Unlocking the Power of Your Menstrual Cycle: A Cycle Syncing Guide w/ Cassandra Mulhern

Do you dread your period every month? You're not alone. 

Join Katie as she shares the powerful tool that brought her from loathing her menstrual cycle to joyfully embracing it through the life-changing practice of cycle syncing. 

In this episode, Katie welcomes Cassandra Mulhern, a cycle syncing expert, creator of Cycle Synced, and mama of two, who sheds light on this empowering approach to hormonal wellness.

Cassandra explains the four phases of the menstrual cycle—menstrual (inner winter), follicular (inner spring), ovulatory (inner summer), and luteal (inner fall)—and how each phase influences our energy, emotions, and physical health. Learn how to harness the unique strengths of each phase to enhance your well-being and family dynamics.

You'll discover practical tips for:

• Tracking your cycle and predicting symptoms
• Aligning your diet and workouts with your hormonal changes
• Improving communication with your family about your needs
• Using cycle syncing to create more balance and joy in your life

Discover how understanding and aligning with the four phases of your menstrual cycle can drastically improve your health, happiness, and productivity!

Resources:

• Download Cassandra's free Cycle Syncing Toolkit here
• Register for her live webinar on June 22nd and use the special discount code "ecosync" for our listeners to receive 20% off
• Follow Cassandra on Instagram @cycle.synced 
• Join our Eco-Minded Mama Collective (below) for an exclusive Live Q&A with Cassandra, as well as several more perks!! 

Tune in now to transform your relationship with your menstrual cycle and unlock your full potential!

Pssst--
🌟 It's Jumpstart June! 🌟 June is my favorite month because there is so much I'm personally celebrating, and I'd love to spread the joy by gifting you ONE FREE month inside our Eco-Minded Mama Collective! ➡️ Use the code JUMPSTART at checkout to receive one free month and let's jumpstart your sustainable living journey with instant access to everything you need to start saving money & reducing your stress levels + carbon footprint!

⏰ code expires at midnight on June 30th, 2024

Transcript

Katie Kurpanek: 0:00

So I used to hate my period, like most people with menstrual cycles do, at least that's how it was when I was growing up. And this is how it was until I learned about a way of living that was a total game changer for me. And it's called cycle syncing. So I had no idea first of all, that there were even four phases to my menstrual cycle, I was nearly 30 years old when I finally learned that, and I didn't even know that I could actually like, track or predict my symptoms throughout every month, or the fact that I changed throughout the month, and that my hormones didn't stay consistent. And so that would impact the symptoms that I was feeling or experiencing. All these different things blew my mind. And so I'm very excited to get into this topic with you all today. If we haven't met yet, I'm Katie. I'm a mama, a coach and a podcaster, who is focused on empowering eco minded mamas just like yourself to live sustainably. And in just a few years, since learning how to cycle sync my own life, I have gone from absolutely dreading my period, to now actually kind of loving it, which is really weird to say, because of everything I learned about my body and how to honor her in all four phases from month to month. Today, I am joined by a cycle syncing expert and a mama of two, Cassandra. She's the creator of Cycle Synced. And she has a free toolkit for us today, and tons of tips to help us sync up our lives with our cycles. So Cassandra, welcome to the show. Thank you for being here.

Cassandra Mulhern: 1:29

Hi, Katie, thank you for having me. It's an honor to be here and share a lot of this wisdom with like minded women who deserve to know this knowledge earlier than in their 30s. Because I was just like you, found myself in my 30s being like, what is going on? And that's when I learned all the information as well. And so same boat of like, why didn't I know this earlier? Why isn't this taught in schools? Right?

Katie Kurpanek: 1:52

It totally should be I was like, I feel like my entire, like, health system and education system, let me down in this area.

Cassandra Mulhern: 2:01

100%, they totally did. But also, I feel like back then they probably didn't fully understand we were still relating ourselves to men back then. And I think a lot of us get caught up in still doing that. But the truth is, is that we are far vastly different from men. And we need to start making this more common knowledge so that we can stop comparing ourselves to the way that men operate and realize that we are on a completely different playing field.

Katie Kurpanek: 2:27

Absolutely. And for the purpose of this show, too, I wanted to be sure to clarify that when we're using men and women terms, you know, we're talking about cisgender men and women, and if anybody has a menstrual cycle that doesn't identify that way, but this information will pertain to them, then I hope you find this information valuable. But I would love, Cassandra, to just hear a little bit more of your background and your story and let us know like what brought you into such a unique space of cycles thinking and then coaching other people and how to do this.

