The Menstruality Podcast

When she was in her mid-forties, Indigenous Medicine Woman Asha Frost’s feet started to painfully cramp and freeze at night, and no one could figure out what was wrong. Having lived with Lupus since she was seventeen, Asha was no stranger to chronic health challenges, but this one didn’t flare-up and subside - it continued for months, and then years, and propelled her into a prolonged inner winter. 
At the same time Asha was writing her second book, as well sharing her work in big ways, travelling to share teachings and doing keynotes on big stages. So, today we speak about how to navigate the different seasons of being a ‘wintering one’ who is in a dark night of the soul, and is still active in the world. 
Asha is a member of Chippewas of Nawash First Nation with a background in psychology and homeopathic medicine, and in today’s conversation she weaves together Indigenous wisdom, ceremony, and the healing practices she shares in her new book, The Inner Winter.

We explore:
What it means to be a ‘wintering one’ and all of the different ways that winter shows up in our lives, including chronic illness, loss and grief, burnout, post-partum, and neurodivergence.

What Bear medicine has taught Asha about how to stand your ground in winter, as well as the importance of expressing our growl, especially in perimenopause.

The film that supported Asha to move into the summer of her wintering times, Come See Me In The Good Light, with the brilliant late poet Andrea Gibson. 
---
Receive our free video training: Love Your Cycle, Discover the Power of Menstrual Cycle Awareness to Revolutionise Your Life - www.redschool.net/love
---
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
Sophie Jane Hardy: @sophie.jane.hardy - https://www.instagram.com/sophie.jane.hardy
Asha Frost: @asha.frost - https://www.instagram.com/asha.frost

Today we’re continuing our series about the limits of the four inner seasons of the menstrual cycle, and exploring these limits less as a problem that needs to be fixed, and more as a gateway to accessing the power of each cycle phase.
So far we’ve discussed the pre-ovulation and ovulation phases - inner spring and summer - and it’s time for us to get into the premenstrual phase, which is a cycle hotspot for many of us. 
Alexandra and Sjanie describe their own experience of the core limit of inner autumn, the reduction in energy and capacity, which can create a kind of reactive, hyper-critical sharpness in our minds and we become attuned to what isn’t working around us. In other words, everything becomes so annoying, and it’s very hard not to tell everyone around us just how annoying they are. 
We explore how, when we slow down in ourselves and honour this natural limit, we’re more able to access the benefit of this mental sharpness, in the form of a profound kind of discerning truth-telling and intuitive knowing. 

We explore:
How to reframe your premenstrual irritability from a problem to endure, into a potent invitation into a vital sense of connection with your deep self, and your human needs.
The necessity of allowing and feeling the intense emotions that can rise up in the second half of the cycle - even amidst the busyness of life - and how to hold ourselves if old trauma arises. 
How, in the premenstrual phase, we become lightning conductors releasing the charge in the field around us; for our children, our families, our communities or our workplace - and what to do when our disruption triggers people around us. 
---
Receive our free video training: Love Your Cycle, Discover the Power of Menstrual Cycle Awareness to Revolutionise Your Life - www.redschool.net/love
---
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
Sophie Jane Hardy: @sophie.jane.hardy - https://www.instagram.com/sophie.jane.hardy

Today we’re talking about the reality of the grittiness of the forties; the physical health challenges, the emotional intensity, the responsibilities, the overwhelm, the stress. And we also explore how the forties are also a meaningful preparation for the great spiritual awakening and initiation of menopause. 
Sjanie and Sophie share their personal stories from this life phase, which we call the Quickening at Red School, and we explore how to practically navigate the challenges that come up including; how to manage our energy, find nervous system regulation inside the fullness of life, hold the tension with intense reactivity and grow the emotional muscles to be inside the many mini death-and-rebirth moments of perimenopause.

We explore:
How to work with the uncertainty that can come from shifting menstrual cycles in your forties, and what to do when you find yourself outside of the map of the inner seasons.
Sophie’s story of working with perimenopause rage, and how we can all re-write the stories we’ve been telling ourselves about ourselves, and claim fuller responsibility for our lives.
The importance of finding ways to slow everything down, even if it’s just inside yourself, when you’re navigating the edges of perimenopause. 
---
Receive our free video training: Love Your Cycle, Discover the Power of Menstrual Cycle Awareness to Revolutionise Your Life - www.redschool.net/love
---
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
Sophie Jane Hardy: @sophie.jane.hardy - https://www.instagram.com/sophie.jane.hardy

Over the past week, I’ve been sitting with women going through or on the other side of menopause hearing their profound insights about the spiritual gifts of their menopause process for our Spiritual Power of Menopause series.
And today we’re sharing one of our conversations here on the podcast - with internationally-acclaimed yoga teacher, author, and public speaker, Seane Corn. Seane has been at the forefront of yoga, activism, and community service for over thirty years. She’s now dedicated to challenging cultural narratives about menopause, reframing it from a physical decline to a sacred spiritual initiation and rebirth.

We explore:
How Seane confronted internalised misogyny around midlife and aging

How her Yoga practice supported her to do the menopause shadow work of releasing outgrown identities

How the alchemy of the menopause process awakens our intuition so that we can step into new levels of leadership.
---
Receive our free video training: Love Your Cycle, Discover the Power of Menstrual Cycle Awareness to Revolutionise Your Life - www.redschool.net/love
---
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
Sophie Jane Hardy: @sophie.jane.hardy - https://www.instagram.com/sophie.jane.hardy
Seane Corn: @seanecorn - https://www.instagram.com/seanecorn

It’s world menopause awareness month and today we’re sharing a conversation that Alexandra and Sjanie had with the brilliant writer, international speaker and transformational coach Bethany Webster a couple of Octobers ago for the Wise Power retreat, all about healing the ‘Motherwound’ in menopause. 
At Red School we’re busy preparing our Spiritual Power of Menopause conversation series which is starting next week, as well as Alexandra and Sjanie’s popular free three-day menopause event: How to Awaken The Power of Menopause, which will also serve as an introduction to the Menopause: The Great Awakener course. It all starts on October 12th and you can register for free at redschoolmenopause.com.
Bethany sat down with me and very generously shared her story of perimenopause healing and transformation for the upcoming Spiritual Power of Menopause series, and her conversation is coming up on day five, called: Perimenopause - A Defiance in Service to Love… 
But for now, let’s hear from her about how her personal understanding of the Motherwound impacted her in the approach to menopause, how menopause can help us to make peace with our mothers, and how to cultivate a meaningful inner mothering practice.
We explore:
How Bethany's personal understanding of the Motherwound is impacting her in the approach to menopause, inspiring her to negotiate a new relationship with power and truth. 

How menopause can help us to make peace with our mothers and release the residues of the messages we unconsciously received from them.

How to start the work of healing the Motherwound at menopause, and cultivate a meaningful inner mothering practice.
---
Receive our free video training: Love Your Cycle, Discover the Power of Menstrual Cycle Awareness to Revolutionise Your Life - www.redschool.net/love
---
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
Sophie Jane Hardy: @sophie.jane.hardy - https://www.instagram.com/sophie.jane.hardy
Bethany Webster: @themotherwound - https://www.instagram.com/themotherwound