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Tertia Riegler

Tertia Riegler

Feminine Embodiment Coach

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HOW TO GET STARTED WITH CYCLICAL LIVING (TAKING YOU THROUGH MY METHOD)

October 19, 2021 by Tertia Riegler

How To Get Started With Cyclical Living (taking you through my method)

In this video, I want to explain to you what cyclical living is and then show you how I’m doing it, and how I’ve implemented it in my life.  I’m going to share with you why I’ve decided to do this and also some of the benefits that I’m seeing. And I hope that you can make enough sense of this if you’ve been interested in cyclical living if you’ve heard about it, but you don’t really know how it works.

 I’m a very practical person, so I’ve tried to make it very practical for myself.  So I thought the best way for me to explain to you how I’m doing cyclical living or incorporating it into my lifestyle is with my wonderful flip chart. I’ve created some charts for you that I’m going to take you through.

First,  I wanted to just share with you why I’ve decided to do this.  I’ve been on a journey of embracing my feminine energy this past year. And this really comes as a result of me feeling burnout and overwhelmed and struggling with chronic pain. I’m learning it all came because I was pushing too much from my masculine energy. 



So I was basically living from the head up. I think a lot of us do this. The world is set up that masculine energy is the driver, there’s a lot of focus on achieving, there’s a lot of focus on achievement. And yes, we need our masculine energy. But we also need the feminine, we need the yin and the yang, we need that balance, we need that union of energies. 

One of the ways that I’ve awakened my feminine energy, one of the ways that I’m really embracing that, and embodying it, is by following my menstrual cycle, and also by following the yearly cycle. 

And they are actually pretty similar, which I’m going to show you just now and what I found is it has allowed me to slow down. So that is one of the biggest things, one of the biggest lessons that I’ve learned and that I’m still learning is to slow myself down. 

I’m a typical type-A personality, always pushing, always driving.  As a highly sensitive person, I often overthink things and spend a lot of time deeply processing information. I’m an empath, feeling and taking on a lot of emotions of other people. 

So I had to come to a point where I needed to slow myself down,  where I needed to be able to draw strong boundaries, and where I could actually come back to myself. And this is one of the ways in which I’m doing this. So let me take you through how these cycles work. You can then see for yourself if this is something that you want to try out. 

The way that we have been conditioned to operate is regular emotions, regular moods, regular everything, the same amount of energy 365 days of the year. And that simply isn’t possible for us women because we have a hormonal cycle of 28 days.

Our hormones and emotions go up and down through the cycle.  if we reject that, if we are trying to just be the same every day, we start seeing our emotions, our moods, our bloatedness, our PMS, we start seeing all of these things as a liability.

 We buy into the societal norms that say, at certain times of the month women are so volatile and that it’s something to be ashamed of, or that something that’s really a problem and we reject our own essence in the process. 

So it’s really important when you begin to work with your feminine energy when you really embrace that part of yourself, to allow for all of these moods and all of these fluctuations to happen. What you’re also going to find is once you start living in accordance with these cycles, you are going to perform better in the sense that you are optimally aligning yourself with your body’s energy. 

So you are going to be able to plan, which is the masculine part, you’re going to be able to plan what to do when, so that, it is in alignment with where you are in your cycle.  And this applies not only in your menstrual cycle but also in the yearly cycle. 

So we have our menstruation cycle, we have the follicular cycle; ovulation, and then luteal. 

These four cycles of menstruation align with the four seasons of the year. So, menstruating is our inner winter, follicular is our innerspring, ovulation is our inner summer, and the luteal phase is our inner autumn. Now, obviously, the seasons of the year are quite clear, because we’ve got 12 months, four seasons, so it’s basically three months per season. 

So that’s easy enough, your three months of autumn, three months of winter, three months of spring, and three months of summer. And this is good to know once you start doing reflections and intention setting throughout the year. So you basically work in three months brackets. 

But in terms of our menstrual cycle, it’s going to be different for different women. So in essence, the time while you are bleeding, can be anything from three to seven days. When you are in your follicular stage, this can be anything from seven to 10 days. Ovulation can be anything from three to four days, and then your luteal stage can be anything from 10 to 14 days, and this makes up the amount of your cycle. 

So, not everyone is on a 28-day cycle. Some women have a 30 or 32-day cycle, some women have a 21-day cycle. So the first thing that you need to do if you want to start working with your cycle and start incorporating it into your lifestyle is first to take a month or two to see how many days are you in a cycle. Are you on a 21-day cycle? Are you on a 28-day cycle? And usually, if you are taking birth control, then you will be on the 28-day cycle. 

Once you know exactly the length of your cycle, you can begin to predict when are you going to menstruate, when are you going to be in your follicular, when are you going to ovulate and when are you going to be in luteal and then you begin to plan your month or even your week. That’s what I do. I do my weekly planning on a Friday. And because I know where I am in my cycle, I also know what to put into my plan for the next week. 

Let me now just take you a little bit deeper into what do you do then in the different sections. 

