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salty bake club
This isn’t your average lifestyle podcast—it’s the kind that sneaks in like a midnight craving and lingers like the scent of warm cookies.
We dive headfirst into the deliciously messy parts of being human, unwrapping the sticky shadows with sharp honesty and a wink of mischief.
Think deep talk, humor, and just the right amount of indulgence. Who said your dark side can’t be sweet and creamy?
Wanna share you personal struggles, or ideas with me? Text me and mix your own story into our raw and unfinished podcast batter! Can't wait to hear from you on Instagram.
Follow along on IG: @saltybakeclub
salty bake club
Your Female Body Is Not Broken, It's Just Misunderstood - with Pauline Gisele Goossens
"Hormones are the ego." This powerful statement from hormone expert Pauline Giselle captures the essence of our conversation about the profound yet often ignored connection between hormonal cycles and every aspect of a woman's life.
Pauline shares her remarkable journey from aspiring doctor to hormone health advocate after discovering the devastating gaps in conventional medical education regarding women's health. After years of suffering from debilitating menstrual symptoms and depression while on hormonal birth control, she experienced a transformative awakening upon learning about the four distinct phases of the menstrual cycle – knowledge that had somehow eluded her despite extensive pre-med studies.
We dive deep into how society has forced women to operate within a male-centric "24-hour cycle" world while ignoring our natural moon-based rhythms. This disconnect creates unnecessary suffering as women attempt to maintain consistent energy, emotions, and productivity throughout their monthly cycle – an expectation that works against biology. Instead, Pauline teaches how embracing each phase (menstruation/winter, follicular/spring, ovulation/summer, and luteal/autumn) allows women to optimize their health, relationships, and effectiveness in all areas of life.
The conversation takes a stunning turn when discussing hormonal birth control's far-reaching impacts – from decreasing clitoris size by 20% to altering sense of smell (affecting partner selection) and disrupting gut health. We explore how environmental factors like plastics, synthetic clothing, and fragrances disrupt hormones, while emotional patterns manifest as physical symptoms in conditions like endometriosis and PCOS.
Whether you're experiencing painful periods, struggling with hormonal imbalances, or simply curious about harnessing your natural rhythms for greater well-being, this episode offers life-changing insights about reconnecting with your authentic self through cycle awareness. Ready to discover who you really are beyond synthetic hormones and societal expectations?
MORE RESOURCES
Find Pauline's treasure chamber of Recoures, including Workshops, Masterclasses, and an e-book (which I personally LOVE!) RIGHT HERE
& if you are in the Yoga Game, I made a 10h course that guides you through asana & practical knowledge around these 4 CYCLE PHASES we talked about on the podcast. ( the course material is in German)
Pauline Giselle, welcome to Salty Bake Club. Thank you, I'm so glad we're sitting down today. This is from Bali. We are at Pauline's beautiful home. So, first of all, thank you for inviting me, thank you for being here, thank you. Well, if we wouldn't be in Bali because there's barely any ovens here, I would bake you a pastry that I think embodies you. So if we are doing this again at any point of time and I have an oven, this is going to happen, but for now, there's some truffles for you that we had a couple of days ago. I love it. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Now, pauline is not only a friend. Pauline is not only a friend. You are a hormone and female cycle expert. And let me begin with this topic is so important and I cannot even begin to frame my gratitude and my excitement that you're here today with me talking about this, because I myself in life have discovered how, how tricky it can be to have this female body without knowing anything about it, and it took me so long to to learn about it and there's so little information out there. So this is really important for me personally, and I'm sure it's going to relate to so many women and men listening to this for sure, thanks for having me and yeah, it's my passion to talk about this and my mission in the world.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I agree, it is the most essential knowledge and wisdom that we need to know as women, and so good for men to know as well how did your journey with hormones, with your cycle begin?
Speaker 2:um, I would say it all started when I got my period, even even before, but, um, I wanted to be the healthiest person I could be, and that's because my father told me at a very, very young age maybe seven, eight years old that since his mother died of breast cancer at 38 years old, he said Pauline, you have to take care of yourself, you have to be healthy so that you don't get breast cancer and die young like my mother did. So I always had this like black cloud above me. It's just like, oh my gosh, I need to prevent this as much as possible. So how can I be the healthiest person possible? Oh, I'll be a doctor, because we go to doctors, to you know, for health advice.
Speaker 2:And, um, I got my period around 13 years old and I had debilitating cramps that went all the way down my legs, my lower back, and my period would last two weeks. Wow, yeah, that's a long time. So, half of the month, half the month, and I thought I cannot live half the month, half my life, in pain like this. I'll go to the doctor. And so I went to the clinic and the doctor said may I ask, where did you live back then?
Speaker 1:Oh, I was not in Bali, yeah, no.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I grew up in Oregon in the U S. I went to the clinic and the doctor told me oh, you don't need a period, women don't need periods, it's for old times sake. But here, just take the pill. So I, since I wanted to be a doctor, I was praising this doctor and I said anything you say, science knows we're smarter than nature. So I went on. I finished high school, I went on to university. I studied pre-med.
Speaker 2:In the U S we do four years of yeah, biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, anatomy, physiology. So I did that. Those are the first four years. I graduated and then I went on to medical school and there actually, I would sneak into the classes because I was like, is this really what I want to do? It's so expensive in the US and so stressful.
Speaker 2:Already I was super stressed out during university studying pre-medicine. I was barely sleeping and I ended up developing psoriasis, which is an autoimmune disease, and was just, yeah, like I. It already didn't make sense to me that us medical students were the most stressed out and the least healthy due to that Quite ironic yeah. So I actually would sneak into the medical school classes in my fifth year and all we were learning about was what pill to give. And I would raise my hand and I would ask but why does this person have diabetes? And the professor said you don't need to know that, you just need to know what pill to give. Yeah, so that's when I was like this is not health, I'm out and I'm so glad I did not spend the hundreds of thousands of dollars and stress and energy into the pharmaceutical industry. It's not even medical school, it's pharmaceutical industry. It's not even medical school, it's pharmaceutical industry.
