Lisa Jara

As a Chinese (Energy) Medicine and Womb Health practitioner, knows about the importance of connecting to and living more in tune with your womb space (whether or not you have physical reproductive organs present).

In our juicy conversation we dive into:

🌙 How Traditional Chinese (Energy) Medicine is a self-involved, self-sourcing medicine tradition that teaches you how to tune into what you need to balance your system

🌙 The 80/20-rule of health and healing and why it's not about being perfect, but about showing up and practicing

🌙 How suppressed emotions and trauma get stored in the womb and how you can start to understand your womb space as a place of wonder and life, instead of a source of pain

🌙 Why connecting to your body through breath, sound and movement on a daily basis is the foundation for embodied healing and change

🌙 Jessa's metaphor for what a “happy, healthy, (w)holy period/menstrual cycle experience” looks like to her

Join us for this and five more deep conversations, exploring ideas and practices to support you in living as a cyclical being in a world set up for linear progress - you can easily sign up through my bio 🤗

We'd love to have you for this slow summit experience "Happy, Healthy, (W)Holy Period - Love your cycle, lead your life"!

Fertility Awareness is more than just knowing the window of when you can actually conceive - and then using that information to increase the chance of pregnancy or avoid it naturally.

As from "A better world to bleed in" shows in our conversation, this is actually about really, truly, intimately knowing your body and having a relationship with it!

We dive into:

🩸 Isobel's winding story with medical contraception, including various detrimental side effects, and how cultivating a relationship with her body and her fertility liberated her creative self

🩸 The awe-inspiring process of your body's fertility and how to read its signs, so you can increase your chance of conceiving or avoid pregnancy naturally, without side effects

🩸 The trust and safety in your body that come from a regular connection practice, helping you navigate the ebbs and flows of life

🩸 Isobel's metaphor for what a "happy, healthy, (w)holy period/menstrual cycle experience" looks like for her

Join our slow summit experience "Happy, Healthy, (W)Holy Period" today, through my bio, and you'll receive access to this and five more juicy conversations all the way until June 23rd - so enough time to really digest the information and musings that you learn and hear about! 🤗

Come on the journey to learn ideas and practices to help you navigate life as a cyclical being in a world set up for linear progress!

Whether you experience chronic pelvic pain, menstrual pain or back pain, your Mind-Body-Connection might be the key to releasing trauma and alleviating pain in the process.

That's why I invited to my summit where we dive into:

⭐ How starting to meditate on her womb cultivated an intimate connection to self that changed the course of Lisa's personal healing journey

⭐ The mind-body-connection and its role in easing chronic pain and trauma

⭐ Why healing is cyclical, too, and how we need moments of rest to soothe our nervous system and allow for integration

⭐ A simple practice to activate and strengthen your mind-body-connection

⭐ Lisa's metaphor for what a "happy, healthy, (w)holy period/menstrual cycle experience" looks like for her

Receive access to this and five more amazing conversations for free by registering for my slow summit experience "Happy, Healthy, (W)Holy Period" through my bio or story.

This is built with your nervous system in mind, so you'll be able to watch the conversations at your leisure all the way until June 23rd!

Let's explore ideas and practices to make living as a cyclical being in a world set up for linear progress more easeful for all of us!

See you there 🤗

Both money and our cycle, especially but not only the menstrual cycle, have something impactful in common: Self-agency.

As a financial coach and menstruator herself, Cathy Lemire knows how you can tend to your finances in a cyclical way, so you feel more powerful and at the same time more easeful around these two taboo topics.

Let's break the taboo and dive into:

💪 How connecting finance and flow facilitated Cathy's communication and relationship with her husband

💪 The link between your thought patterns around money and your cyclical experience as a woman or menstruator

💪 How to approach your finances throughout the month/cycle, so that everything gets taken care of while you experience more ease in your life

💪 Cathy's metaphor for what a "happy, healthy, (w)holy period/menstrual cycle experience" looks and feels like for her

Join the slow summit experience"Happy, Healthy, (W)Holy Period" today through my bio, and receive access to this and five more amazing conversations all the way through June 23rd - with gentle nudging, but no time pressure ;-)

Learn different ideas and practices to make living as a cyclical being in a world set up for linear progress be more easeful and pleasurable for you!

