Womb Whispers

"It might just be less about anything you have to add and more about just surrendering to what is real around you." < Megan Leatherman >

The systems we live in are broken – oppressive structures that are based on linear progress and exploitation of resources (including our own energy) in order to keep up with the self-proclaimed "norm" of continuous growth.

Yet, when we look to our beautiful planet Earth and Nature, we have the best example of sustainability and regeneration right there: Nature is cyclical, and as part of Nature, so are we!

Our bodies, regardless of sex or gender, experience the same seasons, are a miniature version of the vast and woundrous ecosystem that we see all around!

So listen in to this conversation about how to live a more cyclical and empowered life in a capitalist world, as my guest Megan Leatherman and I ponder the questions:

- What is capitalism and how can you recognise the tell-tale signs of this system playing out your own life?

- How can you navigate living as cyclical being (all beings are cyclical!) in a world set up for linear progress, when you still have to work within these systems to earn your living?

- How can attuning to the land and to Nature be the antidote to help you unravel and release the internalised oppressive structures from your nervous system?

- How can you be with the complexity of the situation and still create change towards a different future through joy and contentment?

Resources we mentioned:

Megan's course "Composting Capitalism": https://awildnewwork.com/composting-capitalism

Book "Caliban and the Witch" (free pdf version):https://files.libcom.org/files/Caliban%20and%20the%20Witch.pdf

Needing More: a 4-week Pilgrimage into Darkness: https://awildnewwork.com/events

Unlock the (Healing) Power of your cycle: https://lisa-jara.com/cyclecharting

You can also ask me (Lisa) any question here: https://lisa-jara.com/en/ask-me or send me a voice message: https://www.speakpipe.com/lisajara

And if you want to address the deeper layers of menstrual or perimenopausal health issues and feel safe, happy, healthy and (w)holy in your body, book your free Discovery Call here and let's get to know each other: https://tidycal.com/lisajara/discovery-call

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More about my guest:

Megan Leatherman is an anticapitalist teacher, writer, vocational guide, and naturalist. She's the host of a podcast called "A Wild New Work" (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-wild-new-work-ecological-guidance-for-your-work-life/id1437555777) and the author of a seasonal book and two journals. All of her work is rooted in the idea that living in alignment with the Earth's rhythms is an essential way for us to come back to our innate gifts and natural wisdom in the midst of capitalist culture. She lives in what's now known as Portland, Oregon with her spouse and two young children.

You can learn more about her and her work over on her website (https://awildnewwork.com) or connect with her on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/awildnewwork).

Let's face it: Not only do we currently live in a world that's on fire, with big cosmological shifts that reveal the oppressive systems we've been leaning on and internalising – many of us, especially the more sensitive and neuro-spicy folks, also experience an unprecedented level of burnout!

The questions is:

How can you care for yourself when even tending to your basic needs (like feeding yourself) already feels like a chore?

And what if that's more simple than you think and there is a way of doing it that doesn't feel like adding more things to your to-do-list?

In today's conversation my guest Lise Lønsmann and I talk about somatic healing and how it can help you deeply nourish yourself in simple ways.

We dive into:

- Lise's story and how somatic healing helped her support herself through burnout

- The limitations of talk therapy when it comes to processing emotions

- Why somatics is a quiet, rebellious tool to dismantle the systems of oppression

- Simple ways of resourcing yourself without putting more things on your to-do-list

Resources we mentioned:

Lise's free guided grounding practice "Connecting with a Resource": https://www.liseloensmann.com/podcast-gift

You can also ask me (Lisa) any question here: https://lisa-jara.com/en/ask-me or send me a voice message: https://www.speakpipe.com/lisajara

And if you want to address the deeper layers of menstrual or perimenopausal health issues and feel safe, happy, healthy and (w)holy in your body, book your free Discovery Call here and let's get to know each other: https://tidycal.com/lisajara/discovery-call

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More about my guest:

Lise Lønsmann is a trauma-informed somatic healing practitioner and an embodiment mentor. Lise has been guiding movement and body connection for 25 years, and her healing work is deeply rooted in the wisdom of the body as well as a holistic approach to healing and thriving. The foundation of her embodiment work is gentleness and reconnecting with oneself in self-supportive ways.

