The Joyful Flamingo
The Joyful Flamingo Podcast guides and empowers women to tune into themselves and zoom in on their own well-being through laughter, connection, knowledge, and celebration! We’re here to create a tsunami of self-discovered, self-loved, and self-understood women who show up in this world unapologetically and joyfully so that we can pass the torch for generations to come! Join us to start leading your most vibrant, aligned and joyful life.
The Joyful Flamingo
Putting it All Into Practise: A Glimpse into Emily's Cycle Rhythm (MiniSeries Part D)
Emily talks about how she had to pivot and change last minute what this episode's topic was going to be, because of how she was feeling and the phase of cycle she was in. She shows you what listening to your body truly means, and how that often comes wrapped up in unexpected changes to our routines and scheduling. If you want to have a perfect example of the culmination of everything we've learned in this series and how to put it into practise.... this last part to the series is for you!
Time Stamps
0:50 - Intro
1:45 - A check in for us all
2:20 - Em's need to pivot this week vs how she usually sets up running the pod based on her cycle phases
5:55 - Life circumstances can throw your flow within your cycle off
12:10 - How Emily's late luteal phase hits her hard and what a day looks like in this phase for her, honouring her cycle
15:37 - Check in - - How have YOU tuned into your cycle (or not) lately? A wrap up to the Female Cycle MiniSeries
Connect with Emily:
On The Gram - @thejoyfulflamingo https://www.instagram.com/thejoyfulflamingo/
For Collaborations - thejoyfulflamingo@gmail.com
The Joyful Flamingo Podcast is produced by jpvoiceovers.
You can find them here : jpvoiceovers
*DISCLAIMER*
Just a reminder, that I am not a medical or psychological professional. Each one of my episodes has been inspired by my own experience and journey through life and is brought to you through my own opinions and my own lens. Any suggestions or advice offered here do not substitute proper conversations with your own healthcare professionals for either your physical or mental wellbeing.
Okay, Flockies. Today, you're getting a glimpse into what it actually looks like to stop, listen to your body, pivot, and make decisions that will allow you to thrive based off of what's happened in your cycle and your life circumstances.
It's not the episode I anticipated to use as the ending to this four -part mini -series on women's cycles, but it's what I needed to do based off of where I am in my cycle and my life.
circumstances. And truthfully, I feel like this little peek into the way I'm getting into a rhythm with my own cycle and how I as a real human needed to make changes this week will give us all the permission we need to really take all this information we've learned over the past three weeks to heart.
So listen on. Well, hey there, friend. And welcome to the new video. flamingo podcast, I'm your host Emily Schreiber and I am obsessed with empowering women to tune into themselves,
to zoom in on their own well -being so in turn they can lead their most vibrant, aligned and joyful lives. I want to create a tsunami of self -discovered,
self -loved and self -understood women to show up in this world. world unapologetically and joyfully and to pass the torch on for generations to come. If any of that feels aligned with your vibe stick around,
I'm so glad you're here. Now, let's go find our joy. Hey, hey, joyful flamingo flock,
and welcome to the pod today. This is part D, our last episode in this mini -series -series on women's cycles. And first, the first thing I want to do is say,
"How the heck are ya?" Like really, truthfully, a check -in. How are you? Where are you at in your cycle? Are you beginning to notice things?
Are you beginning to track things? Are you beginning to notice a difference in the phases of your cycle? Are you feeling the fallout? greatness or are you in the midst of your late luteal phase,
the bane of my existence? All right. So here's the deal today is not what I had planned for the pods episode. And truth be told,
when I mapped out the roster of episodes and topics for my first quarter of the year, I had planned to talk about perimenopause this week. And I really. want to start up by saying have no fear that episode will still get written and released within 2024.
I think it's a really important topic. There's a lot to discuss there, especially for people who are in my age range. But today is not the day today cannot be the day that I do that.
And I really struggled with this decision. I am a type A personality. I tend to be an overachiever. I developed a habit years ago of just pushing through,
no matter how I felt. I can do it, I can do it, but I'm not doing it. And I'm choosing not to do it anymore. I decided when I started this podcast that I was going to show up authentically and I was going to ensure that women felt seen.
loved, and heard. And that I would offer a space where women could feel that they related to someone. And that I would offer a space where women could feel like they related to someone truly.
And how can I create that space if I don't listen to my own body, to my own intuition and follow the advice and the fricking mantras I've been talking about?
on this podcast. So this week I pivoted, no perimenopause today. And I really want to explain why this is what this episode is going to be.
Why I needed to make that change this week because it is a perfect culmination and illustration of all the things we've been talking about over the past month in this mini series about tuning into our cycle as women.
our bodies, our infradient clocks, our hormones, and knowing what works best when and what doesn't. When I sat down to map out the schedule for the podcast before 2024 began,
I was in my follicular phase when I did that. And that was intentional because my follicular phase is usually a time where I feel like my most creative, my thoughts and ideas flow they flow easily.
