31 - Heather Allmendinger and Embracing Flow 26/02/24

Here's what to expect on the podcast:

• Women's reproductive health is linked to their overall physical and mental health.

• How can parents effectively approach discussing the menstrual cycle and private body parts with their neurodivergent children?

• Educating men and young boys about women's menstrual cycles is crucial.

• What advantages does a woman gain when she deeply understands her reproductive cycle?

• And much more!

About Heather:

Heather Allmendinger is the radiant soul whose life took a transformative turn when she became a certified health coach. She discovered that periods are vital and they are an outward sign of inner health. Just like blood pressure and heart rate, these cycles shape our physical, emotional, and mental health.

Heather took that discovery and became a passionate Period and Fertility Awareness Coach, she opened Vivydus, The Full of Life Company, and is the host of the Embracing Flow Podcast. Heather is on a mission to break the taboo, offer insights, and spark candid conversations about cycles, conversations with tweens and teens, and thriving through it all! It's time we stopped hiding and begin celebrating the beauty, wonder, and power of our own body.

Connect with Heather Allmendinger!

Website: https://vivydus.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hmallmendinger/

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/611487486871608/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vivydus/

Embracing Flow Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/embracing-fl…

Understanding Cycles for Tweens and Teens: https://vivydus.ck.page/2c8331ce66

Connect with Samantha Foote!

Website: www.boisemusictherapycompany.com

Email: [email protected]

Consultation: https://letsmeet.io/boisemusictherapycompany/30-mi…

TRANSCRIPTION

This podcast is for parents like you, navigating the world of neurodiversity with love and compassion. I'm a neurodivergent mother of three amazing neurodivergent children and a board certified music therapist. Our mission is to create a supportive space where you feel understood, connected, and inspired.

With practical tips, strategies, and resources, we'll help you and your child thrive in your unique way. Join us as we dive deep into the diverse world of neurodivergent individuals exploring topics like ADHD, autism, dyslexia, sensory processing challenges, and more. We'll cover it all to empower, educate, and uplift both neurodivergent individuals and those who walk alongside them.

Together we'll create a world where every brain is valued and celebrated. We're excited to embark on this enlightening journey with you. We are your hosts, Samantha Fuh and Lauren Ross, and this is the Every Brain is Different podcast.

Welcome to the Every Brain is Different podcast. We're here with Heather Allmendinger and Heather, we are so excited to have you on the show. Welcome. Oh, thank you so much, Samantha and Lauren, for having me here. I am just Busting at the seams with excitement. Awesome. So Heather, the radiant soul whose life took a transformative turn when she became a certified health coach.

Discovered that periods are vital and they are an outward sign of inner health, just like blood pressure and heart rate. These cycles shape our physical, emotional, and mental health. Heather took that discovery and became a passionate period and fertility awareness coach. She opened Vividus, the full of life company, and is the host of the embracing flow podcast.

Heather is on a mission to break the taboo, offer insights, and spark candid conversations about cycles, conversations with tweens and teens, and thriving through it all. It's time we stopped hiding and begin celebrating the beauty, wonder, and power of our own body. Oh, Heather. I'm so excited. So tell us more.

You're involved 

in the neurodivergent community. Um, my son was diagnosed, uh, in the nerve with, uh, he was diagnosed with autism when he was on the spectrum, um, when he was about five or six years old, he had a five word vocabulary at five years old, and I knew that was. Atypical. Yeah. Um, that was, I mean, most of them were like, Oh, by the time they're one or two, they should have words.

I kept saying something to my pediatrician and it wasn't until he got into school and they're like, Oh yeah, he's got. Um, he's, he's not talking, he's got disruptive disorder and all these other different, um, letters and I'm like, okay, so what are you going to do? And he did go to the intermediate unit and he's, he had an IEP and all that.

And he did do speech therapy. He's doing very, very well as a happy, healthy 16 year old now. And actually it's looking like my younger son as well is showing signs of having. Something with neurodivergence, we're not quite sure exactly what's going on yet, but there's been talk and they're like, you need to talk to your pediatricians and these behaviors are atypical and so I'm looking at what might, what he may need as well.

And even as me as an adult, I'm looking at this going, okay, I see some of the. Activities that my children do in myself. So it's, it's actually one of those that it could be all three of us. Um, so who knows, but yes, that's my experience with neurodivergence. 

