A Real Life Example of Embodying Each Phase of Your Cycle

In my last blog post, I wrote about the importance of fully embodying each cycle phase because that will catalyze all other phases.

That was a little intellectual, so today I'm sharing what that actually can look like in real life! 

During the autumn phase of my last cycle, I received some clarity around an offer I was planning to launch this fall.

I've been super excited about it, on fire, so thrilled and eager and impatient to launch this offer--from the moment I imagined it, two months ago. 

But this last inner autumn of my cycle, I felt some resistance arise. 

I felt an almost stubborn sensation arise, a slowing. Over and over during the inner autumn of that cycle, I felt like I was receiving this message: 

Slow down and be present. 

I knew this intuitive message applied to all areas of my life, as I've been feeling time slip by too quickly, as it always feels in August. 

I've been feeling like I need to slow down and be present with the remaining days of summer, slow down and be present with my daughter and husband, slow down and be present with myself and my wellbeing, and slow down and be present in my business too. 

So I listened to inner autumn's superpower (discernment) and engaged with curiosity.

I imagined what would happen if I launched this in January instead of September. I imagined what it would feel like to delay this launch, and it felt...

Juicy. Relieving. Deliciously slow and present. SPACIOUS. (Which is my 2023 word of the year.)

I was flooded with a lightening and opening of what would be available in the present and the future if I listened to this intuitive nudge that came through with the help of my inner autumn clarity. 

So I made the decision to delay. 

That whole process I described is what it might look like to "fully embody the power of each cycle phase": 

1. I felt something arise as an irritant, an inner resistance. This is how I usually receive the first inklings of discernment and intuition in inner autumn: Something feels off. 
2. Instead of pushing it away, downplaying it, or passing it off as "hormones," I got curious. I was able to pinpoint the precise irritant, then just started imagining different future scenarios of options to resolve the irritation.
3. I paid close attention to how it felt in my body to imagine different scenarios, and I knew I'd hit gold when I imagined a future that felt like a juicy YES.
4. I accepted that realignment and changed course. 

Okay, but here's where it gets really good: 

By fully embodying inner autumn's superpowers, that set me up to really embody inner winter's superpowers too!

When my period started, and I'd listened to inner autumn wisdom, it was a much less painful period than I've had in the past. I took my usual restful alone time, and enjoyed My Club Red support. 

And then on Day 2 I still felt like I was deep in inner winter (usually for me with my currently very short periods, Day 2 feels very different than Day 1) so I decided to stay home alone instead of visiting family with my husband and daughter.

Honestly, I intended to stay in bed and work on clearing my email inbox. 

Kind of restful, but still kind of "productive."

Thankfully, I stared with a Yoga Nidra practice.

It. was. glorious. 

And then that felt so good, that I remembered I wanted to read a book of poetry that has been sitting on my bedside table for months. 

And the beauty of those poems inspired me to go and lay outside on the grass under a tree.

And those moments were absolutely golden. 

I was so present with the sensation of cool grass under me, warm sunshine on my skin, a soft breeze, the sound of wind in the leaves and my windchimes, and watched the leaves in the tree above me dance in the wind. 

It felt like I had stepped out of time. 

I don't know how long I laid there, but it was at the same time a very long time and no time at all. 

I had followed inner autumn's wisdom and slowed down, and was so present. 

And it was the most gorgeous three hours I've experienced in a long, long time. 

Two of inner winter's superpowers according to the book Wild Power, are bliss and experiencing all life as sacred.

I was absolutely experiencing those. This beautiful gift of effortless presence with myself and nature, and it opened me right up.

And the best part of all that is that I'm carrying those hours with me like a little gift as I've now emerged into my vulnerable inner spring. 

I honored and embodied inner autumn's superpowers. 

Which led me to honor and embody inner winter's superpowers.

And today I'm honoring and embodying inner spring's superpowers. 

(I won't go into it and make this blog interminable, but I'm feeling the vulnerability of inner spring, the tender edges, and am honoring them instead of shaming them in myself.) 

They are all intertwined! 

Had I not listened to inner autumn's call, I would have convinced myself to work during my inner winter, and I would have missed out on that beautiful connecting experience. 

And all the tumult I'm navigating these early days of my inner spring likely would have been too much for me had I not had that lovely experience to nourish me in my inner winter. 

You see? The phases matter! 

Their unique challenges and superpowers are a huge boon to our experience of life--even on the daily. 

I hope this has been helpful in showing you how exactly you might embody each phase to catalyze all the others. 

If you'd like to go much deeper in exploring the phases of the cycle and what's available to you there, along with how you uniquely experience your cycle, please do consider if 1:1 sessions with me would be a welcome support.

I'm so passionate about helping as many women and menstruators as I can come into such deep union with themselves and their rhythmic being. If this is calling to you, I encourage you to consider ways we might work together to help you heal and harness your own cycle.