Learn more about Lise's work and background on her website (www.liseloensmann.com), connect with her through her Slow Mailing List (www.liseloensmann.com/mailinglist) or on Instagram (www.instagram.com/liseloensmannhealing), or join her online community Rooted (www.liseloensmann.com/onlinecommunity).

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Start your week refreshed and grounded and more connected to your body AND stay up-to-date on all my latest events by signing up for Moonday Musings: https://lisa-jara.com/en/moonday-musings

Many people have heard about PMS-symptoms – the Pre-Menstrual Syndrome can show up in a variety of physical and psycho-emotional ways, like migraines, bloating, water retention, congestion, and also fatigue, listlessness and mood swings.

But there is something only few people are aware of, which is usually more pronounced on the psycho-emotional level and leads to an intense experience that could be called "PMS on steroids": PMDD – Pre-Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder

In the days and weeks before their period, some people enter into existential despair (more than they might normally do), leading them to big questions like “Is all this living even worth it?”

This is extremely taxing on the nervous system, especially when you don't understand that this is connected to your menstrual cycle experience.

Join my guest Rianne BeCraft and me for this intimate conversation about PMS and PMDD, how they might be showing up in your life or in the lives of people around you and a few ideas on how you can support yourself or your loved ones in these experiences.

Because menstrual Cycle issues are common, not normal; and while this conversation is by no means a substitute for professional medical advice, we hope that what we share will help you make a little more sense of your experience and feel less alone in it!

This is Part 2 of the conversation and all about:

- How the premenstrual phase can help you discern your needs, what works for you and what doesn't

- Area of support no. 1: Communication – with self and the people around you

- Area of support no. 2: Grounding & Down-Regulating

- Area of support no. 3: Upregulating (exercise, healthy socialising, "dumb entertainment")

- The three most important systems for female health

- A note on gender dysphoria and female health terminology used

Resources we mentioned:

Free Cycle Charting Course "Unlock the (Healing) Power of your Cycle": https://lisa-jara.com/en/unlock-the-healing-power-of-your-cycle

Rianne's "The Meaningful Life Manual": www.riannebecraft.com/meaningful

You can also ask me (Lisa) any question here: https://lisa-jara.com/en/ask-me or send me a voice message: https://www.speakpipe.com/lisajara

And if you want to address the deeper layers of menstrual or perimenopausal health issues and feel safe, happy, healthy and (w)holy in your body, book your free Discovery Call here and let's get to know each other: https://tidycal.com/lisajara/discovery-call

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More about my guest:

Rianne BeCraft (they/them) helps environmental and social changemakers build a life they love and a career to match! Through career and life coaching, they support people in continuing to care about the world, with a lot more play (and without the burnout).

Rianne loves being on/in/around water as much as possible and reading a wide range of genres, from psychology to spirituality and fantasy!

Learn more about Rianne's background at www.RBeCraft.com/about-me or connect with them on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/riannebecraft

They generously offer 20% off a single coaching session for first-time clients who mention this episode, so make sure to book your Free Consult Call: www.rbecraft.com

Many people have heard about PMS-symptoms – the Pre-Menstrual Syndrome can show up in a variety of physical and psycho-emotional ways, like migraines, bloating, water retention, congestion, and also fatigue, listlessness and mood swings.

But there is something only few people are aware of, which is usually more pronounced on the psycho-emotional level and leads to an intense experience that could be called "PMS on steroids": PMDD – Pre-Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder

In the days and weeks before their period, some people enter into existential despair (more than they might normally do), leading them to big questions like “Is all this living even worth it?”

This is extremely taxing on the nervous system, especially when you don't understand that this is connected to your menstrual cycle experience.

Join my guest Rianne BeCraft and me for this intimate conversation about PMS and PMDD, how they might be showing up in your life or in the lives of people around you and a few ideas on how you can support yourself or your loved ones in these experiences.

