How to support your children through puberty and menarche
You’ve been learning about your menstrual cycle and how to attune to its changing daily strengths, vulnerabilities, and self-care needs – and it’s been life changing to finally learn what you should have learnt as a child. So imagine how powerful it would be for our children to learn this knowledge and wisdom now – rather than having to figure it all out after many years of being disconnected to their body, their cycle and therefore, themselves. If you’d love to share what you now know with your child or any other child for that matter but aren’t sure of when or how to start, I’d love to give you some ideas to help you do that confidently in a way that feels gentle, age-appropriate, and empowering for you and your child.
Many mothers have traditionally thought that children aren’t ready to learn about their body, how it changes, what menstruation is, or anything else associated with puberty until they have their first period but when we leave “the talk” until this time, children already have a lot of feelings, thoughts and confusion about what’s been happening to their body and sense of selves for a while, and they question what these changes mean about them if they are left in the dark.
Children in the playground talk and share information that’s usually incomplete or inaccurate, leaving children to piece the story together themselves. Schools deliver education that’s most often squashed down in one or two hours total to combine information on what periods are and how to manage blood, anatomy and how reproduction works which sends children the message that having periods means that falling pregnant is something to fear, and that when they begin their periods, they’re ready to have sex, which is not the case at all from a developmental point of view.
When talking about periods is so uncomfortable, it continues the menstrual taboo that we have been victims of for millennia. So how do we cultivate a period positive culture?
How I grow my business in the busy season of motherhood (and 3 mistakes to avoid)
I’m asked all the time how I do it: how do I grow my business, whilst being a present mama of three young kids. How did I start my business and get to this spacious, sustainable place I’m at now, whilst only working 3 days and prioritising my health and wellbeing?
When I was asked this question again yesterday, I thought to myself hang on, I would love to address this really in-depth, to share what’s helped me, and the 3 major mistakes women get caught up in when trying to cultivate a business that serves them too. So I made a video for you.
Inside the video is what I wish for all women to know: whether you are a mum yourself (or intend to be), whether you just want to leave behind the hustle and embed a deep cyclical sustainable way of working, whether you’re going through big changes in life that are urging you to make big changes and you’re not sure how to move towards what you want, this is for you.
I might be in the very busy ‘Mother’ season of life but I am not martyring myself to the traditional gendered role of a Mother (read: being all things, to all people, at all times). This season of life, which for me has included growing three humans and a business, has taught me if nothing else….
That I don’t want to do things the same way anyone else is.
Because my measure of success is very different to anyone else’s.
And so it should be.
There are 3 key mistakes I see people making when they want to grow a business that nourishes, supports and sustains them.
When growing a successful, soulful, sustainable business it’s so important you focus on avoiding these 3 key mistakes, so I’m sharing what these are and how you can avoid them in this video.
I would LOVE you to have a watch because I know this is going to help you so much.
You can have a better period, with Le’Nise Brothers
My guest on the new episode of Wild Flow podcast is Le’Nise Brothers a yoga teacher and registered nutritionist, mBANT, mCNHC, specialising in women’s health, hormones and the menstrual cycle. Le’Nise works with women through their menstruating years, perimenopause, menopause and beyond. She set up her private nutrition practice Eat Love Move to help empower and educate women to understand their bodies, advocate for better healthcare and heal. If you’re struggling with period problems, you might be wondering why some women love their period and menstrual cycle, and you might be questioning whether you too, can have a better period.
Nature, Culture and The Sacred: Reimagining Leadership For Women, with Nina Simons
My guest on the new episode of Wild Flow podcast is Nina Simons, Co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer at Bioneers, a nonprofit that features and connects practical and visionary solutions for transforming how we relate to ourselves, each other and the Earth. Nina is recipient of the Goi Peace Award, and throughout her career, she has worked with over a thousand women leaders who are diverse across disciplines, race, class, age and orientation to create conditions for mutual learning, trust and leadership development. She produces and speaks at large-scale events to work intimately to help small, diverse groups of women leaders knit together to strengthen each other’s work pursuing intersectional healing and ecological justice.
Circles As Ancient Medicine For Modern Times with Mitlé Southey
It’s safe to say that sacred women’s circles are making a big come back. No longer lost ancient forms of gathering in community, circles are now becoming increasingly available around the world as an opportunity to gather with shared intention, possibly to meet new friends, devote time to spiritual practice, to experience particular ceremony. Whatever happens and whoever you meet, you are sure to come home to yourself. The way of the circle offers us a very different form of connection and community in which we can come to understand ourselves and each other- and to find the magick and medicine we need at the time.
Circles are an ancient way of life, but are now being held in towns everywhere, in schools, board rooms, and online, and they have the potential to support healing and transformation of communities on many levels. I believe that when you attend your first Circle, you awaken to a new way of relating and being, and its addictive.
