Episode 29
Living in Harmony with the Cycles
In our fast-paced modern world, it’s easy to feel disconnected from nature and the cycles that govern our lives. The latest episode of the Aprica podcast offers valuable insights on how we can realign ourselves with the rhythms of the earth, fostering a deeper connection with our environment and ourselves.
Join us as we explore practical ways to implement this wisdom into our daily routines.
With: Karolina Moore- Karolina is a Holistic Women's Health Specialist, coach and the founder of SpiralEd - a platform for teens and girls to learn about holistic health, following the rhythm of the seasons and honouring the cycles of nature. - Karolina 's Website- @KarolinaHolistic on Instagram- Karolina 's Facebook page
And your host:
Eleanor Marker - Therapist and life coach - eleanormarker.com
Transcript
Welcome to the Iprika podcast because a little advice goes a long way.
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:So and welcome to another episode of the Apricot podcast where every week we will give you
a little piece of life advice.
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:And today I'm joined by Carolina Moore and we're going to be talking about how the seasons
changing around us and the rhythms of the earth can be incorporated into our day to day
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:lives to help us feel that we're living in some kind of rather beautiful balance with the
planet.
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:So Carolina, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today.
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:Tell us a little bit about how we can.
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:work to incorporate this big planet that we're living on, the universe that we're living
in and make it something that feels relevant to us as opposed to something that we perhaps
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:live in contrast to.
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:So thank you so much for having me.
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:So I want to start with the fact that we are nature.
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:I think in these times we live thinking that you we need to go out into nature but we are
nature, we are one.
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:Our bodies mirror the earth cycles already.
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:You know the rest renewal growth and release cycle but the modern life pushes us into like
eternal summer so it's always go go go but our lives you know shouldn't be like this and
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:our ancestors knew that.
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:They celebrated the solstices, the equinoxes, the harvest festivals.
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:That was a chance for them to gather, to be grateful for whatever the earth gave us.
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:So now we can carry on celebrating the, I want to say the turning of the wheel.
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:Do you think that we're increasingly kind of slightly out of whack or disconnected with
the planet?
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:Do you think that that's something that is like an increasing phenomenon or do you think
t actually, I mean, obviously:
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:to nature, but do you think just in the last like 20 years, for example, that we've become
more disconnected?
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:think it's the last hundred years really people convenience is more important to many
people even supermarkets, you know, we used to live off the land, everybody moving to the
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:cities and towns away from from the land, just increased the disconnection, but also
things like and don't get me wrong, I am so thankful that we have run in water and light.
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:But you know, having the light on till 10pm is not good for us.
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:The increased use of screens and
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:I home educate my kids, so a lot of the education is happening on screen.
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:So I think it's just finding the balance to then go out into nature, away from screens,
away from artificial light that we need more of.
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:Especially, know, when people uh work in offices, I think that's very important to then
ground themselves in nature and just fresh air, anything like that, anything away from the
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:artificial.
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:But yes, I definitely think we are moving away, although there are communities that are
moving back into that cycle of being close to nature, which I think is very important.
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:I think it's not as mainstream as I'd like it to be, in my opinion, but there is a shift.
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:I'd say probably in the past five years, there is a shift where people are moving uh
closer to nature, some actually going off grid.
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:performing communities, even moving out of the UK to go to places where the sun is just a
little bit more on show.
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:Ever present as opposed to never present, right?
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:You mentioned there about light and how we perhaps have lost our connection with the
daylight and the night light, the moonlight, I suppose.
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:And also you mentioned about food and how we can obviously just eat whatever we want,
whether it's in season or not in season, because we can get it.
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:shipped over from, you know, wherever, somewhere where it is in season, right?
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:Is there anything else that you feel, any other kind of basic fundamentals of life that
you feel we are out of kilter with?
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:think women are very disconnected from themselves.