Yeah. And I noticed that a lot, or I hear about a lot of parents that their kids get diagnosed and they're like, Whoa, I'm just like my kids.

So maybe there's something here. Um, but yeah, well, I hope. That you can get things figured out with your younger son and not necessarily like, Oh, get a diagnosis, but just get the resources that he needs to be successful and that you can get the resources that you need. Um, if people are looking for a resource, we have a free download of, you know, like before, like.

If you want to get a diagnosis, what you can do, and then after diagnosis, what you can do to get those resources. So that can be found at BoiseMusicTherapyCompany. com. It is a new resource that we're offering, so just giving that a shout out. Um, but let's talk about Vividus and what you do there. And tell us more about that journey, um, how you got to where you are, and then maybe some tips for parents.

I'd love to. I found out a week before my first period that I was going to have one and I was 10. Um, I was young. My grandmother told me and I was like, okay. And it happened over the summer, thankfully, but it was kind of odd going back to school when I was under, undeveloped, going, leaving school and actually starting to develop when I went back to school the next year.

Luckily, some of the other girls had started developing before me, so it wasn't as big of an issue or as big of a change for other students at the school. But it was one of those that, luckily I knew, but I found out a lot of my friends didn't know. What was going on. And in fourth, fifth grade, they put you in that classroom and they tell you what's going to happen in your body.

And I'm like answering all these questions and they're like, okay, Heather knows what's going on. But a lot of the classroom didn't know. And I suffered from heavy cycles. I suffered from painful cycles. And my mother used to get a call every single month. Hey, Heather's in the nurse's office. She's.

Nauseous. She's vomiting. Can you come pick her up? And she's in a lot of pain. And my mom's like, give her Tylenol. She just got her period. She'll be fine. Send her back to class. Yeah. And so we, we, we tried the hormonal birth control route. I was on the combo pill for quite a while. I tried depo for a little bit, which threw my entire mood body into an absolute tailspin.

Um, And it wasn't until I was 45 years old, and I've had my children at that point, that I decided to go back to school to be a certified health coach. The corporate world wasn't really fitting me anymore. I sort of became unemployable, um, because I just, I couldn't, I was tired of the glass ceiling, the constriction when it came to the corporate world.

And I went back to school to become a certified health coach. One of my certifications is in pregnancy. I absolutely loved that course. And I wanted to help individuals when they were pregnant because pregnancy can be hard. We see the pregnancy, we see pregnancy as a beautiful thing and it is, but not every pregnancy is easy going.

There are some very difficult pregnancies and we aren't able to take medication sometimes with those pregnancies. So I wanted to make sure that the mothers are nourished because proper nourishment helps to nourish the fetus. Proper nourishment for the fetus helps them grow and helps us recover. And one of my mentors said, Hey, Heather, I know you want to work with those that are pregnant.

Why don't you go to the trying to conceive world and talk to them? Give them the value that you have. You have a lot of wonderful Um, knowledge with your health coaching, then maybe they'll become your clients. And when I did, I'm a root cause individual. I found out individuals, we don't know enough about our cycles.

We don't know how to track ovulation. We don't know that we did ovulate. We don't understand how long our cycles are. We don't understand how, um, the different phases of our cycles. And when you're trying to conceive, all of that is extremely important. Our hormones are a beautiful symphony. There are 50 known hormones in the body, 12 of them are involved in our reproductive system.

Wow. And if we don't understand that symphony, it can trigger, uh, temporary infertility, it can trigger, uh, Difficult pregnancies, uh, just even difficulty conceiving. So I went in and I took a deep dive into the ovulatory cycle to help those individuals. One, understand, we need to understand our bodies and our periods are an outward sign of our inner health.

It is connected to our brain, it's connected to our thyroid, our heart, our blood pressure, our, uh, bones, our kidneys, our liver. It is connected to almost every single system in our body. Wow. That's 

that makes sense, but I never like when I was growing up. I just thought oh, it's my period It's just something to get through And because it was awful and then The next month it will come back, but, and I didn't, when people said that, like they could know their period down to the day, I was like, that is not true.

And you're lying. Because mine was all over the place. And I was like, how, how do you know you're pregnant? Like if you miss your period by a day. Okay. You know? So that's interesting that like it's, it affects the whole body. When I was taught like what to do for it, but I so I was lucky that like when I got it I was just like, okay, whatever and went and got the stuff and Um, you know, went on with life, but, um, it was always just something that happened and I didn't understand anything that was going on.

