Welcome

Lens of Awareness

Getting to know our nervous system

"Neuroception"

Mapping my profile

Regulating my resources

Charting the menstrual cycle

Science of the menstrual cycle

Menstrual cycle seasons overview

Menstruation

Pre-ovulation

Ovulation

Pre-menstruation

Self-Care Reflection

Diet & Nutrition

Diet & Hormones guide

Let's talk about movement

Movement for daily wellbeing

Movement for PMS & Pain

Soothing the nervous system

Womb Meditation

So coming into a comfortable position, either sitting on a chair or lying on the floor maybe with some blankets to keep yourself warm. Maybe taking a moment to light a candle and set a little intention for yourself before we begin the meditation. It and from that comfortable place just easing into the body and finding contact with the floor or with the chair, maybe your feet on the ground, your legs feeling your bones supported and your back and noticing the feel of the air on your skin around your body and on your face. And imagining an elevator in your head at the top of your head. And tracking the elevator as the elevator moves down the head, down the face, down past the neck and the chest and the heart area and as it travels down into the tummy area, the belly, lower back and down into the pelvis area of the body, down where we make contact with the floor or with the chair. And then bringing our attention to our breath in our chest. Just spending a few moments with our breath, noticing how deep or shallow the breath is today and just noticing the movement in the body of the breath and there's no judgement here. There might be a tightness in the breath or shallowness or maybe a feeling of flatness and that's all okay. It's just noticing maybe taking a few deep breaths if that brings some relief to any tension here in the body and then noticing how that feels in the shoulders, the neck and then bringing to mind as we stay present with the body. Bringing to mind a person or a pet who brings you joy in your life and gives you a sense of smiling when you think of them. So it might be a family member or friend or child or pet that you have or that you had in your past and just letting them come to mind for a moment and as you think of that person or pet, really allow yourself to feel that joy that comes as you think of them. And letting yourself open up to the joy and that sense of smiling, noticing how that feels in the body and maybe letting yourself smile for a moment and imagine you can contain that sense of smiling and joy into a ball of bright light. And that ball of bright light contains the joy and the smiling that you have or had with that person and taking that ball of light and shining it down to the pelvic region of the body to the womb space and with intention really giving your womb the light and the joy and that sense of smiling that is contained in that ball of light. And you might want to place your hand on your lower tummy or your lower back, even both hands if it feels right. And just letting yourself shine that ball of light to that part of the body for a moment and just noticing what happens here as you do that. And there may be feelings of warmth and joy or relief, there may be emotion or there may be no emotion or there could be uncomfortable emotion or maybe the thoughts are racing at this point and that's all okay? It's just about noticing what's happening here as we do that and just letting yourself be with whatever comes up. And as we shine that light of smiling and joy that we received from our loved one, just letting your awareness really sink into the womb space of the body and the pelvic region, the lower back and the lower tummy as though you could be present there for a moment and it may feel uncomfortable or dark or anything can come up here. And that's all. Okay? And from this place, take a moment to ask your womb silently to yourself if there's anything you need in your life for the well being of your womb. So you might receive a word or an image or a food or a colour and everything is valid here. And just be open to whatever thoughts or images come to your mind as you sit here with your womb and ask for what is needed. And then taking a moment to bring your focus back to your breath, maybe taking a few deep breaths here and then bring your focus back to the contact with the chair or the floor. And taking a moment to close the meditation for yourself by offering a word or a gesture either to your womb or to yourself or to your person or your pet and just to mark that for yourself. And I now invite you to very gently open your eyes and come back to your day.