Cassandra Mulhern: 3:01

For sure. Um, so I like you in my 30s had found myself with two small children. And just really recognizing that my normal PMS symptoms tend to be way more intensified. And by that, like the rage, I felt so angry, like once a month. And then I realized, like, Oh, it's right before my period. And I could have sworn that I had a hormone imbalance. So I sought out actual answers, I got my blood tested, I was seeing a functional medicine doctor, and all my results came back normal. And it was just like, Oh, you're just learning to live with small children. And that is what ultimately brought me to cycle syncing. I had heard on another podcast actually about what cycle syncing was. And it was like all these light bulbs went off. And it really moved me to be more serious about tracking my cycle. Also, because it was a little bit irregular. And so I was like, I need to really discern if this is like an actual problem, or, you know if this is just normal, right, your fluctuation in days. So I started off by just tracking two basic things, which are my cycle day, and my basic emotions. And from there, it kind of evolved into this whole whirlwind of tracking everything and realizing that there is a way to sync up every facet of my life, to my cycle for my benefit. And in doing that I also learned how to communicate with my husband and my kids about these things. And then my friends as well and just kind of removing that achy shame feeling that a lot of women tend to have around talking about their periods. And that just grew in confidence to where the point I wanted to share it with everyone and realize that like there has been so much happiness that has grown out of me understanding my cycle and being able to communicate about that too. I realized like I need to share this with other women and we all need to experience this level of change, if you will, again, not comparing ourselves to men and trying to keep up with the way that they operate hormonally, which, men operate on a 24 hour hormone cycle. So they literally wake up and reset at the same spot every single day. versus women tend to wake up differently every day. And it changes week to week. So our capabilities do not reset everyday like a man does.

Katie Kurpanek: 5:20

Mm hmm. And the more that I've dug into this, the more that I've realized, like what you're talking about, so much of our medical history, and the information that we know, even today in 2024, is based on you know, cisgender man's physiology and biological functions. And even the way that we have like our workweek structured, it's all based on that hormonal cycle, or just like, you know, a consistent rate of living that is not cyclical, like what we experience with a menstrual cycle. So that was like a huge eye opener for me. And it allowed me to look at myself differently and with more grace and understanding, because I realized, there's nothing wrong with me, there's nothing wrong with the fact that I feel more tired a certain time of the month and more energy another time of the month. Like, there's actually, and I know we're gonna get into this, but there's kind of like superpowers in those things. And recognizing you said something in one of your webinars recently that I loved that you said, like, recognizing this is not me forever, this is me for the next few days. And just recognizing that alone, that like I'm going to change, the way I feel is going to change and fluctuate throughout the month, is actually really liberating to to know that. So could you give us, for anyone who is absolutely brand new to this topic like I was, could you give us like a bird's eye view on what are the four phases of our cycle first of all, and what does each phase typically hold?

Cassandra Mulhern: 6:54

For Sure. So yeah, as you pointed out, it is not just like, oh, we bleed for five days, and then the rest are all the same, right? We're changing and fluctuating throughout, we have three major hormones that are taking place in our bodies over the course of the month, the first one that comes into place estrogen, and then we ovulate, and you get progesterone being the more dominant hormone, so they play a role in two phases for the four. That probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But let me start at the beginning. When you menstruate, cycle day one is your first day of your bleed. And that's your menstrual phase. And this is correlating to like our inner winter. And when we think about winter, what does winter tend to feel like? It feels like only hanging out with your family and close friends, right? We're kind of hibernating, like bring it in, bring in the circle and really close, right. And there's also not a lot of life around us, like all the leaves are off of the trees. There's no fruiting things happening, like everything is kind of retreating and feeling inward. And that's exactly how your menstrual cycle feels like retreating and slowing down. But then, as soon after we bleed, our estrogen starts to kick in. And that's when our inner spring happens, right. And spring is like this resurrection of life, we immediately have this sense of the days are getting longer. The flowers are coming out in bloom, everything is made, everyone's making all of their summer plans. And that's what estrogen kind of does for us. Right? It gives us this nice sense of energy and confidence, if you will, going out into the world and just springing into life, right. And then we make our way into ovulation, which is kind of the peak of our menstrual cycle, that release of the egg. That is what your body is working for. And the entire cycle is to release that egg and hopefully fertilize it right. And so ovulation is like our inner summer that peak energy. The peak amount of daylight in the day like summer for us usually feels like out and about hustle and bustle, doing all of the things we're planning on the trips, doing all the barbecues, we're making new friends, this tends to be like our biggest networking season right and getting out and socializing. It's very opposite of the winter feeling right? So that's ovulation. And then just after ovulation is when our progesterone tends to kick in, and your progesterone rises, because that's what your body needs to sustain life. So if a baby were to be made, an egg fertilized, your progesterone would stay high. And your progesterone rising tends to lead way to more emotional fluctuations, right. So that's when we tend to be labeled as the PMS b-word right? And have all of those sensations and angry feelings. We want to retreat from the world. And that is also in alignment with the fall the harvest season, right? You're harvesting all the things and you're getting ready to retreat inward for that winter season. And so that's a lot of what your luteal phase feels like. It feels like leave me alone. I need to put up a boundary. I'm feeling very tired. I just worked really hard during my follicular phase and my ovulatory phase. And now I'm just tired of all that hard work right so we retreat more inwards.

