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Menstrual Cycle
20 Plays13 days ago
You may have one, you most certainly know some one who does. Whether you are listening for yourself, or to empathize with those around you do not miss this episode. Today we get into the second half of the menstrual cycle from a Chinese Medicine perspective. While certain parts of this episode are geared more for practitioners there is plenty of diet and lifestyle advice for our muggle family. Enjoy!
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Transcript
Introduction to the Menstrual Cycle Discussion
00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome back to Voices on the Mountain. We're jumping into our second half of our episode on the women's cycle, the female menstrual cycle. That's right.
00:00:23
Speaker
Hashtag, we might even talk about a man's cycle. We have them. we We don't often know that they're happening, but if you've ever had a guy just kind of go off the rails kind of unexpectedly, could could be his man cycle.
Understanding the Luteal Phase
00:00:37
Speaker
And move that liver. Still the same thing. We actually still circulate the liver, gallbladder. Right. Same, same. um So yeah, we've just transitioned. We've pivoted. from Tai Yin, where we went through our pivot, Jui Yin, liver, primarily.
00:00:52
Speaker
um And now we're entering into the Shao Yin phase, or what Western people call, or Western doctors call the luteal phase. Which is funny, because this is the only one that they give credit to the moon for.
00:01:02
Speaker
Well, yeah. You mean, because the corpus luteum, you mean? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. um And so know we got this you know this consolidating. And this is where we would begin um consolidating to actually have a baby, right? Like a growing fetus, or we just consolidate for the lady.
00:01:24
Speaker
um But when it comes to, um let's say non-pregnant women, because I think the majority of cycles are going to be that way, right? Unless there's a really big baby boom um that we don't want to stop all moving.
00:01:38
Speaker
So this is a good time where you can usually tell how stagnated a woman's liver is um based on how far ahead these premenstrual symptoms start happening.
00:01:49
Speaker
So we all know some of the big ones, breast tenderness, sometimes all the way to the point of true rib pain, where it's like a blockage or even like a knot within the ribs, um sometimes palpable, or sometimes they just feel it.
00:02:02
Speaker
um Right side is little bit more, especially up to that right shoulder, liver, gallbladder actually there. um And then we'd also start to see things like um irritability, which is very, you know think that's focused on too much, but ah you know people are very honest.
00:02:17
Speaker
It's easy to get more irritable when your liver is stuck and so forth. um Sometimes you'll get night sweats and that's because you're kind of building up this big reservoir of blood. And if you are all prone to blood heat, you're basically concentrating that blood heat.
00:02:32
Speaker
And so it's a lot easier for women to get night sweats right before their period as well.
Nourishment During the Luteal Phase
00:02:37
Speaker
um And then you'll also find that digestively, there's also a little bit of a buildup or what you might call a backup.
00:02:42
Speaker
And so a lot of women tends a little bit towards constipation leading up to that cycle. Right. And so, you know, we talked about this one and you're going to be nourishing ah the kidneys and moving the kidneys.
00:02:55
Speaker
But it kind of feels like ah we still may have some leftover moving from Drayin that we still got to do in this. Correct. I basically like to tell people it's basically like Drayin never stops from the so from the ovulation all the way through.
00:03:12
Speaker
It's just now half mixed with nourishing. Right. Okay. And then again, feels little, I mean, maybe... if you' If you're pregnant, it makes a little bit more sense because you're doing that consolidating and and and not um releasing and purging.
00:03:28
Speaker
But nourishing during a purge feels, um ah guess this is the part that that was mistaking earlier in the tie-in. This part feels a little counterintuitive because how do you nourish the kidney while you're ah getting ready to lose liver blood?
00:03:46
Speaker
Such a great point. ah Nourish the yin, move the yang. um And one way you can kind of think about this is like, they're literally building up a uterine lining. That's like building up a reservoir of blood.
00:03:58
Speaker
So you imagine this like big pool or lake is now building up. Well, if they're not pregnant, you got to release the lake. And that's what menstruation is. And so even though we're in this building phase, we're like, oh, don't need this water for right now. So we just released, we opened the dam and opening the dam is the menstrual part, the menstrual bleeding part.
00:04:19
Speaker
ah So even if someone's getting ready to, for their menstrual bleeding, you're still going to nourish the water that's then going to be released or the blood that's then going to be released. Correct.
