Welcome to the Level Up with Katie B podcast, where performance meets spirituality and you get all the tools you need to unlock your next level of badassery in life and business. I'm Katie B, airline pilot, human design coach, side hustle extraordinaire and crazy cat lady, and I am beyond chuffed that you have hit play on this episode, so welcome welcome welcome. If you or someone you know has hormones, then you are going to love this episode.
That was a wee joke because every bloody person needs to hear this episode. I'm chatting with Claire Marie who specialises in supporting you to understand your hormonal cycles so that you can harness your hormonal superpowers. I think you're going to be more than a little mind blown at the depth and breadth of how your hormones are affecting you.
For better or worse, you are being taken on a ride, so you may as well get the map to navigating it with ease, and even better, why not use this knowledge to have a better life, a better business, a better sex life. That's right, we're talking everything from orgasms to business badassery. You are absolutely going to love this episode.
Before we jump in, a wee announcement I'm super pumped about. Doors are open again to Align and Thrive, my five-month human design deep dive. This is your sweet and transformational portal to confidently levelling up, expanding and sharing your gifts through my signature thriving in business human design synergy method.
This transformative approach serves as a portal for you to thrive, thrive while you grow your soul-led business in alignment with your unique energetic gifts. I want you to be able to do it with ease, and I really want you to be able to do it without burning out. I want you to build the business you love without burning out.
So if you are interested in learning to embody your gifts through human design, and also unlock your personal karmic toolkit so that you can thrive as you build your aligned business, click the link in the show notes to check it out. I have got two spots available, so click the link, have a look at the webpage, see what you think, and if you feel that it's a good way for you to step into your next level in life and business, I would 100 million percent love to support you in that way. So check it out, and the link is in the show notes.
All righty, let's dive into this epic episode with Claire Marie. Welcome, Claire, to the Level Up With Katie Bee podcast. I'm so grateful that you've agreed to come and hang out with me and share some incredible insights about all things hormones with the listeners.
Thank you for having me. It's great to be here. I'm very excited.
I am genuinely just so interested in what you do because I have been on a journey with my hormones like a lot of women, I guess, and I think there is so much that most of us don't know, and I am sure that you've just got so much incredible information that's going to be really helpful for all our beautiful listeners. So I was wondering, how did you get into this? How did you start your business? What is your business, and how did you start it? Okay, so my business now is called The Fem Way. I have had, yes, a long journey to this point.
I started out in England. I was a professional dancer originally, and I was one of those typical women that was, I was very skinny, but I was always hungry all the time, and my emotions were up and down, and I never knew what, where I was coming or going. And then I, after I had children, I fell into or discovered through wanting what's best for my children through health coaching.
And I learned a huge amount about health and wellness and what's good for us at the time. And I still felt that something within me, I wasn't all feeling massively great all of the time, even though I was doing all the health coaching stuff. And so I hit, as huge amounts of women do, I slide into my 40s, and I started to put on weight and have seemingly more problems.
And it started me to delve into what's wrong with me, what's going on? Why am I not this healthy, glowing person that we're all told that we can be? And so I discovered through a weight loss program that I started, he talked about hormones and how they affect our weight loss and things like that. So that's where I started. And me being, I've got ADHD, so if something grabs me at my interest, I like, I really dive into that rabbit hole and I find out everything that I can.
And so I actually really delved into the hormones and how they affected us. And what I found absolutely amazed me. And it made me sad.
It made me angry. It made me happy. Because I was just like, Oh my gosh, I don't understand why all women are not taught this, why we don't know this.
Because what I learned was that our hormones and our menstrual cycles affect everything we are and everything we do every single day of our lives. And we're always taught, oh, you know, you have that bad, that bad few days or what have you, you know, the PMT, where we're cranky, we become less than the normal person that we are and stuff like that. And, and that's all we're taught, really.
And it's, it's, it's actually so much more than that, to the point that we're taught to be like the sun. This is what I say to a lot of women, how they kind of get it. We're taught to be like the sun, you know, the sun comes up, goes down every single day, it's the same.
And when you actually look at the men's test, their hormone cycle, the testosterone, it mimics the journey of the sun. So it starts when they wake up in the morning, it's high, and then it slowly goes down. And then the next day, it's the same.
So every day, week in, week out, month in, month out, they are pretty much their journey is the same. But when you look at women, we are like the moon. And when you look at the moon, every single day, she's different.
She has a big full moon, and she has a time where she disappears completely. And every single day, her energy is different. She looks different.
She's, you know, completely different. And we are, in effect, like the moon, because our hormones don't have a daily journey, they have a cyclical monthly journey, or however long your cycle is. And every single day, they are different.
And they affect us in so many ways. And when I learned that, it just blew my mind. And I have got a 15 year old daughter who is just about to start on this journey.
