Throughout the process of birthing CycleWise, I've been asking myself several questions:
What is Cycle Awareness?
What benefit is Cycle Awareness to the world?
Why is Cycle Awareness so important to me that I'm prepared to risk, after an extended time of reclusivity, showing up and speaking out to share it with you?
"What is Cycle Awareness?" could be met with a simple answer: It is paying attention to the cyclical systems that are within and around us and using them to inform our choices and behaviors.
And, it is more complex than this. Cycle Awareness is an acknowledgment that our lives, all life, is subject to an intricate web of cylical interconnection.
But, what do we do with this? For me, the next step was to learn and experience this cyclical wisdom. I studied. I applied the knowledge, followed the patterns, listened to my body, noticed my rhythms.
I listened to and observed the effect of Cycle Awareness on others who were willing to open up to it too.
What did I discover? To put it bluntly: The life I had been waiting for.
Cycle Awareness works for me in so many ways:
It has its foundation in the natural processes that govern our lives. From the microcosm of our hormonal chemistry to the great arc of our lives, the organic intelligence of Cycle Awareness plays it's part.
It is an embodiement practice, in that it provides a map of reference to guide and explain what, why and how you show up in the world at any given moment. And this means all of you: sensual body, bubbling mind, everflowing emotions, relentlessly savouring spirit. All this intricacy is held within a cycling navigation system that is literally at your fingertips- all the time. If and when you choose it.
To use it is to follow a simple daily practice of tuning in. To keep showing up with the commitment to being curious about what is 'sounding' in you and recognising your patterns in relation to the various maps at your disposal so you can understand yourself and make the changes where necessary so that you can thrive.
In this way, Cycle Awareness has ended my suffering and I find myself facing the necessary challenges of life without the symptoms of crippling fear. (I can write a blog on this in itself).
It's easy, once the resistance has gone, to apply both knowledge and practice and with every turning, I grow in reverance for how connected I feel to myself, my humanity, my people and my world.
Cycle Awareness has helped me grapple and be at peace with the complexities and paradoxes of life. These intricate cycles of life have shown me the way of kindness and cruelty, of brazeness and subtlty, ebb and flow, activity and rest.
The gift of being able to hold the tension, to hang out in the discomfort, to meet the unknown, to learn the art of both championing myself and being slayed by my inner critic has enriched my life. I am humbled, I am forgiving, I am compassionate and I am brave.
Truth be told, I don't know how Cycle Awareness may benefit you but I have faith that it will, on some deep fundamental level, connect you to what is most valuable to you.
It has for me.
My name, Lisa, means Beloved. Cycle Awareness has helped me realise that I am indeed loved. Loved by life: Life within, Life without me and Life beyond me.
It is this LIFE that I value.
In serene radiance
And pure delight
Lisa