The invitation!
An open warm, friendly, quietly receptive space that we co-create together by sharing, listening/feeling and opening up to each other to play, ask, wonder and listen spaciously.
My intention and invitation is to make space for women to become more intimate with their innate ebbs and flow of the menstrual cycle. To open space to air experiences that we share in the journey of womanhood, menarche, birth, motherhood, menopause and aging.
These life-changing and initiating phases often leave us (including men) feel isolated, lost, confused, lonely, under-resourced, depleted and disempowered.
In Lebanon when daughters have their first period the family has a party to celebrate her becoming a woman. A friend from Lebanon told me her sister felt proud when her period came followed by a celebration but when it was her turn the family were moving home and honouring her womanhood was overlooked. She could still feel the anger and disappointment at her not being celebrated as was her sister.
She had not gone back to feel the start of her path to womanhood until she shared the story of her first period.
It would be really healthy to bring these stories into the conversations with friends and see what you uncover from each story of becoming a woman. How the circumstances at the time may have coloured your experience of this passage and becoming a woman.
I don’t have answers, quite a lot of wonder and love for hearing others and sharing. Come and join
if this invite rings for you!
With love, Irida
Women’s circle meetings
The menstrual cycle
I didn’t know how much the menstrual cycle held me in some way (I couldn’t appreciate it then) but I could appreciate it when it was gone. I started peri-menopause at an earlier age(40) then most women (50+)
It threw me deep into the unknown. What do I do? What is menopause? Why these symptoms? The rest of the story is researching, experimenting, learning and realising how little educated and unprepared I was for this phase. I felt the same during my menarche.
Our monthly hormonal cycle of ovulation and bleeding and all fluctuating states of being in the cycle are a form of feedback, or body’s way of speaking up.
Menstruation is experienced so differently by all of us. Our menarche stories are unique. Many of us have struggled with menstrual pain, some very severe pain, we have felt the anxiety around the choice of contraceptions, some of us have not been able to have children. The womb experiences are as varied as us.
We explore the ‘inner seasons’ of the menstrual cycle with somatic work and aim to track the cycle. Menstrual or moon cycle awareness is a simple practice of tracking the state of being during the different phases of the cycle. You can make a somatic or mental note or write it in a journal. There is nothing to get right or wrong in this process or anywhere to get to. Simply noticing.
I find this simple practice anchors my being inwards to feel my inner landscape. Not judging, just being with the landscape.
In the circle we share where we are in our cycle, how we are and have some time to open out, share, giggle, stretch, move. Often there is a theme or focus with guided meditations as part of the theme and sometimes just open to what’s present in us.
We are not a woo woo circle with mad rituals, rather very curious and relatable people.
Life is a repeated cycle of birth, growth and death.
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Menopause
These gatherings invite women of all phases of life whether you have a menstrual cycle or not. We encourage women who are not bleeding to track the moon cycle and sense how the moon phase affects your being.
Menopause can be a very challenging phase and an initiation in itself marking the last phase of the reproductive years. In the last 5 to 10 years there has been a rise in books, research and conversations that have started to sprout in different parts of the world related to menopause but more support and mainstream coverage and support from employers is needed.
I started peri-menopause at 40 (earlier then average age) and it has been very much a bumpy ride, isolating, confusing and big learning curves too. The circle would be enriched by the voices of different phases of womanhood. If this is you, come and join our conversations.
Meetings every two weeks
We will meet every two weeks on Tuesdays from 18:30 to 20.30. For dates and other practical info please click the ‘Learn more’ button.
About me
Hello, my name is Irida
I’m glad you are reading this and if this resonates with you, I hope you can join us.
I am in my mid 40s. I have lived in Schiedam (in Netherland) for the past 3 years with my husband and 8 yr old son. At the age of 40 I started symptoms that related peri-menopause. This took me by surprise. It was too early. I felt as if something so very familiar, a rhythm was gone and I was floating. Since then I became more aware and very interested in the process of mensruality, menopause, cycle awareness and how to support my body.
A few years ago I came across Wild Power book by Sjanie Hugo and Alexandra Pope, and found myself very drawn to what they had to share about menstruality and menopause. My being rang with the truths about being in a woman’s body and the reframing of these experiences felt like discovering a truth that was obvious and yet not quite recognised or talked about or acknowledged very much.
This year I decided to take this further and completed the Menstruality Leadership Programme held by Red School (founded by Alexandra and Sjanie). This was a deeper immersion into cyclical awareness and it left me feeling a bigger appreciation of how menstrual cycle awareness can support and hold us. I am inspired and fire up. Curious and open to find out more and share.
This brings me to how excited I feel to make space for women to share and listen to each other. I believe that the menstrual cycle whether you have one or not, it’s an underestimated commonality that brings us together. I also believe that sharing what you feel is an old medicine.
I am originally from Albania and lived for over 25 yrs in London and Oxford and life brought me and my family here in Holland where my husband and I run an art gallery. We are both artists and feel very lucky to have the space to create art and be able to share this lovely space also for the women’s gatherings.
I look forward to get to know you!
Irida
Love your cycle
Love your body
Women’s Circle
For women of all ages, phases, backgrounds who want to be in the company of other women, share, listen, explore in a safe friendly space.
© 2023 Cyclical Woman
