Using Nature’s Cycles as Your Business Blueprint

Ever feel like you're forcing things instead of flowing with them? This episode dives deep into recognising the seasons of your life and business. Stacey and Ané chat about the importance of rest, integration, and embracing where you're at. 

We share personal stories about navigating burnout, following intuition, and letting go of guilt when you're not "hustling."

You'll hear about:

• Why honoring your "winter" is crucial for growth.
• How to recognise when you're forcing vs. flowing.
• The role of rest in manifesting your goals.
• Practical ways to align with your energy and rhythms.
• How your internal "seasons" affect creativity and productivity.

This episode will help you tune into your natural cycles, give yourself permission to rest, and trust the timing of your life.

Key Takeaway: You're not a robot. Stop forcing and start flowing—your energy knows best.

You can find Ané and Stacey on Instagram at:

Stacey - @barefootbranding
✦ instagram.com/barefootbranding
🌐 barefootbranding.academy

Ané - @mgmnt__
✦ https://www.instagram.com/mgmnt__/
https://msha.ke/anemgmnt

Visit us here: 🌐 trustingtheuniverseandshit.com
Email us: 📩 hello@trustingtheuniverseandshit.com

Intro music by Tyler Dixon

Transcript

Stacey: 0:04

And just maybe ask yourself, am I forcing or am I in flow? Constantly. Am I forcing or is this flow? Force or flow?

Ané: 0:15

When it's always sunny like what's going to happen to the plants? They're going to die. They're going to burn. It's the same thing. We need moments where we need a bit of rain. We need a bit of wind.

Stacey: 0:47

Welcome everyone to another episode of Trusting the Universe and Shit. I've got my beautiful co host with me here today, Anae. Hi guys. And we're so happy to have you here. It's a Friday afternoon and it's a full moon. and we've been experiencing the effects of that this week very heavily. Well, I have been not sleeping, hearing the people going crazy on the street. And today we wanted to talk a little bit about the seasons that you're in internally and what that looks like and what might be some of the different seasons and how they look. and I'm still trying to figure out knowing what my season is and where I am and also exploring how we feel guilty sometimes when we're maybe in a season that we don't want to be in and we're trying to push into another season. Say we're in winter for example and we're trying to push into something else and we want to be more productive and we feel really guilty. So we want to explore that as well today.

Ané: 1:52

Yes. we were speaking just before actually pressing record and we were saying how there's a lot of noise and conversation about seasons, especially as women in business. But I have this like theory that it's going to be like self development, like spiritual practices, like anything of that nature. It's going to be like a ever evolving kind of quest. To know what seasons we are in. And I feel like every year, obviously you're going to, in every decade or so you're going to really know. Internally, like where you are, but like, there's a lot of nuances that we have to consider. There's a lot of like duality that we have to consider, you know, as women, we obviously have our cycle to put on top of the different seasons of nature and then internally, like, there's so many things that we have to consider. So I love the topic of seasons and our beautiful friend Divya, who. Was on our podcast episode about teaching us medical astrology and human design highly, highly recommend listening to that episode because it was so informative, the more I'm learning about it, the more I'm kind of documenting that the better I see how I'm responding and how I can. Yeah. That guilt factor, like not shame myself for not being a particular, you know, part in business or showing up or stuff because I'm not in that season of hustle or whatever. Right. So, yeah, we want to talk about a little bit about that and it's definitely something that's been on my mind and on my heart for quite a number of months now

Stacey: 3:27

And we were also talking about hermit mode before we got on the episode because when we're in hermit mode, I would associate that with winter. So if we think about nature in terms of, Winter, spring, summer, autumn. I mean, for me, it's harder to grasp because I grew up where we didn't have seasons. We only have the wet season and the dry season. So it took me a really long time to even comprehend that many seasons. So I'm still sort of learning how to make that match my insides or to see what season I'm currently in. So if I'm in a season where I'm being a hermit, and that's a winter for me, then, you know, sometimes you're in that mode and you feel really bad and you feel like, Oh, I should be doing more. I should be producing more. I should be taking more action. But sometimes if we don't honor that season, we don't follow the cycles of nature. We're not that. Butterfly that turns into goop inside the chrysalis, who then has that metamorphosis and becomes this beautiful flying butterfly. And we need to turn into that goop before that happens. And sometimes if we don't honor that season, then how can we progress through those cycles? How can we get to the other side? We can't skip it. And we can't just be,

