I'm Hormonal | PCOS, periods, gut + hormone health insights

Embracing Cyclical Living: Boosting Wellness & Productivity with Kasia Stiggelbout | Ep. 81

• Bridget Walton, Women's Hormone Coach • Episode 81

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Cyclical living is a transformative approach to understanding how women's menstrual cycles impact productivity, creativity, and overall well-being. Today's episode is part one of Bridget and Kasia's conversation; they discuss the value of living in alignment with one's cycles while exploring practical steps to integrate this awareness into daily life and the workplace. 

Kasia is the founder of In Flow and host of the podcast, The Other Way. Listen to The Other Way and check out In Flow's flagship product, a personalized planner that uses your menstrual cycle (or the moon cycles) to offer tailored guidance in aligning your plans with your cycle.

Discount code: 15% off with code BRIDGET15.

• Understanding cyclical living and its implications for women's health 
• Recognizing the energy levels across different menstrual phases 
• Challenging societal perceptions of low-energy periods 
• Cycle syncing strategies for enhancing productivity 
• Practical tips for aligning personal and professional responsibilities 
• The potential for corporate environments to embrace cyclical wellness 
• The importance of self-awareness and listening to one's body 
• Insights on cultivating a healthier relationship with cycles

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to I'm Hormonal, your source of information about women's hormone health and how to support your body. Naturally, I'm your host, bridget Walton, and I'm a certified functional hormone specialist and menstrual cycle coach. I am on a mission to hold these hormone conversations with as many menstruators as possible, because you deserve easier access to accurate information about what's up with your unruly menstrual cycle and with your fertility mysteries. Don't you think it's time that we figure this out once and for all? Welcome to today's episode of I'm Hormonal. I'm your host, bridget Walton, and I'm really excited to bring you a conversation that I had with Kasia Stickelbout. She is the founder of Inflow, which is a women's wellness brand dedicated to helping women heal from burnout and to find balance through productivity tools that are aligned with feminine cycles. I'll talk a little bit about her in just a moment, but you're really going to love our conversation. We talked about living cyclically, what that looks like when it comes to your menstrual cycle, when it comes to your career, your family, the phase of life that you're in. We talked a little bit about this transition from maiden to motherhood or motherhood to crone, and kind of what do those different cycles in our life, in addition to just our menstrual cycle look like. So I think you're going to love the conversation there. Now, if today is your first time listening to I'm Hormonal, then welcome. I'm so glad that you found me.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes I have episodes where it's just me chatting with you. Sometimes I do interviews, like of course I will today, and normally on Tuesdays you'll get my long form episode. Thursdays is a shorty recap or just really digging into something that I covered on the Tuesday episode. Now, this week is something extra atypical because what I did was actually break up my conversation with Kasia into two different episodes. So you will get part one today, part two on Thursday to look forward to.

Speaker 1:

If you listened to the podcast before, then I want to say welcome back. I recently, I mean as I'm recording this, so in the past, as you're listening, of course, the podcast hit 5,000 downloads. So thank you guys so much for listening. Thank you for sharing it with your friends, your sisters, your coworkers, your patients, whoever else you're sharing it with, and I'm so appreciative to you all who are providing me feedback and touching base with me. There's nothing that I love more than seeing a DM on Instagram from one of you gals about a question that you had or a topic that you want me to cover. So, on that note, if you have any questions, if you have any topics that you want me to cover, then you can always feel free to connect with me on Instagram. You can find me at Bridget Walton, as always.

Speaker 1:

I like to remind you guys that the information I share with you here on the podcast is for educational purposes only, shouldn't be used as a replacement for any sort of medical advice, diagnosis or one-on-one support from a certified practitioner. Now, that being said, if you are in the market for one-on-one support, you need a little bit more specificity in what to do next in your hormone and gut balancing journey. Then I would love it if you took me up on my offer for a free consult call where we can chat about what your goals are, what you're going through now, and just really understand if hormone coaching would be something that can help you get you to your goal. So you can check out the link in the show notes to set that up. Now back to the conversation for today. Kasia was so fun to talk to and, even though we don't get to talking about her planner and really inflow in this first half of the episode. She has a really beautiful product. It's their flagship product and it's a personalized planner that starts on day one of your menstrual cycle instead of, like you know, a random Monday, and it offers really tailored guidance for things like movement, nutrition, productivity, also spiritual practices. So it's helping you to align your cycle with your energy and really embrace the inner rhythms of your body and your desires.

