to this work
Speaker 1: task and that thing, and I'm going to do this
Speaker 1: work presentation because you're feeling really good at the time
Speaker 1: you commit. Yeah, but because you don't know your cycle,
Speaker 1: you've booked that for two weeks time, right before your
Speaker 1: period is about to come, and that's the time when
Speaker 1: you're probably feeling the least outward in your whole entire cycle.
Speaker 4: Right literally, So then you get there and you're like shit.
Speaker 1: And then once you can take that a step further
Speaker 1: and start, you know, looking at your cycle as a
Speaker 1: whole and start living in that monthly you know turnover
Speaker 1: instead of in the daily turnover, and start really strategically
Speaker 1: and intentionally placing different tasks in different phases of your cycle,
Speaker 1: you can really optimize it to set yourself up for
Speaker 1: like a really smooth transition. And so I guess so
Speaker 1: for people at home who aren't really sure why I'm
Speaker 1: carrying on about the lutill face so much. So in
Speaker 1: the lutill phase, after our hormones hit their peak in ovulation,
Speaker 1: what happens is all I feel good hormones, they just plummet,
Speaker 1: they drop right off, and we're just left like, oh shit,
Speaker 1: this is big void, right, Oh shit, I feel really shit.
Speaker 4: And so to go from.
Speaker 1: One extreme to the other, yeah, it's like one extreme
Speaker 1: to the other really quickly. But they'n our great friend
Speaker 1: progestering comes along. And so this is another thing, right,
Speaker 1: if we're having balances and our progesterone is not really
Speaker 1: hitting where it's meant to, it can affect us. But
Speaker 1: our progesterone is skyrockets in this phase, and so it's
Speaker 1: really great hormone. It's an anti anxiety hormone. It helps
Speaker 1: us sleep better. There's all these things that it really
Speaker 1: helps support us with. So if you're feeling, you know,
Speaker 1: really anxious and like trying to resist against all these
Speaker 1: things in your you know, luteal phase, you're not sleeping
Speaker 1: enough because we actually do need a little bit more
Speaker 1: sleep in this phase, all those kind of things. That's
Speaker 1: when our body starts to be like, hey, something's not
Speaker 1: right here, and it's going to start giving you signs that.
Speaker 4: It's out of balance.
Speaker 1: So that's superior pain, that's the mood swings, that's all
Speaker 1: those things. So this is again why it's so important
Speaker 1: to listen and go with our body instead of trying
Speaker 1: to resist it. But the thing about the Lout to
Speaker 1: Your phase is actually has a second drop because a progesterone.
Speaker 1: Once our body realizes that hey we haven't we haven't
Speaker 1: given it a baby this cycle, it drops off because
Speaker 1: they don't need it anymore. So there's two really big
Speaker 1: drops of hormones in the lot to Your phase. And
Speaker 1: so that's why that phase can feel really rollercoaster, because
Speaker 1: if you look at a chart of the hormones and
Speaker 1: it literally looks like a roller coaster.
Speaker 2: Right, that makes so like, just from a completely evidential,
Speaker 2: from my life standpoint, that makes so much fucking sense.
Speaker 3: Just the double drop, the.
Speaker 2: Double drop, the fun one, just a completely hitch of
Speaker 2: a double drop. I feel that every single I'm like,
Speaker 2: why does this, why does it go forever?
Speaker 3: Why does it feel like there's.
Speaker 1: It is the longest phase, it's the longest phase, and
Speaker 1: it does have those two drops, so it can feel
Speaker 1: really hard if we're not setting ourselves up in the
Speaker 1: other phases of our cycle for that for that phase
Speaker 1: and for our bleed and actually in our later louteer
Speaker 1: phase mid to late LOUTI your phase, we actually get
Speaker 1: really productive. And I don't know if you've noticed this,
Speaker 1: but you probably get like similar to that nesting phase
Speaker 1: when you're having a baby, right you want to get
Speaker 1: all this shit done. You're really like, I'm really productive
Speaker 1: and getting all these loose ends tied up, and like,
Speaker 1: I don't know why I've suddenly got this big burst
Speaker 1: of energy and I'm really like getting everything done. And
Speaker 1: that's because your body's naturally doing that so that you
Speaker 1: can start to lean into.
