The Menstruality Podcast

In our 40s, many women and people with periods begin to experience a variety of health symptoms and challenges, as well as emotional and psychological shifts. Some call this perimenopause. At Red School we like to call it, the Quickening. In this episode - which is the fourth in our menopause summer series - we look at how the Quickening is slowly awakening new levels of power within us, and how to navigate this. Sjanie shares her personal experience of negotiating this transition over the past few years. We explore:How we receive a report card on the state of our health in our 40s, which is inviting us to up our self care and set ourselves up for a healthy post-menopause life. Why the power that is awakening in us in the Quickening requires deeper responsibility as well as deeper self care. How to handle your new, increased critical capacites (cynicism, discernment, judgement) wisely and cleanly, rather than use it to annihilate and destroy!You can pre-order your copy of Wise Power: Discover the Liberating Power of Menopause to awaken authority, purpose and belonging here: https://www.wisepowerbook.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

Across the ages women and birthing people have been invited by midwives and doulas to relax their jaw and throat to support the opening of the cervix in labour. In today’s conversation we explore why this is so important, we explore the connection between our throats, our voices, and the emotional and physical health of our wombs. I’m talking with Shakirah Sabira who is a doula, African womb healing practitioner, and the founder of Barakha’s Doula. Shakirah began her career as a doula serving women in the Middle East and West Africa, including seven months working in a rural clinic supporting the local midwife in the Mauritanian desert, a trip which profoundly changed her life, and guided her to her calling.Through Shakirah’s story, and the experiences with her teachers and clients, as well as Sophie's own womb healing experience, we look at what it means to give your womb a voice, how release stagnant energy, express yourself and find a profound source of healing within us. We explore:How Shakirah sang her period back, after her menstrual cycle stopped following a traumatic relationship breakup and divorce.The connection between trauma, the womb and the voice, and how speaking truth, singing and freeing up the throat can facilitate deep healing. Why women and people with periods need to share our stories, to release our shame, and support each other to heal, simply by no longer feeling alone.Registration will open soon for our 2023 Menstruality Leadership Programme. You can register your interest 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: @red.school https://www.instagram.com/red.schoolShakirah Sabira: @shakirahsabira https://www.instagram.com/shakirahsabiraBarakah’s Doula: @barakahsdoula https://www.instagram.com/barakahsdoula

In today’s conversation, we get practical, down-to-earth and real about the initiation of menopause and how on earth do we actually get through to the other side. Though,  as we explore, it’s much less about doing and much more about being. And we have five alchemical powers that can help us along the way. This is the in third our Wise Power series where Alexandra and Sjanie have been waxing lyrical, sometimes crying, and often laughing their way through the teachings of their new book Wise Power: Discover the Liberating Power of Menopause to Awaken Authority, Purpose and Belonging, coming out on September 20th. There’s a line in our new book, Wise Power: “Remember, it’s your birthright to have a dignifying and empowering menopause. Let’s begin to make that so.”Let’s begin to make it so, together, here, right now… We explore:- The five ‘alchemical powers’ that can help you navigate the menopause transition. - How to actully find ways to rest, when you aren’t able to take a menopause sabbatical year (that we deeply wish everyone could have!)- The post-menopause magic that can occur when you trust the creative arc of your life, where ‘life becomes your business partner’. Pre-order your copy of Wise Power: Discover the Liberating Power of Menopause to awaken authority, purpose and belonging here: https://www.wisepowerbook.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

Do you suffer from menstrual pain, or other cycle challenges such as PMS, PMDD or managing irregular cycles? In this episode we explore how the practice of menstrual cycle awareness creates a ground for healing, helps us to take stand for what we need, and supports us to create a new relationship with the challenges we face, and to trust that something meaningful is at work. Alexandra shares her personal story with a decade of menstrual pain, and what supported her to heal and eventually become pain-free. Sophie describes what supported her to transform chronic pain and pre-menstrual rage into a new relationship with her power.We explore:- The connection between our personal suffering and what’s happening in the collective and on our planet.- How cycle awareness helps us to manage chronic stress, which can be the foundation of so many health challenges, and awakens our faculties of knowing; our gut intelligence, our heart knowing, and our ‘pelvic brain’.- How your cycle is - as Lisa Hendrickson Jack says - your ‘fifth vital sign’, giving you important information about your overall health and stress levels, and how to approach healing if you feel you’re in perimenopause. ---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

When you find yourself in the thick of the menopause transition, there’s no maintaining life as normal. How can we support ourselves to manage the day to day realities of life amidst the huge initiation of menopause? In this episode we explore the six steps of our ‘menopause triage’ and how they help you to dignify and honour what you’re experiencing. We explore:The power of accepting the fact that you’re in menopause, and that you have a ‘new normal’. The art of ‘snudging’ and why it’s the a key skill to cultivate in menopause. The menopause superpowers that can help you to put these triage steps into preactice, including the power of No. Pre-order your copy of Wise Power: Discover the Liberating Power of Menopause to Awaken Authority, Purpose and Belonging here: https://www.redschool.net/pre-order-wise-power---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