Ané: 4:53

it's perfectly like said with the whole hermit equation of it. Well, now I'm saying equation, I don't even know if that makes sense, but essentially, like, I also agree, hermit to me is that part of the integration period. And if you skip that or think, no, no, I'm just going to use all of this information. I'm going to go and produce things just don't stick. Like integration is such a vital part of us. you know, uniquely forming our wisdom internally or whatever that information is and bringing it to the world. And I think you can tell when people haven't integrated things, they haven't taken that hermit moment in this season to really embody what they're trying to express to the world. And I've seen this so much, like once, When I realized about seasons, I was like, Oh my gosh, like people need to understand how important seasons are in business, especially if you are in business or you sell products or whatever, like you're going to have different ebbs and flows in life. So I love that you corresponded that with, Hermit, because so many of us, especially if you're used to burn out a lot and that's sort of your default, because that's definitely ours, or mine particularly as well. It's just us not feeling safe to be in Hermit. It's not us feeling safe to be in our winter season of rest and, Recalibrating. And I think once you can kind of break free from that pattern or that conditioning, there's so many beautiful kind of manifestations and unfolding that happens because you've kind of given the universe, the space, To open up these new opportunities because you were like, okay, I know right now that the best thing that I can do right now is take care of my mind, body and soul and then come with this really new energy to bring out to the world when you're already in your bloom stage. And I love that you said about like, you know, I'm, I was really, You know, in a, in a area where there was just dry and, and wet, like, of course, like there was going to be areas in the world that's like hot all the time So that would be a little bit more of a tricky a tricky time for you to figure out where you are internally.

Stacey: 7:03

Yeah. I love that you said, you're safe to be in your winter. And I feel like that's a really great EFT tapping

Ané: 7:12

that you could

Stacey: 7:12

it's safe for me to be in my winter season, safe for me to be in my winter season. I also feel like I was thinking about how, just even how we reset when we sleep at night. we have this sort of little mini. cycle for the day. You know, we have our morning, maybe there's like a little bit more cortisol in the morning, a bit more action. We have a little bit of, you know, more productivity, and then maybe it wanes. And maybe we go through four seasons in one day sometimes, especially in Melbourne, that's the catchphrase of four seasons in one day. So, you know, maybe in the afternoon, you've got like a type of autumn. And then maybe when you go to bed, you've got a winter. Each day even is changing for you so that maybe you're feeling like you're having a very productive day. So for example, on a Sunday, I'll have a really productive day. I will do tons and tons of things. So say for example, that's me in my summer and then I will do so much. And then the next day I'm very, very tired, but then I'm not honoring it sometimes because I think, well, I did so much yesterday. Why can't I do that today? But you can't, like, naturally, we can't just be in that mode all the time and we have to acknowledge what we did to be able to say, okay, today it's okay if I'm going to take it easy compared to what I did yesterday.

Ané: 8:34

Yes, I'm so glad you brought up the ebb and flow of women, especially when we have those energy fluctuations, because this is literally the difference between men and women, right? Like men follow the sun, they follow a 24 hour period, right? And women, and even though we could have four seasons in one day, and this is the true mastery, I think You'll be able to master your day to day seasons, like all the seasons you go in one day, and then also the seasons you go in every, what, three, four months when that changes with nature. Like that is true mastery. And then on top of that, the moon cycle, which is our menstrual cycle as well. if we can combine those three elements, that's like an ever evolving journey. And I think as a human in our lifetime to really master that, then yeah, it's amazing. and I love that you said also the Sunday is like your get shit done Sunday, because as well, like as an astrology and astrologer, they say as well, like different Days are ruled by different planets. So obviously Sunday is ruled by the sun. So of course you're like, I too, I get so much done. And depending on your sun sign, which is like, I'm a Virgo. So I love to get shit done. I love to clean. I like routine. I like to like do my grocery shopping. it's whatever your, you know, energy type is. And then Monday you might be like, Oh, because. Monday's ruled by the moon. So that makes so much sense why we all have like those Monday, I know people say Sunday blues, but I feel like Monday collectively, we're all just feeling hermity. Like we just want to actually be internal, which is why the nine to five for us. It's just not it because Mondays, I couldn't think of anything worse than doing like team meetings and all of this like spreadsheet stuff or whatever your full time job is. Maybe it's not as extreme, but yeah, so I like that you brought up like some days you're going to feel super energized, some days you're not, and it's so okay because yeah, I think, we go through an infradian rhythm, which is a 24 28 cycle. Day. And then men go through the circadian, which is a 24 hour cycle. Just knowing that you can kind of just give yourself a bit of grace that you're not going to be a robot and get all of this done.