00:04:30
Speaker
Because they're going to be losing blood one way or another, but this is where, like you said, we do now start to bring in the kidneys. So we've already dealt with the spleen. We know we've got liver, which is liver yin and yang.
00:04:43
Speaker
And now we bring in the the third component, which is the kidneys.
Exploring Si Wu Tang Formula
00:04:46
Speaker
So, um, as I guess I'm probably going to do in literally every episode, shout out to a cool formula called Si Wu Tang, which is the the name by itself is really, really beautiful.
00:04:57
Speaker
It's actually the four substances tang decoction, and it's referencing the four seasons with the four. And the substance is a, it's called Wan Wu, the 10,000 or myriad things, 10,000 substance, substantial things. It's a Buddhist term for every physical thing and in existence. Yeah.
00:05:15
Speaker
And so this is how you build via the four seasons and the patterns therein all the 10,000 things in the world, basically anything made of yin. And so this is telling us that if we look at this formula, we've got a great blood builder really targeting the liver more.
00:05:31
Speaker
That's Donggui. We've got a great yin nutritive builder. That's Baixiao. That's also targeting the liver. um Little shout out for you practitioner peeps out there, little nugget. The liver yin has two components, not one.
00:05:44
Speaker
It's not just liver blood. It's a liver yin nutritive too. And so here we've got dang gui plus baishao. But then we'd say, okay, well, we already said we can't stop moving because this is ah you know but's moving the yang within the yin.
00:05:58
Speaker
Here's where we would add a third blood and qi mover simultaneously in a single herb, chuan xiong, And then we would say, but we're also in the kidney phase. And we add the fourth herb and that's a di huang, shu di huang or sheng di huang.
00:06:12
Speaker
Technically the standard patent formulas are now shu di huang, but sheng di huang is actually the more classic herb because this formula is actually derivative of a Shang-Lun formula where they use sheng di huang.
00:06:26
Speaker
Sweet. Dork aside there. Yeah, well, this is what we came to do is yeah get real nerdy. point
00:06:37
Speaker
We're building, so I'm just kind of a little perplexed then by, is the body gonna be able to retain any of that of that building, of that consolidating, or is it all just gonna be ah expelled?
00:06:50
Speaker
Such a great point. So basically we're building, so we don't deplete, right? So even though we're opening the dam, If you didn't build, you'd lose all the stuff, even essential for normal organ function kind of thing.
00:07:04
Speaker
So this is where you're like, yeah, I'm building. Even though I know I'm going to lose half, I'm still going to be able to keep half. Got it. OK. And then if you didn't have enough flow, you might run into other problems um anyways with the stagnation or the dryness.
00:07:20
Speaker
Correct. Correct. So here's a nice thought is um what's not the the the symptoms, not the nice thought, but like a lot of women have lower back pain and during their menstrual cycle.
00:07:31
Speaker
That's kidneys. That really is just straight up kidneys. For any of you guys, practitioners out there, check out what kidney six jaw high does for a woman on her cycle, on her menstrual bleeding time with back pain.
00:07:44
Speaker
I mean, you can usually take away in seconds. It's kind of cool. Or at least diminish it greatly, right? I would recommend doing what I would consider the real jaw high. Yeah. Okay. So real quick, just because you we brought it up, it's going to be not immediately below the medial malleolus, but follow the peronal tendons all the way down to that space.
00:08:05
Speaker
Correct. Are there peronal tendons? Whatever tendons there. Yeah. ah Most of my anatomy words are in Chinese. Sorry. I know about pear-shaped muscle in the butt. Sometimes I call it a piriformis, but I mostly call it a pear-shaped muscle.
00:08:19
Speaker
Nice. um Cool. So, oh, and then interesting too, i mean, we're not going to use the Jing River, even though it's consolidating because you don't want to consolidate that much.
00:08:31
Speaker
Correct. Unless they're pregnant. Right. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. So here's a good idea where we want to build, but we we don't want to stagnate, right? We want to strengthen, but we don't want to get it stuck.
00:08:44
Speaker
Okay. And then for our dietary... Yes. And so here's where we want to actually, so we said like, we've got the lift weightlifting phase in the first third We've got the, like, go ahead and run your marathon or anything around your ovulation time.
