138 episodes

How can menstrual cycle awareness and conscious menopause enhance your health, creativity and leadership? That's the question we'll explore together in the Menstruality Podcast, brought to you by Red School, where we’re training the menstruality leaders of the future. Your host, Sophie Jane Hardy will be joined often by Red School’s founders, Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer, as well as pioneering thought leaders, troublemakers and culture-shifters to discover how you can unashamedly claim the power of the menstrual cycle to activate your unique form of leadership; for yourself, your community, and the world.

The Menstruality Podcast Red School

    • Health & Fitness
    • 5.0 • 35 Ratings

How can menstrual cycle awareness and conscious menopause enhance your health, creativity and leadership? That's the question we'll explore together in the Menstruality Podcast, brought to you by Red School, where we’re training the menstruality leaders of the future. Your host, Sophie Jane Hardy will be joined often by Red School’s founders, Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer, as well as pioneering thought leaders, troublemakers and culture-shifters to discover how you can unashamedly claim the power of the menstrual cycle to activate your unique form of leadership; for yourself, your community, and the world.

    137. How Ancient Mythology Guides and Roots us on our Cyclical Heroine’s Journeys (Dr Sharon Blackie)

    137. How Ancient Mythology Guides and Roots us on our Cyclical Heroine’s Journeys (Dr Sharon Blackie)

    We’re thrilled to be welcoming mythologist and author, Dr Sharon Blackie back to the podcast today, to take another journey into the mythic imagination together.

    We explore how the ancient myths of our land weave us into connection with ourselves as natural, cyclical creatures, to our place in the world, and to the wisdom of our ancestral lineage.

    Many of you will have read and loved Sharon’s 2016 book, ‘If Women Rose Rooted’, and today we look at three of the ancient stories through a menstrual cycle awareness / conscious menopause lens, including; 
    What the ‘Well Maiden’ shows us about how to act as a bridge to restore the Feminine in our world, particularly by cultivating the skill of listening to the wisdom of our dreams.  

    How the wild character of ‘Mis’ can guide us to find solace in the wilderness, particularly during the phases of our cycles and lives which can be full of grief and are often misunderstood by "civilisation", like the premenstruum and menopause.

    How the story of the ‘Selkie’ can inspire us to reclaim our wildness, our authenticity and our sense of belonging.
    ---
    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
    Sharon Blackie: @sharonblackiemythmakings - https://www.instagram.com/sharonblackiemythmakings

    • 57 min
    136. What’s Going on with Pre-Menstrual and Menopause Rage? (Alexandra & Sjanie)

    136. What’s Going on with Pre-Menstrual and Menopause Rage? (Alexandra & Sjanie)

    Today we're having a frank and feisty chat about one of the hot topics in our community - premenstrual and menopausal RAGE.

    Have you ever been driving in your car and felt compelled to wind the windows up and actually roar because you felt so wildly angry on day 24?

    Or, if you’re navigating menopause, have you experienced your own ‘burn-the-house-down’ moment when your fury threatened to destroy everything you’ve built so far in your life?

    What is going on with this rage? Why are so many of us feeling it? And what is it trying to tell us?

    In this episode:

    - Anger as an indignation of soul, bringing us closer to our essence.

    - Sjanie, Alexandra & Sophie's personal journeys with rage.

    -  How to work with rage in the menstrual cycle by practising the menstruality Leadership skill of 'holding the tension'. 

    ---

    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

    • 59 min
    135: How to Feel Better in Perimenopause - REPLAY (Dr Lara Briden)

    135: How to Feel Better in Perimenopause - REPLAY (Dr Lara Briden)

    Today we’re actually replaying Dr Lara Briden's first episode with us, How to Feel Better in Perimenopause, because it’s the most popular episode we’ve ever shared, listened over 3500 times, and shared widely, and because we receive more questions about perimenopause than anything else.

    In the conversation Lara demystifies this major transition that happens in our bodies in the years that lead up to menopause, when many people are left wondering if they’re going crazy, experience symptoms which can seem to come out of nowhere; including anxiety, depression, irregular cycles, insomnia, night sweats, hot flushes, migraines and more.

    Lara is a naturopathic doctor and the author of The Hormone Repair Manual, Every Woman's Guide to Healthy Hormones After 40, a practical guide to navigating the change of perimenopause and relieve symptoms with natural treatments such as diet, nutritional supplements, and bioidentical hormone therapy.

    We explore:
    The four phases of perimenopause and how to navigate them, including the ‘waiting room’ where your periods are very irregular, but you haven’t yet reached the 12 month pint which defines the beginning of menopause. 

    The science behind this life transition and the hormonal events that can drive symptoms like irregular / heavier cycles, sleep disturbance and hot flushes.
     Lara's rescue prescription for peri-menopause and how it can help you to look after your whole being, and especially your brain and nervous system - Lara assures us that there is always a way to feel better. ---
    The Menstruality Podcast is hosted by Red School. We love hearing from you. To contact us, email info@redschool.net
    ---
    Social media:
    Red School: @red.school (https://www.instagram.com/red.school)
    Lara Briden: @larabriden (https://www.instagram.com/larabriden)

    • 1 hr
    134: Natural Approaches to Menstrual Pain, PMS and Contraception (Dr Lara Briden)

    134: Natural Approaches to Menstrual Pain, PMS and Contraception (Dr Lara Briden)

    What causes menstrual pain? Why do periods go missing? Why do we get PMS and how can we treat it naturally? What is happening in our bodies when we're on the pill? What is a good alternative to the pill?