Speaker 2:So I left and I went traveling. I went backpacking around South America, central America, I made my way to the Pacific Islands, where my family lives in New Caledonia, and then I finally made it to Australia and I loved this life. I was like, wow, I'm living the dream life, I'm working remotely, only a couple hours a day and I'm traveling the world. And then I just got to Australia and I'm living on the beach and I just met an Australian guy and we started dating and it was the dream life. But there was something inside of me that felt so disconnected and sad and I felt very like why am I not being grateful? Why am I not happy? I have this amazing life and I just fell in love and I'm not. I'm not satisfied or I'm not happy inside, and I was still taking the pill. This. I've been like 10 years now that I've been taking the film and at one point I even took the, the implant in my arm. I have that too, and I just bled for six months straight.
Speaker 2:I barely ever I had the, the implant really yeah, I just bled for six months straight and my boyfriend at the time wouldn't make love to me if I was bleeding, so it was just terrible. So, yeah, my Australian boyfriend suggested to me well, why don't you come off the pill? And I thought you know what, to connect more with nature and just being more natural in general. Um, and this is the only thing left, pretty much that I'm still doing. That's just not not aligned with my morals. Let's say, um, so that was six months into our relationship.
Speaker 2:I just quit, like that one day to the next I just stopped taking the pill, and that's when I went through a year of depression and I lost half my hair. So already I was depressed. And then I was even more depressed and I had no idea what was going on, like none. I was just why am I so sad? And just ruminating in my head like why am I this way? Why am I so depressed, crying for no reason, even though I had the most beautiful day doing my favorite things.
Speaker 2:And uh, yeah, about a year later, my, my boyfriend's uh, sister-in-law showed me an app like a cycle app and she's like you know, pauline, that we have these cycles and and that these four phases and that we feel different and that we need different foods and exercises and like according to your cycle. And I was just like, mouth open, mind blown, like what? How did I take four years of anatomy and physiology, biology, chemistry and have friends at school and a homeopathic dad and a mother right? And like how has this not ever been a topic of conversation ever in my entire life at the age of 26? At that time, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I feel that in my whole body.
Speaker 2:I was astonished. I was seriously just like wow, but also it, it lit up this like light bulb in my head and just like in my heart as well. It became my new passion and obsession and like, well, I became that medical student that I always wanted to be. You know, I became this like health advocate that I always wanted to be and, yeah, I was just, and I still do to this day. I love researching about hormones and cycles and it's.
Speaker 2:it has been like this for the past seven years of just like every single day, like what's going on in my cycle, what's going on in other people's cycles? And, yeah, and and how do our hormones affect our brain, our metabolism, our immune system, our gut microbiome, our stress response system and our sexual reproductive system? So those are the six vital systems, but then they also affect our energy, our emotions, our thought patterns, who we desire as a partner in each phase of our cycle. It literally is connected to every single thing and how we interact with the world and how the world interacts with us.
Speaker 1:yeah, can I quote you right? You told me hormones are the ego. I heard that for the first time whenever I went. I think it was an instagram post that you gave me, and I was like, wow, yes, like it's. It's been such a revelation to notice how I'm being driven by my body, right by my nature, and I think it's thank you for sharing that story, because once again, it relates to one of the renew codes that I cherish so deeply the wound is where the light comes in right. So these these years of struggling, of being feeling I don't know if incomplete is a proper word, but to feel like there's something lacking, a piece of information to this entire life. We struggle so often, but mostly it's exactly there where we find something that lights up our entire life, totally, yeah, and now? So how long was that ago when you were in australia? How?
Speaker 2:many years um seven, yeah, seven years ago, almost seven years, the seven year cycle yes, oh yeah and now you are here in bali.
Speaker 1:You are leading a successful program with women where you teach them about the cycle right and about um, about how it changes their bodies, their lives, their mental structure, their emotional structure. Can we talk about that for a little bit? What would you tell the women out there? How are they affected by what's within?
Speaker 2:well, everything. So I guess I can use my program as a, as a guide, you know, or like what. The reason why I structured it that way? Um, but basically my program is three months long and that's because, scientifically, it takes three months to balance your hormones and balance progesterone, and this is why we do, uh, trimester zero, which is the optimizing of sperm and egg quality before conceiving, so that, because it takes three months to to do so, so, um, the three in the first month, and this is what you'll find in apps and a lot on the internet and whatnot, is how to eat with your cycle, because, and we have these four different phases of our cycle. Let's begin there. And the four different phases of our cycle are menstruation, which is your inner winter, they're like the four seasons. So menstruation, when you're bleeding, should be three to six days a nice red flow, no big clots and not painful that's such a big point.
Speaker 1:Just to pause here for a moment how many of us take it as natural that we have, within these three or six days, having our periods, like so many women, and me included, for the longest time. I thought that was normal.
Speaker 2:I thought that was how it's supposed to be women are not burdened to live in pain every single month, like. Who put that in our minds, that we are supposed to suffer every single month? Yeah, it is no. Totally like the how we function in this world or what. How society is built is based off the patriarchal society of having a daily structure. The circadian rhythm, men's cycles, hormone cycles, are based off uh, the sun 24 hours and women have are based off the moon cycle, which is 29 days long. And that's how it works.
Speaker 1:It's not due to a woman's cycle.
Speaker 2:It's the daily cycle of you wake up, you're productive, you work, you do this and that, and you feel guilty if you don't work and don't do anything.
Speaker 1:And you feel guilty if you don't feel as don't do anything, and you feel guilty if you don't feel as productive every day, which we are bound to as women. We cannot feel as happy, energized, as vitalized every day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly so.
Speaker 2:Yeah, whenever you're feeling disconnected or in pain or super emotional or super yeah, having acne, having bloating, cramping, fatigue, depression, anxiety, yeah, anything where you just don't feel good, that means something is out of balance.
Speaker 2:Your hormones are out of balance and they are your body's signals and communication tools with you that something is out of balance and so you know this is what I tell my students is like use these like signals, as like a, like a form of gratitude that your body's trying to communicate with you to bring you back to yourself and back into balance. Like it's really important to see that that way, instead of feeling a victim of the pains and the suffering that you might have, obviously on March. So, coming back to menstruation, being your inner winter it being, you know you feel the movement, you feel that something's happening within your uterus, because it is. You know your uterus is going from double its size to a singular size and pumping blood out from double its size. Yeah, right before your period, your uterus is double its size and at the end of pregnancy it's 500 times its size. Yeah, it's amazing, it's the most, uh, it's the strongest muscle in the body oh yeah, I'm so wowed by our bodies over and over again, how cool, is that okay?
