The Menstruality Podcast

Menstruation and menopause awaken us to our deep selves, but to do that, they ask that we pull away from the world, stop and rest. The trouble is that rest can be a great challenge for most if us given the momentum at work in our world today. If you struggle to ‘just let go’ and rest when you bleed, or during the unfolding of your menopause process, this episode is for you. We explore:How our inner critics get in the way of rest (come to our Harness Your Inner Critic workshop on Feb 14th if you need support with this). There are inner barriers to rest, and there are also cultural, systemic barriers, particularly for marginalised communities; including people of colour, the LGBTQ+ community, and people living with a disability.Three powers of menstruality that can help us to get more rest: interoception and the art of restedness, and making small shifts. Join the waiting list for our 2023 Menstruality Leadership Programme - you can apply here: www.menstrualityleadership.com---The Menstruality Podcast is hosted by Red School. We love hearing from you. To contact us, email info@redschool.net---Social media:Red School: @redschool - https://www.instagram.com/red.school

This conversation moved me deeply. Teacher and writer Krista O’Reilly Davi-Digui explores what it is to be a brave and beautiful human in progress, particularly in the messy middle of life, and especially living inside a grief and trauma illiterate culture. In 2019, when Krista was in the midst of the ‘Quickening’ of perimenopause she lost her son Jairus to suicide. In this conversation, she shares generously about the inner winter of her grief journey, how it intersected with her menopause experience, and how she is now moving into the second spring of menopause, choosing to say yes to life in it’s fullness, not knowing what tomorrow holds…We explore:How grief leaves no room for bullshit - particularly in the menopause, stripping away all pretence, people pleasing and masks. How to make peace and develop resilience through the mess of heartache, struggle, and exhaustion of grief. The necessity of having our pain witnessed - Krista shares how to find the community you need to survive the darkest times of grief, sometimes in unexpected places. (And how to hold boundaries when your existing community isn’t offering the support you need). ---You can now order our new book! Wise Power: Discover the Liberating Power of Menopause to Awaken Authority, Purpose and Belonging here: https://www.wisepowerbook.com---Join the waiting list for our 2023 Menstruality Leadership Programme here: www.menstrualityleadership.com---The Menstruality Podcast is hosted by Red School. We love hearing from you. To contact us, email info@redschool.net---Social media:Red School: @redschool - https://www.instagram.com/red.schoolKrista O’Reilly Davi-Digui: @a_life_in_progress - https://www.instagram.com/a_life_in_progress

This bonus episode is the next in our ‘Wise Power Retreat’ series where Alexandra is interviewing people about what menopause revealed and awakened in them. Alexandra and Lara have been working alongside each other in this field for over 30 years. Dr Lara Owen is an author, teacher, researcher, consultant, mentor and an expert on the culture, politics and organisation of the menstrual cycle and menopause. She wrote one of the first books to be published about the power of the menstrual cycle, Her Blood is Gold, and is one of the leading lights in the field of menstrual and menopause education, sharing from an incredible wealth of personal experience, as well as academic research. We explore:How Lara worked with her intuition in menopause (including following the impulse to move herself to the south of France for a three year menopause retreat!).How Lara moved with her menopausal grief at not having had children and how she made sense of her story, and embraced the gifts of her adventurous and creative life without children. How Lara’s radical educational and cultural work around the menstrual cycle and menopause evolved during her menopause transition, leading to her new masters-level course is designed to develop your understanding of menstruation today in the contexts of business, feminism, health, law, politics, popular culture, sustainability, spirituality, sport, technology, and wellbeing.You can now order our new book! Wise Power: Discover the Liberating Power of Menopause to Awaken Authority, Purpose and Belonging here: https://www.wisepowerbook.com---Registration is now open for our Menstruality Leadership Programme: menstrualityleadership.com---The Menstruality Podcast is hosted by Red School. We love hearing from you. To contact us, email info@redschool.net---Social media:Red School: @redschool - https://www.instagram.com/red.schoolLara Owen: www.laraowen.com

