Discovering cycle syncing with Julia Richards: Balance & self-care in a fast-paced world
Allow me to introduce my friend,
Julia Richards:
Fantastic photographer, fertility awareness educator, website client of mine, and just one of the most awesome humans you’ll ever meet.
Julia and her husband, Glen, own an amazing photography business in Pittsburgh, PA called We Are The Richards. Check out the website we made for them!
Julia’s also trained with Sarah Bly at The Well School of Body Literacy to become a Fertility Awareness Educator and is now developing a separate business specifically for that, so I wanted to ask her some questions about cycle syncing and how it relates to business & work :)
She truly believes that becoming more aware of our hormone cycles allows us to advocate for ourselves in a patriarchal and capitalistic society that tends to push us to be super productive and operating at 100% at all times.
As she’s been personally charting her own cycle for over 10 years, she’s learned to be more gentle, forgiving, and gracious to herself — which I personally find paramount to sustainably running a business with chronic illness.
So let’s dive into the interview!
First of all: what the heck is “cycle syncing”, and who is it for?
Cycle syncing is a piece of body literacy (a.k.a. knowing how your own body works) and it really is for everyone!
Though of course it’s most impactful and empowering to people who have a menstrual cycle, it’s also super important for those who don’t. It’s knowing that there is another way of being; and it allows them to support people in their life who do cycle!
To me, cycle syncing means:
Having enough body literacy to be tracking your cycle
Knowing where you are in that cycle
Aligning your life to work with your cycle, as much as you can or as much as YOU want to
Really just coming back to gentleness with yourself. Knowing your hormones are literally different every single day (following a lunar pattern) and not like the male hormone cycle which renews daily (following the solar pattern)
Okay, we have a general idea of cycle syncing… But why is it something we should be paying attention to?
I truly feel like it affects every part of our lives and, actually, the world. Culturally, environmentally, spiritually, physically, emotionally.
You are cyclical! You experience inner seasons just like nature. You are not meant to continuously be blooming, producing and generating new things. We need the fallow, barren, dormant seasons; just like we need nighttime darkness and the rain to be able to grow. We are not separate from nature and we can learn from its seasons and rhythms to live better, more whole and connected lives, and it can start as simply as tracking and knowing your own cycle.
When we start to understand that we are cyclical, to see that we ARE nature and see how we are impacted in every facet of our lives because of this; we can also start to see how the world is not currently set up to honor, much less celebrate and champion, the power of being a cyclical being.
How did you first become interested in cycle syncing & body literacy?
I suppose I have always been interested in the Sacred Feminine but didn’t have the language for that till recently. When I first was learning about Fertility Awareness 10 years ago (I didn’t know that’s what it was called, I only heard and could find “Natural Family planning”) there were no cycle coaches or Fertility Awareness educators that I could easily find like there are now!
So let’s start with me, being fresh out of college, newly engaged and looking for natural birth control options. The Midwife Center here in Pittsburgh suggested the copper IUD (“because it’s hormone free!” they said) but I knew that was not for me. My whole body recoiled at the thought of something being inserted in me - staying in me. I’m grateful I had enough intuition to listen to that part of me. So I went to Google and had “natural family planning” on my radar. I didn’t know much about it but I did find a local-to-me class. Still, it was a 40-minute drive and it was actually a Couple to Couple League class taught by a catholic married couple to other engaged and married couples.
I am so grateful for the knowledge I gained there, but at the same time, it felt very rigid and exclusive and came with a lot of religious morality attached to the teachings. I remember sitting in that class feeling extremely uncomfortable with the way this material was being taught, and I thought to myself, ‘I really want to be able to teach this - in a totally different way - someday.’ That was probably the seed of where this desire to learn and teach started.
Can you walk us through the different phases of our cycle and how they affect us energetically?
I really like to think of the menstrual cycle as being split in two main phases: Follicular and Luteal. Day 1 of your period (bright red flowing blood, not spotting) is the first day of your cycle.
We can also think of the cycle as moving through inner seasons, or the life cycle of a seed, and I love this best to describe where we are energetically. Here’s the breakdown:
FOLLICULAR PHASE
1. Menstruation (Inner Winter / Seed) - Winter is a time of retreat, reflection, nourishing foods, being cozy, a little more sleepy and really just keeping yourself warm and rested. Think of a seed dormant, buried in the ground.