Because menstrual Cycle issues are common, not normal; and while this conversation is by no means a substitute for professional medical advice, we hope that what we share will help you make a little more sense of your experience and feel less alone in it!

This is Part 1 where we address:

- Rianne's story and their experience with different menstrual cycle issues (PMS, back pain, their psychoemotional experience and ADHD)

- The possible connection between PMDD and neurodivergence and how lymphatic work can help

- Why PMS/PMDD happens in the luteal / premenstrual phase and how cycle charting can help make sense of your experience

- How Rianne figured out patterns to their symptoms and started making preparations and requests

Resources we mentioned:

Free Cycle Charting Course "Unlock the (Healing) Power of your Cycle": https://lisa-jara.com/en/unlock-the-healing-power-of-your-cycle

Rianne's "The Meaningful Life Manual": www.riannebecraft.com/meaningful

You can also ask me (Lisa) any question here: https://lisa-jara.com/en/ask-me or send me a voice message: https://www.speakpipe.com/lisajara

And if you want to address the deeper layers of menstrual or perimenopausal health issues and feel safe, happy, healthy and (w)holy in your body, book your free Discovery Call here and let's get to know each other: https://tidycal.com/lisajara/discovery-call

*****

More about my guest:

Rianne BeCraft (they/them) helps environmental and social changemakers build a life they love and a career to match! Through career and life coaching, they support people in continuing to care about the world, with a lot more play (and without the burnout).

Rianne loves being on/in/around water as much as possible and reading a wide range of genres, from psychology to spirituality and fantasy!

Learn more about Rianne's background at www.RBeCraft.com/about-me or connect with them on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/riannebecraft

They generously offer 20% off a single coaching session for first-time clients who mention this episode, so make sure to book your Free Consult Call: www.rbecraft.com

I don't consider myself a poet, but sometimes words just happen to flow through, like they did in a recent coaching session I received.

As I explored my relationship with pressure, I began wondering what a life without it might look like – something I have only experienced on rare occasions.

Shout out to my amazing friend and coach Piper Rose (they/them) who held space for my healing and for this poem to come through! You can learn more about them and their work here: https://piperrosecoaching.com

Resources I mentioned:

Sign up for Mo(o)nday Musings, my weekly personal e-letters to start your week with some soul-infused musings that support you in your personal cyclical experience in a world set up for linear progress: https://lisa-jara.com/en/moonday-musings

Send me a mail at [email protected], or leave me a voice message here: https://www.speakpipe.com/lisajara

And you can book a Discovery Call with me: https://tidycal.com/lisajara/discovery-call or explore my work over on my website: https://lisa-jara.com

Today's episode is an example of a Soul-based Coaching session with a very practical topic: Snacking to self-soothe in situations of social anxiety and nervous system activation.

In less than 20 minutes, my client was able to dive deep into her inner knowing about why she reaches for snacks when she’s emotionally activated and what she would like to do instead – taking care of the younger part of her that feels overwhelmed in social situations.

Note how her desired outcome wasn't meant to reduce snacking altogeher, but it was about owning her power of choosing what to eat and when!

And because through Soul-based Coaching something shifts right there and then, on a subconscious and cellular level, one week after this session she reported she was able to catch herself in those moments of activation and go grab her nervous system soothing tools instead of food (maybe not every time, but hey, it’s progress!).

For me, Soul-based Coaching is a Quiet Revolution, a different approach to Life and how change can happen in an easeful, trauma-sensitive way.

By journeying deep into yourself and your own metaphors (inner images) – beneath your analytical mind – you allow your inner wisdom, the knowledge that is stored in your body, heart, mind and soul, to emerge and show you the answers and solutions that feel really good to you.

If you would like to receive a free coaching session, in exchange for your consent to use the material to show others what coaching with me can look like (I will not disclose your name unless you want me to!), get in touch at [email protected]!