Speaker 4: The rest when you get to your mental phase.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so if you have some tasks that you've
Speaker 1: you know, started in your inner spring that you're like
Speaker 1: getting those creative ideas and they're really flowing, write down
Speaker 1: the creative ideas and you're in a spring and start
Speaker 1: to execute them. But if there's stuff that you really
Speaker 1: want to get wrapped up, you can sort of send
Speaker 1: that over to the luteal phase and you can start
Speaker 1: using that productivity in that phase to get shit done.
Speaker 2: It's so like even just like rehearing all of this now,
Speaker 2: I can already see, like because one thing I noticed
Speaker 2: is that when I really am moving with my.
Speaker 3: Cycle, like because it is it's like you have this like.
Speaker 2: You know, month ish where if you're if I'm if,
Speaker 2: I'm like, you know, flickular comes around and that is
Speaker 2: my just like I'm so motivated, I'm so creative. I
Speaker 2: just want to do all these things. I have all
Speaker 2: these ideas. All of a sudden, I'm making like fifty reels,
Speaker 2: starting a new fucking business, like releasing something new like
Speaker 2: who knows with me, just all sorts of shit. I'm like,
Speaker 2: you know, forty podcast episodes. And then I get to
Speaker 2: the ovulation phase and I'm like, wow, I'm so hot,
Speaker 2: I'm so great, lucky me like life is amazing and
Speaker 2: that only lasts three fucking days unfortunately, and then I
Speaker 2: just start going into my like spiral, spiral, spiral up,
Speaker 2: a little bit, double spiral, second spiral, and if I
Speaker 2: am not resting enough, because that's something that I I
Speaker 2: struggle with, is rest and so as someone who struggles
Speaker 2: with resting or stopping, and that's like I still struggle
Speaker 2: with that even though I'm like, I need to do this,
Speaker 2: but when I do actually do it and listen to it,
Speaker 2: my actual period hurts less. And as someone who gets
Speaker 2: very very painful cycles and has endometriosis, that's crazy. They
Speaker 2: are lighter, they aren't as intense. I don't feel as
Speaker 2: shit house just and then it like sets me up
Speaker 2: for the next cycle. If I've within that month have
Speaker 2: had a really emotional, crazy lots of things happening coming
Speaker 2: up kind of month, my actual.
Speaker 3: Period, my bleed will reflect that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, everything about.
Speaker 2: Like it's so interesting, Like it's so fascinating to me,
Speaker 2: even like I also find if I'm using campons instead
Speaker 2: of a menstrual cup, I notice the difference in my
Speaker 2: entire cycle, and then like what happens the next time,
Speaker 2: Like just these little things that you think are so insignificant,
Speaker 2: but once you are like listening to your body that
Speaker 2: dramatically all of a sudden, it's like, well, it's telling
Speaker 2: me everything. Like it literally is just this final thing
Speaker 2: where it's like, let's just reflect.
Speaker 3: On the month that we've just had.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when you're tracking your cycle and you're really you
Speaker 2: know your cycle really well, it narrows down what could
Speaker 2: like what's not clicking? Where where am I like, you know,
Speaker 2: not feeling okay, And like it gives you such an
Speaker 2: indication of like which hormones might be out of fucking whack,
Speaker 2: what could be possibly going on? Like that's like something
Speaker 2: that I've even learned so much about it. It's just helped
Speaker 2: narrow things down.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's like it's so important like to have
Speaker 1: that information to be able to take to say like
Speaker 1: your doctor or your specialist or your natural path or
Speaker 1: you know, whatever you're doing as well to help you know,
Speaker 1: balance your hormones or you know, whatever you're.
Speaker 4: Doing with that. It's it's invaluable information for them as well.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, on.