Speaker 1:

Lately, if you've been listening to the pod, you've heard me talk to cycle syncing. Well, talk to cycle syncing. Talk about cycle syncing with the authors of the cycle book, and that's kind of the right. That's the observational side of things. And now, with Kasia, we're looking at okay, well, how can I plan out right, as one does with a planner, to account for those things and really make the most of your cycles?

Speaker 1:

Kasia also hosts the Other Way, which is a podcast featuring inspiring conversations exploring the paths less traveled, and she covers all things spirituality, wellness and health. But before venturing into women's wellness, kasia spent more than a decade in tech, leading teams at companies like Microsoft and AI startups, and she organized TEDx events in San Francisco. Her experience with burnout really inspired her mission to create products supporting women's well-being. She is also a graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She's an avid meditator and a yogi, and in her free time she loves to hike with her husband, zach, and their small pup, zoe. So one last note, too, on the planner, because if you're like well, I'm not bleeding regularly, inflow is designed to also help you align your planning to the moon's cycles if you aren't bleeding. So this planner is a great resource for you. I know it and I love using it Now.

Speaker 1:

You can check out the link or links in the show notes to connect with her and listen to her podcast the other way. Also, if you want to check out the planner, you can use code Bridget15 at checkout on Inflow's site and you can save 15% on your purchase. Okay, let's just go ahead and jump right into it. I hope you love this conversation. This is part one and I will see you on the other side. What does cyclical living look like for you? What does that mean for you these days? For you?

Speaker 2:

What does that mean for you these days? So I mean, I love this question because, uh, it is cyclical in nature. Like just even answering it, I would say that, first and foremost, I think it would be helpful to also define what it means to me, and then I would be curious to know how you feel about it too, since we're both like working and existing in a similar space. But for me, cyclical living kind of stems from a awareness of a, the cycles within my own body, primarily my menstrual cycle, how that affects my creativity, my productivity, my energy and the choices that I make around that. So that is like one part of cyclical living for me. But it's also the you know, the menstrual cycle is like part of a macrocosm of, like the bigger cycles of our lives, and you know, you and I talked about this last time. So may it be the cycles of the seasons, which so beautifully mimic our menstrual cycles. It is just poetic, I swear. Or perhaps it can be the cycles of our lives, like I.

Speaker 2:

I feel like and this is something that I'm I'm working through on a deeper personal level, but as someone who is a Capricorn and really likes structure and predictability, I don't do as well in phases of transition or change, and there's like a lot of grasping that I have to, like holding on to what was or what I think should be, and that is something that is like a huge practice for me, because our lives are not linear. Like it feels like a straight line, but it's truly, truly not, and I don't even mean that on like a spiritual level, but like spiritual, physical level and really just our experiences, like there's a cycle to everything. So I hope that wasn't too long or meta, but that is like what that means to me.

Speaker 2:

And then kind of a bit about, like, how I live that way. You know, on a higher level I can get more specific too.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, that was super meta, but I like it. I like it a lot. And even what you said in there really reflects or resonated with me and how I think about cyclical living and that it's just the opposite of being linear. Well, no, I don't like how I said that it's not the opposite of being linear, but it's this acknowledgement that stuff isn't going to be the same all the time, whether that's in my menstrual cycle or whether that is in a year or in this season of life or in the season of my career. Things will be changing and coming back around sometimes, and so I think it's like that flexibility of being open to it and being ready for it and anticipating the change and making it kind of work for you or at least not work against you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love that and just also being comfortable. You know it's so interesting and I wonder if this resonates with you because you work with so many clients one on one. But probably for a lot of women myself included, for sure certain parts of our lives are demonized, like our cycles are demonized. They're like times where we need more rest, right, or we don't have as much energy.