And I was just like, Oh my gosh, if I had known what I know now, when I was her age, my entire life would have been different. I would have been kinder to myself, I would have, you know, worked with my body instead of against it, I would have done the things that are beneficial for me on the days that I need them. And my whole mental approach to myself and my life and everything I did would have been completely different.
And I want to help other women learn, you know, we are not broken, because we are not the same person day in day out. You know, lots of women go, I feel so inconsistent. Why is that? I should be the same every day.
And it's like, no, we shouldn't be the same every day. And we're taught that if we're not the same every day, we're wrong, or we're broken, or there's something not quite right. And for women, that's, that's a complete lie, because we should be different.
And we are different. And by embracing that difference, we discover a power inside of us, and a confidence and a self esteem that affects everything we are and everything we do. Yeah.
Oh, my goodness. I got chills when you described the difference between men's hormones and women's hormones, the difference between the sun and the moon. Because, you know, I love all things witchy goodness and esoteric and I'm a tarot therapist and human design and astrology is all just like part of my world, right.
But what I noticed is that women in particular feel particularly drawn to the moon, right? Like I don't meet a lot of men, I mean, some, but I don't meet a lot of men who really embrace, you know, new moon full moon rituals. And actually, Clare, do you know what I found when I so I've got a crazy story about being on the pill coming off the pill and how long it took my hormones to come back to regulate. But now that they are completely regulated, again, my cycle is exactly in sync with the moon cycle, like 28 days, like I actually will start bleeding and then go, Oh, it must be a new moon.
And then sure enough, it's a new moon. Like, that's, that's how in sync it is. But I love everything that you just said, because, you know, at school, I was educated about how to use pads and tampons and what it was going to be like to bleed, but I had no fucking idea what it meant to feel hormonal fluctuations and the power in those hormonal fluctuations, which I think, and maybe I don't know if you agree with this, but I feel like we kind of the hormonal fluctuations, we tend to see as a weakness.
But I mean, yeah, yeah. And that's the thing I talk about. I talk about our hormones, they are they create superpowers within us.
And we literally are four different women with four different like archetypes or, or superpowers through every single phase that we go through. And by learning to work with each power, it just gives us so much, so much more ownership of who we are. And the things that we do in our lives, it gives us almost permission to set better boundaries and those kinds of things.
Because you can go, you know, there are lots of different theories, I have created my own and what works for me. And because I also want to share this discussion with my husband, with my son, and we do regularly talk about this. So it had to be something that was kind of like male friendly, you know, they didn't go ill at, which generally I don't know about you, but I find lots of men are quite squeamish talking about this kind of thing.
So the phases for me, I call them wisdom, daring, harmony and freedom. And those are the four like superpowers as well, if you like, and it just encapsulates each section of our cycle and the differences that we have. So yeah, it's game changing for women when you start to learn about this and incorporate it into your lives.
Yeah, for sure. And I can see, I mean, I haven't, look, I've dipped my toe in a little bit because actually randomly about, I'm going to say about six years ago, I was at, my husband and I were in the city at Fringe Festival and we had a gap between shows and we saw this beautiful picture of a grapefruit that looked like a labia. And the show was called, oh God, what was it called? I can't remember what it was called now, but it was Lucy Peaches.
Lucy Peach. Yeah. I love Lucy Peach.
Yeah. And so I just loved the graphic and I said to Clay, right, that's it, that's where we're going. So we went and he was like, holy shit.
And I was like, oh my God, I didn't know any of this. How am I, at the time I must have been 30. And I was like, how am I 30? And I have no idea that all those different phases that you just mentioned even exist.
Like, oh my God. And so that inspired me to start trying to work with my hormones to, you know, really make my life easier. I guess, like all things, I didn't take the ball and run with it so much then, but I feel very called to do so now.
So I'm really excited to hear like, cause I know you talk about menstrual cycle synergy and I think that might be really helpful for all our listeners and myself. So can you tell me what that means? Yes. Yes.
So for me, menstrual cycle synergy is living your life in a way that flows with the personas or the superpowers that we have in each phase. So, and it's working with the strengths and weaknesses that our hormones create within our bodies, our moods, emotions, everything. It literally is everything we are.
I just want to reiterate that from how quick our brains work, how our memory speed is, how our vocal ability is. Sometimes of the month we'll stutter more than others. Even how much we sunburn, the thickness of our skin, how much fat we store, whether we are emotional or logical, analytic or, you know, everything we are and do, whether we are strong with long stamina or not.
And so knowing what you're doing inside your body in each phase is crucial. So for example, and you can relate to everything I have within the Fenway, I have five focus areas of life. So focus and mindset, family and relationships, food and inner health, fitness and body, and then fortune and business are my, what I call the Fenway five.