One of the big initiatory moments along the menstruality journey from menarche (our first period) to menopause is pregnancy and childbirth, if that is our path in life. In a world which has a lot to learn about how to support mothers and birthing people through this profound initiation, we need all the help we can get to prepare for and create a positive birth, or heal from a challenging or traumatic one. Enter menstrual cycle awareness - as a powerful tool to cultivate body sovereignty, guide us in the art of surrender, and teach us how to advocate for our needs. Our guest today is pregnancy yoga teacher and mother of two, Tessa Sanderson. She’s a graduate of the Menstruality Leadership programme, as well as our Menstruality Medicine Circle training, and her insights today are based on hundreds of birth stories that she has received from her clients.This is a big conversation, with lots of potentially triggering or stirring topics, so we invite you to take care of yourself as you listen, especially if you’re currently pregnant.In this episode:- We explore childbirth as a rite of passage, and how menstrual cycle awareness can prepare us for the inner journey and help to create a positive initiatory experience, however it unfolds.- We define birth trauma - or perinatal trauma - and menstrual trauma, and explore how the two can be connected.- We share our own birth stories and how cycle awareness helped us in these mother of all journeys, especially through the challenge of giving birth during lockdown. ---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.schoolTessa Sanderson: @tessa.venuti.sanderson - https://www.instagram.com/tessa.venuti.sanderson

It’s time to re-write the story of menopause. What if the critical, provocative energy of menopause is actually a sign that you’re coming to your senses?What if menopause isn’t a health condition we suffer from, but that people in menopause you’re actually suffering from is a lack of recognition, respect and support for the profound initiation you’re going through. What if, post-menopause, you are more needed than ever. This is the first of our menopause summer series, in the run up to the launch of our new book, Wise Power.We explore:- The four old stories of menopause, and the new stories that honour and dignify this transition. - The ‘emperor has no clothes’ moment that happens in menopause.- Why our impulse to ‘burn the house down’ in menopause is actually very sane, and an important part of this initiatory process.  You can now pre-order your copy of our new menopause book! Wise Power: Discover the liberating power of menopause to awaken authority, purpose and belonging here: https://www.wisepowerbook.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

One of the beautifully challenging things about cultivating an intimacy with our menstrual cycles, or menopause process, is that it opens us up to the world. To the beauty of life, and to the pain. This quality of tender, unarmoured presence is real medicine for a world that can feel full of conflict, pretense, injustice and a lack of capacity to be with difference. A devoted practice of cycle awareness helps us to see that we all belong; to ourselves, to the rhythm and flow of the natural world, and to each other.Today we’re marking Pride Month, with a podcast episode about how menstrual cycle awareness can help us to be with difference, and create true cultures of belonging. Our guest is Abi Denyer-Bewick, a queer menstuality educator and member of the Red School faculty. We chat about the menstruality learning session she recently offered our Menstruality Leadership Programme graduates on 'Inclusive menstruality', including:- How to create a culture of belonging for women and everyone who menstruates.- What life might look like for a trans, non-binary or gender expansive menstruator.- How to work with the fear, trauma or other big emotions that may arise as we explore how to be with difference, together. We also share some guidance for how to take this belonging and inclusion work deeper, from a range of brilliant LGBTQ+ educators. ---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.schoolAbi Denyer Bewick - @abi.denyer.bewick - https://www.instagram.com/abi.denyer.bewick

Have you ever wondered what foods can support your cycle health as you move through the different inner seasons of the cycle month?In this interview with Menstrual Cycle Coach, and food-lover Naam Bachmayer, we explore her ‘Cyclical Nourishment Principles’ and how they help us to welcome in hormonal health, more pleasure, less stress and a deeper intimacy with our cycle process.This isn’t a ‘how-to’ episode or a set of rules. Naam is very aware of how food can be complex for many of us, as well as the harm that diet culture causes. Instead, Naam shares a wealth of ideas which you can adapt for you and your body, including a delicious recipe for each inner season. Bon appetit!We explore:- Naam’s ‘Cyclical Nourishment Principles’ including ‘eating the rainbow’, listening to your body, and reducing inflammatory foods.- How to adapt our nutrition and cooking style in the four phases of your cycle - including a delicious, colourful, healthy recipe for each inner season. - What to eat in inner winter, including iron rich foods like oats and chickpeas to support your body as you lose blood, watermelon and cucumber to up your water intake and why chocolate can help with cramps (yay!). ---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.schoolNaam Bachmayer: @thecyclicalcoach - https://www.instagram.com/thecyclicalcoach

Menopause is an immense life event, a great initiation. Not only is it a complete hormonal shift in the landscape of your overall health, it’s also a psychological and emotional transformation. In today’s episode, we explore this incredible, initiatory power of menopause, and the great potential it awakens in us. This power has been an obsession for Alexandra and Sjanie for most of the past couple of years as they wrote their long-awaited menopause book, and today we have an exciting announcement - we’re revealing the title of the book!Today, we break down the title and  explore:What the writing of the book taught Alexandra and Sjanie about the truth of menopause (and how it kicked them up the backside along the way). The number one thing we each need to learn how to get through menopause.The liberating power of menopause… and how the book launch events we're dreaming into for September will invite us all into a meaningful experience of this power.