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:I'm a holistic women's health specialist and mainly the ladies that come to me do struggle
with being connected to their emotions, being connected to their intuition, not knowing
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:how to read their body's language.
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:So what I mean is aches and pains, uh hair falling out, we rely on doctors.
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:And as grateful as I am, my daughter has a heart condition.
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:I'm grateful to allopathic medicine and medication.
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:But I think we rely on it too heavily when sometimes it's just listening to what our body
needs.
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:So like the earth, we should listen when we need rest, we need to rest instead of pushing
through.
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:Even things like sticking your face in the sun in the morning.
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:That then wakes up, you your circadian rhythms can begin.
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:The very first podcast I did for this podcast was about my core advice that I would give
people, because it's an advice podcast.
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:And one of my core bits of advice, I nicked from a guy called TJ Power, but it's not
actually his.
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:I mean, it just belongs to everybody.
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:But it's this idea of sunlight before screens, that you get up in the morning and you just
get some light on your face before you get some artificial light on your face.
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:And I think I still stand by that being a really core...
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:that is great for your dopamine levels, your circadian rhythm, things like that.
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:So there you talked about our bodies and how we may be disconnected from our bodies,
particularly as women.
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:And it reminded me as you were talking about this sense of maybe not understanding what
our body, what's happening to our body.
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:It reminded me of a painting by Klimt, and I can't remember what it was called, but it
showed women in different stages of their life.
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:So it shows a young girl and then a grown...
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:woman and then an old lady.
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:It's a very beautiful painting and actually normally you only see a little clip of it for
some reason they take like a little snippet of it you don't see the whole painting maybe
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:because it's got no woman in it and people don't like looking at old women in paintings
which is a bit sad but anyway it reminded me as you were talking that I think women have
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:seasons as well right I think we have a kind of spring a summer an autumn and a winter and
I think that that kind of spans us through and I feel like I'm kind of going from
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:summer to autumn at the moment as I get towards the menopause and I know my daughter is
definitely very much in spring because she's kind of going through puberty and is just
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:going beyond that.
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:Do you think that as women we are particularly attuned to nature because of our menstrual
cycles mapping the moon?
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:Yes, so women used to, or so we are told, women used to menstruate with the moon.
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:I think before the patriarchy, you know, sort of set in, it was a beautiful time.
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:I have a teenage daughter as well, and we're trying to keep it very open in our house
because I don't want her to be ashamed of her period.
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:It's a beautiful thing.
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:It's a release.
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:So as the hormones shift, you know, you can actually feel the release from the rage that
you feel just before to a sort of
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:and exhale.
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:So I think the whole society, for some reason, we're being told that it's this thing that
we should be ashamed of instead of embracing.
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:And really, it's a superpower.
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:And we are cyclical.
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:I think the screens also have a lot to do with it, that we are out of whack a little bit.
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:But it's actually proven that women sink their cycles when they lift in close proximity.
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:So myself and my daughter have actually sinked.
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:which is, I mean, my partner's not very glad because there are two hormonal women in, but
nature's beautiful and we are nature.
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:And instead of pushing this idea that it's something we need to keep taboo, we should
speak about it because yes, from puberty, we're teaching the young girls that no, no, no,
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:you need to keep it closed, keep your hormones in check, keep your behavior in check, to
then women who are suppressed and go through life.
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:you know, with high quarters, not really knowing what's happening, to then perimenopause
and menopause, where women are told, like you said, about the painting, we don't want to
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:see you, you you're old.
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:Every stage of a woman's life is beautiful.
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:You know, for different reasons, with going post-menopause, it's the crown stage, it's the
wisdom.
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:That's what we, we used to listen to our grandmothers, and now it's just, oh, it's just
old lady talking, where really we should be embracing that.
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:Yeah, I couldn't agree more, especially as somebody who is about to enter that era.
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:I'm like, yeah, listen to me.
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:I want to be the wise crone.
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:So talk to us about what we can do, particularly as women then, but as people as well,
let's be inclusive.