00:09:00
Speaker
Still- but ah marathon? Well, I'm just saying, if they want to put a marathon somewhere, then you can go right right right around then. Okay. And then as we're heading towards menstruation now, you've got, like, still about a week where you can do harder exercise, but then you really want to start toning it down, like, four to five days before your menstruation.
00:09:20
Speaker
That's the window you really want to be, you know, ideally, we'd gradually decline in activity, Um, basically from that full moon down to the new moon, think about how much of the moon is left. That's about how much zest you want to be putting in your activities. Right.
00:09:34
Speaker
So absolutely. I'm
Lifestyle Adjustments for Menstrual Health
00:09:35
Speaker
not saying people shouldn't exercise, but like, you know, running and stuff would be great for that. But then right around day four days or so before that period, now we start doing more like yoga and, um, like whatever. Maybe just a walk instead of a walk.
00:09:50
Speaker
Yeah. Regular walks even you bet. Yeah. Heck yeah. The Qigong always going to be great. So good. So good. So anything that's still going to be moving, but not going to be crazy cardio and stuff like that. Okay.
00:10:04
Speaker
A little bit of a dance party, but no raving. That's right. And then here's a great place to put some of those ah bone broths and stuff that you've mentioned, because those are all really kidney tonifiers.
00:10:16
Speaker
Right. Okay. Okay. Yeah, bone broth collagen is another nice one that's really easy. Now it's super easy to get that. Collagen, which mostly comes from cow skin, cow hide, is actually pretty close to an herb that we use. It's just not as powerful.
00:10:32
Speaker
That comes from donkey hide. My favorite mistranslation, goofy translation of this one is called ass hide glue. Literally, I was in China. I opened up my herbs, my formulas book, and and I saw a formula that said aside glue and egg yolk formula.
00:10:46
Speaker
was like, there's so many things about this. It should be egg yolk. It's true. That's a simple typo, but it made it even better. Yeah, but aside glue?
00:10:58
Speaker
Ass, I guess, because it's a donkey. um hi The hide. And glue because it's collagen. it's Yeah, it's the stuff they cooked out from it. But it also feels like a really intense way to stop diarrhea.
00:11:11
Speaker
oh you just need some ass hide glue.
00:11:15
Speaker
Oh, God. They should plug it up there like the Dutch boy in a dam.
00:11:19
Speaker
not a good idea of people no exactly so this would be a really good time for any of those nourishers okay and then keep on with carry over some of those dwayne movers stagnate absolutely movers and maybe even a little bit of warmers so So depending that that varies based on, like I said, if some people have night sweats and so forth, but here's a good one. Cinnamon really does help.
00:11:43
Speaker
um Cinnamon twig is an insane good mover, but cinnamon is a pretty warm herb and cinnamon twig, much less warming. It's still warming. Yes, but it's just not as overheating. But here's a cool idea for like women, even if they're hot, cold constitution, if it's thick their first day of bleeding, see what cinnamon ginger tea feels like.
00:12:02
Speaker
And you can easily make this yourself. Just go get some cinnamon. If you can get the Saigon one, that's the better one because it tends to let have less heat going up the body and more consolidating to the lower burner.
00:12:12
Speaker
um And then mix that with um grated ginger. and just put hot water on that, maybe even a little splash of red wine or brandy, this is the one time where you might be like, yeah, let's put some alcohol in this system because it moves the blood so nicely.
00:12:27
Speaker
And if you really wanted it, you just go and soak some safflower. Looks kind of like s saffron, um but they're like these little red guys, the little floaty guys that you'll see in liniments sometimes. You just take a bunch of those and stick them in like a half a jar brandy.
00:12:42
Speaker
um and then add a shot of that to this T2. Now you've got kind of like a real medicinal little drinky thing, um and it hopes helps open up stuff. um Technically, it doesn't open the vessels or the luo quite as well with the cinnamon itself.
00:12:58
Speaker
What you really want is the cinnamon twig, but boy, it's good at doing that um because cinnamon tit twig has this function. It's called wenzing tong luo, warm the jing and open the luo. which you can tell is exactly what you want to do at menstruation time.
00:13:12
Speaker
Now, if they're too warm, that's true. You don't want to do that. But the reason why I said this kind of works for everybody is it just open things up, just just get things going. Now, if they're warm in constitution, it's true. They should definitely not stay on this. But for a day, pretty much anyone can handle it. And it's worth it just to get the opening function, even if they deal with a little heat here and there.