Stacey: 10:49

Yeah. Yes. And yeah, we're not robots, we try to pretend like we are, and we have a lot of pressure from external sources and society, and also the Sunday blues, I think that comes from the feeling of, oh no, I have to go to work on Monday, but for me, I don't really get the Sunday blues, because Mondays, I don't typically put a lot on my plate, I don't typically take a lot of meetings because I know on Mondays that I don't want to pack that day. Monday is usually a more easeful day for me, so I know that I'm easing in and I'm not going to be packing that day. And Sundays too, sometimes I don't want to do anything, Sundays is only rest day. So it's like really just tapping into yourself and following that flow and being okay with Your energy levels, where you are, not feeling guilty, and just keeping reminding yourself it's okay, you're doing enough, you are enough, you don't have to be constantly doing, because if you allow yourself to really rest, you will come back quicker, you will bounce back quicker. back into your energy if you allow it. But, you know, like sometimes I'll, like yesterday I was trying to force myself to stay awake, even though I was so tired. And I was like, just stay awake, just do some stuff, just stay awake. And, you know, eventually I just fell asleep accidentally because I was tired. But if I had have done that earlier, I would have woken up earlier and I would have been able to just get back to my day.

Ané: 12:22

Yes. Oh my gosh. That little mean voice in all of our heads of like, just do this, just do that. Like you don't like, and whatever, we know her so well and yet she can sometimes be in the driver's seat and we just forget. But I, yeah, I definitely, this is why I like to remind myself of these seasons. And I think, you know, a really easy practice is to note down, like I've been saying, like I've been documenting when I am. My most, like you say, like when I'm my most like on for work, when I can do a lot of like client work and be very on, which is usually around lunchtime for me. And then sometimes at nighttime I get a little spark of like creative juices. Maybe I want to post something like again, and that's just like the different seasons we go through. You know how everyone's like, don't go on your phones in the mornings because you know, you're going to drink whatever. But for some people like collaboration, networking, like chatting, like actually sparks that energy for them in that time of like, you know, that was just like the spring energy. Right. That's like the time of like planting seeds, great having communication, all of that. So. Maybe your spring is straight away when you wake up. And so it's not that awful if you go on your phone and yes, maybe not consume all the content, but you can still get back to DMS and get back to your emails. We, we heal these like entrepreneurs, it's like 5am wake up club and, you know, do a gazillion things at once and then start your day at like, whatever. It's like, no, for me, that's, that's, that sounds like the worst thing I could do. Like, I need a slow morning. It takes me a minute and I'm not good until I have a coffee or if I've journaled or if I've gone for a walk or workout, like I really need to remind myself that. And then I get into this really heightened state of. My seasons of where I can like, yeah, get back to emails, chat, do work project, like all of that stuff. So it's really, really important. I think for everyone to just start noting down how you're feeling, maybe voice message yourself. If you can't be bothered writing it down, like if you don't have time And just like time lapse it, see what time you're doing all of this. And I think eventually you'll start to just build this awareness around. your season that you're going through during the day and during the week and then during the month.

Stacey: 14:40

And also if you can't tell yourself, like if you're not that person who is in that state where you can coach yourself, like you can tell yourself, like, it's okay. Have your partner or somebody tell it to you. So ask somebody to say, can you tell me that it's okay for me not to be working right now? And they will just tell you. And then you go, ah, cause if you can't give yourself permission yet, See if you can have someone else give you that permission. Because that's what I'll do with my partner, I'll say, can you just tell me it's okay for me to have a sleep, or like, take the afternoon off? Because coming from him sometimes will just, I'll just go, yep, okay, I got it. Love that. And even though I can do it for myself, sometimes it's more powerful if I have it come from someone else. Also, as you were talking about, you like, well, sometimes your energy will peak at night. So sometimes between seven and nine is like a really good work mode for me. I will pick it back up. So in the afternoon, it was slow, you know, three, four ish, I'll have a bit of a slow recovery. mode, but then, you know, night will hit and then I will pick, I'll pick it back up. And I think, like you said, just becoming aware of the way that your energy ebbs and flows and being okay with it and not telling yourself, I have to have a morning routine because I used to get so stuck in that idea that I couldn't be successful if I didn't have a morning routine and if I didn't wake up at 5am every day. And it's so not true. If that's the way that you work, then that's great. But if it's not, Then you don't have to force yourself because the more you force something that's not working, the harder everything is going to feel.