And it was an amazing idea that I did that, that I scheduled that session for myself within that phase because the ideas did flow. I was able to put together the themes and the topics and everything I needed for the first 12 episodes of 2024,
basically within a day because I was so on fire. And then generally what I tend to try and do is write any solo episode.
episode that's coming up that month and prepare any questions for any guests that are coming up in that month in the first two weeks of my cycle so that they're ready and they're set to go before my motivation and energy decreases in the second half of my cycle.
That's generally what I've been doing since the launch of this podcast in October is really taking my follicular and ovulation phases to create. create so that all of that is done in advance and I feel like it's been created in a really flow state.
I have to say I was doing a really good job of that up until now. I was basically always like a few weeks ahead of the content creation. So it felt like I was in a real flow.
Everything was releasing and launching smoothly. Also thanks to my amazing production team who always is so on top of that. end of things for me. But then life happened to us as a family recently and that flow that I was in got a bit out of whack.
And I feel like I need to pivot yes, because of where I'm at in my cycle, but it is also intertwined with life stuff, you know, as it always is, right? We gotta rewind a bit here.
Our five -year -old daughter, if you don't know, has had some kids. and ureter issues since she was in utero. They actually found the issue on my 20 -week ultrasound with her. And for the past five years,
we've been monitoring it with her specialist teams in hopes that maybe she would outgrow the issue as her anatomy grew. But in the summer, this past summer,
her team decided that we did need to proceed with surgery. So we were put on the wait list. And then, at the end of January, we got a call that they had an opening on February 2nd for her.
So we didn't have much time in advance to either prepare mentally or logistically for what was about to happen to our family this month. Now,
I had already set out what the mini series was going to be about. I had the topics ready. I had most of that done, but there was still like like the doing of the do that needed to happen.
And so we didn't have a lot of time to plan logistically for things that needed to pivot within that time. In order to keep her healthy for the surgery, we actually pulled her out of school the week leading up to the surgery.
And we also pulled her younger sister out of, you know, she does two mornings a week at a co -op, because all you parents can attest to the amount of germs that circulate right now. And we really just needed that surgery to go ahead.
and get done. We didn't want to postpone it. We didn't want it to be canceled for any certain reasons. So we needed her to be healthy. So we pulled them both. She got the open surgery done on February 2nd.
And luckily, like I said, I had already prerecorded the first two episodes of the mini series for February at that point because I was already a few weeks ahead. So I was feeling really confident that even though our schedule and our family flow and routine was was gonna be a little bit out of whack,
I felt confident that everything would still be able to be on track, while I focused on really having the kids at home full time again for a while, and also giving my all to making sure that her recovery was smooth.
I also was able to record the third episode of the mini series that released just last week with Emma, the week that she got home from the hospital because my husband was also working from home. that week.
So he was able to switch out with me so that I could get that done. That was already on the schedule. We were working with time changes 'cause she was in the UK. And I still got that episode recorded. And I was feeling, I was feeling good.
I was feeling on track. I knew that I didn't have this last episode that you're listening to right now. I didn't have it written yet, but I figured, you know, I still had a bit of time before my late luteal phase would kick in in the month.
And so I'd be okay, I'd be good to go. We'd be fine. be back to routine. I would probably be in early luteal phase and I'd still have some flow of thoughts come and I thought I'd be able to get it done. Because remember to get an episode to you for a Wednesday,
I need to submit it a week in advance to production so that it's ready for release. So I thought we were good. And then something else happened. And even though her recovery was going really well.
one night she woke up around midnight with a little bit of chest pain. And obviously at any time this can be concerning for her parent, but especially for us, you know, she was only about a one week post -op at this point,
it concerned us. And so we were preparing to take her to a merge. And as we were preparing to do that, my husband actually collapsed, face first into her desk in her bedroom.
Later on, we found out that they think he fainted from a combination of exhaustion because we are so tired, as you can all imagine, and stress. He ended up unconscious on the floor with a pretty beat -up face.
To be honest, I don't remember a lot, but I called an ambulance for the both of them, which took nearly half an hour to show up because apparently 911 got a bunch of calls within the area.
area all at the same time that night. So thankfully, I was also able to call my parents to come to take care of our youngest who was still sleeping in the dead of night because I knew I'd have to be going to the hospital with the other two.
And they were there with me as we waited for the ambulances to arrive and take us to a merge. And, you know, fire department came first. We were taken care of. And long story short, thankfully, they're both okay.
Hot Hubs has a mild concussion. He had quite a few gashes on his face, but all in all was really lucky that he missed his actual eyeball. And after doing some tests on our oldest,
they think it was likely just severe heartburn, which would be really hard as a five -year -old to explain since she's never experienced that before, but she basically just had some reactions to her medications and maybe some food she had eaten.
So it all ended up being okay. I think I... I kind of went into autopilot and just focused on making sure my family was okay for that next week.
Like I wasn't sleeping barely. It just, it felt heavy. It felt like a lot. Then at the end of that week, our oldest had to go back under anesthetic again to take a stent out that they had placed inside her body during the first surgery.
So the point of all of this is that this month has knocked the wind out of me. One of my friends said to me this week that some seasons are just hard and I kind of crumbled like I am now.
This past month has felt really hard. Oftentimes what I try to do is I try to tell myself that my heart is so much easier than other people's heart.