    We hear questions like these all the time from our community, and in today’s episode we’re talking with a great ally of Red School, Dr Lara Briden who answers all of these questions and more. The conversation is an amazing resource, and one that we hope you’ll share with your friends who may be experiencing challenges in these areas.

    Our guest, Dr Lara Briden is the author of the Period Repair Manual: Natural Treatment for Better Hormones and Better Periods. She’s also the author of a second book - the Hormone Repair Manual: Every Woman’s Guide to Healthy Hormones after 40.

    She has treated 1000s of women with menstrual health symptoms, and has a wealth of wisdom and experience as well as an amazing capacity to make complex health topics and challenges seem simple.

    We explore:
    Why ovulation is so important, the common false narrative that the pill can regulate the cycle, and Lara’s five favourite alternative forms of contraception.

    Lara’s lifestyle and diet approaches for menstrual pain - they have supported 60-70% of her patients to relieve their pain. (And when to know if you could be dealing with endometriosis).


    Underlying health factors that can cause PMS, and how to make it a thing of the past through natural approaches.
    ---

    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
    Lara Briden: @larabriden (https://www.instagram.com/larabriden)

    • 58 min
    133: How The Menstrual Cycle Changed Our Lives (Alexandra & Sjanie)

    133: How The Menstrual Cycle Changed Our Lives (Alexandra & Sjanie)

    Around 20 years ago, in London, Sjanie was living her life with great abandon. Bold, confident and out there…she was invulnerable.

    But she had no menstrual cycle - she had been on the contraceptive injection for seven years.

    It was only when she started to have intense pain after orgasm that she suddenly sensed something was missing and that she needed to get her cycle back… and today we hear the amazing story of what happened once her cycles returned.

    We also hear the full story of how the menstrual cycle also changed everything for Alexandra, including her long journey to heal debilitating menstrual pain, and the immense gifts she received along the way, by surrendering to the power of menstruation. 

    We explore:


    What Sjanie’s mentor Maggie meant when she said that Sjanie was living life with her gloves on?!

    What happened when Alexandra’s partner held her through the worst of her pain, even as she was cursing the patriarchy.

    And how the intimacy with the menstrual cycle awakened a profound sense of purpose for both Alexandra & Sjanie.---

    Join our Cyclical Wisdom Quest - Feb 20th - 22nd: www.redschool.net/quest

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    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

    • 59 min
    132: How to be a Cycle-Aware Activist As a Highly Sensitive Person (Dorcas Cheng-Tozen)

    132: How to be a Cycle-Aware Activist As a Highly Sensitive Person (Dorcas Cheng-Tozen)

    Today's episode is for you if you’re curious about how to maintain healthy boundaries when you are working to create change for a cause that you deeply care about. It’s especially for you if you self-identify as a highly sensitive person.

    Many people come to cycle awareness because they are feeling burnt out from a system that pushes them beyond their natural limits. Our guest today, Dorcas Cheng-Tozen is someone who knows burnout intimately, and - luckily for us - has devoted herself to a study of how we sensitives can find our way to contribute to creating a more just and beautiful world, which doesn’t break us in the process. 
    Dorcas Cheng-Tozen is an award-winning writer, editor, speaker, and communications consultant whose work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal and today we’re diving into her brilliant new book: Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways.

    We explore:
    The "Activist Ideal" and the peer pressure that exists within activist circles to be ‘on’ all the time, willing to sacrifice mind, body and soul on the altar of the cause.
     A wide variety of activist approaches and roles for sensitive, introverted empaths; including research, art as activism, record-keepers, builders, and what Dorcas calls relational activism.

    The ‘seasons of activism’ and how to find your own natural ebb and flow as you work to increase the love, compassion and justice in the world. ---

    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
    Dorcas Cheng-Tozen: @chengtozen - https://www.instagram.com/chengtozun/

    • 1 hr 3 min

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5
35 Ratings

35 Ratings

Learnerfashion ,

Dreams to reality...creative cycles

these women ... this sharing ..thank you for such gold. In awe of your honesty, making visible your inner truths..
listening to your details of dreaming beginnings allowed me the incredible luxury of recognising tiny, tiny dust specks of my own. Such resonance and truth.
And wow Sjanie your words feed parts of my deep soul to not rush... ♥️

Kati LK ,

Amazing - inspiring - powerful

This weeks episode makes me hopeful that one day there will be a blockbuster movie about how you guys got this going, it would really help to make this mainstream ! And be so refreshing as a film, as i feel the film industry needs a big change too, i am so desperate to watch more films with meaningful content!

I look forward to listening to these podcasts every week. I do treat them like a ‘me time moment’ usually in the bath or driving.

I always feel at peace with myself when they finish. And feel slightly impatient about having to wait another week.

Thank you and look forward to one day having more than one a week! Such a nourishing listen always. At last something stimulating and powerful and positive to listen to.

You guys have such lovely voices to listen to and a calming pace- not rushed. I aspire to be articulate like you about how i feel and experience my cycle.

Thank you 🙏🙏🙏🌞🌞🌞🌞

ndbvdnjx ,

All women would benefit from listening

Thank you for this important and deeply moving podcast. Women at all life stages would benefit from the wisdom of these podcasts. Helping us to connect with our inner cyclical wisdom and trust our bodies and inner knowing more fully. To reimagine monthly bleeds and the menopause process from a medical conduction to a process full of insight and connection to self and the earth. Precious and nourishing. Thank you

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