Sjanie’s period came very early last month. She suddenly found herself bleeding on day 12 and the experience was akin to a zen meditation master slapping their student on the back when they’ve momentarily gone unconscious.She was reminded that there is a wild intelligence within her that was outside of her control, and was invited to dance with the mystery and yield to something bigger.This is one way that the menstrual cycle offers us a way into a radical kind of leadership. The reality that we don’t control it reminds us that we belong to something greater. If we can receive this belonging, our bleed can fill us with goodness, love, and rightness - a source of great power. That’s why giving time to yourself at menstruation is positively dangerous! It will change your consciousness. It will awaken you to what life wants from you…In this episode, we explore:How we understand the term Feminine Leadership, and how the menstrual cycle leads us to it. The specific leadership powers that awaken at menstruation, including clarity about our purpose, an embodied experience of love and belonging, as well as expanded states of consciousness.A key next step for you, if you want to activate more of the power of menstruation in your life. Earlybird registration is now open for our 2023 Menstruality Leadership Programme - you can apply here: www.menstrualityleadership.com---The Menstruality Podcast is hosted by Red School. We love hearing from you. To contact us, email info@redschool.net---Social media:Red School: @redschool - https://www.instagram.com/red.school

Our guest today is someone we’ve been wanting to interview for a while. She has inspired 1000s of people to find their way of doing less inside a culture that so often pushes us to do more. Kate Northrup is an entrepreneur, mother and bestselling author of Do Less: A Revolutionary Approach to Time Management for Ambitious Women. Her book centers menstrual cycle awareness as a secret productivity superpower that’s always been there, but you just didn’t know you had...After giving birth to her first child, Kate felt profoundly out of control for the first time in her life. Her period came back when she was 13 months old and she felt safe for the first time since her birth. It held her through post-partum anxiety and insomnia and her menstrual cycle served her as a life-raft that healed her in a profound way. In our conversation we explore:Kate’s Summer sabbatical, how she worked with the voices of doubt and the amazing fruits that it yielded (including her best year ever in business). The real necessity of lowering our standards (here’s to piles of laundry and dry shampoo) and asking for help (usually people feel honoured when we do) so that we can get the rest we need. How to get rest as a working mama, and source our enoughness from a deep well within us. Kate asks: “what if you didn’t need to do or earn another damn thing, in order to be the shit?!”Registration is now open 2023 Menstruality Leadership Programme - you can apply here: www.menstrualityleadership.com---The Menstruality Podcast is hosted by Red School. We love hearing from you. To contact us, email info@redschool.net---Social media:Red School: @redschool - https://www.instagram.com/red.schoolKate Northrup: @katenorthrup - https://www.instagram.com/katenorthrup/?hl=en

For many years Karen, the founder of ‘Daring to Rest’ experienced severe panic attacks. It wasn’t until she started a deep rest practice that she learned how to meet her anxiety with grace and she hasn’t had a panic attack since. During her menopause process, this devoted practice of rest enabled her to clearly feel her ‘no’ and ‘yes’ in her body, process the rage arising and listen for what she needed to navigate this almighty transition. In our conversation today we explore:How rest at menopause helps us to manage the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual challenges that can show up in menopause, including hot flushes, insomnia, low energy, brain fog, anxiety, grief, and rage.How rest enables us to feel the ‘No’ of menopause in our bodies, so that we can pay attention to it, act on it, and in doing so, make way for our next level ‘yes’.Why rest is non-negotiable while we’re navigating the death and a rebirth initiation of menopause, and how to actually get it, even amidst the responsibilities of our lives (and the key is dropping any ideas of perfection). ---Registration for our 2022 Menstruality Leadership Programme will open again soon. You can check it out and join the waiting list here: https://www.redschool.net/menstruality-leadership-programme-2022---The Menstruality Podcast is hosted by Red School. We love hearing from you. To contact us, email info@redschool.net---Social media:Red School: @red.school (https://www.instagram.com/red.school)Karen Brody: @karen_brody (https://www.instagram.com/karen_brody)

As we enter 2023, we explore what menstrual cycle awareness can teach us about how to begin things well. We each share a bumpy beginning that we’re currently navigating, and how the deep intelligence within the cycle is guiding us through the highs and lows.Whether you’re wanting to start the year with intention and a clear vision, you’re in the midst of a new beginning such as a new job, a new relationship or creative project or you’d like to learn how to work with your cycle as an ally for all the beginnings of your life, this episode has both deep insight and practical advice. We explore:The implicate, deep intelligence at work in the cycle, and how it lays an the archetypal blueprint for all beginnings. How each of the five chambers of menstruation prepares us to start new things.Practical ways to look after yourself if you - like us - find beginnings challenging!Join the waiting list for our 2023 Menstruality Leadership Programme - you can apply here: www.menstrualityleadership.com---The Menstruality Podcast is hosted by Red School. We love hearing from you. To contact us, email info@redschool.net---Social media:Red School: @redschool - https://www.instagram.com/red.school