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:What are the main things that you think we need to do to get back into harmony when it
comes to food, light and our bodies?
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:Let's take those three kinds of things that we looked at at the start.
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:So with food, definitely seasonal eating.
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:It's lovely fueling ourselves with fresh salads and fruits and veg in the summer.
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:You know, the hydration that we need, especially during the hotter months, we need that.
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:Then during autumn and winter, it's all about the roots.
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:It's about the broths, the stews, you know, the hearty foods that I call them comfort
food.
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:I love this.
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:I love autumn because of the comfort food.
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:And also that fuels
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:our hormones.
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:And then in spring, bitters, you know, it's all about the detox, the spring clean.
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:We can do that with food in our bodies, you know, cleanse the liver, and then the cycle
begins again.
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:So for me, I personally treat spring as the new year because that's where the cycle
renews.
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:When it comes to light, I would definitely recommend it, like you said, sunlight before
the screens.
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:So stick your face out, even if it is just for five, 10 minutes.
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:We are so rushed that I think in a lot of people's minds, it's just, I don't have time for
this, but I am sure that everybody would have that five minutes.
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:Just stick your face out, soak up the vitamin D, because I think that's also forgotten
what the sun gives us.
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:You know, we need the sun to produce that vitamin D.
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:Because the food, it seems to be very depleted.
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:I can't remember the exact statistics, but...
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:the soil is so depleted, I think you'd need 15 oranges, I want to say, to get the same
kind of nutrients as I think it was 20 or 30 years ago.
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:We're not being helped on that side either to be healthy.
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:For the light as well, I'd recommend at least an hour off screens and off any kind of
lights in the evening.
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:If you need the light, use a candle.
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:It's nice and romantic and...
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:I think it helps you romanticise your life as well.
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:So it's not just go to sleep, wake up, go to work, come back, rush dinner, go to sleep
again.
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:wherever we can get those little snippets of romanticising our lives and make it
beautiful, we should grab that.
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:I remember I heard something that said that we have this kind of lovely wind down time in
the evening, maybe the lights are low, we have the lamps on and then we come up to bed and
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:what we do just before we go to bed is we go into our bathroom, we put that big white
bright light on and it's like everything gets reset and it's like it must be daytime again
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:and it's true like here in Ireland I have a bathroom with strip lights, know like
spotlights.
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:And it's like an airport concourse in there when I put the light on.
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:my other option is stumbling around in the dark, which isn't that convenient either.
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:So what you're saying there is that with the light, we need to be almost echoing the
natural rhythm of the day, the natural sunlight, and then the waning of the light at the
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:end of the day.
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:Definitely and I would even say, you know, if you do your bedtime routine our earlier so,
you know go get in the shower brush your teeth everything else and then wind down and Just
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:after that just overlay in bed, you know to relax on the sofa anything that just gives you
that about an hour to just wind down because like you said resetting that whole cycle then
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:resets your cortisol and you know, melatonin and everything else is then
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:That's why I think we're supposed to have a high cortisol in the day to give us that oomph
to go ahead with the day and then it should weigh down but it doesn't now because of the
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:lights, the stress, the pace of life and it's really hard you know no matter how much you
try it's really hard to control everything.
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:So if we just control those little things we can in our own homes we can then reduce that
cortisol slightly obviously it doesn't take away your problems.
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:know, life stresses are still there, but it's just those little bits that help us.
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:We're going for consistency and bits that we can control instead of perfection.
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:Okay, I get that.
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:And so we've got light and food, eating with the seasons.
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:I know that I did a foraging course here recently in Ireland and it was amazing.
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:I'd never thought of it and I felt so connected with the earth afterwards.
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:And you were saying there about the kind of the detoxing and the bitters in spring.
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:And I know that's when the nettles come out and you can get those very young leaves and
things like that.
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:And I...