Speaker 2:

Really flipping the script on that for me has been really important, not just to remove the shame of menstrual cycles as a whole for women, but also because, you know, although we might feel lower energy, our reflective abilities and our introspection is much higher. Like this is a time of kind of shedding and clarity, right, like physiologically speaking, but also on an emotional level, on a spiritual level. And so I think I love what you said about kind of changing our relationships with these things, because we view certain things as like oh, this is good, this is bad. Like having a lot of energy, that's really good. Having low energy is really bad, but it's just really acknowledging that there are deeper layers to what's present in our lives. I think that's that's really powerful. Do a lot of women struggle with kind of from a menstrual cycle point of view like building a relationship with their menstrual cycle in your practice.

Speaker 1:

I think that's safe to say yes, because until you learn to like appreciate the lows well, air, quotes, lows appreciate the rest and really take advantage of it and sort of treasure it, you a lot of folks are kind of working against it and it's like this sort of me against my cycle kind of phase of things, this sort of me against my cycle kind of phase of things.

Speaker 1:

And so, yeah, once you're like, hey, there are so many benefits to the slow side or to the more restful side, I think this also is kind of a reflection of the larger, you know, economy society here in the US and like many other countries too, where that's where we kind of get our ideas from right about like what is quote-unquote good or bad, what is more productive or what are those characteristics or things that can lend to business more, and I mean this like again on the macro kind of scale. And so this, hopefully, is one of those cycles, one of those big question what would that look like for more widespread adoption of cycle syncing that influences larger systems like workplaces or education, like, is that even possible?

Speaker 2:

Oh my God, I love that you asked this. Oh my God, I love this question. So, first of all, I don't know if I told you, but a colleague and I, michelle from House of Flow, we're organizing workshops for corporations right now. So we're doing one with I mean I want to drop the names quite yet, but several really big companies like they're female ERGs, which are like the HR departments, are kind of organizing these workshops.

Speaker 2:

And I want to start by saying like yes, I absolutely think it's possible, not just think no, it's possible. And I think that we, through kind of applying some of these principles of cycle syncing which we can get into, we will see not just like more creativity, more productivity, but like more sustained productivity with like less burnout. I truly, truly believe that and this applies to both men and women, right, because men and women and anybody who also perhaps identifies that this isn't like from a gender construct as much as it is like the physiological aspect, but also the energetic side, right, where we need to balance work with rest, like going all in one kind of energetic direction is unhealthy. So it does apply to everybody, but especially to women. It just we are working out of whack, out of harmony with our hormones and the way that they ebb and flow, and so I definitely think it can be applied and I've seen it applied.

Speaker 2:

I wish I could say that during my time at Microsoft, I practiced cycle syncing, but I unfortunately burned out and had to leave before I really started to tap into this. But Michelle, who is my colleague at House of Flow, she practiced cycle syncing at LinkedIn. She practiced it at Shopify and she worked in sales and she exceeded her quotas every single time, and this is like in an industry that is extremely numbers driven, and she just adjusted how she worked, but she did so sustainably, and so I absolutely think it can be done and it's like what I'm doing in my, in my work right now. So it's it's absolutely possible.

Speaker 1:

I'm definitely curious to hear more about the workshops that you're doing and kind of what that looks like. And I'll just add some of my experience, like working in sales for a tech company maybe not as big right, I mean, Motorola is a big company, but it's not the same way.

Speaker 1:

And I would do my best to kind of cycle sync my schedule to my cycle by like marking on my calendar when I would expect to start my period and when I would expect to ovulate.