Katie Kurpanek: 10:00

Hmm. Okay, so I love the correlation between the four seasons because that's so easy for us to remember. So, So recapping your menstrual phase is like your inner winter. And then follicular is like your inner spring. So you're starting to kind of wake up and get energized again, your ovulatory or ovulation phase is like your inner summer. And then the luteal phase is like your inner fall. And then it just continues, like, you know, it just starts over again, month after month. Okay, so then what are some like tangible or maybe just relatable real life examples of what happens when we don't live in alignment with our menstrual cycle with these phases, because I feel like most people listening in are going to be able to relate to that that's probably where they are, if they haven't been giving this any attention, or they just didn't know about it.

Cassandra Mulhern: 10:51

So first off, I just want to highlight again, this kind of like male driven society that we get sucked into, and be wanting to perform at that level. And men, like I said, can wake up and perform their daily routines have the exact same breakfast, their workouts, like everything scheduled to the nines, right? And so we want to have that type of regularity in our life, right? And so we try and do that, right. So if say, you're on some sort of diet plan, right, intermittent fasting, or you're wanting to eliminate carbohydrates, that's a big one for women, right? Let's eliminate the cards so I can eliminate some of the fat. So here's how it goes. After you menstruate, you feel really good and your body is able to keep up with your changes in lifestyle, the eating less calories, a more restricted window and eliminating the carbs. But as soon as you ovulate, your body is literally craving more foods, you will burn an excess of 80 to 250 calories during your luteal phase. So that's why your body's literally craving more. So when your body is craving more, but you're giving it less, that gap between what you desire and what you're giving it is larger than it normally would be. So when you fall off that wagon, you fall hard, right. And so the same thing goes with like our work schedule, our workout schedule, when you're just going hard all the time, eventually, it's going to catch up to you, and you will crash and burn harder. Rather than finding that balance between Yeah, let's work out really hard this week and a half to two weeks. And then let's take it easy and bring it back a little bit. So finding that balance and more of like a week to week schedule, rather than a day of the week schedule will help you find a much better balance that's in alignment with your cycle. And let me back up really quickly and say that when we are in alignment with our cycle, lots of beautiful things tend to manifest. You're intentionally creating a boundary and a space for yourself to rest and reflect when normally you're feeling like you need to go, go go. And so again, just that gap between expectation and reality is more decreased. And that leads to an increased sense of happiness and success. And happiness is what I am all about. Right?

Katie Kurpanek: 13:05

Oh, yeah, we all need that. i Yeah, what a game changer, like even realizing that your workouts don't need like, it just doesn't work to do the same exact workout routine day after day after day, like you're gonna burn yourself out so hard. And then yeah, what you eat, I mean, so I know that in the toolkit that you've created, those are some of the resources that you have, like you may even have ideas on what kinds of meals or snacks would be beneficial during the four phases so that you can like treat your body the way that she needs during those phases. So I will have that toolkit linked below. But if you could just tell us briefly like what is this cycle syncing toolkit that you've created? How do you envision this to be used?