Speaker 2:so menstruation, um, then after menstruation, so during menstruation, our hormones are the lowest, estrogen is the lowest, progesterone, and yeah, all the hormones are the lowest. And then, um, after menstruation, then we enter the follicular phase and that's your inner spring. After menstruation, then we enter the follicular phase and that's your inner spring, and that should last about seven, 10 days, and you're starting to feel like, wow, I'm out of my cave. I want to. I have so many ideas. You're thinking more in the future and your body's becoming more feminine as it's approaching ovulation, because ovulation is the one day that you are fertile, one day, everyone.
Speaker 1:One day, ovulation, because ovulation is the one day that you are fertile. One day, everyone one day.
Speaker 2:There's one day out of the month that you can get pregnant, yeah, but we have, uh, but sperm can live inside of you for up to five days, so we have a fertile window, let's say, of a week, that you know. If you're planning on preventing or planning pregnancy, then you're facing this off this one week window, yeah, um, but yeah, this, this, while your insides are becoming more, uh, feminine, more yin, your boobs are becoming more pure, your face more symmetrical, your lips are becoming more plump, uh, so are your lower lips, um, your voice is becoming higher and you're speaking like more feminine and you're speaking more eloquently and more articulated and, yeah, everything is making you smarter, sexier, stronger, healthier.
Speaker 2:It's the gut healing phase. You can learn things more easily during this time. It's doing everything possible during this week leading up to your ovulation so that you are magnetizing your mate during ovulation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and isn't that the point of our cycle where we feel champion as well? Right, that's the, that part where we become smarter, more beautiful, and so often I I come across those inner judgments. I'm like, okay, this is where I so, the the first, first few days here, or let's say that phase until population, this is where we would like to think right, this is what our culture, our society, this is what we've been champion to be.
Speaker 2:And the other parts, the luvial phase and the menstrual phase, that's what we would like to shove out, but of course, that's not healthy yeah, and this is what I teach my students is how to love all phases of your cycle, not just the time when you're feeling more positive and extroverted and uh, you know, more confident, because even your confidence levels change throughout your cycle. So, um, yeah, so, coming back to this, like inner yin, so your body's becoming more feminine, the activities that you have to do on the outside are more masculine qualities. So you're thinking in the future, you're setting goals, you're having a direction, you're working out, going to the gym, you know weight or weight lifting, and just challenging yourself, because your capacity to handle stress is actually bigger and it helps you grow when you just like muscles. If you are working out, you're ripping your muscle a little bit, but then it gets reconstruction, reconstructed and that makes you stronger. So this is what we do in our follicular phase leading up to ovulation and during ovulation it's you can feel the high for maybe three to four days. It's your inner summer. You're eating more lightly, like more summer foods, um, and you're also less hungry. You're you're less hungry as you even begin menstruation. All the way to ovulation. You become less and less hungry because your body's just, yeah, it's using its own stored fat and energy to focus on finding that mate. So then we enter the luteal phase.
Speaker 2:And one last thing about ovulation. Ovulation is the vital sign that you're unhealthy. So if you are taking hormonal birth control, you're not ovulating. Even if you take the copper iud, you are not ovulating every time. You can sometimes, but it's not guaranteed. Even the copper iud, even though it's non-hormonal, it still affects your hormones by suppressing your immune system and it causes a chronic inflammation in your uterus. You have higher levels of copper, and which means your zinc levels are lower, because copper and zinc are fighting for the same place. And yeah, there's a lot of issues that can come with the copper iud, even though it's non-hormonal, as well, can we pause here for a moment and speak about when you're having?
Speaker 1:when you're taking pill, you are bleeding right, but that's not a natural bleed, because you're not ovulating.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, these are called withdrawal bleeds and, just like the pill or the implant or any other form of birth control hormonal birth control you have a withdrawal bleed and sometimes I even did this, but I just continued to take the pill so that I wouldn't even have the withdrawal bleed and um, it's, yeah, it's, it's just a placebo effect of your brain and the doctor's telling you it's going to regulate your cycle. But hormonal birth control it chemically induces menopause. It literally just shuts off all of your hormones and I don't even control. It chemically induces menopause. It literally just shuts off all of your hormones and I don't even like saying chemically inducing menopause that much. But it basically because menopause is another phase of life that's so beautiful and taboo as well. But it does do this where it just shuts off your hormones so that they're low and it adds these synthetic chemicals, these synthetic hormones, and so you're not having your natural hormones. You're not having, you're not optimizing your health. You are so many.
Speaker 2:There are so many side effects. You know, when you get a birth control pill list of you know the paper that comes with it. It's like this massive map and with all these side effects and something you're just like why is this paper so huge? But there are so many side effects. Some of them are um, it stunts your brain development and stunts bone and muscle growth. It decreases the size of your clitoris by 20 percent. What? Yeah, I did not know that. Because it will decrease your libido. It does everything possible for you not to reproduce, so that makes you not healthy and make you not want to have sex either. You know? No, no pleasure for you. I'll decrease the pleasure spot by 20%, decrease the libido. It will also change your smell, your sense of of smell, so that you can't find your suitable partner. Because you know, when you hug someone and you're like, oh, I love that smell, you know. And then some other people are like, oh, I don't like the body smell. And that's your body's way of telling you that you're a good match or not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I noticed that a lot in my, in my partners. They were mean where I. I always felt like this might seem gross to some people, but even when they were sweaty I was like yes, yes please.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I take my husband's arm and I just lift it and smell his armpit. I'm like, yeah, I love it um, so, yeah, and so it changes your sense of smell. You can't find your, your suitable partner, um, it also decreases the absorption of nutrients. So your gut, yeah, it can't absorb nutrients well and it also you have like more than 90 chance of having irritable bowel syndrome and leaky gut, um, which is when the cellular walls of the intestinal lining are separated and then just food and toxins can get through. That.