I just knew that it happened and I had to get through it and it sucked for a week and then you can move on with your life for three weeks, you know, so, but yeah, but tell us some strategies maybe that are neurodivergent kids. And I know that we talked earlier and there's some differences in cycles for neurodivergent people that you've found.

Yes, uh, there are, and like I said, my, my periods were horrible, and through cycle syncing and understanding my cycle, I was able to get it so that way my cycles aren't horrible. I was looking at a hysterectomy, I was cheering myself on for a hysterectomy, now I love my cycle. So this is definitely possible.

For those, um, parents who are looking at their children who are, some of those things that you can notice. Your child starting to hit puberty, puberty starts two years before the first period arrives. You can start seeing those signs. There's going to be the hair on the legs is going to get darker.

There's going to be hair starting to show under the arms. It's going to be more of a peach fuzz, but it's going to start getting darker. You'll notice those mood swings. They might be minor at first, but you'll start noticing them. Breast buds will start before her first cycle. How to help your children get through this?

One, use proper body parts. We need to remove the shame of saying vulva and vagina. Because there are too many stories of using cutesy names. And one of the stories that I share is a mom taught her daughter to call it a cookie. And she went to school and told the teacher that her uncle was eating her cookie.

The teacher not realizing what was happening because she didn't know that the mother taught her daughter that her private part, her vulva, was called a cookie. Oh no. Yes. So very, very important. Use proper body parts. We're not ashamed to call these our hands, our hands, our arms, our arms, our legs, our legs, knowing what our body parts are.

The vulva is the exterior part, um, that connects us to the interior part of our reproductive track. And the vagina is actually the canal that connects the vulva to the cervix and the uterus and the fallopian tubes and the reproductive system. So just understanding and using the correct terms. Or with our body is a big thing.

Questions come up, address the question specifically. If you're not sure, ask some follow up questions. I have a friend of mine who, um, had a friend of hers that said her child, their children were reading a book and they came and they said, mom, what does coming mean? And she asked the question, what do you mean?

She said, well, we're reading a book called coming of age. And she's like, okay. Now, if she hadn't asked that follow up question, she would have gone in a completely different tangent than what the child wanted. So be very specific with your children. Answer the question. Be sure that you're answering the question that they're looking at having answered.

So if they're asking, what is a period? That is an outward sign, or there's a release of our endometrial lining. Well, what's the endometrial lining? That is the line that's in our uterus. And see kind of where it goes. Sometimes that can be all it was needed for another six months. Uh, but if we normalize those conversations and start talking about it, when you go to the store and you pick up high feminine hygiene products, um, take your, take your child with.

Walk them down the aisle, explain what different items are, that way they're not confused and they're like, well, I've had so many individuals say that they didn't know what was happening and these, these are non neurodivergent individuals. They thought they were dying. Um, so talk to your child, explain what the different products are, explain what's gonna happen to their body in a way that they'll understand.

Uh, and it's very, very simple speaking. It doesn't have to be too complicated. It doesn't have to be too in depth. It's very much like your child saying, hey mommy, where do babies come from? They come from inside mommy. If they have, okay, so how do they get there? Well, A sperm, it's an egg and it makes a baby.

And then eventually they'll start asking bigger questions, but that'll come when they're older and when they're understand a little bit more. So that's how to kind of just approach the topic. It doesn't have to be uncomfortable. It may feel uncomfortable, but. It's more one of those that do you want your child to be, do you want to feel a little bit uncomfortable or do you want your child to actually be going through this and not know what's going on in their bodies and freaking out at school and going into a meltdown or something because they didn't know?

Yeah. Yeah. Um, when do you suggest that if children have not asked questions? When do you suggest talking to them and be like, okay, this, I don't know when this is going to happen, but this is what's going to happen to your body. Like what age do you recommend that? 

I would see how the child's developing and where they are with understanding different things.

Cause I know in the community, there are some that are 12, 13 years old, but they may not have the understanding of their physical age. Look for those signs, those early puberty signs. And just let them know, Hey, I noticed this, this is happening to you because your body's changing. And so look at your child, you know, your child best, you know, what they're able to handle information wise and kind of.

