Journey To The Soul
Welcome to Journey to the Soul! This beautiful space is for anyone who is discovering who they are as a soul and on a quest for a deeper meaning of life. We will dive into all things Purpose, Self Love, Spirituality, and Wellness! You will embark on this journey within yourself and reach a new level of depth every time.
As a Spiritual Life Coach & Holistic Health Coach, I am sharing what I have learned from my journey along this path, through my lived experiences, and years of research. I am here as a guide along the way.
If you are ready to connect with your worth and joy so you can live a life of purpose by sharing your light with the world… Tune in!
Lots of love
Jacenda
Journey To The Soul
Why Women Should Stop Functioning Like Men
Your body speaks a unique feminine language, operating not on the 24-hour clock that men do, but through a beautiful 28-day cycle that profoundly affects your energy, focus, creativity, and wellness. Yet most of us have never been taught to listen.
When women try to maintain the same productivity, exercise routine, and social calendar every day of the month, they're fighting against their natural rhythms. This disconnect leads to the burnout, fatigue, and frustration so many women experience. Cycle syncing—the practice of aligning your activities, nutrition, and self-care with your menstrual cycle—offers a revolutionary alternative.
This episode breaks down the science behind our cyclical nature, explaining how the four phases of our cycle (follicular, ovulatory, luteal, and menstrual) each create different hormonal landscapes within our bodies. Unlike men, whose testosterone and cortisol follow the same pattern daily, women experience dramatic fluctuations in estrogen, progesterone, LH, and FSH throughout the month. These changes aren't weaknesses to overcome—they're intelligent biological rhythms to honor and leverage.
Whether you struggle with irregular cycles, hormonal imbalances, or simply feel disconnected from your body's natural wisdom, this episode provides the foundation for understanding your unique feminine nature. Learn why tracking your cycle is as important as monitoring your blood pressure, and discover tools to begin this journey toward hormonal empowerment. By working with your body instead of against it, you'll experience more energy when it matters, deeper rest when you need it, and greater alignment with the divine cyclical goddess within.
Ready to transform your relationship with your body and reclaim your feminine power? Subscribe now and join us for part two, where we'll explore practical ways to implement cycle syncing into every aspect of your life.
Alisa Vitti has a wonderful chart for reference and as a guide of how your hormones fluctuate HERE over the length of your cycle.
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Hello everyone, welcome to this week's episode of Journey to the Soul. I am sitting here with you today. If this is your first time tuning in. My name is Jacinda.
Speaker 1:I am a spiritual life coach and holistic health coach, and today we are diving into a little bit more health stuff. Today, and we talk about all the things on this podcast, because I feel like it is all so related to us being in our highest expression. We really are mind, body, soul, so none of these aspects should be neglected. And today I wanted to touch on something that I think is super helpful for women to be aware of, because we intuitively know, as women, that we function differently than men, yet sometimes we can struggle to really accept that. So we're going to be talking about cycle syncing today and I'm going to be breaking this up into a couple of different episodes, actually and today we're going to be talking about what exactly cycle syncing is and how that looks like from a hormonal standpoint, and the first few steps that we can take to understanding our cycle more, and then I'm going to be making a whole nother episode to come on the more grounded, small ways that you can implement that into your life.
Speaker 1:This is one of the things that I feel like we should be taught when we're very young, from the moment that we have our first cycle as women, is how we are cyclical beings, how our energy functions, so different of that of a man, and I feel like now, in this moment, women are becoming more aware of that. They're becoming more in tune with their natural rhythm, because more and more women are feeling burnt out or just not as energized as they normally are, trying to keep up with all the demands that we have every single day, whether it's as mothers or wives or partners. You know, it's hard to keep up with everything, and I feel like we set such high expectations of ourselves by nature and more women are beginning to feel tired and just not fully alive, and a lot of that has to do with us not being fully aware that we actually don't function the same way as a man does. We have our own unique way of moving through the world from a daily basis to a monthly basis. I mean, there are so many cycles that go on within us, and this is just one of the many you know. So I wanted to touch on how this shows up for us, because it could be so life-changing for us if we knew what the intricacies that happen in our body every single day and how, from one week to the other, that looks totally different. And our current way of being today, our current world, isn't naturally supportive of us living in a way that actually honors our cyclical nature.
Speaker 1:I feel like this is going to change. The more that women become educated on this topic and begin to live more in alignment with themselves, and begin to live more in alignment with themselves. The more that women choose to move with these seasons of life that go on within them. More women are beginning to wake up to this, because more women are beginning to understand that you can't function the same way that you always have and not burn out at some point or not feel like you are creating or doing things the way that you did last week. You know your energy is not as high, and I really do believe that this being aware of this aspect of cycle syncing is what we're going to talk about. But just being hormonally empowered and knowing how to work with our cycle, which is what cycle syncing is, is the way of the future.