So we start again in winter and winter is typically a time for rest. So when you are menstruating, this is a time to raise your body, this is a time to reflect, this is a time to review. 

What happens in your body hormonally is your left and your right hemispheres are in sync. So it’s really a good time for your brain hemispheres to work together. So you are able to do that review, you’re able to do that assessment. You want to do activities such as walking or yoga. So really very gentle kind of activities that’s not strenuous. You want to tune into your intuition. You want to connect to your inner wisdom. 

These are really these aspects of you that are going to be easier for you to tap into and rely on when you’re menstruating, and also when it’s winter. So when you start doing your quarterly review or your seasonal review, you will do activities that have to do with reflection and looking back at where you have come from, you’re not going to take on new projects. Also, when you’re menstruating, you’re not starting with big new projects that are very demanding. This is really at the end of the cycle.

Then we move into spring, which is follicular and this is where the rebirth happens. So think yourself about spring, all of these new green leaves everywhere, everything feels alive, there’s lightness in the air, things feel charged. 

So we’re starting to feel more alive, we start to feel more active, so hormonally you are open to new things. All right, so this is the start of the creative juices beginning to flow. 

In winter, you’ve had time to connect into what it is that you want to create and what is important to you. . And now you can step into the creation thereof. 

The type of activities that you will do are things that are more invigorating. Things that can really start to use this energy of yours that’s coming alive. This is also a time of planting.  If you think about spring, it’s a time of planting. 

So, you are beginning to create the intentions, you’re going to sow the seeds for what it is that you want to co-create in your life, you’re going to tend to your garden, you’re going to weed out all of those things that don’t serve you. It’s a time to declutter. It’s a time for you to move your energy, it’s a time for you to start to let go of things. 

So in your work, this is the best time to start working on your projects to really begin to bring them into fruition to do a lot of planning, to do a lot of visionary work is what you can do over here. 

Then moving along with the cycle, we move into summer, which is really the growth cycle. 

This is when you’re ovulating, hormonally, your verbal and your social centers are on fire. When you think about the summer season, things are growing, things are becoming lush, they’re becoming ripe. So this is a time to celebrate. 

It’s a time to celebrate, and it’s time to play; it’s a time to be joyous. So in your summer solstice reflection consider how you can play more. It’s a space for you to also do a little bit of shadow work, by asking yourself where do I sabotage play in my own life? How do I prevent myself from celebrating? Where do I stop myself from fully emerging and from fully immersing myself and really enjoying everything that life has to offer me? 

And then we move into autumn or our luteal phase. This is the harvesting phase. 

So now what’s happening is all of the things that you’ve been creating and tending to and allowing to grow are now ready to be harvested.  Hormonally, you’re very good with your attention to detail. It’s a time for you to complete projects. So start to bring things to the end. And harvesting is also a time of releasing; it’s a time of letting go so that we can move into our rest cycles. 

So when you are then on the autumn equinox, you can start reflecting about all of the things that you’ve been planting during the year, how has that developed? Where have you come from? You can reflect on where are you now? What are you harvesting? And then:  what can you release moving into rest phase so that you can then start to rebirth something new in its place. 

Most of this information regarding the hormonal side of how we can align with our menstrual cycle I’ve taken this from the book from Alisa Vitti called In the Flo. I can recommend it if you want to start aligning with your cycle. If you’ve been curious about starting with cyclical living then I hope my explanation of how I do it has been helpful to you!

Filed Under: Building Good Habits, Feminine Energy, Living with Intention Tagged With: declutter

5 SIMPLE LIVING HABITS THAT ACTUALLY REDUCE STRESS AND ANXIETY

June 25, 2019 by Tertia Riegler

If you are alive in the world today, chances are that you experience stress. You might even wear your stress like a badge of honor.

But let’s face it, stress and anxiety will cost you dearly. You pay the price in your relationships, your self-esteem and your overall sense of wellbeing.

So, while stress might be an unavoidable part of life, it’s possible to reduce your stress by cultivating some simple living habits.

The cost of too many choices

Our world is noisier than ever before, we work longer hours, society and popular culture demands us to do more, be more and have more.

We can buy want we want with the click of a button and we spend countless hours looking at someone else’s fabulous life on Instagram or Facebook.

The downside of having so many options available is that we become overwhelmed by choice.

We can literally paralyze our brains by giving it too much input, leading to decision fatigue. And this overwhelm causes us to have more stress than we need.

If this feels like your life, it is a great reason for you to simplify your life.

That way, you can reduce the stress and the demands and the exhaustion that comes from having too many choices, and too many things in your life which are, in the bigger scheme of things, not really important to have.

How to Reduce Stress and Anxiety through Simple Living Habits

Think a bit about the things which cause you stress.  

Your boss? Your relationships? Your messy house? Your growing debt?  No work-life balance? Eating or drinking too much?

By downshifting your life, you are effectively trading your high–stress life for a more simple one.

Stress is not always harmful.  Actually, a certain amount of stress keeps you on your toes and can improve your productivity and output.

But, being under constant under stress wears you down.