Ané: 16:16

100%, 100 percent and this is, yeah, I love that like our advice is like figure it out yourself, but like truly because we can give you all of our, Practices and how we do our day to day, business stuff, but it may not resonate whatsoever. And I think this is why it's so important for us women to know the seasons because that's where that empowerment piece is. Like, anyone can tell you how to do it, but if it doesn't resonate, if it's not true in your body, then you're just not going to do it. It's that whole force and flow what you're saying, like, you cannot force it. It's not going to be sustainable. Just another topic on astrology and stuff like with with us because we're mutable science, which is like very about like we can, you know, shift and change and all of that. For us to have a morning routine, we needed to be as open as possible, The more we're not going to want to do the same thing every single morning. Like one morning, we're going to wake up, go for a walk. Other mornings, we're going to go straight into work. Other mornings, we're just going to, you know, like to shift and change other signs, like fixed signs and cardio signs. you know your stuff, but they have their own other abilities. Some of them really need to stick out. morning routine for quite a number of weeks or months to really see some significant changes. Another one is, you know, for cardinal science, especially like environment is so important for them. So if they have a little nook or a little area where it feels like very expansive and they can like really drop into, you know, the meditations or whatever, And really solidifying that is just, that's going to make them feel really, really supported. So I just, again, this is why I love this, like all of these modalities that we know, because it's in these moments that we can start to empower ourselves and figure out, okay, is this working? Is this not blah, blah, blah. And you can just kind of like really build this. great foundation within of the different seasons.

Stacey: 18:12

I really loved what you said about whether it's force or flow. So I think it's really just becoming, we can't work this out for you because we can't, you have to learn what your patterns are, what you feel good doing. It has to be something you need to become aware of. And if it's a pattern you need to break, as soon as you become aware of it, you will be able to change it. And just maybe ask yourself, am I forcing or am I in flow? Constantly. Am I forcing or is this flow? Force or flow? Force or flow? Because if you become aware of it, you just ask yourself, as soon as you ask yourself, you'll go, ah, I'm forcing. You'll know, eventually, it will become easier and easier, and then it will allow you to switch into a different mode. So, say, for example. You know, you're working on something, you're like, I have to finish this, I have to finish this today, I have to finish this today. Maybe you can switch to another task for a little while and come back to it. Or another thought that I had too was that I used to tell myself like, I would love to be like one of those Mark Zuckerberg, Einstein's of the world, where I wear the same thing every day and I eat the same thing every day and it will free up all this time because this is a very masculine idea that, you know, you wear the same thing every day, you eat the same thing every day, and you free up all this, all this mind space, but as women, I just don't work like that, like, I will try and eat the same thing every day and I just cannot do it, like, I just get bored, I need that variety, I need that, wild woman flow of trusting my intuition. Trusting my intuition and following these like whims. And I feel like that's really where our genius lies is following the, these, these like rivers rather than this masculine ideology of I'm going to keep it the same every day, because like you said, they're on a circadian rhythm. That makes sense. It's like, yep, I do the same thing every day. It's it resets every day. It's not the way it works for us.

Ané: 20:12

No, we, our hormones change every week, like so many things shift for us and we have to kind of, nurture ourselves through even before the menstrual cycle or whatever cycle you're in to make sure like they say as well like whatever you've done 30 days before your period or whatever like you're going to feel the effects of that. So, you know, if you partied hard or you had a lot of cake last month on your birthday, AKA me I'm going to feel it. I'm going to feel the pain. And I do every single time. The cramps are bad, all of that. And it's okay, I've made peace with it because I love cake, I love sugar, and I wanted to have that a lot on my birthday, so it's fine. But that is just a really nice like reminder as well. But that's just a really good reminder of like, if you find that you're getting in the mornings and you're like, oh, I just like, I don't want to like, hey, I don't want to I don't want to like, journal or document how, you know, my week is going on, my days are going or whatever. It's like, okay, but you're going to feel the effects 30 days later. And you're going to wonder why you're burnt out again. You're going to wonder why you're in the same cycle again. So it's just a really loving reminder that yeah, these little teeny little steps every single day is really going to, in the long scheme of things be so beneficial for you. And like I said, it's a forever journey. Like we're going to go through seasons where we're like, it's all about this. Like, this is where I'm at. Right. Like my season's all about getting into this, but maybe next season, I'm going to be like, I can't be bothered and I'm not going to do any of it. And that's okay. Like just find the little tasks that you can do to come back to your inner world.

Stacey: 21:58

And so did you say it took you a month for you to feel that change or the effects of the birthday cake?