So they're the life areas and every single life area changes every phase. So for example, if you are talking about your fitness and your body from a weight perspective and going to the gym kind of thing, you'll find that every week what your body requires and what it is capable of changes. So, you know, one week you go to the gym and you're lifting heavy weights and you can go forever and you're like, yes, I feel like a goddess, you know, I'm awesome.
And then the next week you'll go and you go, oh my God, crap, I can't even lift half what I did last week. And after 20 minutes, I'm pooped. I'm done.
And we've been taught, oh my gosh, I'm crap. Then you have yourself talk, oh, that shit. Why, why am I not as good as I was last week? And it's because you're in a different phase and different hormones are in charge.
So once you know what hormones affect what in every area of your life, then you can live within synergy and sync to that. So you kind of go, okay, well, I'm in harmony this week so that I know that I'm going to do a short workout and I probably won't be, instead of doing four sets of my round, I'll do two sets because that's all I've got in me, you know, and that kind of thing. And then when I'm in daring, I can go all out and give it an extra workout that week and that kind of thing.
And with, with, um, like relationships and stuff like that, you, we, we change how we are. So there's a phase. I know if I'm in freedom, I try not to book anything with my in-laws or anything that I might need to have tact and diplomacy because freedom, there is none.
I have no filters and it's out the window, you know what I mean? So, and, and if I'm, if I'm in harmony, that's the best time to network, to meet friends, to communicate and do that giving nurturing stuff. And if I'm in, in daring, I, um, I know that I want to get out, meet new people, try new things. And that's where I want to take charge and run with some ideas, you know, and then in business as well, it, it dictates, you know, you're not going to want to do videos, presentations and things like that in the phase where your brain is slow and you're more likely to stutter and forget things.
Cause that would be, you know, counterintuitive. You want to do it in the phase where your brain speed is quick, your vocal ability is awesome, that kind of thing. So learning each phase and its strengths and weaknesses in every section of your life helps you to kind of go, okay, what am I doing this week? Is it aligned with my strengths? And if it's not aligned with my strengths, how can I counteract that? So for example, I'm doing a, um, I'm doing a live event tomorrow and I'm in Harmony, which is great for networking and helping people, but it's also really, um, where I'm going to forget things and stutter a lot more.
So I'm preparing myself for that by making sure that I've got everything written down in a script and I'm taking it with me, highlighted and all of that kind of stuff with big arrows. So powerful. So I know what to do and when, so I kind of can prepare myself.
If something is out of phase, I can kind of like take steps to help me get through it easier. And cyclical synergy is trying to do everything as much as you can to your strengths. And yeah, it makes so much sense because most people that I speak to these days have got really full busy lives.
And if we, if something as simple as just understanding your hormonal fluctuations can allow you to create less resistance in every area of your life, like that is absolutely a fucking superpower for sure. It's amazing. Yeah.
So how do we even know if we're working with or against our hormones? Like are there any common signs to know like, Oh, I'm not really working in flow with my hormones right now. Yeah. Well, I mean, for starters, if you're, if you don't know where you are in your cycle or you're not tracking it particularly well, you are just generally going to be living out of sync.
If you don't know what phases have what strengths and weaknesses, you're going to be doing things that are working against you. That's just kind of how it is. You need to have the knowledge before you can like overlay it into your life, so to speak.
Yeah, sure. So do you have like, is there something that you can do? Like, how do you start tracking it? Is it just start on day one of your period and that's your go point and then track it for a few months so that you know what your normal cycle is? And then that's your base level to then know what your hormone fluctuations are. Yeah.
Yeah. So you need kind of really to be able to understand where you are in each phase. The two pivotal points are day one when you start your period and then the day that you ovulate, which if you've done fertility tracking, you kind of know how to do that.
If you don't know how to do that, there are signs that you can learn in your body to know when you're ovulating. And also another way to do it is to take your what's called your BBT, your basal body temperature, which is what you do when you're fertility tracking. I have a device, it's called an aura ring.
And so it's like a little Fitbit, but it's a ring that goes on my finger. And that tells me the changes in level of my base body temperature. So I can see the day that I ovulate because the day that you ovulate, the first half of your cycle, you sit underneath your your BBT, so your temperature is lower.
And then when you ovulate, your temperature goes up. Yeah. And so for the second half of your cycle, your basal body temperature is above the line.
So it's easy to see. And so you've got wisdom and daring in the first half and then harmony and freedom in the second half. So once you yeah, you learn the phases and how they work for you after like, you know, three months or so of tracking.
And also it's really, really important to and it's good for your general health as well to spend even like a minute a day just checking in with your body. Yeah, I was going to say that. Yeah, I think like a lot of us give up.
I mean, I love a device as much as the next person, but I actually got rid of my bit in my smartwatches about four years ago because I got sick of giving my power away. I felt like it was kind of, you know, as if we need any more things in our life to detach us from the communication between our body. However, the aura ring sounds really amazing, especially as you dive into this journey.