Like the label inside your new shirt which scratches a little bit to start off with, and at the end of the day, your skin is rubbed raw.

What is a simple life

Even if you take nothing else away from this post, hear this: Simplifying your life looks different for everyone, as does minimalism or living a slower life.

There is no right way to have a simple life. AND. When you simplify your life, you reduce the amount of stimulation you are exposed to, which in turn leads to a reduction in your stress levels.

What simplifying your life is not

  • a set-in-stone prescribed way to live
  • living in poverty
  • living off the land
  • becoming vegan or vegetarian
  • being a hippy
  • rejecting  modern technology
  • owning less than 100 possessions, or only 20 books or 2 pairs of socks

The benefits of simplifying your life

  • More fulfillment as you align with your values
  • Greater appreciation for what you have
  • More time for what is important to you
  • Less financial stress as you reduce your debt
  • More balanced life
  • Increased creativity
  • Increase in your overall sense of wellbeing

5 ways to reduce stress by simplifying your life

1. Identify your values

Reducing your stress and focusing on what is important to you, will help you have a more fulfilling and satisfying life.

So, do you know what is important to you? We all have our own personal values or core values that drive our behavior – both consciously and unconsciously.

Your values are literally that which your value above all else. Some common values are independence, love, family, peace, recognition, and connection.

If you don’t yet know your core values, take some time to identify them.

Make a list of the things which are most important to you.  Prioritize these and then reduce this list down to 5-7 top values.

When you know what your core values are, it can help you with making decisions. It gives you inner peace when you start living in alignment with your values.

2. Declutter

Research is showing us that a cluttered home is a stressful home.  

A large percentage of middle-class families suffer from a storage crisis, effectively causing them not to enjoy the possessions that they work so hard for.

You know the problem with clutter.  As soon as you have too many things all over the place, it’s difficult to find anything and your life feels chaotic.

You end up spending no time in your backyard because of the mess, your house stresses you out because it is so full and untidy,  and don’t even start on the garage, where you can only just fit your car in.

The way out of this is to reduce your stress by simplifying the amount of stuff you own.  BUT. Don’t go on a decluttering frenzy. You’ll exhaust yourself and get demotivated. And worst of all, the clutter will come back.

It is much better to take it slow and steady and declutter over a period of time, even if it takes you 6 months or longer!

3. Become Present

A lot of the stress we experience comes from the anticipation of an event somewhere in the future.  Or about remembering something painful, unpleasant or embarrassing from the past.

And while we might logically know that we can’t change anything in the past, or that worrying about the future won’t solve anything, we still do it.

Some of us even become so addicted to living there that we almost forget that our lives are actually happening here.  

I believe that a big part of simple intentional living is to live in the present, which will automatically help reduce stress and anxiety.

We worry about the things we think about, and often it is either about something we wish we did differently or something we stress about in our future.

By becoming more present and practicing mindfulness you will find that your stress reduces. It’s not really possible for our brains to be in two places at the same time. It is either in the past, the present or the future.

The most effective way that I know to become present is to use your breath.

Consciously take a few deep breaths into your chest and stomach area (not your shoulders because you don’t have lungs there!).

If you do this over and over again, you will find that you live less inside your head, where the past and the future lie, and more inside your body, which is in the present moment.

4. Stop with the Perfectionism

Perfectionism is a pain.  You are always going the extra mile, always afraid of not being good enough and always doubting yourself.  Talk about complicating our own life!

I am a recovering perfectionist and I know exactly how much unnecessary stress and anxiety it introduces into EVERYTHING.  

Simplify your life by doing the inner work you have to, in order to squash the perfectionism bug.

My mantra that I now consciously live by is that “good enough is good enough”.

5. Say goodbye to toxic relationships

The friend who only phones you when she’s in trouble.   Or, your friend who constantly puts you down in a joking way. Or the one who leaves you feeling exhausted after you’ve spent some time with her.

I had a friend like this.  Each time, after I’ve been in her company, I felt sad and anxious.  It took me a little while to figure out that this happened only when I was with her, and so I decided to let the friendship go.  

Often we don’t realize how toxic relationships like these affect us.  And, it might even take a long time to figure out exactly what is going on, as it took me.

If you have friendships like this in your life, perhaps now is a good time for you to think about which of these are worth keeping, and which relationships you can let go of.

Use the list of values that you’ve identified in point 1, to help you with your decision.

Cutting these toxic relationships from your life will free up your own energy to focus on those relationships that nurture and support you.   

Top 5 ways to reduce stress through simple living

  • Identify your values
  • Declutter
  • Become present
  • Stop with the perfectionism
  • Say goodbye to toxic relationships

You don’t need to move into a cave, and avoid contact with the modern world in order to save yourself from a stress-filled existence.

You simply need to start with you. A small change here and there in your lifestyle, in your thinking and in your habits, to ultimately lead to a life where you have less stress and more living.

Filed Under: HSPs and Empaths, Living with Intention Tagged With: declutter

Copyright © 2023 · Tertia Riegler · Photos by Romana Maalouf Photography ·

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