Speaker 1:Um, and gosh, so many other things goes on and on, this goes on and on. But how come nobody tells you that?
Speaker 2:well, I would say it's not something doctors are also learning?
Speaker 1:yeah, you know, like it's not blaming western medicine, right, because, like, bless western medicine, it's really, really, really important and I'm like I'm at no place to to say that was that bad in any way. That is about education. It's about education in those ways, right? What? What can we? All the blessings that also the pharmaceutical industry brought us in ways, but then we're totally suppressing the other side and that's why it's becoming so toxic, right? Yeah?
Speaker 2:the natural side all day, exactly, and it's it is really suppressing of the woman and and how we can thrive in this world and this is what I see. You know, for me it's like, wow, men can thrive, and I want women to thrive too, like I. I want all of us to thrive. I don't want just men thriving and women taking a pill so that we have the rhythm of the man, so that we don't have periods, we're not complaining, we're just like going on with our day and we're working, and this is something that's. It's the biggest scam in the world. Oh yeah, it is so detrimental and suppressing the women. The pill and hormonal birth control it is. It's mind-blowing to me how much it affects overall women, women and and men, because birth control doesn't it goes into the water system and it's actually in your tap water it doesn't get filtered out, so we're all taking synthetic hormones.
Speaker 2:Yeah, am I drinking tap water?
Speaker 1:okay and uh yeah, yeah, it's, it's, it's wild and oh yeah, heartbreaking. It is a little heartbreaking. And if we take it one step further, yes, hormonal birth control prevents you from being healthy and functioning in your natural way. But also when I, as a woman, do not know about those four phases in my month, even then I cannot thrive, because I will always hold myself to different standards, that I'm not able to fulfill them. And it's just because I am a woman, right, yeah, so just learning about those four phases brings out almost a superpower.
Speaker 2:It really is a superpower, and the most empowering thing you can hold is to know and understand, and it's mind blowing as to why we don't learn about this in school. Yeah, know, we're learning about things outside of us and how to work for other people and how to do things for you know others, which is also. You know it's good, but we know nothing about what's going on, how our brain works, how our bodies work, how to be the healthiest. You know version ourselves, but that's how you know. How people make.
Speaker 2:Businesses is off the like, especially the pharmaceutical industry, is to keep people sick. Yeah, and there is not one single pharmaceutical drug that has no negative side effects. It will always come with a negative side effect and it will just. It's a bandaid. It gets, it hides the symptoms and it won't. Just it's a band-aid. It hides the symptoms, but it's not treating the root cause and, if anything, it's making things worse while you're not feeling them, and it does disconnect you from who you really are. And so this is what I love about my work is helping women coming off birth control, because it is a reawakening, it is a rediscovering of the self, and, like we talked about briefly, is that hormones are the ego. They are your identity. So when you are taking synthetic hormones, it's not you.
Speaker 2:It's not you and you realize like, oh my God, I've been dating 10 years and and the guys that I've been with have been toxic and not even the right one for us, you know, and we're always searching for love and we've just, you know, but we can't feel, we can't regret this. It's something that I had to work through as well. It's just like well, that's the choice I made at the time. It was the best informed choice I made. Because the doctor you know, we put such a high status for the doctor that they know everything and then that's who we go to for health advice.
Speaker 2:But doctors are not the healthiest people. There are some there's very few, you know, but it's just an authority figure of some kind exactly that learned how to prescribe pharmacy called drugs. So, ah yeah, the whole birth control thing is is the biggest scam. But also, you know it's. It makes me so passionate and there needs to be yin and yang in this world, evil and light, and I'm here to like it gives me. So there, I'm so grateful for the pharmaceutical industry because it brings me that much more passion and mission for what I'm doing in this life. Um, so I can't, you know, fully blame them for, for everything, but but uh, yeah, it's.
Speaker 1:It's this fight for nature and trust and love and authenticity that I'm fighting for, so yeah, I still remember when I went off birth control I didn't even know why, but, as I mentioned before, I did not receive my period. Maybe every six months there would be a small bleed and I had the implant which, for everybody not knowing that, sits in your lower fatty tissue and it releases subtle amounts of hormones in a more frequent way. And I, by that time, was super, super happy about it, like I thought of that as a relief to not have my period, like okay, don't have to deal with that. Cool, right, and I was. I think I was 17 when I went on and almost nine years I had that implant. So that's almost a decade under those influences, right. Yeah, almost a decade of not really knowing who I was, but just like kind of stumbling around trying to find answers. And at some point there was this I will say it was an inner voice, that was just it was getting stronger and stronger and it just told me to get off and I had no idea about all of what we're talking so far. Um, so back then I I just learned to listen to my intuition and I had it.
Speaker 1:It's a small operation to get it out and I had it removed before the time was even ended and everybody was asking me why, like why would you do this? You are sexually active. What is your thoughts on that? And I faced quite some critique and I was like I don't know what to tell you. I just cannot have it anymore, even though I did not have any negative consequences that were obvious, let's say it that way.
Speaker 1:And I remember that day when I was at the hospital. They just took it out. I was walking through the hallway and it was a hospital, fluorescent lights and like a really suppressing environment. But I felt this wave of relief. It felt like something within me was unleashed and I could finally breathe and I was so liberating. Yeah, I have goosebumps. Yeah, and ever since, it took quite a while to receive my period back. Also, before that, I did not have a regular cycle because I got my my cycle rather late in my teen years. There was a time where I was anorexic, so I received my my period really late and then I went on drugs. So all of a sudden, I was mid-20 and I've never had a second. Yeah, so that was a really a pivotal point in my life, I will say is ever since. It was a boost of becoming more confident, really feeling myself and navigating through life in a more authentic way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally yeah, it really is that you're becoming your authentic self.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the monster control okay so we were during ovulation, right?
Speaker 2:yes, and then there's another luteal phase, the one everyone dislikes you said you love your, I love my meal and, honestly, like I really um hold that for for like so much gratitude or with so much gratitude, because I'm five and a half months pregnant now and pregnancy is a long luteal phase and my pregnancy has been so great, like you know. I haven't had any sickness, I haven't had any like weird emotional things.