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:got some Hawthorne syrup ready to go and it's interesting isn't it when you start looking
around you and seeing nature around you as something that is not just to be enjoyed but
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:also is in the nicest way to be consumed, like you're part of it.
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:I'd like to pause the podcast for a moment to thank you for listening.
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:I'd love to hear from you, so please send me a comment under this podcast or on our
Instagram channel, Aprica Podcast.
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:Like, subscribe, download, and share with family and friends.
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:And thank you for taking the time to listen to the show.
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:So talk to us then about our bodies as women.
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:How can we live in better harmony with the world around us, the seasonal changes and
earth's rhythms as well.
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:So, like you said earlier, with teens, that's when it all starts.
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:We need to teach children and then teenagers to appreciate it, as opposed to, I think, lot
of especially teenagers when they want to go to bed late, do an all-nighters, to teach
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:them that you're not doing yourselves any favors.
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:It might be exciting, but long-term, it will really dysregulate you.
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:So with teenagers, it sounds like it's about impairing them with information so they
understand what it is that's happening, but also how tempting though it is to stay up late
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:or eat crap food or whatever, that actually that time, that springtime of their life is a
kind of key time to get in sync with their bodies and to not live in conflict with them.
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:think with teenagers it's a lot about the self-awareness, not just pushing through but
being aware of what your body tells you and the body literacy.
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:And as mums, we constantly go, go, for the children, for our partners.
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:You know, we play many roles as women.
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:We need to remember about ourselves.
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:As much as we should teach the children about the cycles and the food, everything else, we
need to remember to step back.
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:and mimic those same cycles for ourselves when we need to rest.
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:I don't mean, you know, have the kids jump on us and, you you just sit in.
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:I mean, actually take that time to do something that you enjoy or to do nothing.
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:And then as we go through life, children leave.
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:A lot of ladies tell me, I've lost my purpose.
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:I don't know what to do now.
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:And I think it's again, with that season of life, it's taking it.
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:and finding yourself again because in motherhood we often lose ourselves.
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:So with that season it's about finding yourself again, finding what you enjoy again and
it's a separate rhythm then from menstruating as well.
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:So you can still even, I think I've been told by numerous women now that after menopause
they couldn't find their own rhythm because they didn't have anything to go by.
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:Yeah, you're unanchored, aren't you, in lots of ways at that time, because you're losing
your, punctuated monthly cycle that you have, but also, like you say, children leave home
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:and, and, and then you go through sort of menopausal changes as well.
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:So you have new things coming in that feel unfamiliar and you can feel quite unanchored, I
think.
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:Yeah, definitely.
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:And I think that's when we need to step into the moon cycle, see what the moon's doing.
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:I mean, I'm big on energy and, you know, with the new moon, it's a new cycle.
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:It's all about planting those seeds.
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:So if anyone's listening who's maybe gone through the menopause or going through the
menopause and they've lost their own monthly cycle, that maybe they felt reasonably
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:connected to, you know, the luteal phase or the ovulation phase, maybe they had an
understanding of that, maybe they didn't, maybe they just kind of winged their way through
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:their monthly cycle every month for the last sort of 30 years, right?
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:For those women that now maybe want something to map across to,
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:what's the advice you give them when it comes to mapping across to the moon?
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:like what are they looking for there?
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:does the new moon mean something for them?
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:does the full moon mean something else for them?
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:Yeah, so the new moon is the beginning of everything.
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:So that is when you plant your seeds.
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:So when it comes to sort of making plans, this is where you plan.
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:This is where you come up with your ideas and, this is what I'm going to do.
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:As that side of the cycle goes into the full moon, that's where the ideas manifest.
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:So this is, I'd say, our ovulation.
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:This is where we are going.
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:That's the doing bit, is it?
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:That, yes.
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:And then when it comes to the rest of the cycle, this is where we should step back if you
believe in manifestation, anything like that.
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:This is where you step back and you just put your hands up and I've done my work.
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:This is where I relax.