Today we explore how menstrual cycle awareness schools us in endings. Each month we have an opportunity to practice ending the cycle well, aligning with the deep intelligences at work within us. ..In this episode we break down the different processes at work as we descend towards menstruation and what they can teach us about how to navigate all of life’s endings; the smaller, more surface level ones like the end of the year we have coming up, and the bigger more profound ones, like ending relationships, moving house, all the way to the deep grief of losing loved ones or miscarriage. We explore:How conscious endings are actually what makes life sacred.The surprising gifts of the premenstruum when it comes to endings - how this phase of the cycle prepares and tenderises us to feel deeply and acknowledge what we love and treasure. The end of the menstrual cycling years, menopause, and the deep wisdom alive in this death-and-rebirth ending.---Registration is now open for our 2023 Menstruality Leadership Programme - you can apply here: www.menstrualityleadership.com---The Menstruality Podcast is hosted by Red School. We love hearing from you. To contact us, email info@redschool.net---Social media:Red School: @redschool - https://www.instagram.com/red.school

Today we’re continuing our inner autumn, premenstrual theme and sharing the last in a three-part series exploring the powers of the premenstruum, how to awaken these powers, and now a conversation about what this looks like in real life.(And we’re excited to be trying something new today - weaving in comments and insights from the community of podcast listeners about your premenstrual experience.)Our guest Natalie K Martin is a Menstrual Cycle and Feminine Embodiment Coach and author who made a powerful transition from corporate career in London to a career in yoga and now menstruality. Natalie graduated from our Menstruality Leadership Programme this year and is now contributing to the global menstruality movement with her FemmePowered podcast which she hosts alongside Guilietta Durante.We explore:How Natalie, and you - the community of listeners - experience the challenges and powers of the premenstruum. We normalise the ‘losing it’, messy moments and celebrate the truth-telling awakenings.The premenstrual self care practices that Natalie uses to harness the powers of her inner autumn. What the Menstruality Leadership Programme taught Natalie about her limits, slowing down, and lightning her load as well as how it inspired a huge, premenstrual awakening one bleak, foggy day 22 morning…Booking for our Menstruality Leadership Programme will open on Thursday 8th December. You can explore programme and apply here https://www.menstrualityleadership.com---The Menstruality Podcast is hosted by Red School. We love hearing from you. To contact us, email info@redschool.net---Social media:Red School: @redschool - https://www.instagram.com/red.schoolNatalie K Martin: @nataliekmartin - https://www.instagram.com/natalie.kmartin

In this electrifying conversation, visionary activist and author Lynne Twist tells a new story about the potency and power we can hold in post-menopause life. Lynne shares the story of how, when she was 50, she received a series of visions which profoundly altered the direction of her career - ultimately inspiring her transition from her life work of ending world hunger, to a new calling to steward the health of the rainforests alongside indigenous people. She hadn’t realised, until we did this interview, that she was in menopause at this time and that it was the menopause process that opened her up to receive these visions!In this episode:How, post menopause, we are more relevant than ever before. Lynne loves her 70s, and feels more turned on, more fired up than ever - she’s not retiring, she’s re-firing.Menopause opened Lynne up from her personal mothering journey of her three children to a bigger, global understanding of mothering, serving the great mother, and the founding of the Pachamama Alliance, designed to restore the worlds rainforests by empowering indigenous people that protect them.Menopause opens our capacity to feel, often through deep pain, to prepare ourselves for this next major phase of our lives in post-menopause. Registration will open soon for our 2023 Menstruality Leadership Programme. You can take your seat here: https://www.menstrualityleadership.com---The Menstruality Podcast is hosted by Red School. We love hearing from you. To contact us, email info@redschool.net---Social media:Red School: @redschool - https://www.instagram.com/red.schoolLynne Twist: @soulofmoney - https://www.instagram.com/soulofmoney