Speaker 1:

So I can like, okay, I know that I'm going to be like with customers on these days, or okay, this is the week I'm going to make sure that I'm at home. So that's how I would kind of apply that on my own body's level. But beyond that too, really looking at the year and this applies to people in like every corporation, right, but saying, ok, in the springtime, or like, in this quarter, what do I need to do to make sure that things are right for the end of the year, kind of thing, and really focusing on OK, what is this quarters like, what do we need to really focus on? Or when do we pull back and stay at home? So, yeah, I would love to hear about what are the workshops, but can you kind of tell us there and anything else that you think of when it comes to workplaces, like shifting in this way?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, I want to backtrack before we dive into the workshops. I want to respond to what you shared about how you recycle sinking, because I absolutely love, like the tangible examples, because it can be and I'm sure you know you tell your clients this, I'm guessing, but it can be as, like the steps can be as small or as large as you want to make them. So I love how you know you were marking your calendar. It sounds like to mark the time that you were menstruating, or maybe just right before versus ovulating, and you shifted your calendar a bit to accommodate that. And it can be as simple as starting with something like that or for a lot of people where the work stuff feels intimidating, the things that I started with were adjusting how I worked out. Right, like I used to be the 5 am wake up, you know, bootcamp day in, day out. Right, like we're taught that it's a workout routine. Discipline is everything. Right.

Speaker 2:

You got to stick to it if you want to see results and unfortunately, operating that way just doesn't work as well for female bodies, like we just don't have as much energy certain times of month and if we listen to that and honor that, we will have more energy throughout the rest of the month, and so, rather than just thinking about energy and operating in kind of a linear testosterone hormonal cycle of you know, every 24 hours it looks the same for us.

Speaker 2:

The month has ebbs and flows, and there are certain times of the month, like around ovulation, as you spoke where we have more energy. So I actually started through adjusting my movement routine, but that's now totally extended into how I work and how I operate and on a corporate level, it can be adjusting your calendar slightly, blocking some time as you think about your week even, and going into a week If you're going into the end of your luteal phase, closer to your period. So the last couple of days before your period, it can be a really beautiful thing to just block off some time, like block off some meetings to have more reflective time, just so you're not doing as much of the outward stuff. And it doesn't have to be for weeks at a time, of course, unless you are really struggling with your cycle, in which case there could be something also deeper there if it's that long. But yeah, just starting to make small adjustments and think about it about as optimizing energy versus just optimizing time, I think that is a huge perspective shift right.

Speaker 1:

I think that is really important because energy is time is finite. Right, you only have as much time right you can do what you can within there. But energy and you know desire to like, like interest in doing work and doing your highest quality work or whatever work that's most fulfilling for you you know that can kind of wane, so you have to manage it. Time's going to keep going by, but if you're not really managing your energy or kind of planning ahead for yourself, then you're going to have less energy than you would have overall. I know the math on that equation isn't exactly maybe balancing on either side, but that's kind of how I look at the energy of it.

Speaker 2:

I love that, I love that.

Speaker 2:

And also, you know, this kind of goes back to what we were talking about earlier.

Speaker 2:

Right, we have the seasons of the year and I don't know if this was the case for you in San Diego, but I'm sure that kind of the closer we get to the winter solstice, there's like this aspect of things slowing down, like I can so see that mirrored throughout my month, like I can see the seasons in my cycle and when I think about cyclical living, it's like honoring the winter of my body, which is during menstruation, and then the spring kind of bubbling up.

Speaker 2:

If I really tune into that energy, I can feel when the urge for a run comes up, when I'm kind of coming out of that like low energy period, and I can feel that creativity bubble up and the confidence like it feels like there's this shift in my body and then kind of tracking that and allowing that to wane, kind of. Like you know, you go from spring to summer, full energy, and then into the autumn part of my cycle, right before my period, I can feel that changing and waning and you know, at this point, since I track my cycle, I'm able to see that over the course of about 28 days and anticipate it. But it's also such a beautiful practice of embodiment, like there's something very mindful about that, right, like we spend so much time in our heads that there's something so grounded and collective about going into our bodies. It's so, so important.

Speaker 1:

I've had a couple of episodes recently talking about connection to body and cycle tracking and really the value of tuning in, just exactly as you were saying, to what's going on, which is but also for anybody who's trying to maybe troubleshoot a little bit or figure out kind of what's going on if things are out of whack, then I think that's especially important time to kind of dial in on what's going on and how you're feeling.