2. Pre-Ovulation (Inner Spring / Sprout) - In Spring we feel alive and more energetic, more outwardly focused, making plans, wanting to do all. the. things. Be careful not to burn yourself out too quickly here!
3. Ovulation (Inner Summer / Bloom) - In Summer we feel unstoppable, extroverted, productive, on top of the world and physically at our peak energy. This is where we might feel really great doing collaborative work with others, or may want to jump on those things we’ve been planning for a while. Consequently, this tends to be when we are most rewarded in a patriarchal & capitalistic society.
LUTEAL PHASE
4. Post-Ovulation & Pre-Menstruation (Inner Fall / Decay) - Moving into the luteal phase, we may begin to turn inward, have less energy, and an increased metabolic rate (so it makes sense that you are more hungry in the week or so leading up to your period). It can be super helpful to use the nesting instincts of the luteal phase to cook meals and make yummy nourishing treats to enjoy during my period!
I like to lovingly call the end of the luteal phase, right before our period, the “Take No Crap” Energy. This is where we experience most pushback from our culture, and why there are so many terrible jokes about PMS. Yes, it is a noticeable difference for ourselves, but you are not “just hormonal”. Literally, to be human is to be hormonal!
In this time we might be very hyper-aware of all the things that need to change for ourselves or feel extremely sensitive to everything. You may experience this as a strong inner-critic, seeing all the ways you fall short, and the way others may be disappointing you as well.
Knowing this, it’s good to write these things down and take time to reflect on what it is we really need to ask for, where we need to show up for ourselves more, and where we feel we are not supported well. It’s also a good time to take inventory in our personal as well as business lives for what isn’t serving us. Process what’s worked well, what isn’t aligned, and you need to “let go” of (we will literally be shedding the uterine lining soon, so it’s a perfect energy to work with!).
During the luteal phase, we should try to give ourselves true rest; maybe even sign off social media which can be incredibly draining. The more we do these things, the less tumultuous this time can be.
How can we use our hormone cycles to optimize each day?
It’s all about the awareness that you are changing literally everyday, in subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle ways.
Here is another visual from my class series where I share about this difference between the lunar female energy and the solar male energy we are working with:
Each day, you are somewhere new on that blue line, rising in this big beautiful wave (the peak is ovulation!). And then we come down, and all our hormones are very low, and that is the beginning of a new cycle. It takes about 28-32 days (sometimes much shorter or much longer depending on when we ovulate) for us to move through this cascade of hormones creating this beautiful tide within us.
Just knowing this really helps us to show up better for ourselves and consequently for others. If we know we are premenstrual, it’s maybe not the best time to push ourselves. If we have the ability to give ourselves space for more rest, and maybe especially when we feel we can’t, we must create some space.
Our cycles are not only what is happening in this present cycle, but they really have a cumulative, exponential effect. An egg takes about three months to fully mature. So the choices we’ve been making several months before are affecting us now. And the choices we make now will have effects months later. It takes time to heal.
We often can “borrow” from our future selves for quite a while before we see the ill effects. So maybe you’re able to “push through” for a while but may reach a point where the exhaustion and burn-out sets in. It’s because we’ve been pushing hard through all these different inner seasons (trying to be in perpetual summer, full bloom) and we can get away with that for a while. But the body does not lie. And it will speak to us and demand we listen - for our benefit - for our own healing and wholeness.
So how can this optimize your day to day? I really hesitate to give a “do these five things to optimize your cycle” list, mostly because I feel that we are each so unique. Our cycles are so different and we come to this place each with such different histories in our bodies. So what might be helpful for one person may very much not be true for another.
Mostly, just paying attention and actually checking in with ourselves is a huge benefit. Most people are running around so disconnected from their bodies. We don’t really spend the time to ask ourselves, ‘How am I really feeling? What do I feel I need today?’ Because it might be very different from yesterday, or what you think you should need.
Something that can always help is of course getting enough quality sleep. I know there are people in seasons where this is just not possible — shift workers, parents of new babies, etc., but certainly to get the best sleep we can in total darkness is super helpful for our hormones. Similarly, if possible getting morning light into our eyes allows us to be more in sync with nature and regulates circadian rhythm which also helps our hormones.