Speaker 1:I feel like since I've loved my luteal phase and haven't had any like pms, then my pregnancy has been so well thanks to that and I know how to take care of myself during pregnancy yeah, and I know that a lot of people will watch this or listen to this and think, wow, you're just one of those lucky ones, right? But no, no, no, right, you're just. You set yourself up for this. You're working with your natural cycles, you're working with your hormones, with your body chemistry, and that is why you're having a really easy pregnancy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, I do truly believe that, and it's um, yeah. So the luteal phase is your, is your inner autumn, and this is also the longest phase of our cycle. So, again, for me, I I guess it's just one of my mottos in life how can I enjoy this as much as possible, even if it's a crappy situation or you half the cycle, where you're, just like you know, lower energy and you're feeling more introverted, you don't feel like going out, you feel blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. All the complaints, that and blaming that we have during the luteal phase, the two weeks before our period and where our hormones think we're pregnant, and this is where the acne comes, and the bloating and the cramping and the depression and and all the symptoms that you don't want to feel like those are also abnormal. They're not meant. They are your body's way of communicating with you that something is out of balance. So for me it's like, okay, well do I? How do I listen to my body and make the changes to actually surrender into the introversion and think, and also thinking like, okay, my hormones think I'm pregnant. What would a pregnant woman do? Relax. Is she going to do a high intensity CrossFit training right now. No, you know, I mean some pregnant women do that, but, like it's, it's not recommended. And there's also, you know, a lot of women will feel guilty that they're eating more, but we actually need two to 300 more calories during this phase because your hormones think you're pregnant and you're actually getting your energy from food, not from your stored fat anymore. You're getting energy from food. And, yeah, we go more introverted, we're thinking more in the past and it's really the time of our cycle where your insides are becoming more young, like yin and yang young, and the things you need to do, the activities you need to do, are more yin, so more yoga, gentle movements. Um, you can still go to the gym, just lower the intensity. And that's what the whole cycle is about is add more intensity as you're approaching ovulation and lower the intensity when you are in the luteal and then no intensity when you're on your period. So, yeah, the luteal phase is really a time to also take advantage of this introversion and work with your shadows, and this is a time when your inner child.
Speaker 2:So, for example, as a part of my, as a part of my program, the first month is the practical stuff of like, uh, how to eat with your cycle, how to exercise with your cycle, what your thought patterns and emotional patterns are and how to work with them. That's the first month, and then the second month is going into, like pelvic floor health, how who you're attracted to or what qualities you're attracted to in a partner in each phase of your cycle. Om cycle, yoga, om cycle is my brand. Om cycle means ovulatory menstrual cycle. Om cycle means ovulatory menstrual cycle and I realized about five years ago that our hormone glands are the chakras.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes, and I love this because it's the scientific reason, or like proof of spirituality, and using your cycle, or taking benefit, or just like you know, yeah, using your cycle as a guide to your spiritual path is it's not just the physical, you know, it's also this, this, uh, guide to your, your, your higher self and so your hormones being the ego, your identity, this, this flesh suit that we're in in that's just trying to make us survive and reproduce.
Speaker 2:But we also know that there's a higher purpose, that we have this mission and this.
Speaker 2:You know that we are separate from our ego, um, and so we can't take everything so seriously in this physical, earthly plane, um, so, yeah, that that second month is really about, like, okay, the womb space and the connecting to the spirituality, and pelvic floor exercises and tantra, how to have a better relationship with yourself, but also with somebody else, and this is something that in my relationship it's, it's, it is life-changing and in many people's relationships, because I'm communicating with my partner, where I am, my cycle and how, how I can be supportive, and then they love to step up and to support others, like that's their mission in their life is, to how can I be of service and how can we have this polarity between each other that is, um, understanding and communicative and like, okay, I'm about to get my period, I'm feeling less energy and more hungry and, um, I just want to stay home and have like a date at home, you know, and cook together, versus going out to a club and having dinner in a super loud social environment.
Speaker 2:Like let's do that when I'm ovulating, you know, and so you. He gets to be like oh yeah, I know exactly what to do, when and how to make her happy. And for her she's so happy because you're working together with your cycle, cause men, you can do things every day, you know, it doesn't matter, you can change things up and whatnot. But for women it's really important, that really important that yeah, we can't, we can't full stop, and if we do, then it makes our hormones unhappy and then it's going to give you sore breasts and period cramps, super moody and just irritability and all that stuff.
Speaker 1:So all of a sudden, the education of our natural cycles becomes crucial for health of ourselves, but also the world around us, which includes our relationships, right, and I've also, for the first time now I am with a partner who is deeply interested in supporting me in that way. It's a totally different layer of intimacy that this has created, because all of a sudden, I feel so safe, I feel so supported, and I've had many relationships with men where I felt like I had to put up a mask, a show, right, I had to again serve to this, this idea of me being the same, yeah the same, yeah the same every day, which is just not possible. So I I just want to say I highly recommend educating all the people around you, right?
Speaker 2:so this, once again, this conversation is not just for women, it's for people of all genders yeah, all genders, all ages, maybe not a two-year-old, but but yeah, you know the young, young girls and yeah, even menopausal women and yeah, just so it creates such a much more compassion and empathy and understanding and not taking things personally and the miscommunication you know, you're not, you're not like judging the other person, or yeah, it's just. It just allows for so much less stress. So much less stress, which is hormone balancing, because we always want to be lowering the stress and the things that are causing these symptoms in the luteal phase, especially, um, the PMS symptoms, is because we have, well, there's five different types of stressors, because whenever you think stress, it's like, oh no, I'm not actually that stressed and you just think, oh, I don't have much work, I'm not thinking too much. But what if you're exercising too much every single day? Or you're drinking coffee every single day or processed sugar Like, like that's digestive stress, physical stress would be like over-exercising. Many athletes actually lose their periods.
