I wish I had had this information when I was in my 20s; my life would have been so much easier. I had no awareness of my cycle or the need to rest during the inner winter season. But now I clear my calendar as much as possible for the first days of my cycle so I can slow down and tune it. And what I learned is that I end up coming into the spring phase with more energy to tackle the projects, meetings, ect that were postponed during winter. What a difference it's made!
Because of the society we live in, in order to go with our own flow (with our body's hormonal design) it takes a lot of courage and self nurturing talk to convince ourselves it really is okay to live this way.
For me, this understanding came right before the pandemic and I remember when the whole world shut down, I looked at my Google calendar for March and began deleting every plan and schedule and honestly, it felt so good!
I have found where I need to be vigilant to protect certain days on my calendar, usually during the transition day from inner summer to fall around day 19 for me. And then again at the end/beginning around Day 28 for rest and Day 1/2.
If life demands won't allow this, then I make other adjustments like, turning my phone to silent mode, not adding anything to my days and skipping extra stimulus coming in. I presume a turtle mode, world be damned.
I'm so glad you are finding ways to see your own needs through cycle awareness.
So much grace to you my friend as you journey deeper towards menopause.
You will have done some great work for yourself before your rite-of-passage is over.
I don't know if I'll ever come to love winter or inner winter, but you sure make a case for cozying up with cozy. I listened to this on the way to an appointment (ironically a 45-minute drive, so you educated and entertained me the whole way). At the office, two men were talking about their wives being pregnant and how they had to tread lightly, suggesting things like "drinking more water" without getting chewed out. I thought it was funny since you had just mentioned here what the guys should do and pay attention to. How timely!
Every time I learn something from you, Jess, you're bringing me to a place of better menstrual cycle awareness, understanding my body, and, more importantly (and I'm going to put this all in caps because it's so important), SHOWING HOW TO GIVE MYSELF GRACE. You are leading me by example. Thank you for another wonderful podcast! I'm a big fan.
I wish I had had this information when I was in my 20s; my life would have been so much easier. I had no awareness of my cycle or the need to rest during the inner winter season. But now I clear my calendar as much as possible for the first days of my cycle so I can slow down and tune it. And what I learned is that I end up coming into the spring phase with more energy to tackle the projects, meetings, ect that were postponed during winter. What a difference it's made!
I will never say this awareness practice is easy.
Because of the society we live in, in order to go with our own flow (with our body's hormonal design) it takes a lot of courage and self nurturing talk to convince ourselves it really is okay to live this way.
For me, this understanding came right before the pandemic and I remember when the whole world shut down, I looked at my Google calendar for March and began deleting every plan and schedule and honestly, it felt so good!
I have found where I need to be vigilant to protect certain days on my calendar, usually during the transition day from inner summer to fall around day 19 for me. And then again at the end/beginning around Day 28 for rest and Day 1/2.
If life demands won't allow this, then I make other adjustments like, turning my phone to silent mode, not adding anything to my days and skipping extra stimulus coming in. I presume a turtle mode, world be damned.
I'm so glad you are finding ways to see your own needs through cycle awareness.
So much grace to you my friend as you journey deeper towards menopause.
You will have done some great work for yourself before your rite-of-passage is over.
What we do in this phase sets us up for the next.
I don't know if I'll ever come to love winter or inner winter, but you sure make a case for cozying up with cozy. I listened to this on the way to an appointment (ironically a 45-minute drive, so you educated and entertained me the whole way). At the office, two men were talking about their wives being pregnant and how they had to tread lightly, suggesting things like "drinking more water" without getting chewed out. I thought it was funny since you had just mentioned here what the guys should do and pay attention to. How timely!
Every time I learn something from you, Jess, you're bringing me to a place of better menstrual cycle awareness, understanding my body, and, more importantly (and I'm going to put this all in caps because it's so important), SHOWING HOW TO GIVE MYSELF GRACE. You are leading me by example. Thank you for another wonderful podcast! I'm a big fan.