Speaker 1:I believe that this is going to be a conversation that is normal and that women are going to move with their natural rhythm. So, whatever inner season they are in, they're going to be there and they're going to make the most out of it, and it's just going to be something that we naturally do and it's going to be something that becomes more and more accepted with our society. You know, if women feel like taking a few days off around your menstrual cycle or your late luteal phase or something like that, or just not overwhelming yourself during those parts of your cycle as well, saying no to more things, it's like we're going to make more decisions based off of this knowledge that we have, but it's a work in progress and in order for us to move towards that, we really have to start with the foundation, which is just having as many women as possible know about this. You know, educating ourselves on what is actually going on within our body and that's what we're going to be talking about in today's episode is how this actually looks within your body. This is more of the scientifics behind it and we're just going to do a high level introduction on it, but it's just so you're aware of what is going on within you and our internal clock is very different of that of a man's.
Speaker 1:So we have a cyclical cycle. We function off of a 24-hour hormone cycle Huge, huge difference here. So men's hormones function these 24 hours in the day. So their hormones more or less fluctuate the same way every single day. So at the start of their morning, their testosterone tends to be heightened, along with cortisol, and both slowly lower throughout the day, and they repeat this every single day. They start off the day with the most energy, focus and ability to communicate, and they repeat this pattern every single day. So for them it is very natural to align what they do within a daily perspective, because hormonally they are the same day in and day out, and this is how most women have been taught we need to function is that we should move through our day in a similar way as men and do that every single day. But that's just not natural for us. We are not the same as men and if we've thought about different moments in time, I'm sure there are moments throughout the month where you feel super energized and creative and feel like you have all this energy to do all these different things, and there's other moments throughout the month where you don't feel as energized and you're struggling to just get a few things done and you don't really want to see anyone and you want to spend more time at home. This is normal for us. So, having that in mind, we need to know that we are not the same as men.
Speaker 1:We function off of this 28-day hormonal cycle and it's based off of our menstrual cycle and it's broken up into four different phases Follicular, ovulatory, luteal and the menstrual phase and our energy and productivity is going to be so different depending where we are in our cycle. So I want to touch a little bit on what's going on in each phase from a physiological standpoint. From a physiological standpoint, so there's four key hormones that play a role in our cycle. That's estrogen, progesterone, luteinizing hormone, sometimes abbreviated as LH, fsh, follicle stimulating hormone. So these are the four hormones that we're going to be looking at and seeing how they change from one phase to the other, and the way that these four key hormones interact. That plays a huge, huge role in how energized our body feels, how focused our brain is, whether or not we want to connect or collaborate.
Speaker 1:So the first phase, the follicular phase this is going to be the first part of our cycle and this starts right after your period. So your hormones are still pretty low post-menstruation and during this phase what we see is that they slowly begin to rise because your body is getting ready to release an egg, which leads up to ovulation, and the follicular phase usually lasts between 7 to 10 days. The next phase is the ovulatory phase, so this is the second part of our cycle. Here we see a dramatic rise in LH and FSH, and this is where they stimulate our body to release an egg. After the egg is released, estrogen increases to increase our uterine lining. So the ovulation phase usually lasts anywhere from three, and here we see progesterone as the main hormone and it slowly begins to rise along with the estrogen and testosterone. During this time, and once they're at their peak concentration, your hormones begin to fall at their lowest, which is right before you get your period, at their lowest, which is right before you get your period. So when your progesterone drops, here that's what triggers your body to shed its lining the uterine lining leading to you having your bleed. So your luteal phase is the phase right before your menstrual cycle, and this storm only lasts between 10 to 14 days, and this is also when most women experiments PMS, that's, most Women can experiment PMS actually throughout any time of their cycle, because there are hormone fluctuations going on basically throughout the entire time. But this is because of the major hormones that play a role in this, with the rise in estrogen and testosterone All of these bigger hormones going on. This is where most women do experience some kind of PMS. And then we're at our menstrual phase. So your hormones are at their lowest tier and, like I mentioned, your estrogen peaks right before your period starts, which is what signals your body to repeat this cycle again, and your menstrual cycle can range anywhere between three to seven days.