And so I'm really curious, though, because not every woman bleeds, right? What do we do if we're perimenopausal or menopausal? Well, that's where that's why I got the aura ring, because I had an ablation about five years ago. And so I don't actually get periods anymore, but my hormones are still rampantly going through the cycles. And so for me, for ovulation, it really helped me be able to pinpoint where I am.
I mean, you can get a little device that you put on your arm that just literally tracks your temperature at night and that will tell you where your your base body temperature is. So that's a really good way. And I needed to have that to to let me know exactly where my cycles were to start with.
But now I know that I get a little pain. Not every woman does, but a lot of it's called middle schmerz, if I can say that. It's like a little pain in either one of your ovaries just when you're about to ovulate.
And you can get your boobs can get a little bit sore, that kind of thing. So physical signs of when you're coming into freedom and PMT, most women can feel that crankiness, that edginess, that erratic energy. And you're, you know, your boobs start to swell, you feel a bit bloated when you're about to come on to your period.
So you still do get those feelings because we still do retain more water and retain more fat in our bodies when we're about to have our period as well. So if you are consistently checking in, how do I feel today? What is my energy? So I do three base markers of myself every day, my physical energy, my emotional energy and my mental energy. And I kind of give myself a mark out of 10 to see where I'm at.
And once you start doing that regularly, you kind of see the cycles and the changes and you can learn your body and you go, okay, I know. Now, like for me, because I am nearing the end of perimenopause, things do change slightly when you're heading into that. It's a whole extra bit of information to add on when you're heading into your 40s.
And I do actually do a specific workshop for women in their 40s to help navigate that whole thing. But I know that I have two days, days nine and 10 of my cycle, where for some unknown reason, I get really, really cranky. And I think it's just again, the change of hormones.
And because I've gone through my cycles and I track my feelings and what's going on with my body, I know the days when I'm going to have highs, the days when I'm going to have lows. After ovulation, I have two days, which I call my totally exhausted days where my ischium plummets and I'm no good to anybody. So you get used to when you're checking in with yourself regularly and actually paying attention and noting down what's going on inside of your body.
You do see and know those cycles and you can really see them. So it's tracking, checking in with yourself and listening to all the different parts of your body is vital. And it helps.
It really helps. If you do that in your early days, your 20s, 30s, what have you, when you get to your 40s, the change that you have, the extra change that you have going into perimenopause and menopause doesn't become such a big shock or a big surprise. And it's a lot easier to navigate because you're already used to working with your body, feeling your cycles, understanding your energies, the overlaying extra things that happen in that phase.
It's easy to understand them, to notice them and to work with them and manage them, which makes the whole transitional phase that is perimenopause and easier to navigate, if that makes sense. Yeah, it does. And I had never even thought about that.
I had never even considered that the earlier you get in touch with your hormonal cycles, the more well-prepared you are to navigate. What I have heard from talking to a lot of my friends that are going through perimenopause and menopause, I hear very different stories. Some people go through it like it's a breeze and some people are just like, what the fuck is this torture? What have I done to deserve this? And so being forewarned or forearmed with that information, I guess, is just so flipping empowering.
And it's so interesting how knowledge can ease any discomfort. I mean, just recently, because I have in the last couple of years, I've been off the pill for a long time, like seven years, but it's only been probably three years that my body seems to have recovered and got back to what seems to be its natural cycles. But just recently, you talk about your angry days and I have a couple of, usually just one really tearful day where I will just be so emotional.
It's actually quite funny now. And my husband, bless him, last month when it happened, I had a big, big old cry and then I was like, hiccup laughing while I was crying because I said to Clay, like, I just know this is my hormones. I don't actually know because I'm never actually tracked at what part of my cycle it is that happens.
But I just, I know the feeling in my body. It's like, I'm almost, it feels like exhaustion. It feels like my body is just like, fuck, like I got nothing left in me.
But I'm so in touch with everyone's emotions, any problems in the world, it hits me to my core. And so I was bawling my eyes out about dropping a cup or something and then just started hiccup laughing and said to my husband, I think it might be my hormones. Yes.
Yeah. And it's great that you share things with your husband because then they become more aware of you and your changes and what you need. It makes such a difference in your relationship.
Yeah, for sure. And because I don't know if this is common or not, but I'm definitely more horny at parts of my cycle as well. And so he's got a vested interest in knowing it.
Yes. Yes. I have.
I've created quite a few different little like posters of the different phases. And I have, my husband has one for like sex and intimacy, that kind of thing. And the changes that happen within me.
So he'll like kind of check out, it's in our bedroom and he'll check out and go, where are you at the moment? And then I know that he's going to check in his little thing and he's like, all right, OK, I know where I'm at now. So we have one on the fridge for our family and me and my daughter both have a magnet that we move around so that the family can see where we're at. And it has it has so it has the phases and then it has on it like little help notes, like things that she might be feeling or thinking in this phase, things that she would like if you did or thought and then don't even bother with these things on the outside.