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:This is where I trust in whatever's going on, whatever, if I planned.
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:Things just grow naturally.
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:And then the cycle begins again with the new moon or just before the new moon you can...
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:reflect a little bit or what the cycle last cycle was.
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:Journaling is a really good practice to get into.
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:Sometimes it's about time, sometimes it's just we don't have that village to speak to.
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:So with journaling, we can get it on paper, just get your thoughts out.
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:So it's not stagnant in your head.
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:What you described there about mapping across to the moon every month got me thinking that
as women, do we need to map across to the seasons?
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:So are there particularly things that spring is good for for us?
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:Not so much for nutrition, but more for, I don't know, like how we actually go about
living our lives.
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:Is it the case that we just should map each month from a lunar perspective, or would it be
better for us to map for the whole year as well?
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:there's a lot of cycles that women couldn't attune to.
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:with spring, it's like with the spring clean, you're preparing.
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:This is a new cycle.
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:The nature is starting again.
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:With spring, we could plan again, because that's the new cycle.
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:With summer, it's all about go.
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:We're full of energy, so we could attune to that.
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:The days are long.
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:We have lots of hours to do things without relying on artificial light.
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:Autumn, it's more
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:to ground, you know, we're getting ready for that rest.
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:So it's tidying up whatever else we need to do to prepare for that winter and that's the
rest phase.
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:So the nights set quicker, many women or many people come home when it's dark, they leave
their home when it's dark and there's not really much to look forward to, say, but we
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:should definitely embrace that rest.
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:because that's where the ground gets fertile.
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:We grow our own food and people say that in winter there's nothing to do.
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:There is lots to do.
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:This is where you prepare the ground for the growing season again.
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:So the winter is all about the rest, all about the comfort.
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:That's where the comfort food comes in.
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:Just enjoy it.
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:Instead of what we're being told, constantly do something and do more and be more.
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:In spring, the cycle begins again and we can then.
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:plan and go.
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:That's really interesting because what I hear you saying there is that the monthly cycle,
which is the new moon plan ovulation kind of time implement, then you have a kind of
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:reflection time in the luteal phase, and then you have a kind of slight rest during the
menstrual period and then you go again.
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:In actual fact, that's reflected in the year as well with spring, summer, autumn and
winter as plan, implement, reflect and rest.
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:You know, there's so many cycles to map against.
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:Do you think that this counts for daytimes as well?
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:That actually, you you get up, you plan, then you implement, then you reflect in the
evening and then you rest at night?
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:cycles or any seasonal changes that you think people are less aware of?
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:So obviously we all know about you know spring, summer, autumn, winter and then daily
cycles and the moon but are there any ones that you think maybe are less well known that
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:we're maybe not noticing around us?
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:Yeah, the one that consumes our whole life from start to finish.
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:that's really fascinating that we've got we have this kind of little micro cycle of a day
and then we have this huge macro cycle of our whole lives that actually map against each
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:other and then we have the monthly cycle in the middle of that and the yearly cycle how
very interesting very interesting idea
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:Yeah, I completely agree.
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:And I think also there are times, particularly with women, times in their lives when we
naturally need more sleep or less sleep as well.
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:And we need to kind of naturally attune to that.
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:Well, Carolina, thank you so much for that.
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:For anyone who's listening, who would like just in this next week to try to rebalance
themselves a little bit more with the Earth's rhythms, what piece of advice would you give
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:them to go and try out for this next week?
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:That sounds lovely.
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:think if I stood barefooted on my grass, uh first thing in the morning, I would have very
cold toes.
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:However, halfway through the day, would probably warm up a little bit.
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:Carolina, thank you so much.
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:Thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
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:I really appreciate it.
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:Do let our listeners know where they can find you if they'd like to work with you.
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:All of Carolina's links will be down in the show notes today.
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:Carolina, thank you so much.
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:Thank you.
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:I thought maybe it was a clock change but no it's just me being crap.