I'm looking forward to having you with us!

As a sensory herbalist, knows about the intricate relationship between herbs, the land and our bodies.

In our conversation we explore:

🍀 What she learned from bees about Nature and Life

🍀 Why we need to shift from thinking about "using" herbs to "being in relationship with them"

🍀 A simple, daily practice to connect to the herbs "at your doorstep" and support your well-being

🍀 Hayley's metaphor for what a "happy, healthy menstrual cycle experience" looks like to her

Join the SLOW summit experience "Happy, Healthy, (W)Holy Period" today and receive free access to this and five more amazing conversations until June 23rd!

Hear about juicy ideas and practices to make living as a cyclical being in a world set up for linear progress be more easeful and pleasurable for you!

Sign up through my bio! ❤️

You are invited to a nervous-system-friendly summit experience to explore ideas and practices to help you navigate the complexity of life as a cyclical being in a world set up for linear progress with more ease and unshakable trust in yourself and your body!

Whether you ...
.. experience menstrual health issues (physical, emotional or mental pain and other symptoms) and want to explore what else is possible beyond “take the pill” or “go have surgery”, so you can embrace the wisdom of your body
.. have a healthy cyclical experience without symptoms, but want to deepen the relationship with yourself and your cycle, truly leading your life from this powerful place within
.. are going through peri-menopause and want to reclaim your cycle as a powerful ally and guide through times of transition

OR
.. you're post-menopausal, using this as a chance to make peace with the experience you had in your bleeding years

-> you are welcome and this summit is for you!

Because my guests and I believe that this is ultimately about designing your life in a way that works for you, feeling good in your skin and taking care of your own female health and well-being!

Here's what's on the menu:

Lisa Jara: Your Cycle is Your Compass: (Menstrual) Cycle Basics and how it can become your Guide and Ally through Life

Hayley Anderson: Herbs to Understand and Support Your Menstrual Self

Cathy Lemire: Finance & Flow: Embrace Your Cycle as a Superpower to Manage Your Money with Ease

Lisa de Jong: The Role of Your Mind-Body-Connection in Easing Chronic Pain

Isobel Ripley: Your Fertility in Your Hands: How Fertility Awareness can Serve You at Every Stage of Your Reproductive Life

Jessa Rose: Chinese Medicine & Womb Alchemy for Your Menstrual Cycle Health

Explore the details and register for this free event through my bio or send me a DM and I'll take care of the rest!

Join Leslie Ellis and me for an open and honest conversation about HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) in (Peri)Menopause, the in-built medicine cabinet of your body and different angles to consider in order to make an informed decision for yourself and your body.

This is NOT about giving anyone advice on whether or not external hormones are a good solution (we’re not doctors, after all), but an open exploration that mainly aims at exploring how to not inadvertently shame one another (or our bodies) around loaded topics like this.

We dive into

- Why it's important to hold space for different ideas and information and even opinions to be valid at the same time
- The immense transition your body is going through in perimenopause and how different stressors can disrupt this natural process
- How Leslie supported herself naturally and why she chose to support her body with bioidentical HRT too

Our goal is for you to become inspired to get all the support you need to make an informed decision for yourself and your body, and thereby take your female health into your own hands!

Listen to the podcast through the link in the comments 🙃
And we're so curious to learn what comes up for you as you listen, so leave us a comment!

Happy Women's Day!

Now, you may have some reservations about this day – I certainly have, because while we’ve covered a lot of ground in terms of women’s rights in the past hundred years, we’re yet far from achieving equality (think: gender pay gap, missing research in terms of women’s and female health, mental load and care work, …).

But I don’t believe not celebrating this day is the answer … celebration is important to assess how far you’ve come, while reorienting to the bigger picture and deciding where to put your focus next.

So how can you celebrate yourself today? It doesn’t mean flowers and spa treatments (nice as they can be), but acknowledging and appreciating the little things you do every day to keep your life, your family, your work running. Realising the power you have to make choices every day.

Including taking your female health into your own hands, so you can partner with your doctor (if needed) instead of being dependent on them.

I’ve had an amazing chat with my Soul-based Coaching mentor and friend Annemiek Van Helsdingen from The Academy for Soul-based Coaching about just that, showing your “Four deeper practices to care for your female health” that actually form a recipe for well-being that we can all benefit from!