And my my son, my 12 year old little cheeky rat bag that he is, has actually taken this on to the nth degree, to the point that he will he came to me a couple of months ago and went, Mama, when are you in harmony? Are you in harmony at the moment? And I was like, oh, well, why is that, dude? And he goes, well, because I like going shopping with you when you're in harmony, because you spend more money on me. And I was just like, oh my gosh, he's worked that out himself from understanding the changes in me. And he's noticed that.
And I was like, dude, seriously. And he's like, yeah, I love going shopping with you when you're in harmony. Oh, that's so cool.
And also, what a gift if he has a female partner in his future. What a gift for her, because he's probably developing a level of emotional intelligence through understanding this as well, which is just so incredible. He brings me chocolate when I'm in when I'm in wisdom and he'll put my favourite playlist on and those kinds of things.
So he is absorbing it into his life. And so his understanding of a partner is just going to be amazing. So, yeah, and that's what I want to do.
I want to share it so that it just becomes part of everyday life for people. Yeah, for sure. And what a revelation, Hay, that, you know, something that has been kind of, well, I guess it's still pretty, it's not very mainstream to have a deep connection with your hormonal cycles.
And what a gift to be able to start positively impacting not only your own well-being, but the well-being of your family and have that sort of harmony infused into every aspect of your life, because by the sounds of it, you know, there really is nothing in our life that can't benefit from understanding where we're at in our hormonal cycle. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Everything, everything, even like if you have kids, the things, the activities that you do and how you connect with your children will change through your cycle.
And once you know those things, you don't beat yourself up. And women have spectacular gift for really being mean to themselves. And we expect, and they've done studies on this, women expect that they have to be more perfect before they take a step, before they take an action.
And we are so much more critical of ourselves and so much more unsure and determined to, OK, it has to be right, it has to be perfect before I do this. And if it's not up to our expectations, we are so mean to ourselves. And understanding this kind of thing, like you can go, oh, OK, I know why I wasn't so good at the gym today, because I'm in harmony and that's the wrong face of that.
Or I know why I was really not wanting to meet up with the family today, because I'm in freedom and I know that I need time on my own or all of those kinds of things. We can explain our behaviors and our thoughts and our feelings a lot better when you know the changes that they naturally go through. I've found since understanding a little bit more, I definitely don't have the whole picture yet, but since understanding a little bit more about my hormones, I have found that it kind of has brought me back into that state of awe for myself and my recognition of me as another piece of nature.
And what I mean by that is like times when I am particularly angry and I know that that's that's not really my normal, you know, that's something dramatic. So it feels hormonal. I think I can tell now when I'm being fueled by hormonal fluctuations.
But instead of being like, oh, like stop trying to, you know, trying to suppress the anger or whatever, I'm like, fuck, my body is incredible. Like how crazy that I can have this level of emotion and whatever just because my hormonal fluctuation. It's like crazy.
And even in times when I need to sleep and rest or whatever, I can get into bed and just be like, man, my body is amazing. It literally is telling me exactly what I need. All my job is to do is to listen.
Right. Yeah. That's it.
And I find as well, a lot of women, when they start tracking and living in cyclical synergy, you know, there's always been a stigma about your period. It's always been something that we are taught to that is negative to moan about. And it sucks.
I can't wait till I stop. And all of those kinds of things. And it's a point in our lives where most women are taught to not enjoy.
And if we have periods about something crazy, like seven to nine years of our life, we're on our period. What? Like the total time? The total time that we're bleeding. Holy shit.
Which is huge. I know, which is huge. And it's like, do you want to not enjoy that amount of your life? And when women start doing this and they understand the powers of wisdom and the benefits that we gain from being in wisdom, women actually have a big mental shift and they actually start to look forward and enjoy because it's it's wisdom is like a it's like a mini winter where we retreat into ourselves.
We want our own time. We don't want to be social and we're not giving and those kinds of things. And when you live with your cycles and we're actually more open to the universe and we can our brain naturally sinks down into the delta and meditative brainwaves a lot easier when we're on our periods.
Not it doesn't happen for men. Only women have that capability. And it almost gives us permission to set those boundaries and go, you know what? This is me time.
This is when I need to look after myself. I can nurture myself. I can look at the month ahead.
I can plan. I can just sit in that stillness because that's what Mother Nature designed me to do. Yeah.
And it's that whole permission thing. You can have permission to go, you know what? No, I'm not going to do those things in this. It's in this time because I'm in wisdom and I need to connect with the energy of wisdom now.
So I will do that next week. So good. So it gives you that power.