Cassandra Mulhern: 13:50

So the cycle synced toolkit is used as a weekly planner, if you will. You sit down, I sit down every Sunday, and I look at this thing, and I'm like, alright, what are my cycle days going to be like next week? How is my energy correlating with these cycle days? Am I on this like upward Spring energy? Or am I on this downward Fall energy, right? And then I also kind of taken to the moon phase as well, which I know we haven't talked about a lot. But it definitely still correlates between this like peak of high energy and low energy. And so I tend to cycle my family through this moon phase so that they can maintain a balance between high and low activity loads, right. And so I put together like my internal energy and their external energy and put them together and be like, oh, what does our family dynamic look like this week? And then through that, I make my way around and figure out what types of priorities still need to get done no matter what phase I'm in. And again, like you were mentioning those foods and cycle supportive snacks, right? What am I going to grocery shop for this week that's just going to be readily and easily available so that when I'm hungry and I want to snack, it's just immediately enough alignment with what my body wants, right? And then the last part of the toolkit is your How are you going to love on yourself? As moms and as women, we tend to throw a lot of that other stuff to the wayside without taking care of ourselves. And that only widens that gap between reality and expectation, right? So we want to eliminate that by filling our cups a little bit more, because the more that we can fill our cup, the more we can continue to show up for others in our lives.

Katie Kurpanek: 15:26

That's amazing. I feel like that goes back to the point that you mentioned where when we are living in alignment with our cycle, then there's so much more natural, like joy and happiness. And I feel like maybe like I know, some of the the mood swings are related to like what you described with the drop, you know, in our hormone levels, or the rise in progesterone and, progesterone? Did I say that right? Yeah, yeah. But then if we're also not, you know, if we start living a life that is aligned with this, and takes care of our needs, like physically and emotionally, and we're communicating with our families about that, then that's also going to obviously affect our emotional state of well being and our mood swings. So I'm super excited about that.

Cassandra Mulhern: 16:10

And it literally just, it, it helps everyone. So if we're all working on the same team to help manage mommy's hormones and emotions, then the less likely I am to be grinding with everyone else in the house. It's not like I'm putting myself up on a pedestal. But it's the reality of the fluctuation of hormones and how they actually make you feel. Hormones equal feelings. And women have fluctuating hormones. So their feelings and emotions are going to fluctuate. Whereas a man is very different. They're very steady, and same throughout, right? So it's different. And the more that we can bring them into understanding of where we are at, and how we feel and how that correlates, the more that they can step in and help out I always say, like, open the door for help, right? If you don't speak up and say something, you're not opening that door for help, for someone to step in and be like, Oh, I can take care of dinner tonight. Or I got the kids during bedtime routine, why don't you go take a bath? That's way better than you being really frustrated feeling like a failure about dinner, and then just grinding with your kids about the normal bedtime struggles, right? So allowing that space for someone else to step in and help out. Teamwork makes the dream work. Right.

Katie Kurpanek: 17:19

Exactly. That's huge. And I'm so glad you bring that up. I know we are going to pause this conversation at this time and we're going to be back with part two, where we really focus on how cycle syncing can impact your family dynamics like exactly what you were just describing. And then some real actionable steps that the mamas listening can start to take today. So I'm very excited to get back into that with you in just a little bit Cassandra. And before we go, I wanted to mention two important things for our listeners. So Cassandra will be hosting a live webinar on this topic on Saturday, June 22. And she has generously created a discount code for our listeners of this podcast. So I will be sure to have all that information linked in the show notes. I joined her most recent webinar, and it was so enlightening. And then she's also going to be featured as one of our experts inside The Eco-Minded Mama Collective. If you haven't heard about that yet, that is just the online membership program that I've created for eco minded mamas just like you all. We are meeting each other virtually, it's an online community supporting each other week by week. And so the following week after her webinar, then Cassandra will also be doing a Live Q&A with our mama members to have more like in depth and personalized questions during that time. So you can find more information on that in the show notes. And that leads me to my second and final thing to mention which is very exciting. So this month, I'm calling it Jumpstart June. In honor of my birthday, my anniversary, Father's Day, so many things to celebrate in June. I am gifting you all one month completely free for joining The Eco-Minded Mama Collective. If you have been wondering if this is something that is a good fit for you, and you just want to try it out, now is the time so you can use the code JUMPSTART and that is all linked in the show notes as well. But use the code JUMPSTART at checkout to receive one month for free and use that before midnight on June 30. It is good all month, you will receive instant access to our digital library of videos and resources, a community of mom friends and then perks like this Live Q&A with amazing experts. I can't wait to see you on the inside and we'll be back later with part two of this cycle syncing conversation.