Speaker 1:And if you've never heard of cycle syncing before, you might wonder why is this even important? Why does this matter? Why do we even need to have this conversation? And, honestly, there are so many reasons. We're just going to talk about a few. But it allows us to be in flow with our natural energy, and that alone relieves stress from the body. So it's a way to manage our body stresses. It's a way for us to move with our energy and not against it. It's a way to honor whatever season, you know phase of our cycle that we're in and actually fully be there. It also allows us to cultivate a deeper understanding about our body.
Speaker 1:All of this might sound a bit crazy. If you've never heard any of this before, you know it might sound very intricate, and then, when we talk about how you can actually do this in a more tangible way, it also might be a little bit overwhelming. But truly, when you start tuning into it, you are going to come to understand your body in a whole other way. You are intuitively going to know what phase you are in. You are intuitively going to know what you need to eat, whether or not you need to exercise that day, what you should be focusing on or not, and this helps you develop that understanding because it turns the connection back to ourselves. It allows us to go within ourselves on what we need. It allows us to trust ourselves and our intuitive knowing of what our body needs. It also allows you to be more in control of your health. Again, this is a way of allowing you to choose what is best for you and for you to know that you are ultimately the one that's most in tune with your body, regardless of what anyone else says to you, and there is ways for you to work with it so that you can continue to be in that power.
Speaker 1:I also love to think that this does allow for just some more flow and ease into our life. Which I think more women are beginning to crave is to not go through every day with resistance and heaviness and all of these other things. We need to accept that we are fluid beings and when we begin to see how this functions within our body, we're going to allow ourselves to honor that. And allowing our fluidity to be also increases our overall well-being in our life. Some pluses as well for women that do suffer with PMS or other menstrual problems or other just hormonal issues like endometriosis or fibroids, pcos. When you cycle sync, it can actually alleviate many of those symptoms because certain foods allow your body to detox hormones. Not adding any stress to your body when your body is already in a more stressful state by nature helps things such as inflammation, which is super key with endo and PCOS. So you are just relieving some of that pressure.
Speaker 1:Essentially, when you are cycle syncing, it can allow some of the things that you experience to really lighten, some of the things that you experience to really lighten, and I love to think as well that this honestly just connects us to the divine goddess that's in each and every one of us. You know this beautiful being that we are, that creates, who's attuned to her intuition, and the beautiful, intricate just being that we are every single day. You know how we approach our lives and how we go about our day-to-day, connecting to that divinity within us and trusting ourselves and our beautiful power in us, forever ebbing and flowing. One of the first things that we want to try to do, if we want to try to be more conscious of this beautiful cycle that's going on within us and to work more with it, is to track our cycle to some degree. This takes a little bit of trial and error, but I think it's so essential for women to know where our bodies are, where our cycle is, and our cycle is, honestly, our vital sign for our health as women. It's just as important as your blood pressure or your heart rate, and it can tell us so much about our internal landscape, and tracking is the first step to developing this already intuitive connection within us.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we just need a little bit of help with that, so tracking is going to help us get there, but there's honestly so many different ways that you can do this. You can try out a few things for yourself and see what you like, what works for you and your lifestyle. But there's some apps that you can use and there's honestly so many to choose from. The one that I have been using for a couple of years is called MyFlow, which was created by Elisa Vitti, and she's actually the person that created cycle syncing, and her book on this was obviously a huge, huge inspiration for this and my growth and experimentation with this. But another app that I've used is Flow F-L-O in the past, and if you go onto the App Store on iTunes or anywhere, you're going to see so many different options because there are so many now, which is amazing. I think it's so incredible that you have all of these options, and some of them are going to be better suited for what you need.
Speaker 1:Some of them may help you track any symptoms you may have throughout the month, like bloating or cramping or acne or anything like that. Some of them will also give you insights based off of where you are in your cycle. So, if you are in your ovulatory phase, some little tips about that, and some of them will give you insights on whether or not your cycle is normal or not, and that might take you logging a few of your cycles in the app for that to actually happen, because most people's cycle doesn't change very much from month to month, but some women's do. So if there are any extreme changes, or if your cycle is shorter or longer or you have your symptoms of some sort, it could definitely give you insights onto whether or not that's normal.
Speaker 1:Another very easy way to do this, which is what the apps just do, is, honestly, to just use a calendar. You can use the calendar on your phone, you can use a calendar on a paper planner and you're basically going to count the days from your first period. So when doing this, your period will be day one of your cycle, and then you can use the approximate dates of each cycle length in your period, which I gave just now, to guide you on where you may be, and a healthy cycle can range anywhere from 21 to 35 days, but that's just an average and there's so much that goes into that. You can also look at tracking your body temperature throughout the month. When your body temperature rises and it's sustained for a few days, this typically indicates that ovulation has occurred. So, instead of counting from your period. You can count your body temperature and know when you are ovulating and use that as a jumping off point for where you are in your cycle.