00:13:33
Speaker
Right. Because if you're opening and then moving the heat, you might have less heat than just it consolidated. 100%, dude. hundred percent I like to remind, like it's like kind of like, well, how many women do you know who maybe have the night sweats, but how many women do you know um in that demographic that then would ask for an ice pack for their menstrual cramps? Yeah.
00:13:54
Speaker
I mean, I think I've actually found one and I was pretty stunned when I heard about it, but not really any other ones. i used to make jokes about it until I literally heard one woman say she used to ice her ovaries. And i was like, that has to be the first time I've ever heard of a woman asking for an ice pack during her menstruation.
00:14:12
Speaker
So how come heat constitutions would still like a heat pad? Because it's opening. It's literally opening the vessels. It doesn't matter if it's adding heat to heat. Do you have a, and there's a saying that I've heard in English where it's small fire attracts big fire.
00:14:27
Speaker
Hmm. It kind of feels like, like that, right? Cause you create a small fire to create some movement and then you create a draft and it draws the bigger fire to it. Interesting. I like what you said too, just previously of like releasing the big fire or the big dam. So that, that, that doesn't create the fire.
00:14:46
Speaker
Yeah, because that's the guy that you're worried about, really. Correct. Something that you internally add for a day is not enough to stoke a raging fire or even keep the embers, right?
00:14:58
Speaker
Totally. You actually bring up a cool reference, too, that that Neijing talks about. They say like ah shaoho like a yeah like a little fire um generates qi, but a da huo will eat up qi, literally, chris qi.
00:15:13
Speaker
o They don't say it eats yin. It's qi that it eats. Correct. Excellent point. It's yin first and qi. So solid, man. um So just like hot summer heat, we know it's going to damage people's fluids and create thirst first, but actually the second thing it damages is qi.
00:15:32
Speaker
Is that through the virtue of the qi not having residence in the yin anymore? No. That is such a solid point. Yeah, I think so. And it just kind of wears it out. I also like to think of it as it almost like kind of like how inflammation will make people tired.
00:15:46
Speaker
It's really interesting because, you know, you give people herbs that do not tonify anything. They just clear inflammation. And if that makes them feel more energetic, you're like, well, you know exactly why they weren't feeling good. That inflammation was literally burning up their own chi. Yeah.
00:16:01
Speaker
Right. i was wondering too, if it's just like never resting if you always have this fire going. And so it's like you can't, um the chi is just going to be spent all the time, no matter what.
00:16:12
Speaker
Like all their resources are dedicated to fighting itself. Yeah, exactly. ah Firefighters don't get good sleep. so That's true. i treat firefighters. Yeah, they're pretty run down at the end of it.
Men's Cycles and Seasonal Changes
00:16:26
Speaker
Yeah. So a little segment here for for the men's cycle. we you've mentioned we go on a yearly um kind of cycle. Is that with the seasons is a little bit different?
00:16:40
Speaker
Usually seasonally. Yeah. Seasonal is the big one. So most men's cycles tend to be um more affected by yang things, just like women's cycles are more affected by yin things. Now here, of course, we're talking more mostly about mood cycles, but other stuff too.
00:16:56
Speaker
And so you'll see a lot of men have like kind of seasonal shifts, sometimes seasonal depression or sometimes this and that. And you know, that's partly it's like, well, if it is getting dark at 430, maybe do a little less in that season.
00:17:10
Speaker
Don't do nothing. not I'm not ever encouraging people to just stop doing their stuff. ah Or maybe, i mean, how cool would it be if like corporate America was like, you know what? We're going to make the work week one hour longer in the summer, but one hour shorter in the winter.
00:17:25
Speaker
That's pretty cool. We would never do that. But that would make a lot of sense. Yeah. yeah I mean, getting being done with work or whatever and then going outside and it being dark already. It's so hard. I should have already eaten dinner by now, but I have to commute home. I have to make dinner. I got to clean up.
00:17:44
Speaker
Now I can go to bed. Yeah. I mean, shoot. Think about like all the lives they would save just in like the car accidents. Think about how many car accidents there are just when everybody has to commute when it's dark.
00:17:55
Speaker
Yeah. there's We don't put human health up front. Yeah. Even Western medicine, one of my pet peeves is that it doesn't put human health up front, which is it's pretty obvious if you look at like how many treatable diseases are at the out there.