You'll find the link to the video in the comments!

Okay, I’m usually not a big fan of “3 tips for your health and vitality” or “5 reasons why you should drink more water/shouldn’t be scrolling social media” …

Because at the end of the day you, your body, your energetic capacity and your needs are unique and I definitely don’t consider myself an expert on you – so don’t ask me what you “should” or “shouldn’t” be doing!

However, during my training as a female (pelvic) health specialist, I got a fairly good idea of the whole ecosystem the body is and how the different systems, like the nervous system, lymphatic system, digestive system, cardiovascular system etc. interact.

And because my brain likes to make complex things simple, I realised that there are actually five fundamental things that you do every day anyway, that will make a big difference in your overall health, and in your female (pelvic) health in particular, when you pay just a little bit attention to them.

And that’s true whether you suffer from challenges in your menstrual or menopausal health, or if you’ve got a relatively strong and healthy body.

So here are my five simple tweaks:

Breathe well
Drink well
Chew well
Move well
Rest well

If you want to learn more about what I mean with each of these, tune in to my latest podcast episode, available through the link in the comments.

Which one would you like to start paying more attention to?

(Because let’s be honest, if you start doing them all at once, it can easily feel overwhelming – its’ okay to take it slow!)

Imbolc is one of the festivals in the Wheel of the Year and usually celebrated on February 1st.

It’s a festival of light: As the days are getting noticeably longer, your inner fire is revived after the long winter period, too, and you’re invited to bring this light, your passions and your vision for the future, into the world.

If you’ve celebrated the Twelve Holy Nights, now’s the time to really start dreaming into how you would like to make your 13th wish manifest in the world.

And even if you haven’t done the “Ritual of 13 Wishes” (see my earlier post about it), now is the moment to fan the spark of your inspiration, think about your vision for this year in more detail and begin making plans for its implementation.

But it’s not time to take action yet!

It’s the phase after conception, when the seed start growing roots, but nothing is to be seen on the outside yet :-)

Maybe you can already feel something stirring inside of you that you can’t quite put into words yet … I know I do!

Trust that you will know when it's time for you to know!

And if you want to receive a little guidance from inside, from your cycle (menstrual cycle or whichever other cycle you feel connected to), I've hosted a free workshop yesterday, that will help you do just that.

If you want me to send you the replay, comment "Replay" or simply send me a DM and I'll make sure you receive it asap!

And if you want to learn more about Imbolc, head over to my blog (through the link in my bio) and read all about it!

Enjoy!

Talking with friends, I often hear that they experience motherhood or parenthood as a lot harder than they would have imagined.

I believe it's in part due to the distorted societal views and expectations on what it means to be a mother/parent in this world.

That's why Hayley Anderson and I are here to shed light on the hardships and challenges parents, and especially mothers, face, diving into:

👉 The impact normalizing the challenges of mothering and motherhood/parenthood has on your well-being
👉 Why it's true that "it takes a village to raise a child"
👉 What birth story medicine work is and how it can help you process your birth experience
👉 How to release and heal internalised shame

Listen in on the conversation on Womb Whispers podcast (available through the link in my bio and on all major podcasting platforms) and let us know what's coming up for you when you do:

Can you relate? What challenges do you see or experience (as a mother/parent) that are rarely discussed openly?

Talking with friends, I often hear that they experience motherhood/parenthood as a lot harder than they would have imagined.

I believe it's in part due to the distorted societal views and expectations placed on them...

So I'm grateful Hayley and I got together to shed light on the hardships and challenges parents, and especially mothers, face.

We dive into:
✅ The impact normalizing the challenges of mothering and motherhood has on your well-being
✅ Why it's true that "it takes a village to raise a child"
✅ What birth story medicine work is and how it can help you process your birth experience
✅ How to release and heal internalised shame

Listen in on the conversation on Womb Whispers podcast (available through the link in Lisa's bio) and let us know what's coming up for you when you do:
Can you relate? What challenges to you see or experience that are rarely discussed openly?

I love having this little altar space on one side of my desk (the rest looks much messier, by the way)!

For the first time in my life I bought myself a piece of art that I "don't understand" (i.e. no objects, no landscape, no words in a language I understand), but that spoke so powerfully to me the moment I laid eyes on it!