Speaker 2:Um, I actually had a student once who, uh, she came to me cause she's like I haven't had my period in like a year and a half, a year and a half, and you know what's wrong and like I'm not stressed. You know, I love, I love what I'm doing and I'm like, well, what are you doing? She's like, well, I wake up and I have two coffees in the morning and then I go work out for four hours. And I'm like, yep, that's why, and even though you love it, it's so detrimental, so stressful on your body. And within one month of my program, she got her period back. Wow, yeah, wow. And this is another insane story Just a couple months ago, a student of mine she's a gynecologist even so, she's studied medicine and she's a gynecologist and she was on the pill also for quite a long time, many years, and she's hasn't had her period back since stopping the pill and this is something you were saying too. It took you a while to get your period back, and so it had been three years and eight months for her and she still hadn't gotten the period back. Um, and she went to india. She actually met another student of mine in an ashram and said, oh, you have to join pauline's program. And she went to India. She actually met another student of mine in an ashram and said, oh, you have to join Holly's program. And she got her period back after, after the in the three months of the program.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is so rewarding, it's possible and this is what I love about having trust in the female body. It is truly like I know so many women will feel like no, well, I I've, I've never had a period, I've never, I've always been like this. And you know you get stuck in this victim mode and I've been there, I've been a victim and it's, you know, at the time you're just receiving that, that attention from for being a victim. But that's, it's manipulative. It's a way you know you can be a narcissistic person, manipulating, but you can also be a victim, like a victim manipulator as well, and get things you want by being a victim and that's also not a good way to go. How can you be more empowered and take care and responsibility for yourself and your health and your life when you know your cycle and you know what phase you're in and you know what you want, what your boundaries are and and how you want to be loved and how you want to love as well?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yeah, and that's a big part of the third month of the program is the that connection of, yeah, the inner child and what are your inner limiting beliefs? And if these emotional, like, oh, I just get really angry before my period, like what is that? How can we go in? How can we go in there and and connect with that anger? And it often is connected to your inner child that felt suppressed. You know, because we all grew up with maybe, parents saying like stop crying, stop yelling, and we're not allowing ourselves to express, so we just keep getting shut down because, again, society tells us to be quiet, sit in our chair, just listen and don't do anything to express ourselves.
Speaker 1:So that kind of thing counts. So the magnitude of women who are feeling stuck and who don't know how to get out of this situation, out of these emotional patterns. And I do believe it starts with that concept of urgency. I have urgency, I can change, even though we are living in a world and that's a fact where all these information we're talking about this information, it's not out there, nobody tells a lot, until you meet people and that's what's so beautiful about your story as well, fellow women, right Women supporting women and having these conversations and and and informing and educating people of all kinds that we have agency, that we can't change and that we're not. There's nothing wrong with us. We just have to learn what's really important in what phase of our cycle, yeah, and needed and need support.
Speaker 2:And yeah, totally so, it's yeah. And speaking of emotions, there's even this whole topic of emotional gynecology, so, which is basically what emotions are getting manifested into gynecological problems. And this is another like topic in my in-bind program because it's so important to understand as well, like, why do I have endometriosis? And endometriosis is when your endometrial lining, so like the inner uterus, you know it's what's growing, the blood basically for you to shed at the end of the month, is growing on the outside of the uterus. So the emotional meaning of endometriosis is you crossing your boundaries and your people pleasing, and you're doing you're not doing things for yourself. You're crossing, yeah, you're crossing your boundaries. Pcos and having cysts is when you're you're holding onto emotions You're not allowing yourself to express, so it's creating cysts. That is just holding onto stuff. Then we have like, what else? Uh, yeah, I mean viruses, like herpes and things like that, but they all have their, their things. So, yeah, yeah, emotions will get manifested and oftentimes, like science, western medicine, doesn't take into account emotions and stress. And like what are your stressors? Um, so, yeah, we did speak about digestive stress, physical stress, mental stress, of course we all know about. But there's also emotional, emotional stress. Are you in a toxic relationship? Are you you know what's going on emotionally, um, or. But also it could be something like a parent just died or someone really close to you just passed away and you're feeling so much grief and that's nothing on you you know like, and that will affect your hormones, and that's okay. Heal and let go of our emotions. But we cannot hold onto it and continue again being a victim or just like holding onto this and blaming the world because of that happened and blah, blah, blah. You know it's like you said, taking agency of your life and um. But it's really important to work on the emotional aspect and yeah, it's, yeah, it's super, super important. And this is why, as well, I add in Chinese medicine and Ayurveda within my program, because those medicines have been around for thousands of years and they have observed and noticed and proven that emotions are super important to take care of.
Speaker 2:And your environment, which is the last stressor, is your environmental stress. So, are you using plastic? Are you drinking out of plastic water bottles? Are you using pans that have the nonstick stuff like Teflon? Are you surrounded by agriculture where they're spraying pesticides or burning. A lot of things like plastics, especially um the clothes that you're wearing. Do they have spandex or nylon or polyester? Um fragrances, anything? Anything on your like shampoo, conditioner or soaps or any. Or laundry detergent that says fragrance or perfume in it. That is a huge hormone destructor yeah, and it's everywhere. Or air fresheners, like literally anything that's synthetic isructor yeah, and it's everywhere.
Speaker 1:Or air fresheners, like literally anything that's synthetic goes against nature and affects your hormones in a negative way yeah, that is such a big revelation, right, that we are so affected by things that we think are normal, that we are affected by the clothes that we're wearing and, obviously, what we put into our body. But I so I'm wondering for women and men listening, I know that it can get quite overwhelming, right. Once you read into that topic, once you realize what is affecting you, it can be quite an overwhelm. It's like, okay, I got to change this and that and wow, I basically can't do anything anymore. And where I'm living should I move, shall I not eat anymore? It can become quite a big stretch as well to live in a healthy way, right, quite a big stretch as well to to live in a healthy way, right? So, for, for, for people who are at the beginning of their journey with that, what would you say are simple changes that everybody could make and what is most important, yeah, I think that's such a great question because it is.