Base it on them and their knowledge and keep it at their appropriate age, their, their understanding level. 

That is great. I love that. That you're just like, do it at this age because like you said, like children develop differently and their developmental age doesn't match their chronological age sometimes and so you just have to, and keep it at their level, you know, so for kids who ask a million questions like using the endometrial lining and All that, like those bigger concepts, I think, like, tell me what you think about this, like for someone who's younger, do you just use the same language all the time?

Or what if they ask questions like, what's an endometrial lining? What's this? What's this? Like, how do you explain it to maybe a younger kid? Who's just like, well, do you just explain the whole system or how would you do that for younger kids? You know? 

Um, I think diagrams might be a really good way to look at, like, pull out a picture of, um, the uterus.

And one, so you can see, you can point, like, here's the endometrial lining, here are the fallopian tubes, here are the ovaries. So they can see it, a picture of where it sits in their body. So they understand where it sits in their body, explaining what their vulva looks like. And it, it's one of those. Even when they're younger, having a mirror and letting them see what their vulva looks like, it's, we, like I said, we, we don't look at the back of our hand and going, oh, my gosh, we're not allowed to look at that.

It's our body and being familiar with our body will allow us to. Determine if we have an illness sooner, because if we notice a change. And in our, in that area, we can say, we. As a child, mom, dad, I'm noticing this, or even as an adult, I can say, that doesn't look normal and I can schedule a time with my doctor.

But if, if we hide that part, if we hide the fact that we can't look at our vulva, we're not allowed to look at that. We're not allowed to look at the inside, like we're not allowed to look at those body parts. How do we know when something's wrong? But if you show pictures and explain what different parts of the body are, just kind of keep it simple.

Um, initially and just kind of grow with those pictures, I think that's kind of one of the easiest things to do instead of trying to describe to somebody, because I'm a visual person, I learned better with visual. So if I have a stuffed animal of the reproductive system, or even just a picture, it's a lot easier to describe what is going on and what different parts are versus just trying to describe it.

Without a picture. 

Yes. I love that. I wish someone would have shown me a picture when I was a kid. It would have all made sense. I was embarrassingly old when I learned about these things. So I'm gonna try and do things different. And it wasn't my mom. Like my mom's like, let's talk about this. I'm like, nope, don't want to talk about that.

We're done. You know, and she respected that, but. Yeah, it wasn't, it definitely wasn't for her lack of trying to tell me about things, but, um, yes, using pictures. Fantastic. And looking at yourself. I love that you brought that up because so many times we're taught to feel ashamed if we like, um, look at it, think about it, like even recognize it at all, you know?

So, yes, thank you so much. I love that. 

Oh, you're welcome. And it goes for, if you have boys, whence they're old enough. Explain the female reproductive system to them because, and I explained this to my 16 year old, he's like, mom, I really don't want to hear this. I said, I understand that this is an uncomfortable topic for us.

I said, but here's the thing by understanding what I'm going through and by understanding this cycle, you will be a better friend, a better parent, a better partner, a better coworker, and a better leader. I, it. It's not just, oh, that she's going through that. It's, this is what we go through and by understanding it, there are so many different things that you can do differently.

And yeah, I mean, you have your partner and you're having a really, really bad day. You come home, you're like, I do not feel right. I know my period's coming on board. If your partner looked at you, said, you know what? I've got dinner. I've got the kids. Go take a bath. Go do some self care. How would you look at your partner?

You would think you were the luckiest person in the world to have such an understanding partner versus walking in the door saying, I had a horrible day and your partner going, yeah, I did too. What's for dinner? Oh yeah, definite difference there. It's a huge difference. It's like,

so just having that open communication with your partner and your partner, understanding where you're at those days that we can't control that we, we just, we feel out of sorts and we don't always know why necessarily we're feeling out of sorts if we're not tracking, but being able to just tell somebody you're, I'm not feeling right.

I'm not quite sure what's going on. Can you help me? Yeah. Just keeping that line of communication open, your partner will probably figure it out. Um, but if the, if, if they don't, at least you're opening that communication saying, I'm not feeling right. Can you help me? 

Yeah. 

Instead of getting angry with your partner.