I actually started using my mental cycle to support my manifestation process as well, because I mean, like, honestly, I learned about that through some witch training that I was doing and I was like, yeah, this is amazing. And so that's kind of fun as well. If you're into manifestation and magic and all that, it kind of helps you.
You get a new perspective on your bleeding and your hormones and kind of tap into the pure magic of it, because men don't get that. And there's a reason that men were scared of us like hundreds of years ago, right? Because we are a powerful AF and our menstrual cycle is part of that. So, so cool.
I love it. So a lot of the listeners are women in business and I would love for each of those four parts of the cycle, is there like, what should we be focusing on each time? Yes, yes. Okay.
So wisdom is when you're on your period. So that is for dreaming, for planning, for we have big picture awareness of this at this time. So you want to be kind of going, okay, what's right for me moving forwards in my business? What things do I want to plan? So this is where we are more open to the universal influence as well.
So you can kind of like put a question out and go, what is it that I need to be focusing on? And it's time for planning. You can do also like your scheduling of what you're going to do moving forwards, that kind of thing. Looking at is that, is that what's best going to serve me in the month ahead kind of thing.
Then as you move into... So what day of the cycle is wisdom? So it's from day one, it's for your whole period. So the whole time you're on your period. So roughly from day one to about day five or six.
Okay, cool. All right. Because you have a couple of days of like transitional energy.
So then we go into daring, which is obviously, and this is why I love daring. It just calls to mind everything that this phase encompasses. This is where you want to do shit.
You want to get stuff done. You want to try new things. You want to go out and make an impression, meet new people.
You want to, this is also a great time for doing the creating stuff. So if you've got things that need to be done, courses, if you want videos that you want to record, if you've got something that needs creating or making, do it then. It's a good time for like logical stuff.
So stuff that needs highly logical thought processes. If you're presenting, this is the best time to do it. Those kinds of things, anything that's that up and at them out there, go getting kind of energy.
Yes. And I'm sure this is probably what most women in business love because... Yes. Well, this is what we're taught that we should be the whole time.
And this is why we have so much struggle within ourselves because we're taught that this is what we should be all the time. And it's like, no, it's only one section of a much bigger picture. And that's why I think some women kind of get disappointed with themselves because they think that they need to be daring all the time.
But then you miss out on so many of the other awesome aspects. Yeah. For sure.
And so daring goes from about day six to day 12? To when you ovulate. So 14, 15, it depends on when you ovulate. Yeah.
Okay. Roughly about 14. If you've got a 28 day cycle, it'll be your day 14.
Okay, cool. And then we go to harmony. And then we go to harmony, which is it flips completely.
The shift between daring and harmony is quite huge because harmony is where we have lots of hormones. You've got progesterone in there, and that's our nurturing. That's our baby making hormone.
So this is where you feel nesting, nurturing. So from a business perspective, it's great for networking. It's great for working with your clients to figure out what they want.
It's great for team building exercises because you want to help people. You want to create that harmonious kind of energy within your business and company. Our brain speed is slower, and this is where you stutter and things like that.
So it's also good for methodical jobs. If you've got something that you're just plodding along with it, you just need to do. Yes.
Okay. So it works with that slower brain speed. Yeah.
Yeah. That's so helpful to know, actually, because I think a lot of the time we try to force ourselves into that daring phase when actually it could be a great time when we're in harmony to just do the things that we can almost do on autopilot that don't require a lot of energy. Yes.
They have to be done, but they don't require any creativity or get up and go. Extra brain power or anything. Yeah.
Amazing. Okay. And then so from harmony, we go to freedom.
Freedom. Yes. Freedom is typically the PMT area.
And it has such a negative connotation, this whole area. And I've called it freedom because for me now, it's actually become my favorite phase because all of our hormones are completely dropping. So it's like the veil of hormonal influence is lifted and we become who we are.
And this is where I truly feel like most like myself. There are a few caveats, though, because when all of that, like, especially with harmony, the nurturing hormones have like kind of are dissipating. You tend to get stripped of all filters and all the things that make you be more tactful and that kind of thing.
And so this is where you just say how it is, which is great when you're working out for yourself what's working and what's not. But when you're trying to have dealings with other people, you can get yourself into trouble. So it's best to not have client meetings or team building things going on in freedom.
Yeah. But it's great for analysis because this is where you clear through the crap and you are honest with yourself and you can go, what's working, what's not working, what do I need to drop? What do I need to kind of keep keep on? And then you can store those insights for wisdom when you're back to your planning again. So it's working through and then it's just knowing that stamina is not so great in this area.
So we get worn out mentally and emotionally a lot quicker. It's like you've been on a sugar high and then you just dropping in, coming out of that. And that's why we get so cranky, because it's like withdrawal of all our hormones and our body kind of has that jittery energy.
So we can do things in short bursts. This is the time when I always, you know, when you look at your wardrobe and you go, oh, my gosh, I hate half of these clothes. I just need to get rid of them.