Further Resources:

About Soul-based Coaching: https://lisa-jara.com/en/about-soul-based-coaching

If you want private support, to alleviate menstrual or perimenopausal health issues, or because you're going through a difficult time in your life that you don't want to face alone, book a free Discovery Call with me: https://tidycal.com/lisajara

Alternatively, you can send me a mail at [email protected], or leave a voice message at https://www.speakpipe.com/lisajara, or explore my work over on my website: https://lisa-jara.com

And if you want to start your week with some soul-infused musings that support you in your personal cyclical experience in a world set up for linear progress, sign up for Moonday Musings: https://lisa-jara.com/en/moonday-musings

As you may have guessed, menstrual art – or period painting – means using your menstrual blood to make art, for example on paper, or by adorning yourself with it.

Even though the idea makes my stomach queasy, I like to challenge myself to have these important conversations.

And while there's both intrigue and disgust inside of me, I'm also wondering if menstrual art could become a portal into a deeper, even more intimate connection with myself, with my womb. Because if I myself am whole and holy, why wouldn’t my menstrual blood be as well?

That’s why today, my guest Camilla and I talk about menstrual art and reclaiming the disgust, the connection and the pleasure that may come with this intimate practice.

Join us as we dive into:

- My personal hesitations regarding menstrual art

- How we can develop compassion for ourselves as we sit with different, maybe even conflicting emotions around taboo topics

- What happened when Camilla first offered her blood back to the Earth

- Whether or not it's a smelly process, and the role of the olfactory sense for our human existence

- Ideas how you can dip your toes into menstrual art at any age and any stage of life (yes, even post menopause) and reclaim it as a practice of intimacy and connection to your own inner power

It's never too late to heal the relationship with yourself, with your body, with your cycle, with your blood!

Camilla and I would love to know:

What comes up for you when you think of using your menstrual blood to make art – or even adorn yourself?

What is (or was, if you’re post-menopausal) your relationship with your menstrual blood like?

What has stood out for you from what we’ve been sharing?

Send me a mail ([email protected]) or leave me a voice message here (https://www.speakpipe.com/lisajara)!

Resources we mentioned:

Aurora from "Pelvic Priestess" Website: www.pelvicpriestess.co.uk

The Rite of the Womb: https://lisa-jara.com/en/blog/e32-the-rite-of-the-womb

Book a Free Discovery Call with Lisa, if you want to take your Womb Health into your own hands and have a happy, healthy period or happy, healthy (peri)menopause experience: https://tidycal.com/lisajara/discovery-call

About Camilla:

Camilla is a Love, Sex and Relationship Coach and Menstrual Cycle Mentor. Her deepest prayer is for all women and cyclical beings to come into connection with their bodies, through reverence, ritual and remembrance that they're whole, perfect and divine.

Camilla works 1:1 with clients, supporting them to come into radical self-acceptance and love for their body through menstrual cycle awareness, and embracing pleasure as a vital resource for feeling truly alive and free in our bodies.

As we heal and come into connection without ourselves we connect back to Mother Earth and remember that we're not separate.

Connect with Camilla through her website www.camillalovegrove.com or on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecamillalovegrove

Do you want to start your week with some soul-infused musings that support you in your personal cyclical experience in a world set up for linear progress?

Sign up for Moonday Musings: https://lisa-jara.com/en/moonday-musings

Life is a spiralling journey.

Yet, in contrast to the hero's journey of out and up, a womb-bearer's process of maturing and evolution goes down an deep within.

So today I share a powerful guided practice for you to anchor back into the peaceful place inside of yourself, reconnect with your (energetic) womb space and receive its wisdom and guidance for your life.

Resources I mentioned:

Book a chat with me: https://tidycal.com/lisajara

Send me a mail at [email protected], or a voice message at https://www.speakpipe.com/lisajara

Or explore my work over on my website: https://lisa-jara.com

Do you want to start your week with some soul-infused musings that support you in your personal cyclical experience in a world set up for linear progress?

Sign up for Moonday Musings: https://lisa-jara.com/en/moonday-musings

My guest Hayley Anderson and I are here to shed light on the hardships and challenges parents, and especially mothers, face and how harmful it can be to normalize them or uphold the patriarchal myth of the "perfect mother".