Somatic Tracking for Pain

Hi. In this exercise we're going to practise something called somatic tracking, which means that we're going to bring our awareness to different parts of the body to help us develop a easeful relationship with any kind of pain that might be there. This exercise you don't have to do regularly. It's not like a meditation practise you need to build on or do every day, really. It's just about having this as a tool in your phone or in your pocket or on your computer that you can come to whenever you feel inspired or if you need any kind of support when you're experiencing pain or anytime you feel that this exercise might help you in your day. So just start with just coming into the body and bringing your awareness back into yourself for a moment and just noticing your contact of your body with the chair or the bed. You may want to lie down for this or you can be sitting just anywhere where is comfortable for you. And before we go into the body, we're going to just take a little scan around the room, because the room we're in is a place of holding for us. And any place that we are in, whether it's in a room in our house or even if we're out and about our body and our nervous system is always looking for cues of safety and it does that through the senses. So just take a moment to just in your seat with your awareness inside. Take a little scan around the room that you're in. Or maybe if you're outside, you can scan around your environment and just very gently allowing your eyes to just follow around, allowing your head to move around and just following your curiosity, just observing the room or the environment and noticing maybe the shape of the space that you're in. Notice where the ceiling meets the wall and where the floor meets the wall. And noticing any objects that are maybe hung around the wall or any items of furniture, just taking in their shape and their colour and noticing what happens in your body as you do that. And then maybe just let your eyes land on one item that for you feels like it brings a sense of comfort. So it could be it could be something like a plant or a lamp or even a pen or an item of clothing, or if you're outside, it could be something from nature. And just let your eyes just land on it and just let yourself receive the physical presence of that item. So you're holding your awareness inside and you're just allowing your eyes to gaze on this object just for a moment, taking in its colour and its shape. And when you're ready, you can close your eyes, come back to yourself and just get comfortable. Take a few breaths if you need to, and I invite you to bring your awareness to that part of your body where you notice any kind of pain or discomfort. And we're just going to just observe the pain or discomfort. It's like if you can do it from a bit of distance and hold a bit of space between yourself and the pain and just kind of observing it with a gentle curiosity and just allow yourself to follow the sensations as you observe. You might notice that the sensations travel or change, or you might notice the feeling the sensations change into a different type of sensation. Just let yourself observe. And I'll just be quiet for a moment and I'm sitting here with you as you track the sensation in your body. And if it ever gets too intense or any kind of overwhelm occurs, you can always come back to the contact of your body with the chair or your breath, or take even more distance from the sensation as much as you need. And when you're ready, I invite you to bring your awareness to a part of your body that feels comfortable and feels safe and perhaps held in some kind of way. So it could be any part of the body, it could be your hands, it could be your face, it could be your neck. Just a place that feels ease and comfort of some sort, even just a little bit of comfort. And just allowing yourself to rest there for a few moments and just notice what happens in you as you do that's. And very gently, when you're ready, we're going to go back again to the area of your body, or maybe a different area where there is pain or discomfort. And you might notice a colour or a shape or a story or any kind of thoughts that come up. That's okay. Just noticing everything and seeing if you can track the sensation again and see if it moves. Or maybe it's trying to tell you something, or maybe it is requesting something, or maybe it's demanding something. Just see if you can hold a little bit of gentle curiosity. We don't have to do anything or change anything. We're just going to observe this from a safe place together. And I'll just be quiet again for a moment now as we do that. And just take your breath there. And when you're ready, I invite you to come back to another place or the same place as before, place of comfort in the body. See if you can relax into that a little bit more and just rest your awareness in that comfortable place. Could even just be a toe or one finger. And just notice any colours or images or stories or sensations or there might not be anything at all. That's okay. Just let yourself rest there for a moment. And very gently, when you're ready, just coming back to the breath, take a few breaths, maybe letting yourself yawn or sigh if you need to take a stretch, gently open your eyes and very gently. Just let yourself land, let your eyes land on a few objects. Again, just taking in the space, taking in the environment and noticing what goes on inside as you do that. And know that whenever you're in any kind of pain or discomfort, it's always available to you to look around the room or the space and just to find one or two items that bring some kind of comfort. It could just be the colour or the shape or the memory that they evoke as that can act as a little bit of soothing and calming for the nervous system, even just for a moment, can make big difference. And so just bringing this practise to an end, just giving yourself a moment of quiet and a moment of gratitude and enjoy your day.

