I’ve been thinking a lot about how to make cyclical living and leadership accessible to everyone.
For those of us who have a menstrual cycle, we are fortunate (lol) enough to have an internal hormonal clock that is hard to ignore.
For people who don’t menstruate, what are your options?
Or if you are just so busy that you cannot fathom adding another practice that you *should* be doing to your list of things that you know you won’t get done…
It’s Spring time in California and Inner Spring (cycle day 5) for me which is a great time to start new projects or new phases of a current project.
So I decided to start a series to help you:
Decide if cycle mindfulness will help benefit your life in some way;
Begin your cycle mindfulness practice with simple and easy tools to streamline into your already busy day;
Experiment with aligning certain activities in your life with your internal rhythm to see if it reduces your overwhelm and adds capacity; and
Reflect on what you’ve learned and how to implement your insights in the long term.
Decide if cycle mindfulness will benefit your life and leadership
The first invitation is to simply consider the possibility that you are affected by some internal cyclical rhythm. If not dictated by your hormones, perhaps you are affected by one of the cycles in the image below.
I think I have been pretty clear with my belief that we are all affected by cycles, but that doesn’t really matter when it comes to your personal life and leadership practice.
Do you believe it? If no, great!
If yes, great! Continue to read on.
Next, make a list of all the ways your life might benefit from knowing what your internal rhythm is.
Some of the benefits that I have noticed and that people have reported to me:
Greater self-awareness.
Increased self-acceptance and self-love.
More grace for changes in mood, energy and needs.
Better communication with partners, colleagues, family members.
Able to adjust nutrition and exercise to our inner cycle.
Closer relationship with our bodies.
Increased healthy productivity and creativity.
Just to name a few…
I would love to hear your lists in the comments below!
Cycle mindfulness sits on a spectrum.
We can go from simple awareness to pure devotion of our inner seasons.
You don’t have to decide right now where you are or where you want to be. Just know that at any time, in any part of your practice, you have options for how deep you want to go.
Bring awareness to your current attitudes about cyclical living and leadership
Play with me for a moment.
Grab a piece of paper and draw a vertical line down the middle.
On the left side, write down all of the messages that you received from your parents, educators and society about your cycle.
On the right side, list out the self-talk messages you find yourself replaying about your cycle - particularly the shame-based ones.
Next, draw lines between any childhood messages you recognize are impacting how you talk to (and feel about) yourself and your cycle.
Be gentle here. This can stir up a lot of emotions. Should you find yourself feelings some big feels and you need support in doing so, I invite you to watch my friend Kim’s TedTalk about how to actually feel your feelings.
Develop attitudes that will assist you in your practice (and life)
Jon Kabat-Zinn defines mindfulness as the awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.
In case you aren’t familiar with the nine attitudes of mindfulness, I want to share them with you here. They will help you be kind and open to yourself in your cyclical living and leadership practice.
You don’t need to memorize them. Mindfulness itself is a lifelong practice, so there is no need to add this to your internal sense of deficiency if you are feeling that now.
In my experience, one or two of the attitudes really stand out to me in different moments in time, usually because they have the most to teach me right now.
I invite you to read through them all, or watch Jon Kabat-Zin speak about them in this YouTube video, and allow yourself to be drawn to one or two of them as you enter your cyclical living practice.
Up next
Next week I will share some simple and practical tools, practices and resources to help you begin to track your cycle.
Until then, my friends.
May this work benefit all beings everywhere.
Soulful blessings,
Emily
P.S. Registration for Cycle Devotion is now live! You can register through the link below. The base rate is $88 and paid subscribers get a 22% discount to all of my offerings, so consider upgrading to a paid tier to save over $19.
If the base rate is inaccessible to you, send me an email at wildeyescoaching@gmail.com to register with a “pay what you choose” option. Accessibility to resources is a virtue that I believe must be woven into the fabric of our society and I am committed to it.
P.P.S. If you aren’t located in Sacramento or you prefer 1:1 support, consider scheduling a complementary consultation call. It’s a no-pressure connection call where we can explore your current aspirations and longings and you can experience my coaching style first hand. It’s completely risk-free and you will definitely walk away with clarity and next steps.