Ané: 22:06

So like, even though I may not have been on my menstrual cycle, in that time, but you will feel it on the following bleed essentially.

Stacey: 22:15

Yes. That's so funny because yeah, I so resonate with that, but I've never really thought about that in like, yes, I'm going to feel this in a month from now, we just sort of think, ah, it'll be one day, but you know, those effects can be more long lasting than we think. And the other thing I was thinking too, was that if we're not following our intuition and our nudges, aren't we denying the innate intelligence that we have within us? Aren't we? saying no to those spiritual, messages, the whispers. Aren't we denying parts of ourselves when we say, no, no, no, I don't want to do that. And we're not really, truly following those whispers. And I think those whispers are so powerful and we deny them. Sometimes we say, no, no, no, I know better, the head takes control. And then we can't really hear those whispers as loudly.

Ané: 23:14

Yeah, I'm so glad you brought that up. That's actually such a good point as well. Like every time you are, letting the head win, the ego win, the fears win, we are denying our little, intuitive wisdom and intuitive nudges. So I actually love that reframe and it's so true. Like it goes, Beyond just this moment that we're feeling a discomfort. Like it's a longer thing, you know, like the delayed gratification in business. Like we do all of this work, we see no results for like six months. And then all of a sudden there's like all of this influx of beautiful blessings and opportunities because you've been working for the last six or more than six months, like bloody years. To do that. And now the fruition is coming. It's the same thing with like our internal world. Like we just have to nurture it and take care of it and remind us that this is a forever journey, but you're going to be in a much better position this month than you were last three months. And I love that, like you are denying, you know, universe's beautiful blessings to you. If you're just, Letting the head win.

Stacey: 24:19

Yeah. You know what else I was thinking? Maybe our manifestations take longer to manifest because we're on a different cycle. Ooh. And maybe what often happens is we give up before it manifests and then we switch techniques or tactics and we're like, this isn't working, I need to switch. But maybe we need to give everything a full cycle because it needs to catch up. And maybe, you know, we think this isn't working, but maybe it is, you just have to be more patient.

Ané: 24:50

Oh my gosh, I love that. that's a beautiful, perspective on, how seasons can really influence your manifestations. Like, so true, because you hear this, every time when someone is like, just when you're about to give up on that thing, it comes through. That's great. And that's because of that season change. you know how every time there's a season change, there's a bit of this weird chaotic energy. if it's going into winter, it's very windy. It's very rainy. it's kind of like, the darkest moment before the light shines. It's exactly that. I love that.

Stacey: 25:22

Well, like, even when we think about when we're planting a seed, when we think about planting a seed, we plant seeds maybe in a time where it's winter and it's cold and we think all I can see is dirt. All I can see is dirt. That's it. I can't see anything and then we have to wait. We have to wait for that little sprout to come up and then we have to wait again for another season for the fruit to bear. So, Nature knows, nature knows when the cycle is right, and I feel like it's really about tuning into that internally within us, so that we know when it's time to pick, when it's time to harvest, when it's time to plant, and when it's time to integrate and grow. rest because we need the rest period in order for the growth to happen.

Ané: 26:12

Beautiful. Yeah. So true. I love that we did an actual full circle of like rest and integration. This is why the integration and rest period is actually so important because it Plants, the seed or the trajectory of the rest of the seasons. And every time we think we're going to be in bloom or heightened state. it's like nature, you know, when it's always sunny like what's going to happen to the plants? They're going to die. They're going to burn. It's the same thing. We need moments where we need a bit of rain. We need a bit of wind. We need a bit of like, you know, all of that in order for it to stay. And stay in good I don't even know what I'm trying to say, but anyways, you know what I mean.

Stacey: 26:50

I don't like to, for that plant to thrive. For it to be luscious and green and, not crispy. I feel like that's a good place to wrap this episode. I feel like we had some aha moments ourselves in there. So I hope you did too. And if you would like to leave us a review, we would love that.

Ané: 27:08

Yes, we would absolutely love that. It would be in the world to us. You know, we take all of our free time to really put a lot of love into this. Really? And we have such amazing visions for this. and we've been loving you guys as DMS coming through saying how much you love it and how much you're using the same, you know, all of the guest speakers in and using that information to apply to your life. So we would love you guys to leave a review as well and give a couple of stars because yeah, the other. You know, platforms know that we're doing well, then it's, it's really supports us. So thank you again for listening guys. And yeah, see you guys next time.

Stacey: 27:48

See you next week. Bye.