Speaker 1:If your cycle is irregular, I still suggest that you do use one of the apps, because it's going to help you gain insight onto what may be going on. Not having a regular cycle whether it's a bit shorter or a bit longer or significantly longer can be a sign that something else is going on beneath the surface. So I still think that, even if you don't get a cycle every single day, you should just become friends with one of these apps or tracking your cycle on a calendar on your phone. However, you want to do it when you do get it, because if you choose to go to someone to talk about that, that's going to help you at least have some insight on that. And a lot of women don't know. You know how long their cycle is, or you know if their cycle is healthy or not, and all of these things. We just don't really think about them. We just kind of go through the motions of. We know we get a period, most of us feel different and not as energized, and some of us have really bad periods. Some women you know struggle with really bad PMS or other period disorders that can make having a period very uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:So, and if you don't have a cycle at all, I still think that you should totally use one of the apps to track any symptoms you may have throughout the month. You're not going to be tracking your cycle, especially if you haven't had one in over two months but using an app, or, again, it could just be listing it on your notes app on your phone or a calendar, any way that feels good to you, but just tracking any symptoms that you may have throughout the month. So maybe you haven't had a cycle in two or three months. Some of the symptoms that you could be tracking is that you had acne for a few days, or you had some spotting, or you were having some bloating, or you were having difficulty sleeping. These are all things that, even though might not seem like they're that important, can actually help create a bigger picture of what might be going on, of why you might not be having a cycle and whether your cycle is a regular or if you don't have a cycle at all.
Speaker 1:I would suggest that you consider speaking to someone about that An acupuncturist, integrative medical doctor or a functional health practitioner, or if you want a regular doctor. Again, this is going to come down to comfort, your values and what you want to try to do or focus on when it comes to a health perspective. If you want to focus more on Western medicine versus Eastern, or just get a few different ideas, speak to a few of them and see what you feel comfortable with, and getting some blood work done. If you are experiencing either not having a cycle or lack of one, getting some blood work done is going to be super insightful onto what may be going on and I mentioned this already but hormones are so intricate and multifaceted, so hormone imbalances are so many different layers of things that need to be looked at and to kind of understand what is going on at a bigger picture. So, one of the things that you want to look at if you are trying to work through either some hormonal imbalances or a lack of a cycle or you know you have some really extreme symptoms of some kind, you are really going to want to look for someone that knows their stuff when it comes to this, doing your research on a doctor or a practitioner or an acupuncturist that focuses on hormones or women's health. That's going to be super, super beneficial for you because, again, that's the whole reason for this episode.
Speaker 1:We are so different than men and health, I feel, should really be looked at from a holistic lens. We are very, very layered humans, you know, not just looking at them from one side of the table as well which I feel is where sometimes Western medicine can limit us but just having multiple conversations with people and then maybe deciding, you know, if you want to move forward with any kind of support in any of those things. This is just kind of a high-level insight onto what is going on with us hormonally during these 28 days as women. Why do we feel so different to men on a day-to-day basis? Truly, from one day to the other, we can feel so, so different, and this is just giving us some insight onto what is going on within our wonderful body so that we can fall in love with all of these aspects of ourselves and really just want to honor them. So that is what we're going to be touching on in the next episode. That we're going to be talking about when it comes to cycle syncing is how to actually work with these seasons, when we are in each season within our beautiful hormonal cycle. So that's what's to come in the next episode.
Speaker 1:But let me know if you have been either tracking your cycle for some time, if you're familiar with this concept of cycle syncing, or if you are just somewhat familiar with being more in tune with your cycle. If you are just somewhat familiar with being more in tune with your cycle, I'd love to know how it's helped you become just more aware with your needs throughout the month. And if you are not familiar with cycle syncing, let me know what aspect of your life you would love it to help you flow with more life. You would love it to help you flow with more If that's with the way that you. Maybe you struggle moving your body throughout the month and being consistent with that.
Speaker 1:Or maybe it's a way that you eat and there's certain times in the month where you just crave eating certain things. Or maybe it's just a way that you would go about your day, you know, or your weeks sometimes, where you expect yourself to have the same output and sometimes that might be overwhelming another week. What do you feel you'd like to kind of highlight and work on when it comes to this? And that's what we're going to talk about in the next episode. So I look forward to talking to you all then and we can dive into this more all in that episode. But have an incredible week, wherever you are tuning in from. I am sending you all a big hug Until then.