00:18:13
Speaker
Western medicine can do some amazing things, but the access that... ah you have to have and the resources and power to to get there is kind of nuts. And I live in one of the places where that's not the case. yeah So it's like if you have you know cancer or even a neurological thing, you have to fly somewhere else to get treated. oh yeah And it's like you that's a plane flight, that's rental cars, that's staying lodging somewhere else. And if you have the resources, like you can go get good Western medicine. If you don't, you're stuck with very poor care.
00:18:45
Speaker
I think Western medicine should be judged by the full array of its care and not just its nice successes. Exactly. and that its zenith. Dave Chappelle has a great skit about that when he's talking about this like guy, this like poor Dallas dude um who gets Ebola. And he's like, dude, what about like the the Doctors Without Borders, white doctor, like five years before?
00:19:08
Speaker
The CDC like busts out literally like a secret serum, according to the New york Times. What'd they do for the dude in Dallas? They just like rub some Vicks vapor rub on his chest and be like, you'll be good. You'll be good. Just watch him melt.
00:19:19
Speaker
Yeah. ah Yeah, it's it's pretty sad. i really like what Azure said. It's like, um yeah, medicine really shouldn't leave anybody behind. And if it does, then it seems like it should have an, f I mean, that's pretty clear ethical dilemma, right?
00:19:38
Speaker
Right. Every time we talk about how great Western medicine is, we should have it in a big bracket and frame it and be like, for the people that can afford it, for the people that have access for it. Like that should be stated every time instead of just, it's great. And everything else is a little bit subpar to that.
00:19:55
Speaker
Heck yeah. Heck yeah.
Chinese Medicine vs. Western Medicine
00:19:57
Speaker
One of the most beautiful things about Chinese medicine, I think, is its um availability. Now, that's not 100% easy in the West, but i mean even in China, even now, um the herbs are probably 20 times more expensive than they used to be, like 20 times. It was crazy. like Even in the 1980s, 90s, they would sometimes get their like herb formulas filled for like a dollar Wow.
00:20:23
Speaker
And you're like, I mean, even if they're a farmer, they can afford a dollar, right? Yeah. Now, of course, it's not. Now it's like, don't know, it could be $50 to fill a week of herbs.
00:20:34
Speaker
And that's not easy for a lot of Chinese people to you know rummage up. I'm using Western dollars here, American dollars. But um yeah, it's like back in the day, like some of the it was funny too, because some of the rich people used to scoff at it.
00:20:47
Speaker
i remember my Shang Han Lun teacher's teacher. teacher So my teacher is Chen Ming, Dr. Chen Ming. And then his teacher was Liu Du Zhou, ah just a freaking legend of Shang Han Lun goodness. that's Speaking of lineages, right?
00:21:03
Speaker
Anyway, Liu Du Zhou was treating this guy rich guy. And he comes in, he's like talking about, you know, the um all these symptoms he's having. He hasn't been able to sleep for like years. And he's tried everything from all these medications to all these things. And he's just like, oh, he literally recites out a phrase for this formula called Zhe Zhe Tung.
00:21:25
Speaker
And he does it word for word, um probably. So all his students can be like, damn. Anyway, so... It gives them this formula with two herbs in it. It's got literally like gardenia buds and a soybean.
00:21:39
Speaker
It's like a fermented, fragrant soybean. And the guy like looks at He's like, are you serious? You're going to give me basically like bean soup. Like that's, that's your treatment. And the teacher's like, go take it for one week and come back.
00:21:50
Speaker
And so the guy begrudgingly goes and gets it filled for like a dollar. And he hates that. He's like, there's no way this could work. Comes back in a week. And obviously he's like, how the hell did you fix that with nothing? Because that's what the medicine was based on. I mean, even if you look at our herbs, a lot of our herbs were, they were leftovers from foods.
00:22:08
Speaker
Like we have an herb called swanzaren, as you might know from swanzaren tang. Swanzaren is the pit of the swanzau, the sour date. Well, you don't eat the pit, but we found out that it had good medical use. And so you say you eat the food because we're all poor, right?
00:22:23
Speaker
According to, I mean, China's always been poor. There's a lot of people to feed, you know? Right. Yeah. What's interesting too, I was going to bring up, so i was like, what is in swan's are in time that makes it so expensive? Because nowadays it's one of the more expensive formulas that you can probably buy.