Speaker 2:It is overwhelming. Yeah, you know, like the normal, or like normal and modern human, is going to use all the things that were advertised in the store of like you need this shampoo, you need this soap, you need this, whatever it may be, you know, and always come back to nature. Does it come from the earth? And if not, then probably not good for you. And if it is, then yeah, but, um, it's step by step, step by step is the is super important. Um, and that's also why my program is three months long, because it's not just a one time thing that you could just learn the information and then get overwhelmed. And yeah, you can, you know, do things step by step still, but it is, you know, it's step by step. Do start with what is easiest for you.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, I did have a student once actually, who, uh, had really painful periods and she did everything in my program except her craving of candy and yeah, it's processed foods, so, um, and like processed sugar, and I'm like you got to get rid of that. And she did everything, and at the end of the three months she was still having painful periods and she's like, okay, I'm not gonna let my money go to waste. This is the last thing. She stopped eating candy and then she had the most beautiful menstruation she's ever had in her life no pain and just really connected to source and yeah, you know, and it's. It can be things like that, but coffee is a big one.
Speaker 1:I saw your, your, instagram post.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a huge one, because it puts us in fight or flight, it puts us in stress, survival mode, and your body is always going to go for surviving first, because if you don't survive, you can't reproduce. And we are nature, we are a part of this life cycle and, yeah, your body is always going to go into survival mode before anything else and that's why fertility rates have gone down by 50 in the last 50 years. 50 in the last 50 years. Yeah, sperm egg quality, like people, there's so many issues with, with fertility, and your fertility is your health. Health is fertility. So when you're optimizing your health, you're optimizing your fertility. When you're optimizing your fertility, you're optimizing your health. They're one in the same. A lot of times, people think fertility means like, oh, I'm trying to get pregnant.
Speaker 1:No, it is your health I was wondering when I saw that facebook post or that instagram post where you talked about coffee and how it's, how it's putting you into that fight of like, um, wait, of course that's like our. Our hormones rise and fall, right, but how is it for people who have a naturally low baseline, for example, a low baseline of estrogen, a low baseline of steroid hormones, right? I, I, I do love that we can read those patterns. But then also, some people have such, also probably due to outer influences, but some people have, um, such different baselines, right, and some people might need a little bit of an extra push in the morning to even get going to just, you know, to just function, not even to be over over that line, overly active, but just to function. What's your?
Speaker 2:thoughts on that. I mean, I I feel like that baseline is there normal and that something needs to change. Because I have been super tired to the point of just like I can barely get out of bed is not normal, um, so something needs to change. It means that they're it's fatigue, you know it means that something needs to change. There's a hormonal imbalance. So, whether it's fatigue, you know, it means that something needs to change. There's a hormonal imbalance, so, whether it's um, nutritionally and oftentimes this is a huge topic as well is the plant-based diet, and vegans and vegetarians are nutrient deficient most of the time. There are so many nutrients like seriously, about a list of 20 to 30 things that are not present or lower in animal, in plant foods. And this is something.
Speaker 2:After what? Five years of working in this industry and speaking to hundreds of women and just seeing, I've never I can just say I've never met a vegan or vegetarian that was hormonally balanced, that didn't have any issues, none like. It's just, and this is also why in ayurveda and in um, in chinese medicine, that they they say like, yeah, eat meat, you know, maybe in ayurveda say no cow, but cow is fully, but other than that, like you. This is the yin essence. And women, we need substance, and you even have a higher chance of miscarriage if you're a vegan, vegetarian, yeah, so it's really, really important to honor that. And many women will say to me like, well, I don't want to suffer, I don't want animals to suffer, and I'm like, yeah, but then you're suffering too and also you can respect and choose the source where you're sourcing your meat from. Like, get it from a farm that raises their animals well, that they're not putting them in cages and injecting them with hormones and antibiotics.
Speaker 2:You have that autonomy to support the farms that are treating the soil and the animals correctly and well, and that as well. To me, I'm like, you know, if I am getting nourished from these animals, like thank you, and I always, always make it have a blessing for my food as well before eating. Like, thank you, animal, thank you farmers, thank, thank you, pachamama, mother earth. You know that's really important to have that gratitude because, yeah, of course, like ideally, we wouldn't want to have anyone die, but death is a part of life as well, and if they can support me into doing more good into the world, then that's how I see it as well. I'm just like thank you for the immense amount of energy that you give me, because it is that you know, if you're completely vegan, then you're not having enough energy, and I mean you'll see people on the internet like muscle builders that are vegan and whatnot.
Speaker 1:But the question is, for how long is that sustainable? Yeah right, I absolutely love the quote, or that conversation that you shared with me when we had lunch the other day, the conversation that you had with the Buddhist monk, would you?
Speaker 2:yeah, share that here. So I I this is something I've always thought is just like oh, if you want to go super spiritual, then go vegan. Because, um, yeah, then you're, you're not taking care of your sexual health, your, your reproductive health, your fertility, because usually really spiritual people they're celibate, they, they're like no, I'm by myself, it's me and my connection with god. And so I was in japan last month and we I really love zen buddhism we went to go see a bud monk and he and I asked him do you eat meat? And he said if my body needs it, and I'm like well, tell me more. He's like if you want to go super spiritual, spiritual people don't care about their health, they just want their connection with God.
Speaker 2:And but if this is something that Buddha if you see statues of Buddhadha, you will always have his eyes halfway open or halfway closed, and this is because we cannot completely disconnect ourselves from this reality.
Speaker 2:Always have your eyes halfway open when meditating, because you are still a part of this reality.
Speaker 2:Stop trying to escape the fact that you are human and the part you are part of of this human experience. So if your body is asking for more energy and for nourishment, then you need to eat, and you need to eat yin and nourishing foods, which are the animal products, and see that as like a co-creative, um symbiotic relationship that we do have with animals. You know, and treat it as sacred, treat it as best as you can and most loving as you can. But yeah, if you want to go super spiritual, then I'm not here to help you. You know you have to go into a monastery and become a nun and that will, that's, that will be your path. But if you want to heal your hormones and feel better and feel healthy and you give birth one day and even if you're not planning on giving birth one day, but you want to be the healthiest possible, then you need to change things up and balance your hormones, because they do affect literally every single thing in your life.
Speaker 1:But I cherish so much in conversations like that is the different angles, right, you have so many different angles to one, say, problem or anything at all in life, and we, we so easily put things in a box, right? I mean I teach these yoga teacher trainings and we talk. We talk about ahimsa, right? We talk about harm, we talk about trying to be nonviolent and, of course, there always comes up that conversation of harming animals for nurturing us. But there is no easy way to solve a problem. You can always look at it from this side and from that side, and I appreciate what you're sharing because it's an aspect that not many people talk about always look at it from this side and from that side and I I appreciate what you're sharing because it's it's an aspect that not many people talk about and it's really easy to get stuck in one point of view, but then opening up to other other ways of facing something that we all have to do eat food, right, nurture our bodies um, I think that is really very important. You also mentioned endometriosis and other yeah, other inner struggles that the body has.