My first ever circle was with today’s guest Mitlé Southey in 2018, when I attended her 3 day circle facilitator training, and that immersive experience changed me deeply, and revealed a deeper path forward for me personally in my own healing, as well as in my work that I do. I’m overjoyed to welcome MItlé to the podcast, and to share with you a delicious conversation about:
What circles are, and what may happen in a circle,
Our first circle experiences, and how they shaped our lives,
How circles are medicinal, transformative experiences that can set deep healing in motion,
Why receiving guidance and training in how to hold circles is an important consideration as space holders,
How circles are available for all people, and how the circle process can be imbued into our work, lives, and relationships,
The role circles can play in rites of passage processes for all people, and how Mitlé is hosting Mother-Son circles, and I am host Mother-Daughter circles particularly. Listen in to Episode 60 of Wild Flow, and share with us 3 words that encapsulate your first ever circle experience! xxx
Wise Power: How Your Menstrual Cycle Prepares You For Menopause with Red School
Your menstrual cycle is teaching you how to work with your inner power, ready to become a wise woman at menopause. The wise women founders of Red School Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer have released their cutting edge book Wise Power: Discover the Liberating Power of Menopause to Awaken Authority, Purpose and Belonging. I’m THRILLED to have had the opportunity to chat with the authors and Menstruality leaders about how we can practice menstrual cycle awareness as a lifestyle that ultimately builds our self-trust, resilience, and capacity for presence, so that when the time comes, we can surrender, die and be reborn through the “mother of all initiations” that is Menopause.
Coming of Age Wisdom for Mothers and Daughters with Arahni Lion and Jo Rockendorfer
imagine a world where mothers were given sacred space to welcome their daughters intentionally into their coming of age rite of passage. and where girls were welcomed into circle with other mothers and daughters to find deep wisdom, loving support and a chance to experience true sisterhood all before their 13th birthday. there is a place on earth: it’s called the seeding wisdom journey held annually in the illawarra (nsw) by wise women arahni lion and jo rockendorfer. If you’ve ever wished you were more supported, more seen and heard, more understood and respected in your own maiden years, this is a truly special way of healing that part of you, and to give your child the best start to a conscious, empowered, embodied and connected womanhood. I know that when my daughters are of age, we will be taking the journey together, one by one.
Arahni and Jo share the story of why and how they created this potent experience, what happens within the journey, and why this kind of initiatory journey is needed now, more than ever.
Welcome To The Pleasure Club
Pleasure. What is pleasure? Does the word fill you with shame, guilt or uneasy feelings? Do you feel like pleasure isn’t for you? Does this potent word conjure up thoughts of sex, and how comfortable you are with your own sexuality?
Pleasure is so much more than this, and my guest on Wild Flow the Podcast, Rowena Hobbins, is here to invite you into reframing pleasure as an essential part of your path to healing and empowerment. In fact she’s here to invite you to join the Pleasure Club!
This juicy chat with my soul sister and biz bestie dives deep into:
Our own personal relationships, attitudes and experiences of pleasure both in the past and present,
What pleasure means to us, and what it means to you, and why it’s not all about orgasms,
What blocks you from relating to and accessing pleasure,
Why you can’t open to pleasure until you’ve done the deep inner work, looking at childhood patterns and conditioning around pleasure first,
Why pleasure is essential to cultivate and learn to hold in your body, and how this missing link has been life changing for both of us
and how Rowena is on a mission to invite women to reclaim their pleasure birthright in her new Pleasure Club in 2023 (this sounds seriously amazing!)
Reclaim Your Menstrual Story to Reclaim Your Body
In this episode of Wild Flow Podcast I sat down for a delicious conversation with Hannah Brown who offers menstrual story work to women to help them unpick the threads of their stories, lived experiences, and relationship with their body and cycle. By exploring the patterns that run through your womb story, you can challenge what’s true, what’s yours and what needs letting go, with the aim of rejecting menstrual shame and reclaiming your cycle. Hannah is a Children’s social worker, trainer/consultant and menstrual cycle coach who has worked with people to support change for nearly two decades. She’s also a client of mine, having been coaching with me and part of my Cycle Sorcery group journey so this conversation feels like a beautiful natter with a good friend.
Soul Cycles: into Your Soul Awakening
What your soul is and how you might relate or connect to it? What is the difference between spirit and soul? What is a soul journey? Your soul journey is a deep descent into finding your soul purpose. Wild Flow Podcast Guest Katara Sky is a guide for people journeying (willingly or not!) on the descent into their soul’s initiation, or awakening, which is when the ego dissolves and big questions about what life is all for anyway, are asked.
Beyond who you think you are, what you do, and the stage of life you’re at, you may or may not have an experience that prompts you to question everything and come face to face with your deepest, truest essence: your soul.