00:22:37
Speaker
it is. And it's actually the swan's are in because it takes it takes a lot of sour dates to get all the pits. Oh my God. So we just what what we have is that we have a ah shortage of people eating sourdates and saving them.
00:22:50
Speaker
Correct. Correct. Or people willing to eat the the pits that other people have spit out. Yeah. Well, I mean, now that you said that, it's like, i want to go look for sour dates and start saving my pits.
00:23:02
Speaker
thes There you go. There you go. Don't be afraid of your own pits. No. I mean, unless they're super smelly. Yeah. In which case there might be some excess damp heat going on, but you never know.
00:23:14
Speaker
Sweet. um So the men's cycle, seasonal, yeah um same type of emotional stuff. Uh, correct. And then you're probably doing the same type of like in the spring, you're more active.
00:23:28
Speaker
Correct. So the building active summer is great for activity. That's like the full ah cardio. So like, think like, um, weightlifting in the spring, cardio in the summer, ah kind of like yoga stretching in the fall and then more like meditative, going stuff in the winter.
00:23:48
Speaker
Well, it's funny too. So the the stretching in the fall is kind of funny because that's when everything's kind of contracting naturally. And you're kind of like balancing that guy out a little bit and not letting it you know fold you into a ball.
00:24:02
Speaker
So true, dude. You actually brought up that beautiful idea of the the bamboo. We want to make everything supple and not dry because... Yeah, it's consolidating and or it's, you know, it's restricting inward or constricting inward plus dryness because the dryness of the fall.
00:24:20
Speaker
Yeah, I really love that they use the bamboo as a as the wood analogy. I feel like it helps a lot. It's because like, oh yeah, like we want your liver to be like that. And when it's not, then it snaps.
00:24:32
Speaker
totally Bamboo is actually a great herb too. It's one of the best ones for descending the ministerial fire. The shoots, right? ah Well, actually the inside pithy part. like Oh. So not the, usually the greenish lacquery kind of stuff on the outside. You take that out and you've got all that pithy stuff that they'll just use like a ah knife and they kind of scrape it off into these like strands.
00:24:54
Speaker
But that's called Juru. Okay. One of the ultimate all-time best herbs for helping to descend a ministerial fire. Usually you'd use it in concert with other things, but by itself, it's probably the number one herb.
00:25:07
Speaker
Okay. Well, I have some bamboo growing. Oh, heck yeah. Got you plentiful. Sweet. ah yeah Go for it. you yeah So i one of the things I like to talk about too is like when, you know, guys will sometimes be like, hey, how come my girlfriend doesn't want to go rock climbing on her menstruation period?
Menstrual Cycle Impact and Societal Views
00:25:25
Speaker
but what's What's the big deal?
00:25:28
Speaker
And I always like to remind him, I'm like, Do you guys know that um the same formulas we use for menstruating females are the same ones we use for like MMA beat up trauma dudes, you know?
00:25:39
Speaker
So kind of put it in perspective, like they're doing a lot of internal work, um even if you've never felt that, you know? I mean, just a swift kick in the nuts and and be like, you want to go rock climbing right now? No. oh Okay.
00:25:53
Speaker
Well, maybe get off your high horse. Exactly. Just because you can't lose, move your lower abdomen. That doesn't mean anything. Yeah, it kind of does. Oh my God.
00:26:04
Speaker
Yeah. yeah That guy is definitely single now.
00:26:10
Speaker
But it's also good because I think sometimes women will push their body even when they maybe know that they shouldn't. They're like, well, I don't really want to work out, but I don't want to be lazy. You're like, dude, you're menstruating tomorrow.
00:26:21
Speaker
Why not take a break? This might be a good time for a little, you know, you could just do some meditation. You could do some yoga. Yeah. It's not like you can't do anything, but this is not the time to hike a 14-er or something.
00:26:32
Speaker
Right. Well, it's just society in general doesn't have space or hasn't made space yet for women's menstruational cycles and what they go through. And like yeah you know women gaslight other women. i don't know if you listen to the, there's a podcast series out called The Retrievals, which is really kind of horrific. um It's all about the IVF. Yeah.