Speaker 1:I recently, or for the last year, I've been working with my cycle for a couple years and for the past year I had period pain again and I was like, what is that? I know what to eat, I do adjust my levels of exercise. I I have quite a foundational knowledge of what is good for me and what cycle phase and and for a while. That has nurtured me and that it has helped me so much. And I just this week this is new information and, yeah, it baffles me I realized that there is a supplement that I was taking and now in hindsight, I'm seeing that whenever I took that supplement, I have period pains. When I had little time frames of like three, four months when I did not take the supplement, my period pain was gone. Really. But I only know a friend of mine told me that another woman. I was having that conversation about period pains and and hormonal health with her and she told me you know that supplement I'm not gonna say which supplement because it's I don't want to face legal actions here and I don't know how, to how far I can go um, but it's.
Speaker 1:It was such a stunning revelation of something so tiny in my daily life, something I would do as a daily habit, absolutely changed everything. It's just stunning how the body reacts. And now the supplement that I was taking is, or it's like a consternational supplement to drink. It's made for men. It's made for the male cycle, probably. I don't know. This is not a fact, but I assume it's tested on a lot of men and it is made like a lot of things in our society. It's made for men. It's made for also our society.
Speaker 2:It's made for men, it's made for also, probably also women. But then having women, women act, yeah, yeah, over 90 percent of research was done on men. So a lot of things that we are taking or you know like, oh, this is good for you, this is bad for you, blah, blah, do the carnivore diet, do the vegan diet, do the uh, this supplement or whatever like they, it was based off of research on men and that's because men can show up every day for you know, let's say, a week, to do this, these lab research, testing, and they show up at eight, eight o'clock, eight o'clock every day and it's like, okay, can you show up on day 10 of your cycle? Okay, now you need to show up on the next day 10 of your cycle and the next day 10 of your cycle. Quite a lot of work.
Speaker 2:So it takes a lot more time and money to do research on women and they're like, oh, they're the same. Let's just, you know, do research on men and um, and that's it and also it. It is easier, it is cheaper to do it on men because also, usually it was on um, military or like army courses, because they're eating the same thing, doing the same workouts, you know having the same routine. Yeah, um, so they would often do it on military men as well. But, yeah, over 90 percent of research was done on on men and we're reading that and taking doing the things that's based off men and it's so important to realize that women are different and we're not small men.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I also came across an article about a year ago where I read about um, the pill that they developed for men. Right, hormonal birth control in a pill that has been developed for men and that's been out there for years and years and years. Right, but unfortunately they always come across side effects, like mood swings, right, like, yeah, feeling unwell, yeah, which is what we do with the pill.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but honestly I don't want men to also take birth control. You know, like no one, like I don't want also men to be skewed and and inauthentic and not healthy. You know, we want women and men to be healthy and thriving together in a symbiotic relationship. Fully agree, yeah, not suppressing our health, but yeah it is. Uh, it is funny how they did this, these tests, um, on the male birth control and they're like, oh no, they're complaining about mood swings, oh no, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So there is a lot of a lot of articles, a lot of information out there to read, but I do know also from personal, from personal experience, that it can be overwhelming, which is why it's so beautiful. I can wholeheartedly recommend what you're doing. So if anybody out there who's facing these issues or who's just curious to learn more, halloween has beautiful programs, private sessions. You have this amazing home page and check her out. Find her instagram.
Speaker 2:Pauline giselle there's own cycle, yeah, and balance your cyclecom is my website, and um, yeah, and also just to give you a little hope as well, because we were talking about birth control is you don't have to get pregnant and you know you don't have to take birth control to prevent pregnancy. There are many natural ways of pregnancy fertility awareness methods, which is also in my program. Yeah, how to understand your cycle. I mean when you can and cannot.
Speaker 1:I was going to wrap it up. This is very like. This is also something that everybody knows about, so please would you just share some records of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it also has a 99% chance of, when used correctly, just like any other form of birth control, of success, of not getting pregnant. So the fertility awareness methods are tracking your cervical mucus, your temperature, your basal temperature, which, by the way, you just take under your tongue, not in your vagina, and a lot of women think that, oh no, I have to do it in my vagina and also that probably means that you need to have a better relationship with your vagina.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're scared.
Speaker 2:Get more in touch with your body, with yourself, and then the third fertility awareness method is, uh, cervical positioning, so your cervix will move up and down throughout your cycle too. So you have three different ways of um knowing where you are in your cycle, and that also is super empowering and for your partner to also know, like, because I I actually do this um workshop for men and that's on my website as well how, how to understand women, for men love that, and one one time I picked, the last time I did this workshop, I'm doing it again, um, here in february, so it'll be ready for you all to watch as well. But the last one I did was three years ago, about, and one of the guys said oh, I didn't realize that, um, when her cervical mucus was white, I thought something was wrong with her, like I thought she had a disease or something, oh, and I was like, oh, no, honey, oh, it's a very it's like the most common type of mucus that we have, you know, in the follicular phase and in the luteal phase.
Speaker 2:So, um, it's really important for men to know the woman's cycle, yes, um, but yeah, like you, really, when you know more about yourself and we can wrap it up with this when you, you know more about yourself, it's the most empowering thing knowing your cycle and which phase you're in and what you can do to support yourself best. And it's the best stress relief to understand yourself and also, yeah, just be on this journey of self-discovery. It's like it's the most mind-blowing, amazing, life-changing, empowering thing is to know about your cycle and yeah, I highly, fully, wholeheartedly agree.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for sitting down with me. Thank you so much for inviting me to your beautiful home. I'm so, so, so grateful that we're doing this, because what you are doing especially, so little people know of it, so it is that important that it takes a ripple effect and more people hear it. All your links how to find you I'll put it in the section below this and a big, wholehearted thank you fully I love you.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. Thank you everyone for having me.