It feels indulgent AND like deep self-care on multiple levels - for me, it speaks of the power of our blood, especially the menstrual blood, the wisdom of our cyclical nature and the cycles in and all around us.

The "words" are light language and it has been infused with chants and energy. I placed it on my desk to be reminded every day that as long as there's one woman or menstruating person hating their cycle or despising their body, I've still got work to do!

Thank you Anca Lavinia Florea for this amazing piece of art you created! 🙏❤

The ritual of the Twelve Holy Nights is part of my cycle awareness practice, helping me to learn to mindfully close one cycle and begin to plant seeds for the next. It supports me in letting go of and releasing what no longer serves, BEFORE inviting in the new.

Basically, it’s the same principle that the monthly cycle follows, whether you cycle with the blood or with the moon, or Nature, of course.

Because without taking stock, releasing or decluttering (autumn/winter, luteal/menstrual, Waning and Dark Moon phase), there’s simply no room for something new to enter our life (in spring, the follicular or Waxing Moon phase).

Let’s go through this process together in a light-hearted, no-pressure, come-as-you-are and sacred kind of way!

Here's what's included:

> “Mystical Twelve Holy Nights” Booklet (pdf) with information and inspiration how to celebrate this magical-mystical “time out of time”

> Live Winter Solstice Ceremony on December 21, 2023, at 10.30am PST / 1.30pm EST / 7.30pm CET (online, 1.5 hours) to tune into the energy of the Twelve Holy Nights (replay available, if you can’t make it live)

> Daily e-mails between December 25 and January 5 with the topic of the respective Holy Night, inspiration for rituals and journaling questions

> A Community Sharing Circle on December 29, 2023, at 11am PST / 2pm EST / 8pm CET (online, 1 hour) to hold space for each other’s experience, ask questions and connect

> A Closing and Integration Circle on January 7, 2024, at 10.30am PST / 1.30pm EST / 7.30pm CET (online, 1.5 hours) for sharing and journaling to close and integrate the experience (replay available, if you can’t make it live)

This might seem like a lot, but all my courses are designed in a way that supports you in your life, instead of putting more to dos on top.

And I invite you to only take and do what feels right to you from any suggestions I might make – and ditch the rest!

This time between the years is primarily a time for yourself, with focus on rest and recovery!

Sounds fun and magical? It sure will be, and you can join the experience (and learn more about the Twelve Holy Nights) through the link in the comments!

The Twelve Holy Nights are a magical-mystical atmosphere "in-between the years" when the veils to the Otherworld are said to be thin and time feels suspended.

They are an opportunity to draw inwards, gather in circle and reconnect to your roots.

And they are a powerful ritual to consciously close the old year and make room for the new one!

Because only when you let go of what's no longer working FOR you, will you have the capacity and inner space to invite in what you would like more of!

You can find out more about this tradition and how you can celebrate it through the link below.

It's my favourite winter ritual to feel connected and deeply nourished for a new year ahead :-)

Have you ever heard of, or even celebrated it?

Nobody likes the messy middle of change, that's why we hire coaches.

And since as a coach I'm drawn to the places of transition, the crossroads, the life crises, I wonder why it's so much easier to hold others through their stuff, but not myself?

I've got a few ideas that I share in my latest episode on Womb Whispers podcast (accessible through the link in my bio), but I'm interested what you think about it.

Do you find it easier to hold others or yourself in your struggles? Or does it feel equally easy, or equally hard?

Why do you think that is? I'm open to musing about it 🤗

13 is the number of the Divine Feminine that exists in every being - all the qualities demonised in society: BEing instead of DOing, chaos instead of structure/control, emotions instead of logic...

And Friday is Frija's day, South-Germanic goddess of love. Called Venus in the Roman pantheon.

A true day of the Feminine!

What is you relationship with your own feminine aspects? (Again, everybody has a feminine side)
Your body, your cycle (all beings are cyclical), your rest and replenishment?
Do you allow yourself to receive - affection, support, money?

With the eclipse coming tomorrow and the Dark Moon and well, this is a potent day to think about and feel into how you would like your relationships to - first and foremost the one you have with yourself!

What feels truly nourishing to you, to your body, heart, mind and soul? What's one thing you can do to support yourself today?

Sending much love
Lisa