00:26:54
Speaker
um
00:26:57
Speaker
unit at harvard medical um think it was hard no maybe it was yell it was yell um and it was it's not good and they the woman just got gaslighted by everyone in the profession including other women wo yeah it was just you know we don't as as general narrative we don't make space for that or or listen to women and what what they're saying so then it makes it harder for them to trust themselves um and what they're feeling Totally, man.
00:27:26
Speaker
So true. You talked about this earlier about like, it was kind of a similar thing, not specifically about women, but how kids aren't told to like experience their feelings and things like that. Totally. They just kind of like hide it away and then that can lead to like inability to feel anything eventually, much less feelings.
00:27:44
Speaker
Yeah. Think of what happens when a kid throws a tantrum. you know It's like completely natural for the kid. They're like you know having this you know overwhelming emotion or whatever, but they're told like that's inappropriate.
00:27:55
Speaker
Totally. Shuff it down. and It's just like, oh, maybe don't do that. like It's fine for them to go through its emotions. Yeah. And they'll get the skills. But as a parent, you know, it's like, that's why I don't have kids. It's like, i don't want to make room for that in my life right now. So just don't have kids. yeah exactly.
00:28:14
Speaker
It kind of gets to the point where like sensitivity is a good thing, not a bad thing, given the Western society seems to think it is.
Health Insights from Menstruation
00:28:21
Speaker
um But I, you know, it's interesting, like you said, i mean, sensitivity gives us so much more information.
00:28:29
Speaker
you know shoot, menstruation gives us so much more information. You look at a dude, when's the last time you could get a like a visible, literally a visual understanding of how their blood system is working right now?
00:28:40
Speaker
I mean, slice them open a little bit, I guess. but But women get this knowledge every month. Now, I realize that most women are like, yay, I got a period again.
00:28:50
Speaker
but they do have way more information about how the inside of their body is working and the status that it's in right now. And men just don't have that. and there was a There's a cool teacher at the Denver school, Angie.
00:29:03
Speaker
I was going to shout out to her. Really? Just to? Yeah. Shout out to Angie because she was like, men would be so much easier to treat if they just had a period. Yeah. It's so true. She also had she had this hilarious cartoon she showed me. It was like ah like a cartoon guy and a cartoon girl, like kids or whatever.
00:29:22
Speaker
And then the guy's like, yeah, I think I maybe can feel that the moon is happening. Yeah. And like it's like a lunar thing. And the lady has like these tendrils growing into the earth and her hair is like growing up into the moon. And she's like, oh, really? You're just now feeling that?
00:29:36
Speaker
Kind of like and paraphrasing the cartoon. But it's like you know when you can't feel anything, you can't react to it. So it's interesting. like A lot of people are like, hey, I want to be able to do some of this cool Qigong stuff because that looks cool and active.
00:29:51
Speaker
Well, they can't do that without increasing their sensitivity. So it's interesting that Western society kind of wants to function, but they don't want the sensitivity that comes with it. Yeah, well, because then you have to change your lifestyle and the Western, have to change your whole kind of perspective. And that's, it's a culture shock, really.
00:30:09
Speaker
Yeah. I always want to clarify real quick, because men do have their own cycles, which learned from Angie, but they're not as visible or visceral. Correct. And they're more based on the year.
00:30:21
Speaker
Yeah. Do you want to, well, we'll do maybe put a tag for that at some point. Hashtag man cycle. Yeah, we'll do like a little little bit at the end about it.
00:30:31
Speaker
Yeah, i do think I started being more aware of the moon cyclists. And you'll notice personality shifts and and little things. It's like, oh, my creative energy um during the full moon or and staying up later is great.
00:30:45
Speaker
like I love it. And then yeah know we're just coming out of this new moon thing. I've been like, oh, man, I'm really tired. I want to go to bed early. I want to sleep in. And it's like, oh, well, we're in winter, and we just had a new moon.
00:30:55
Speaker
Yeah. do Do that. and yeah Exactly. Everybody probably knows. Yeah. All
Closing Advice and Partner Synchronization
00:31:03
Speaker
right, y'all. ah Hopefully that was helpful with your cycles.
00:31:06
Speaker
Mostly ladies, maybe some dudes. And especially for the dudes to to get in sync with with their partner cycle or with just their friends or family. Because we all got mamas. so That's right.
00:31:19
Speaker
Probably got sisters out there. That's right. From other misters. From this mountain to yours. Aloha. Cool. Take care, y'all.