After our "Fireside Chat about the Challenges of Mothering and Motherhood" (episode 44), we continued chatting, and the more we talked, the deeper we went and unearthed some juicy insights that we didn't want you to miss.

So this episode is a series of snippets of conversation that happened after our recording, that show how we unravel our own conditioning and try to love ourselves in the process, biases and all.

Join us as we dive into:

- the liberation and healing I personally experienced from my conversation with Hayley

- the conflict between putting your children first and prioritising yourself

- busting the patriarchal myth of a "perfect mother/parent"

- making the conscious decision to allow the world to raise our children, too

- a radically different perspective on the mother-child-relationship

Resources we mentioned:

A Fireside Chat about the Challenges of Mothering and Motherhood, on the podcast: https://lisa-jara.com/en/blog/e44-a-fireside-chat-about-the-challenges-of-mothering-motherhood

or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/aQLWWDmcjUk

Book a Free Discovery Call with me, for a happy, healthy period or happy, health (peri)menopause experience: https://tidycal.com/lisajara/discovery-call

Do you want to start your week with some soul-infused musings that support you in your personal cyclical experience in a world set up for linear progress?

Sign up for Moonday Musings: https://lisa-jara.com/en/moonday-musings

Connect with Hayley through her website: https://hayleyanderson.co.uk or on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_hayley__anderson_

About Hayley:

Hayley is a mother working to restore life-sustaining connections between body, cycles, soul and the land that supports us. Through her offerings as a birth story listener, sensory herbalist and fertility awareness method educator, she guides menstruators and birthing people towards easeful fertility cycles and matriarchal post-birth experiences. She is passionate about creating a menstrual health culture where the cycle is understood as an initiatory pathway to wellness, wisdom, elderhood, cultural and ecological restoration. Her work offers a place for our experiences and stories around fertility, conception, pregnancy, birth, postpartum, matrescence to be witnessed and honoured for the power and significance they carry.

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You can find the links and the transcript of this episode at:

https://lisa-jara.com/en/blog/e57-a-deeper-dive-into-the-challenges-of-mothering-motherhood

The ancient festival of Beltane was a celebration of the ecstatic life force energy running through all of us. A celebration of fertility, joy, and the erotic nature of, well, Nature!

Unfortunately, in our modern cultures we've become so disconnected from our bodies, from our sexuality, from our inner "eros" (our desires) that we tend to make our pelvic health decisions from an unhealthy place.

What would happen if you fell in love with your erotic life force again and claimed your sacred Yes and sacred No from this deep connection to your pelvic bowl?

Join Aurora and me in a juicy conversation as we dive into:

- Aurora's journey from sexual trauma and dysregulation to self-empowerment and awe for the sacred science of the body

- How eroticism, sexuality and pleasure are connected

- The importance of community in releasing shame and healing from trauma

- How to develop reverence and awe for your body and rewild yourself

- The power of the Maybe

Resources we mentioned:

Learn more about Beltane and the Wheel of the Year: https://lisa-jara.com/en/blog/beltane-walpurgis-night

As a Pelvic Priestess, Aurora Sunu offers Coaching and Therapies, weaving with the threads of Somatic Sexology, Holistic Pelvic Care, and Fertility and Reproductive Health. Aurora works with a wide range of sexual and pelvic health issues, however, she specialises in working with those that have experienced sexual trauma and subsequent sexual shame, hypertonic pelvic pain conditions such as vaginismus, and menstrual cycle health.

Aurora is in SHAMELESS devotion to supporting women and cyclical beings from menarche to menopause to gain the empowering sexual and pelvic health education that they wish they had, but never got!

Connect with her through her website: www.pelvicpriestess.co.uk

On Instagram: @pelvic.priestess

And sign up for her FREE Cervical Nectar Webinar on Thursday the 9th May BST: https://www.pelvicpriestess.co.uk/cervicalnectar

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You can find the links and the transcript of this episode at:

https://lisa-jara.com/en/blog/e56-beltane-awaken-your-erotic-sovereignty