A lot of the time that we can get through it that, you know, there's so much going on. on in the world that this is just a little blip. But also, I know now that we're also just allowed to feel like shit is hard sometimes,
you know, it's your truth. It's almost unhealthy. It is. It's unhealthy to never allow yourself to feel that either. That's the backstory. Now,
I can confidently say that her recovery is going really well. Our girls are back at school. And today I was like, okay, I need to get back to writing this fourth episode in the mini series for you all.
Remember, I'm writing this a week ago, right? So this is a week ago for you. But guess what? Now that those circumstances have changed and I feel like I have the time to be able to devote to it,
guess where I'm at in my cycle. I'm in late Lutile. I'm expecting my period in the next day or two. And I still haven't fucking started writing this damn episode on Perry menopause. And quite honestly,
it was overwhelming to me just thinking about it. My body and my brain couldn't find the energy to think enough to write a more researched based episode. The only thing I could think of that I would be able to get out of my head in time for release for you was just simply simply explaining where I'm at and how I had to pivot because of life circumstances and where it landed in my own cycle and how I needed to
take my own advice and listen to my own body, tune into my infradient clock, my hormonal cycle and show it up in the way that I'm meant to right now.
I am not meant to write and record an entire episode on perimenopause for you today. It is just not meant to be and I'm listening to my body. I know my hormones have dropped drastically this week.
I know I'm low on energy. I know it's not a time for growth or social activities or feeling my best. It's a time to reflect, to get introspective, to focus on myself.
So that's what I'm doing. This is the first day I've had, like, a full day. six hours to myself in weeks and weeks and weeks. So,
what does today look like for me in my late luteal phase preparing for menstruation? A book to therapy session, which I know will be extremely weepy because I'm nearing my bleed and because of what's happened over the past month.
I started my morning, I popped my sesame and sunflower seed grinds into my system first thing. I made a high protein and fat breakfast with loads of avocado and nuts. I've already taken out a vegetable chili that was made by one of my amazing neighbors to eat for lunch because I know that the sweet potato,
the lentils, the carrots, and the warmth in the meal is exactly what will help me in this phase. The exercise I'm going to focus on today will be minimal. It'll be a little bit of strength training,
a little bit of Pilates. Pilates and a stretch session. I'm not gonna go hard on cardio. I'm not gonna do a HIIT workout and I'm going to allow myself to be less productive,
to go to bed early to focus on preparing my body and my soul and my mind for my bleed to come. The more I focus on doing what's right for me in this phase,
the better my menstrual phase will be. And the better my menstrual phase is, the better my folliculitis. phase will be It's all secular and guess what next week. I fully expect to feel on fire again I'll be rocking my follicular phase like nobody's darn business and I know that it's coming This is not permanent it will pass and I'll be vibing high again soon enough But I need to take it as it comes I can't push
that phase on myself that amazing amazing phase, that follicular phase filled with energy without honoring this phase first. So there you go,
floccies. Today's episode is a short one. It's all I can muster up. It's basically just letting you know why I pivoted, where I'm out of my cycle,
what I need to do to listen to my own body. body and what I did rather than just pushing through. Take this as your sign to do a real check in with yourself.
Where are you at? What do you need? What changes can you make to listen to what your body is trying to tell you? It's okay to pivot. Sometimes life throws things at you that you cannot control.
The only thing you can control is how you react. And the choice is yours. make to attempt to feel your best. Always choose you. Go back,
re -listen to the first three episodes of this mini series. How can you tune into your cycle? How can you admit that you thrive best when you go with the flow, when you understand the four phases?
Buy the book "In the Flow" by Elisa BT to start your journey along this path. If you haven't yet, talk to other people about it, flip the ideals on how our days and weeks are meant to be on their head.
Change starts with you. It starts with one person. It starts with me always. If we want a different world for our kids, we need to start creating it for them now. So what can you do after listening to this mini series on on your cycle to figure out a better route for yourself?
I know that right now this is a short season for me and soon I'm gonna be back in my flow. But for now, I'm focusing on what's most important. And you guys know, that's my kids,
that's my hot hubs, and it's also myself. So off I go to therapy, technically my second session, I felt like this was my first. Off I go to therapy,
kinda walk in the sunshine and to pick up my kiddos and to give them a squeeze. squeeze and just bathe in our love for each other. And I hope you do the same share this episode with a friend who needs the gentle reminder that it's okay to have hard seasons.
It's okay to pivot and what you're meant to do is listen to your body. Listening to your body is the greatest thing you can do for yourself. And the first place to start is understanding your cycle and understanding your body.
how to listen to the signals that your body is giving you. Thank you for being here. I'm so grateful for each and every one of you. I hope you got something out of this mini -series this month.
Thank you for being part of the joyful Flamingo Flock. Until next time. (upbeat music) Just a reminder, Flamingo Flock, that I am not a medical or psychological professional.
Each one of my episodes has been inspired by my own experience and journey through life and has brought to you through my own opinions and lens. Any suggestions or advice offered here do not substitute proper conversations with your own healthcare professionals for either your physical or mental well -being.