Self-Care Reflection Sheet

Psychology around the cycle

Relating & Communicating

Relating & Communicating Worksheet

Introduction to the inner critic

Menstrual cycle: meet the critic

The different faces of the critic

Integrate the critic

The Inner Critic Worksheet

The Creative Cycle

Motivation and Procrastination

Spirituality & the menstrual cycle

Ritual

Dreams

Inner Seasons Meditation Exercise

Hi and welcome to this Inner Seasons exercise. This is a guided meditation or a visualisation to help you explore the energetics of your inner seasons of the menstrual cycle or of your moon cycle. And help you to get some medicine or guidance or direction in terms of what's going on in your seasons, how to look after yourself. Or it can be an exercise just used to explore and ground yourself in the energetics of your menstrual cycle. So there are two ways that you can do this. You can take a yoga mat and quadrant off your yoga mat into four sections using some yarn or some tape of some sort. And in each quadrant taking a postit or a piece of paper and labelling each quadrant a season. So perhaps in the upper left corner you might write Inner Winter, and then beside that, on the right you might write Inner Spring. And then coming down to the lower right hand corner can be the inner Summer and then the lower left hand corner can be the inner Autumn. And for each season you can physically sit in each quadrant as you move around the menstrual cycle. So that's one way you can do it. Or you can just allow me to guide you in your mind, in your mind's eye around your menstrual cycle and visualise yourself moving around. These are both different ways of doing it. Whatever way you are most comfortable with is perfectly fine. And I would also encourage you to explore with this exercise when you are physically in each season of your menstrual cycle and trying it on different weeks. So just before we begin, just get yourself comfortable, get everything you need, making sure you have a pen and paper beside you as well. Make sure you're warm, you have something comfortable to sit on, or maybe you're lying down. Make sure you're warm enough. This exercise can go quite deep, so just go as deep as you feel comfortable to go. And if you feel at any point overwhelmed with emotion or thought, then give yourself full permission to step back a little bit and to go a little bit gentler with yourself. You don't have to complete this exercise, you can just experiment with it. So just get yourself nice and comfortable and let's begin. So before we close our eyes, just take a look around your space and just grounding in the body. Notice the room that you're in, notice the shape of the room, and very, very gently keeping your awareness in your body. Just notice the physical space around you, notice any sounds, notice any thoughts that are floating around your mind and any emotions you're carrying, and just let it all be. Nothing needs to be changed for this exercise. You can show up as you are and just let yourself be held in the space that you have created and let yourself be guided by the sound of my voice. So let's start in the inner winter. So you can move physically into the inner winter space, or you can visualise yourself very gently stepping into the inner winter of your menstrual cycle and just take a few breaths there and just let the inner winter energy come to you. Give yourself plenty of time to arrive and just notice your body as you arrive in the inner winter of your cycle. Noticing your energy, your physicality. Notice your womb space. And as though the inner winter were a landscape, let it come to you in your mind's eye. Any images, any thoughts, any memories. And take a few breaths there. And if your inner winter was to speak to you, if it wanted to give you a message, let that come to you. So it could be a request, it could be a food or a colour or a place, just let it speak to you for a moment. And if there is anything you want to communicate back to your inner winter, now is the time to very gently do that and just take a few breaths there and very gently keeping your awareness inside and keeping your energy in this energetic journey as we move through the menstrual cycle. Give yourself permission, if you feel you need to, to take any notes in your journal now and you can pause the audio and come back to me. Or you can just take down a couple of keywords or any drawings, even anything you want to jot down in your journal. Just take a moment to do that now and then coming back to your body, take a few breaths and let's move over to the inner spring of the menstrual cycle, the inner maiden. And you can physically move there, to the place you've created for that, or in your mind's eye. We can journey together there. So take a moment to land in your inner spring and let the inner spring come to you, let it meet you there. How does it feel to be there, noticing your womb, your thoughts, your memories, what's the landscape of your inner spring like? And just bring curiosity and take a few breaths. And if the inner spring were to bring you a message, what would your inner spring want you to know? Any requests, any other messages for you? Does the inner spring have something to reassure you with? And very gently coming to your journal, taking any notes, keeping your awareness inside and feel free to pause here if you need more time. And then, coming back to your body, take a few breaths to drop back inside. And very gently, let's move over to the inner summer of your menstrual cycle or your moon cycle, the inner mother, and just drop into that landscape. Let yourself land in the inner summer and let the inner summer come to you, noticing your womb, noticing your heart, your thoughts, your memories. What does the inner thumb have to offer you here. Any messages? What does the landscape look like and do you have anything to offer your inner summer? And take a few breaths there and very gently come into your journal, take a few notes down or any images. Feel free to pause. And then let's very gently move over to the inner autumn of the cycle, the premenstrual phase, the inner wise woman. Let yourself step into the landscape of your inner autumn and let the inner autumn energy come to you and let yourself be held here. What is here for you? Who is here for you? What is calling you here? How is the landscape, the atmosphere of your inner autumn? And does it have anything to ask of you here? And do you have anything to offer back to your inner autumn? Take your time and very gently come into your pen and paper, taking any notes. Feel free to pause before we close and just keeping this delicate but powerful energy and stepping out of the menstrual cycle as we've journeyed through each season, making sure you fully exit the process. So stepping out in your mind's eye and as a way to close the process for yourself, take a moment to offer a word or a gesture in gratitude to the experience or a word or a gesture just to close the experience for yourself. And very gently, you can open your eyes, just notice your body. You might want to give yourself a little bit of a rub. Or very gently tap your arms and your legs and just bring a bit of energy into your limbs and take a few breaths. Take a stretch, taking the space around you, any noises and bring to mind something that you can do for yourself, that will help you transition to the rest of your day. So you might want to have a cup of tea or have a dance or read a book or or make some nice food and just do something small for yourself to transition into the rest of your day. And enjoy the rest of your day or evening.

Self-Care Integration

Self-Care Integration Reflection

My Final Top Tips!