Speaker 1:

And on that note too, I'm curious if this was your experience as well. For me, when I was first learning about cycle syncing and starting to apply it to my life, I felt like, okay, great, I've got this recipe here, I'm going to apply it, I'm on my period, I will not work out these days, or I'm ovulating, I will lift these days, or whatever it was. And then as time went on and I felt more comfortable with it, it was less of a prescription, it was more of just like, okay, this is what works for me. Then I could really I feel like at that point actually listened to my body to see what felt good, what did I have the energy for, and then I realized, oh, okay, well, actually, like on the third day of my cycle, I do have the energy to do stuff and maybe that's not what the textbooks say, but that's okay, because we all have a little bit of a varied experience and some things that land for you might not land the same way for me, and that's totally okay.

Speaker 2:

Oh my God, I so resonate with that. I mean, we talked about this right before we started recording. You're an Aries, right? So do you have some type A qualities in you, right or recovering? Yes, no, maybe.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, I think they're there. Did we talk about this before too? I I uh, in like a past life was an officer in the Marine Corps, which I feel like is capital A and type.

Speaker 2:

A, but anyway, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, that is wild, by the way, thank you for your service again, thanks, yeah, I can't believe it either, that is, but it's also so cool, it's badass.

Speaker 1:

you should you know I'm giving you credit for that, thanks yeah, cool, and we can come back to that too, when it comes to, like, cycles in the workplace or different times of life when, like there was no cycling, you just did all the things every day.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, back to what you were starting on well, I feel like know with the whole type a kind of. For me it also shows up as like perfectionism. I felt like I kind of switched from the very like popular kind of disciplined, every single day is the same, stick to the structure, no matter what. That's, that's the you know, that's the way to optimize your life kind of narrative. I went from that to following the cycle syncing narrative to a T, and I think that that is kind of missing the point, because the greatest gift of practicing cycle syncing is actually tuning into the wisdom of our bodies and every cycle every month is going to look different.

Speaker 2:

Right Like I'm here in Northern California and it was super cold the last couple of weeks, kind of in winter, and then there was like a warmer day, a warmer couple of days and some flowers bloomed a little bit, and then it got frosty again and kind of setting aside all you know the, the, the changes to our weather and whatnot, I think it just goes to show that not every season is the same and seasons look different and that the most important part is like listening to your body. So I definitely um on like a very practical level around day three, day four. Often I have more energy and I will just listen to that and also, oftentimes, the things that are prescribed for right when you start your period, which is like resting. I actually feel like I need to do that the day before I start my period, like I can feel the crash in my body when my hormones drop and I just need more rest. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I feel the same way I and my body feels the same way too, for somebody who's listening, who maybe doesn't have this practice of tuning into their body. And with regards to cycle syncing, what are your thoughts on like what's just something they can do for three minutes in a day, or do you have a particular practice that you want to share?

Speaker 2:

Yeah Well, I would love to also hear yours when I'm done, because I feel like you're really good at this too.

Speaker 2:

But one of the first things that I like to do to start is actually tuning into our hunger cues. Or I tune into my own hunger cues and I encourage women to do the same, because we're so programmed to ignore those. I think the narrative is starting to change, but it's like we're on X diet or we're intermittently fasting until X time, and I think it's actually so important to tune into our own body's hunger cues and, starting with that, that can be such a powerful way to just start to understand when our bodies are asking for something versus when they feel full. And putting the phone down while eating, tuning into the sensation of eating can be just like the very first gateway to starting to become a little bit more aware of our bodies. And that can also be helpful because over time trusting that your body needs to eat now versus it feels satiated that can lead to trust in other areas, right?

Speaker 2:

Because for me for a long time actually, you know, trusting myself to let go of a strict plan was, was quite difficult, Like it really rubbed up against the edges of my reforming type a like checklist type person. Right Like it was tough. It was tough.