I need to clear them out and start fresh. This is when I find that's freedom phase is when you're looking at something and going, oh, my God, I want to change it. I want to clear it out or I want to do that's normally freedom when that happens.
This sounds to me like day one. So wisdom phase day one to six. This is like new moon energy.
Right. And then when we move into freedom, which that would be the last. So like twenty four to twenty eight days ish, depending on your cycle.
Yeah. So that's full full moon energy. Right.
Like clearing shit out, like sorting things out, letting go of what no longer serves you. Full moon is when you ovulate. So that's the yeah, the daring the daring energy of the full moon.
And then freedom is that section before the new moon. So just like the last waning. Yeah.
Got it. Waning of the moon. So interesting.
Before you flip. Yeah. Yeah.
I can. And it does. And lots of women, once you go through menopause and you don't have your own cycles, they switch and adjust and work with the moon cycles, because if you're used to cycling, you want to keep that momentum and those phases going.
And because it does work with the moon, a lot of women transition to working to the moon rather than their own bodies. It's more subtle, but still still there. You can feel.
Gosh. Oh, my gosh. Clear.
I can already see how this is going to help me so much in my business. Like I can see how I can plan and I'm in full planning mode for twenty twenty four right now. I'm in creation in the in the spectrum of the year, not so much my hormonal cycle, but right now I'm just in full planning and I am going to use this information that you've just told me to make sure that I can have the most powerful, potent year, allowing myself to rest when I need to rest, embracing my creative times when I can, working when I've got that energy.
Sounds so amazing. Actually, just out of interest, when in my cycle is it that I'm so like ready for sex? Like what part of the cycle is that? That is daring. That's daring.
Yeah. So that's that's leading up to ovulation because ovulation is when you're when your egg pops out ready to be fertilized. So that daring thing.
And that's why you want to go out and do new things. And also on that point, talking about libido and stuff, you can have a bit of a wandering eye and daring because that's your hormones going. I just need to procreate.
This is what I'm doing. So I just want something somewhere. So it's like sometimes, you know, you can if you catch yourself like looking at someone that's not your husband and going, oh, he's quite nice.
There's nothing wrong with that. It's just your hormones making you. It doesn't mean that you don't love your husband anymore because some some women can kind of go, oh, my gosh, I'm thinking that.
Is that true? And it's like, no, it's your hormones telling you it wants a baby. It wants to procreate. So your hormones are just going, give me somebody.
Let's go. Yes. And that's so interesting.
Daring, ramping up to just before ovulation. Yeah. Okay.
And then on the flip side, like seriously, sometimes there is a point in my cycle that my husband gives me the ick. Like if he wants to touch me, I'm like, are you serious? Like, get away from me. Like, is there is that kind of part of the cycle or is it just me being a terrible woman? So when you're in harmony, you kind of your libido plummets because that's when you're nurturing in harmony.
That's when you're kind of nesting. So and we have no energy. And that's where you kind of don't you don't want sex.
And it can it can be like it feels like a choice. Really? You want to do that? I can't be bothered. That kind of thing.
And then in freedom, when you're in freedom, you you will either be one or the other. It will either be yes, fuck off. Don't touch me.
I'm in my I'm having my own space. This is my time. I want to be by myself.
Or it can be, well, OK, but it has to be down and dirty how I want it. Yes. Oh, my God.
You know what I mean? Yes, absolutely. I know exactly what you mean. This is so cool.
So cool. And that's the thing. And if your husband is aware of those things, then they're not going to get upset either.
Yeah. Yeah. I just know that it's not them.
It's the changing thing. And you can have more fun and play with that kind of thing. For sure.
Yeah. It's so interesting since we've started talking about it, because it's since I've noticed that my cycle has been more regular, I'm like, oh, this is so crazy. And we've been talking about it a lot.
And so there's been times where Clay's been like giving me that look. And I'm like, yeah, no, babe, it's not. It's not happening today.
And he's totally fine with that because he's like, OK, I get it. Like because we talked about how and he'll know like without even talking about it now, he's kind of like you've got obviously the guide in your bedroom, which is amazing. And I think I might have to make myself one of them.
But yes, so cool. And even to the point of the quality and the length of our orgasms and stuff changes as well. Oh, you know, interesting.
Sometimes sometimes, you know, he might think, oh, well, but I didn't do it for you this week, you know, today, like I did it for you the other week. And it's like, yeah, no, that's because with the different hormones, the levels and how long it takes us to get to orgasm and how intense it is, it changes as well through our cycle. That's actually so comforting to hear, because actually I was wondering about that recently.
I it's weird how it can be so different from one way to another. Like it's it can be almost worlds apart, your sexual experience. And I had I even though I've been thinking about my hormones a lot, I didn't necessarily correlate that with a hormonal shift.