Yeah. And I think also if we take that approach and we, and dads understand their daughters, When their daughters come home and be like, I'm not feeling well, then they can have more understanding for them too, rather than just like, do this, get your work done, get this done, get this done. Like you need to do all your chores or whatever, you know, and just having that understanding, um, would go a long way and having them help them through it rather than just be completely ignorant.

Yes. It, it would bridge that converse, that would bridge that relationship in a way that other things can't. My dad was very understanding. Um, it was still weird having my dad understand, know kind of what was going on in my body. It was just unusual. We didn't really talk about it, but just having him know that I was not myself.

He was a little bit more lenient. He was understanding that, okay, I'm not where I normally am, but I am going to bounce back. Give me a few days of rest. And I'll be, I'll, I'll do everything that I need to normally do, just kind of a reprieve for a day or two, just to kind of get myself, and it's usually the day or so before a period starts, up to like a day or two after.

So usually those four days are sometimes the worst ones for most individuals. 

Yeah, thank you. Hey there, it's Samantha. Are you a dedicated parent overwhelmed with navigating the unique challenges of raising a neurodivergent child? You find it tough to understand impulsive behaviors, manage transitions, address educational concerns, Handle sensory stimulation and navigate social interaction struggles.

The good news is you aren't alone. Here at Every Brain is Different, we're excited to announce our new membership program. Parenting Your NeuroDivergent Child. This is a community of parents working to enhance connections with their kids and gain a deeper understanding of their unique needs. With expert insights on positive parenting strategies and neuroaffirming practices, you'll have concrete strategies to help your child succeed.

You'll have opportunities to ask questions, hear from other parents, and feel empowered as a parent and finally feel peace in your home. Join us on the second and third Thursdays of each month on Zoom. Visit www. everybrainisdifferent. com for more details. Let's embark on this journey together. Can you talk a little bit about like maybe so we have like the normal period thing where we all have mood, like disruptions and you know, some cramps, but then can you tell us more about like, I think it's called PMDD and what goes along with that, what we can watch out for.

So if our daughters are understanding what's going on in them, then maybe we can recognize the signs and be like, Oh, let's get you some extra help. 

Yes. And their PMS, they're, they're still trying to figure out exactly what causes PMS. They're finding that it's a. Fluctuation of hormones, and you have to understand kind of the cycle there are, like I said, there are 12 hormones involved, but there are four major ones that that really drive the cycle.

We know about estrogen, we know about progesterone, um, estrogen and progesterone. We all, the easiest place to start with a cycle is at first administration, because we all know where that's at. Um, with that, that is when our estrogen and our progesterone are at its absolute lowest points in the cycle.

When that happens, uh, the, a message to the brain says, Hey, we've hit our lowest level, release the follicular stimulating hormone. The brain releases that down into our ovaries and follicles start to develop. As follicles start to develop, estrogen starts to rise. When estrogen rises, we feel very, very good.

We start feeling better. We start getting energy back. Some things that you can do before I go too far into the estrogen level. Um, some things that you can do to help with that is one, yoga. Move your body a little bit. You don't have to do a lot, but some movement will help with the serotonin and the dopamine in our brains and get those hormones kind of moving and you will feel better.

Some foods to help with that include, um, cranberries, watermelon, um, shellfish. waterfowl like duck, ham, seaweed, and beets. There's just some things that, some foods that really nourish us during this time. Because as we go, leave menstruation, like I said, the follicles are starting to grow. The follicles start to grow, estrogen starts to rise.

And we get into that follicular period. It is a very variable period. Um, illness can change the length of it. Medic, medication, starting medication, changing medication can also change the length. Stress can change the length. Uh, too much exercise can change the length. Too little exercise, poor nutrition.

There are so many things that can change the length of this time frame. So it is extremely variable, but as those follicles develop, estrogen rises, um, our energy rises, we have an outer focus. So we're looking, this is a great time to plan things. This is a great time to grow and learn new things. Some things to eat during this are artichokes, oats, um, grapefruit, lemons and limes, plums, uh, green lentils, cashews, chicken, and liver.

As we, as that follicle develops. There's one main follicle that will be ovulated, so it will leave the, the follicle and it will be released into the fallopian tube. It's ovulation. Ovulation is a very short time frame. Um, it's usually only about two or three days. We feel absolutely amazing. Our clothes fit great.

