Hi, I'm Kara Sutterfield and this is my podcast.
After over 20 years of leading one -on -one and
group coaching in professional settings, I developed
a passion for helping other women uncover who
they long to become and how to live into that
vision of self today. Let's deep dive into this
profound exploration together, discover how best
to embody the highest version of ourselves, and
take action in this present moment. To Be Her
Now. Hello and welcome back to To Be Her Now.
I am Kara, your host, and I'm so glad you're
here with me. Today I just want to share a few
things that I'm loving lately that are bringing
me joy, that are benefiting me, and maybe you'll...
Here's something that helps you or encourages
you to follow through on something that you feel
would be great for you. There's no particular
category for these or rhyme or reason. These
are just things I enjoy, like, benefit from.
And I also suppose I should leave with a caveat
that you do you. You decide to try any of these
things and they end up not bringing you the same
sort of satisfaction, joy, or ease or help that
they are bringing me. Don't blame me, try something
else. So here we go. The first thing that I am
super loving is revisiting the book Period Power
by Maisie Hill. We are starting with menstrual
cycles. Now I am in perimenopause. I am 43 years
old, turning 44 this year. So if you are in that
phase of life or later maybe you hear Period
Power and you think that's not for me. But let
me tell you how awesome this book is. A, it's
written by Maisie Hill, and I have to repeat
that because there's a couple of books out in
the world, or at least available on the large
order delivery services that are out there that
are written by other people. And so I'm speaking
specifically about Period Power by Maisie Hill.
But I love her take on looking at a woman's hormonal
cycle because she overlays it with the seasons.
And it makes it so relatable and easy to digest
bigger concepts about how hormones work and how
they operate together in the body to create certain
circumstances. She compares different phases
of your cycle to different celebrities to give
you a clear idea about how your body is feeling
in those moments. And I just think it's the bee's
knees. But I have read this book twice. it is
absolutely the most dog -eared and most referenced
book in my collection of books and no doubt there
are lots of great books about menstrual cycles
and women's bodies on the market so if you have
any you can recommend I would love it find me
on Instagram at ToBeHereNow and tell me about
them because I would happily read more. But here's
what I love about this book. It is the first
book that genuinely got me excited about tracking
my cycle and I've heard a million times that
tracking your cycle is vital to really understand
what's going on and I wish I had heeded that
advice when I was much younger. I think it would
have saved me a lot of questions about when I
was emotional and why I was emotional and what
was happening in my body. But she refers to tracking
your cycle as a superpower. And I have to say
I now agree. I straight up kept a note in my
phone. I would write day one when I would have
the first day of my regular flow of period. And
I would just write simple words to describe whatever
my day was like. I would write emotional, teary,
happy, energetic, hungry, craving junk food,
craving healthy, lots of energy, headache, migraine,
tired, weepy, you name it. I would just track
what was going on each day. And very soon, I
would say three months in, I had started collecting
enough data to where on, for example, day 19,
when I would feel rundown and start to feel very
internal, my thoughts would move to internal,
I would feel impatient with everybody around
me, I would start to feel like engaging with
the world less. I realized that that was happening
every month on day 19 of my cycle and I had had
no idea that that was a repeat pattern despite
the fact that it's called a cycle and yet it
never occurred to me that I was probably going
through the same things every month on a regular
basis which maybe I'm just ridiculous and the
only one that didn't know that or didn't notice
that but giving my cycle the framework of the
four seasons is single -handedly the most helpful
thing that anyone has ever given to me. All that
to say, today I moved into what Maisie Hill refers
to as your autumn, which is your luteal cycle
after ovulation. It's when your energy starts
to deplete, you start to turn inward, you feel
more like having a private moment, just some
time to be still with your thoughts. And I felt
that switch today and I thought I would just
revisit her description of autumn and her advice
around autumn. and it made me remember how much
I love this book. So number one period power
by Maisie Hill and if you are in perimenopause
like I am she also has a book called perimenopause
power also highly recommend. Thing I'm loving
number two I have been on a very intentional
learning path over the last couple of months.
I have obtained a sound healer certification.
I am working on a breathwork certification. If
you can't tell I am a little bit woo -woo. I
love alternative healing modalities and I love
learning about them and this is the first time
in my life I have ever actually pursued them
in an effort to be certified in them to help
other people with them so that's been lighting
me up in a big way and I am studying for a women's
health certification to help coach first myself
on my own health journey and then hopefully eventually
other women as well but the simple act of learning
something new as I have mentioned in other episodes
and decided to take my own advice, just makes
life so much more interesting. I wake up excited,
I'm intrigued by all the new information I'm
getting, and I'm very curious about what it's
going to bring into my life, all this new knowledge
and these new possibilities. Which brings me
to item number three that I love. I purchased
healing crystal sound bowls to go along with
my sound healer certification, of course. This
is something that I have thought about for a
couple of decades and I had a moment the other
night I was laying in bed awake. It's been a
series of events leading up to this that just
made me pull the trigger on buying the dang things
because I've always felt like either I didn't
have the money when I was younger or there were
other things that could be purchased. And for
the first time in a long time, I just had this
tug at my heart and at my soul that made me feel
like I don't even need to know what's on the
other side of this, but this is a next step that
I'm supposed to take. So I gave in, I purchased
them and I love them. I love them. I'm having
so much fun, not only learning about them and
understanding how they do what they do to help
support healing in our bodies. but just the sound
of them is so beautiful, so meditative, so relaxing.
I'm just having such a blast. So that's been
lighting me up lately for sure. The fourth thing
I'm loving, and maybe some of you are in this
boat, is summer vacation. My children are home
for summer, which means that we, parents in the
house who have jobs that do technically allow
us to make our own schedules, are getting to
sleep in a little bit later or staying up with
them a little bit later. We've watched Quite
a few movies in this last week, just hanging
out, and it's just fun to have them around. Now
they're older teenagers. They are barely in the
house to be very honest. They're out with friends
as well, for sure. And now currently, which is
why I'm able to record this episode, but it's
just fun to have the whole family home, to have
the longer days of summer, to have the sun out
much later. We've been taking a lot of evening
walks and just soaking up the season. So I hope
that you are able to do the same, however that
looks like for you. And the last thing that's
lighting me up is that I have started to share
many of these things on social media. I am on
TikTok at ToBeHerNow, which I understand is something
that most people have already been doing for
quite a while. But I am someone who has been
resistant to a new media platform because I am
someone who also tries to have some balance with
media and not be on it as much. But I have given
in. I am posting some sound bowl healings. I
invite you to come follow me there. And also
Instagram at ToBeHereNow, where I post more of
real life stuff. But yeah, that's all I really
have for you this week. As I mentioned, I'm moving
into my autumn. I don't have a lot to say out
loud, at least, though my brain is buzzing. And
I just wanted to pop in, share a few things that
are lighting me up and bringing me joy, and encourage
you to pay attention to what is lighting you
up and bringing you joy. to remind you to go
do more of that. I hope you have an awesome week
and I will talk to you next week on To Be Here
Now.