Yeah, that's super interesting and also allows a little bit more like compassion for both of us. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
So do you have any one top piece of advice or actionable step that you'd give anyone who's keen to start harnessing their hormonal superpowers? Yes, I the most important thing is that you just check in with your body every single day and have some small even if it's one line, I literally have I have lots of I've created lots of different journals through the time that works for me. And I have one of them and it literally is one line for each day. And it has three little circles on it.
And I put a mark out of 10, one for mental energy, one for physical energy, and one for emotional energy. And then along the line, I might write a couple of notes, like moody or cranky or high libido, whatever I want to make or pain in my tummy. So I just literally have a line.
So every day, I know where I'm at, what day I'm on, and how it affects me and just consistently doing that. And it's literally take two minutes a day to just plot that down. It just then creates an awareness and then you kind of will after a month start to see the patterns.
So good. You know, it's really interesting. I actually made a human design manifestation journal a few years ago, because it is almost exactly the same as what you're talking about.
But the different energy types have different relationships with energetic output and emotional fluctuations and stuff like that. But I've always thought that part of the magic of that journal is that it actually allows you that space to just check in with actually what your body is feeling. I think a lot of us are getting a bit more savvy about the fact that our body is the smartest fucking thing ever.
Oh yeah. And it's all connected, the energy, the heart space, all of that kind of stuff. It's all integral to who we are and how we live our lives.
And it's something that, yeah, for a good long time has been lost because we've just gotten so much into what I call the daring energy, the doing and the getting of stuff. We've forgotten the whole rest of it and to be who we are, to work with our energy and keep in touch with. And for women too, loving yourself and talking to yourself.
I listened to a meditation a couple of years ago now, first off, and she just said, talked us through a whole load of stuff. And one section was you just had to put your hands on your heart and breathe in and quietly say to yourself, I love you and I am listening. And for me, having never done that at that point, it was really hard.
And I actually had a welling, huge welling of emotion because I was like, oh my gosh, I have never done that to myself. And you go, how can we expect other people to love us and to give us that respect and that space if we don't do it for ourselves? And that was a huge changer for me to actually go, I love you and I'm listening and listening to what my body is telling me because it's a lot wiser than I am. Yeah, oh, for sure.
And what a, like, seriously, what a beautiful gift. And you're not the first person that said to me that they've felt quite emotional when they've started checking in with themselves and saying, you know, beautiful words of love and affection to themselves, because most of us have just treated our bodies and that, you know, the nasty stories that we say to ourselves have been so loud for so long that when you actually give yourself compassion, it feels like, fuck, like it's so jarring because it's so different. It is really hard.
And yeah, I love that you said that because I think if if one person hears that, like waking up in the morning and giving yourself some love, like if that's all that happens out of this podcast episode, I think that's just such an amazing gift because you open up a portal to a much more kind, gentle, forgiving and fulfilling life when you learn to really, really honour yourself for everything you are. So good. Yeah.
And then you start to realise, like you said, how absolutely freaking amazing we are. And and that's something that has been brought home to me by doing this whole cyclical synergy. Our bodies and women are absolutely freaking amazing.
And the shit that we go through every single month, what goes on inside of us is intense. And, you know, we need to give ourselves credit for that. Just being just living and getting through every day and allowing our bodies to do the amazing things that it does is huge.
You know, we need to give ourselves more, more, more kudos and more recognition for just being awesome. Yeah, I agree. Oh, Cleo, I have loved every second of this.
And I know that people are going to want to find out more. So where can we find you in the online space? OK, so I have a website called Femway.com, and I'm on Instagram and Facebook. My handle is at Femway Life.
OK, perfect. I'm going to link those in the show notes so that everyone can easily find you. Thank you so much for joining us here today.
It's been absolutely, honestly, quite illuminating. And I'm so excited to put it. My pleasure.
I can't wait to unlock my hormonal superpowers. My pleasure. Thank you so much.
Holy smokes. How flippin cool is that? I genuinely didn't really understand quite how much my hormones were affecting every aspect of my life. So I'm just so grateful that I have been introduced to Clare and now I've got some really cool tools that I can start using to help map out my year for my business and also help me navigate my sex life with a little bit more ease and a little bit more, I guess, grace.
Yeah, bloody loved it. Hope you did too. Don't forget the doors to Align and Thrive are open at the moment until the end of February.
I've got two spaces available. It is my five month human design deep dive for women in business. It doesn't matter if you are startup or you're three years in, no matter where you are, embodying your human design can help you access your next level.
So absolutely check the link in the show notes. All the links to Clare's socials and her website are in the show notes as well, so you can check them out. And don't forget, as usual, you can download your human design chart from the show notes too.
I look forward to hanging with you next week. Until then, take care, keep milking the shit out of life and I'll catch you in the next episode.