Our skin is glowing. Um, I call this the, uh, Beyonce on steroids. If you're not a Beyonce fan, Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift on steroids. I know that You might have a lot of swifties. I know there are a lot of swifties in the world. Um, her on steroids, she is looking absolutely phenomenal. This is a time you're extremely articulate.

This is a time, um, that you can do a lot of things. Your pain tolerances are a lot higher. Um, this is a point where your estrogen is at a peak. That estrogen shoots a message to the brain and says, Hey, release the luteinizing hormone. The luteinizing hormone is what triggers ovulation. So ovulation happens and estrogen drops.

Estrogen is where serotonin and dopamine like to live. Estrogen helps increase the serotonin and the dopamine in our brains and in our bodies. So once serotonin, once estrogen starts to drop and ovulation occurs, progesterone takes over. Um, it's just called the luteal phase because that follicle that the egg left Becomes the corpus luteum, and that makes the progesterone in the, in the ovary.

It's a new organ that we make every single month. So you'll notice that you might be hungry. You notice you might have to go to the bathroom more. This is where also the PMS symptoms start to show up. Not really close to ovulation, but as you go about five to seven days after ovulation is when PMS symptoms start to show up because you've hit the peak of progesterone.

And With that progesterone, um, some foods to help with, it's called the luteal phase because I said the corpus luteum, uh, in the luteal phase, it is a very stable time in your cycle. It's going to be about the same number of days. So if you know when you ovulated, you know, in 9 to 18 days, your cycle is going to start again.

And some things to eat during this phase, brown rice, walnuts, fish, pheasant, turkey. Think of like sweet potatoes, if you think of Thanksgiving, these are some foods that you eat at Thanksgiving, kind of what you can eat during this time. But this is also where PMDD shows up and PMD is a step above PMS.

It's where our depression keeps us in bed, our anxiety overload. It is a severe form of PMS and they are finding in the different studies that Um, over 90 percent of those that have, um, been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD or have neurodivergence will probably have PMDD. So it is something to be extremely aware of because your brain is, it's going to be foggy brain.

You're going to have, I call it squirrel brain. You're not going to be able to focus. Your moods are going to be everywhere. You're not going to know what's going on. And a lot of it they're looking and seeing that the serotonin and the dopamine are very low. So getting out and maybe moving your body, doing some walking, and track by tracking your cycle, you'll see if it's cyclical.

And that's where I found out with my medication, I had chronic depression. I was diagnosed with chronic depression. I found out that my depression and my anxiety was hitting about three to four days before my period was to arrive. I figured out how to kind of balance out my hormones. Thanks. And this is not the way it might be for everybody, but I no longer take my antidepressants because I know what's going on in my body and what is causing it, causing that fluctuation and that those symptoms.

So just being aware that this can happen. If you need medication, please find a correct medical professional to find the correct dosage for you. Um, but also know that it can be your hormones and within three to five days, once your period starts. you're going to feel a lot better. If you notice that, you'll know it's more cyclically based versus, um, anything else.

Yeah. That's awesome. I love it. Cause You could be taking medication, which I am all for medication, obviously. I've talked about that before, but if you don't need it and there's something, the root cause, like you said, then fix the root cause. And then you can not have to take a daily pill, you know, or multiple pills, like some people have to do.

So yeah, definitely get to the root cause if that's, what's causing it. I love it. So. You have some resources, you have a podcast, Embracing Flow, I have listened to all the episodes and I am obsessed, especially there was one with, um, Barb V, and she was talking about athletes and how, going back to talking about how men should know what's going on, like she had a male coach and everyone on her softball team, um, Had their periods at the same time.

And so they would like be having like maybe a bad game or something like that. And the coaches were like, what is going on? And so if you understand that, then you might be more understanding, but I, I don't know why that one just like jumped out at me, but that I loved it because. You need to be aware of what's going on and be, have empathy for people and not just be like, well, you need to do this, even if you're feeling like crap, you know?

So, um, yeah, but tell us more about that and then other free resources that you have for people. 

Um, yes, I actually have a guide. It's if you do suffer from PMS, it is the four easy ways to decrease your PMS symptoms. Uh, you can get that on my website, embracingflowpodcast. com. Uh, thank you very much. Yes. I love my embracing flow podcast.

It was, it was just recently launched and it has been. An amazing experience. Uh, so there is the PMS guide. There's also, if you have tweens and teens, I have helping teens and tweens understand their cycle. It goes through a little bit that I explained with the foods and the activities. It has that in there.