Nourishing ourselves fully is also important. So many people, and I think women especially, have gotten the message to just “worry about everyone else before yourself”. But actually eat a good breakfast before you run around taking care of everyone else. Before you drink your coffee — having something filling, nourishing and substantial in your stomach will go a long way in helping create safety in your body so you are not running off stress hormones.
I think some of the benefits we experience by tuning into and trying to honor our cyclical nature are that we just take better care of ourselves and we realize that our cycle has unique gifts (and challenges that we can be better prepared for). To know that when we feel low in our late luteal phase that it won’t last. And to know that when we’re in our ovulatory phase making plans for ourselves one week from then to remember we won’t be feeling quite so “take-on-the-world” and to plan accordingly.
How do you navigate running a business with constantly changing hormones?
I think this is something that we can always be working on. But I also think the “cult of wellness” can become a bit obsessed with bio-hacking the living heck out of everything in our lives and that can begin to feel quite stifling and unsustainable in itself. So, I personally am not trying to get anyone super obsessed with planning everything in your life around your cycle.
I don’t think we can figure it all out perfectly. I think just holding the awareness can be really helpful as we move through the demands on our time and attention. And yes, in many ways we may be able to plan ahead and our future self will be grateful for the foresight we had to schedule or not schedule ourselves according to our cycle’s ebb and flow.
I also work as a photographer and we have weddings booked a year or more in advance. Inevitably, I will get my period on some of those days! So I can’t really schedule around that. But I can be proactive, so I do keep track. And when I know my period is likely to come close to a wedding day where I am working, I can anticipate that I won’t get to rest that day. I will buffer the days before with extra rest and care so that even though I may have to push myself on cycle day 1 or 2, I have proactively, consciously poured into my own reserves and that can really help!
Personally, the positive impacts have come from general body literacy. Just knowing that I am cyclical is so empowering and has really allowed me to give myself permission to feel what I am feeling without judging myself. I don’t expect my output to be the same day after day. I can see where the patriarchal and capitalistic values are in direct conflict with my cyclical nature and say, ‘yeah, this feels hard because it is!’ I can just give myself room to be, as I am right now in whatever feeling or phase I am in, knowing there is wisdom in my body - just as in nature - which naturally rests and is not always blooming! That is a really helpful knowing for me to hold onto.
If someone is interested in better understanding their cycle, where can they start?
Keeping track of when your period starts is the most basic way to start tracking your cycle. You may start to notice a trend or pattern that you tend to have cycles X number of days, or maybe your cycle will have widely varying lengths and this can tell you something too.
You can start to notice when you feel more energized in your cycle or have more outward energy, and when you experience lower energy and feel a more inward focus. You may start to notice patterns. You can track emotional and physical sensations with your cycle on a paper chart or in an app. (Personally I would only recommend the Read Your Body app for its personal data privacy.)
If you want to be able to know if and when you are ovulating, you can take your basal body temperature. All you need is a pretty inexpensive basal thermometer from the drugstore (just as long as it’s not a quick read fever thermometer) and to take your temperature first thing when you wake up at around the same time every morning. When you notice a temp rise of 0.2 degrees higher than the previous six days of temps, this tells you that you have ovulated. You will notice your luteal temperatures stay in a higher range than your follicular temperatures. (In order to learn a fertility awareness method for contraception or conscious conception I highly recommend working with a Fertility Awareness Educator.)
I’m SO glad cycle syncing is being talked about more readily and is so much more accessible, but now there is SO much information out there that you have to be careful. There are a lot of menstrual coaches on social media and a lot of influencers now peddling fem-tech, so I will say that is a downside in the current climate of this information. A lot of people don’t know what they don’t know and so it can be dangerous and misleading to trust in influencers. My advice is make sure you are learning from someone who is a trusted source that is grounded in science, and is not making money from companies that benefit by keeping you from truly knowing your body.
There is so much I could say and I am always excited to talk to people about this or point them to further resources, whether that is my class series, some really great books, private consults or other trusted sources in the Fertility Awareness world! I truly believe body literacy is our birthright and our cycles are not too complicated for us to understand, but we have been sold that line and it keeps us unempowered.
Can people connect with you for more info about cycle syncing and body literacy?
Hell yeah! I’m still in the beginning stages of launching my business as a Fertility Awareness Educator, but so happy to connect with people. And if I can’t help you I can point you to someone who can! I’m on Instagram as @fertilityawarenessshe - feel free to DM me!