Speaker 2: What it's something that you like because we should will
Speaker 2: start we'll start wrapping up for people. And I feel
Speaker 2: like we could do another episode in this and we
Speaker 2: could talk about so many more things.
Speaker 3: We could talk for years about it.
Speaker 2: But what is like one bit of wisdom, guidance, information,
Speaker 2: something that you feel like you really want, not even
Speaker 2: just women, because like I'm hoping that there will be
Speaker 2: people listening to this who aren't bleeding and aren't menstruating
Speaker 2: and they're learning because it's important for everyone to learn.
Speaker 3: What do you think is you're parting with?
Speaker 1: Well, coming off the back of that, the thing I've
Speaker 1: been thinking about a lot lately is how do we
Speaker 1: break this shame and taboo cycle?
Speaker 4: Like? How do we break that?
Speaker 1: How can I make sure that my kids are not
Speaker 1: having to go through this shit storm to get to
Speaker 1: the point where we are now, where we understand how
Speaker 1: our bodies work on a foundational way. And I think
Speaker 1: you know the answer is always going to be that
Speaker 1: it starts with you. If you haven't dealt with your
Speaker 1: own shame and trauma taboo around your cycle, you're going.
Speaker 4: To pass it on to your kids.
Speaker 1: It's just a fact, Like you're just going to part
Speaker 1: That's what's going to happen if you're hiding the fact
Speaker 1: that you bleed every month, if you're not educating your
Speaker 1: sons that there's a such thing as a period, right, Like,
Speaker 1: my partner was one of two three boys, and so
Speaker 1: he had no fucking idea about what cycles were. They
Speaker 1: were like this big mysterious thing and so like obviously
Speaker 1: it's very educated now, but he had no idea. And
Speaker 1: then like then we had a daughter, and so like
Speaker 1: God forbid anyf thing.
Speaker 4: Happens to me, Who's going to teach her? You know?
Speaker 1: And so I think a lot of people are wondering,
Speaker 1: you know, how do I do that? How do I
Speaker 1: break this cycle? And it starts with you learn it
Speaker 1: for yourself, learn how to you know, regulate your own cycle.
Speaker 1: For so many reasons, stop being the cranky mom. You
Speaker 1: can stop having blaming the mood swings and you know,
Speaker 1: putting them out onto everyone else. You can have, you know,
Speaker 1: a relatively pain free cycle.
Speaker 4: There's so many benefits to it.
Speaker 1: But the number one benefit for me is that our
Speaker 1: children are going to just have this information to go
Speaker 1: and do what they please with, but they're going to
Speaker 1: have it and they're never going to feel embarrassed about
Speaker 1: their bodies. And that's so powerful. That's like the most
Speaker 1: powerful thing to me, not to be ashamed of our
Speaker 1: bodies and to have the education and information around how
Speaker 1: they actually work.
Speaker 3: Oh, Mike could not agree more.
Speaker 2: And that was a big reason why I was wanted
Speaker 2: to learn, because I was like, I'm not gonna be
Speaker 2: able to teach my kids shit because I have no idea.
Speaker 3: I don't even know for myself.
Speaker 2: So how on earth am I supposed to expect chrips
Speaker 2: who also grew up in a home where they didn't
Speaker 2: talk about it to know anything. If I don't even know,
Speaker 2: and I grew up in a house full of girls,
Speaker 2: how how are my kids supposed to know anything about
Speaker 2: their bodies or his sister's bodies, or your friends or
Speaker 2: friends or whoever's bodies if I don't even know.
Speaker 4: So I love that.
Speaker 3: I think that's so important.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you so much, Beck for coming and chatting
Speaker 2: with me, oh the village crazy lady. Thanks for having
Speaker 2: me or the crazies. How can people find you? I'm
Speaker 2: gonna put everything in the show notes and all the
Speaker 2: cycle tracker and everything, but yeah.
Speaker 4: So just come over onto Instagram.
Speaker 1: I'm at the period dot coach and we can yeah
Speaker 1: chat there.
Speaker 3: Amazing. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Bye bye bye