It also has for those that are just learning, it does have diagrams on where different things are in the reproductive system. It explains what ovaries are, it explains what the endometrial lining is, it explains what the cervix is, the fallopian tubes, what they do, it explains estrogen and progesterone, it doesn't really go into the, too many of the other hormones, uh, but just understanding that it's, it's a very good basic book, uh, or guide for those that Are probably around 9, 10, 11 years old, or of the understanding, probably around 13, 14 years old, I had a friend of mine read it.

Her daughter's eight. She's like, I think it's a little bit too old for her yet. But, um, for those that are starting to cycle, it's a good one for those that you notice that your daughter's getting ready to cycle. It might be a good one for you to just read and help you understand what's going on in the body.

So you can talk to your child about it. And you can find that also on, uh, embracingflowpodcast. com and it will take you to my web, uh, my website page. And from there you can go to the different services and the different, um, links. 

Yeah. So can you tell us a little bit more about what you do, like your paid offering so that we, if people want to know more about that.

Absolutely. 

I have the embrace yourself program coming out. It is a 12 week journey into fertility awareness. So you will learn how to track your cycle. You will learn about the follicular stimulating hormone, the luteinizing hormone, estrogen, progesterone, and how it interacts with your body. biomarkers.

Um, we talk about cervical mucus and how important that is to be noticed of because it help you tell where your fertile window is. And by tracking your cycle, you'll know if you're getting sick before you actually get sick or grab, um, some illnesses before they get extremely bad. It will go through. So it'll go through the fertility awareness and tracking your cycle.

It'll also go through nutrition. So we'll be talking about important proteins and why a protein is important, what proteins are, what carbohydrates are, what fats are, water, vitamins, all of that. Plus it will go through cycle syncing and how to take all of this information. So you can plan out your week, your month, and your year in flow with your cycle.

So you can give yourself a few days, all every single month and not feel guilty. Uh, so I have that coming up that will start in January and I am looking at a teen version. Um, the start in probably March, April of 2024 is the embrace yourself does go into family planning. So it talks about when to engage in intercourse and when not to without barrier methods.

And I know that parents don't want their teens and tweens to understand that quite yet. So there is a teen version that does not go into the family planning. We talk more about the hormones of serotonin, um, adrenaline and how those hormones make us feel so we can make better decisions, uh, when it comes to relationships.

We have adrenaline that that increases when we see somebody that we're attracted to we start those new relationships adrenaline starts So we're not sleeping. We're not eating Serotonin and oxytocin makes us our Yeah, oxytocin makes us feel closer to somebody than what we actually are So we're making correct decisions and we're not doing Engaging in activities that we may regret later that we're not quite ready to Actually understand as a teenager.

That is awesome. I love it. I say that a lot, but I love it. Well, thank you for all you've shared with us. Our last question is what do you do for fun? 

I sing. Nice. I approve. I am a member of my church choir, but, um, I was also until, until my younger one just was a little bit, I have to wait until he's a little bit older, but I sing in German.

I don't understand what I'm singing. Um, but I can, I don't understand German. I can read the words and I can sing them. Um, but yes, I was actually president of the Reading Liederkranz singers chorus for two years, but unfortunately with Becoming a single parent very rapidly and unexpectedly. I kind of had to put that aside because my son, my children needed me a little bit more than, um, singing.

So I just sang at home instead. Nice. Nice. 

Cool. Well, I love it. Um, that's a great thing to do. And someday I will do an episode about all the benefits of singing. So I'm excited that you're doing that, but thank you for your time. We really appreciate you. 

Oh, I learned a lot 

here. 

Oh, good. Good. Yes. There is so much to learn.

We are not, we're not told a lot where it's actually the iceberg. It's like a tip of an iceberg on top of the water and we have an entire beautiful iceberg underneath. Yeah, yeah. It's crazy. Cool. We need to get over that uncomfortableness of it all. I think that's the biggest thing. Welcome to Embracing Flow.

I love it. I love it. Awesome. Well, thank you. Oh, you're welcome. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you for listening to this episode. We hope the discussion on neurodiversity has provided you with support, understanding, and inspiration. If you found our podcast valuable, please share it with others who may benefit from our insights and leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.

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