Speaker 1:

How about you? I definitely went through um cycles of like restricting and binging, and so I was also going to say, you know, registering hunger cues and do I need more food? Like how am I feeling? That's what I was going to come back to anyway. But anyway, talking about the cycle of it all and then trying to be more intuitive, for me that was something that really was helpful. Maybe it can be a helpful tool for somebody else out there.

Speaker 1:

The other thing that came top of mind for me was just noticing in the morning, when I'm waking up, how rested or how well not well rested I am. So same thing where, for me, I'm not one who really needs to press the snooze button very often or ever, so when I do, I'm really examining, like how am I feeling? Do I actually need to get more sleep or what did I do last night? And just using those as data points instead of just being like, oh my gosh, I'm tired every day, but how can I make this more actionable? And even now that I'm saying that that's kind of on the more masculine energy side of psychosynchronicity, I'm like what should I do about this instead of just observing it?

Speaker 1:

But food, restfulness or lack thereof. And the other thing that I would start with maybe this is for me, because I'm like an extrovert who's kind of introverted but really noticing. Okay, when do I need time to myself? When do I let my boyfriend know that, like, hey, I'm going to sleep at my house tonight and I can't wait to see you tomorrow, just because you know I love to have some space to myself. And certainly that changes and fluctuates throughout my menstrual cycle or in the larger, like macro cycles of what's going on at work or elsewhere in life that you know is particularly particularly busy as well.

Speaker 2:

I love that one, actually that's the social calendar aspect is another really easy change, I think. For anyone out there that's like thinking about implementing some of these habits, it that is such an easy one because sometimes work can actually be the hardest right, because it does require sometimes perhaps doing things a bit differently than the way that they're done. But especially when I think about my social calendar relative to where I am in my cycle and feeling that pull to go inward, honoring that, like saying no, setting boundaries, that can usually be a really easy place to start with some of these habits. I'm curious what are some of the big habits that maybe we haven't mentioned yet that you bring into your life when it comes to cycle syncing?

Speaker 1:

I mean right now. Big is meaning like concrete, I can write it down. So the things that fall into that category, I would say, are cycle syncing. I do normally do a pretty solid, consistent job of incorporating the right seeds for whichever part of my cycle that I'm in. And then, when it comes to exercising, I'm definitely, or at least, doing the 75% solution to doing what is the exercise recommended within a certain phase, whether that's lifting more in the middle of my cycle or taking advantage of some nice walks around the start of my cycle. So those are the two that are top of mind for me. What, what comes up for you?

Speaker 2:

So for me and I think we actually covered a lot of them. But I love what you were saying earlier about the sleep and like the snooze button Cause I think that is such an interesting thing to also observe. Like right before, like when I started to enter my late luteal phase that's like right before winter, right Late autumn, right before my period starts I noticed that I need more sleep and that's always such a big cue for me. So I actually do adjust my sleep schedule a bit more, like I will not wake up quite as early, I'll focus on waking up naturally as much as possible, like keeping the regular rhythm, but just waking up a little later. But I also think that I've experienced so many powerful shifts when it comes to productivity and creativity and adjusting my own personal expectations around output.

Speaker 2:

When it comes to work, may it be like I noticed those bursts of new ideas like after my cycle and I have a lot of clarity around decisions I want to make, like after my bleed starts, and I really kind of honor that. And sometimes we'll you know if I know that I have more reflective things that I want to do, like, let's say, plan out a season for the podcast, Like I will start to put that into the late, the luteal phase, into like early menstrual phase, cause I know that those are times where, like, a lot of clarity will come through um, or writing, cause I've been doing some writing that will kind of come during, um, the kind of uh, couple of days into menstruation, like I can feel it coming through. So I've really enjoyed honoring that and actually moving with it for you know, like really really honoring it. So I think that's been powerful.

Speaker 1:

All right, gang, we are going to put a quick pause there on the conversation for today, but come back on Thursday for the second half of my conversation with Kasia. And as a quick reminder too, if you want to check out her inflow planner, you will love it. You can go to the link in the show notes here and you can use code Bridget15 or Bridget15 to save 15%. All right, gang, hope to see you here Thursday. Thanks for listening.