The Bloodline Revolution: Reclaiming the Feminine Body as Sacred, Not Sanitary with Marieke Bodyn
Welcome to today's episode of the Honey Toast Podcast. Today, we have a really special guest by the name of Ricky. Ricky is a holistic mama, a modern medicine day woman, someone who really guides women back to themselves through cycle living, womb wisdom, herbs, and astrology. With her background in art, philosophy, midwifery, and fashion, she really bridges the gap of weaving everyday life concepts in with spirituality and intuitive living. So for any viewers that aren't familiar with you or the work that you do, could you just give us a little bit of a background on, who you are and the work that you're currently working on, with your clients and kind of what led you along the path to get to where you are now?
Marieke Bodyn:So ever since I was a little girl, I've always was wondering about life, about who I am, about my role in society, about the role of women in society. And like you've introduced me, I studied many, many things trying to find answers on these questions. And Mhmm. I always kinda hit a wall, not really hitting in-depth and finding different perspective and different answers on my questions. And then I eventually ended up in Bali where I live now.
Marieke Bodyn:And here, I did some very deep healing work and spiritual work, and I found a lot of different perspectives on what it means to to be a woman and how to live in, this society that is very masculine based as a woman. And, yeah, it changed my life completely. And now I feel very ready and called to share this perspective and to share this knowledge that I gained along the way with other women.
Briana Donaldson:I love that so much. It makes perfect sense. I think that because we do live in such a patriarchal society for the most part, It can be tricky as a woman to really kind of find your place, when we go through such a different cycle that a man goes through. And our our daily activities and our the daily structure of our society is so targeted and and revolved around kind of more of that twenty four hour cycle.
Marieke Bodyn:Mhmm.
Briana Donaldson:So I I personally can completely relate, as a woman, like, really trying to find not only your place in society, but also, you know, harnessing your power and how to, like, express that out into the world without feeling like it's in an overwhelming way. I don't really know how to explain it. But Yeah. Just hearing you say that resonated so much with me.
Danielle Schleese:It made me really understand that
Briana Donaldson:that's maybe how a lot of women feel throughout their life, because I
Danielle Schleese:know that I definitely have had those feelings frequently, as a female growing up. So thank you for sharing. Definitely connected. In the cycle work that you're doing and working with women specifically and coming back into themselves and acknowledging what's going on, I think that a lot of women, or if not most women, if not all women, can remember their first bleed. But not all of the women may remember their first bleed as something that's like an initiation or something as sacred as it actually really is.
Danielle Schleese:So from your point of view and from working in the position that you do and with other women, what do you see is the consequence of not kind of acknowledging that first experience women have and kind of just brushing it under the rug?
Marieke Bodyn:Yeah. It's it's so important because it lays the groundwork of how we connect with our bodies and with our cycles. And so often in the past generations, menstruation has seen as something dirty, as something to hide, not to talk about, just take some painkillers Mhmm. And hush-hush behind their closed doors. Just deal with it.
Marieke Bodyn:And it is, in my opinion, so ridiculous because the majority of our population are women, and we bleed. And it's such a big part of being a woman of creation. It's what we go through from month to month. And, yeah, I think there's still so many women so disconnected from their own bodies, from their own menstrual blood Mhmm. Because of that, because of the way we've been taught.
Marieke Bodyn:And, I mean, it's not only the blame is not with our mothers, it's because they've also been taught that. And so generations after generations, menstruation is seen as something dirty, as something Right. To hide. And I think it's finally we're coming into an area that people are starting to see it in a different way. And if you go back in ancient civilizations, and I've done some research on this, and it's so beautiful, there's, like, all over the world, there were different practices on how to honor that.
Marieke Bodyn:There were in Greece certain blood temples where only, like, certain priestesses or women that were on their bridge could go in to get, like, divine downloads or connect with source and with god. We had the red tents, which was basically women that bridge come together in a tent and just go through all the emotions and all the the feelings that they have on the bridge and honor that. And, I mean, if you also just look at it from, like, a natural standpoint, I am someone who started giving my blood back into the earth. It's a practice that scares a lot of people, but our menstrual blood is full of nutrients. It's full of energy as well.
Marieke Bodyn:Like, literally every month, we're not only shedding physically our uterine lining, but also all the emotions, all the energy that we can process during that whole month. And if you give it back to the earth, it's like you become part of modern nature again and of the cycles that go on and on. And I feel this is one of my visions, but our soil in general is super depleted on, like, minerals and vitamins and just in general, good, rich energy. And, yes, it has to do with the monoculture, agriculture of how we, like, make our crops and how we take from the lands. But, also, I feel like we, as humans, as a specie, don't take part in the natural cycle of, like, re fertilizing and, yeah, make it
Danielle Schleese:So true.
Marieke Bodyn:The soil and health nourishing again. Right. So Right. That's for me. And it's also just a beautiful thing to honor your bleed every month.
Marieke Bodyn:Like, for me, it's now literally a ritual. Like, I use washable pads, and I just sew them in water before I throw them in the washing machine. And then that water that is full with blood, I pour that back into the earth, and it's like yeah. It's a beautiful way to to honor that and to be part of the natural cycle again.
Briana Donaldson:Right. I love that. I I feel and, you know, my algorithm is probably very much curated to focus on this this lens of things, but I am seeing more and more women having their bleed into the earth and reintegrating with, like you said, with mother nature. And so if it's it's really fascinating because it feels almost as if our society went from being so interconnected and so focused on sacred ceremony and, you know, like you were explaining ancestral ways of having the red tent and that whole culture. And then at some point, it completely strayed away from that, and we became so disconnected.
Briana Donaldson:We saw our our blood and and kind of getting rid of it. Like, it's just this thing that is is has to go to the waste bin. You know? It's something that we wanna discard. And along the way, we got this complete disconnection from it.
Briana Donaldson:So what do you feel is the biggest reason or the most integral part of why we're starting to see this resurfacing of women reconnecting to their blood, reconnecting to their cycle, and truly wanting to feel it, be a part of it, and have it be something that's extremely ceremonious and not something to just be discarded and looked at as, something that should be shameful or hidden away?
Marieke Bodyn:Yeah. That's such a beautiful question. I think, yeah, a big part of why that got dismissed is because I think they're at one point on Elizabeth with Christianity, like, taking over that everything that had to do with a female, people were scared of this, of the power of blood, of what it means. And they yeah. We they created the patriarchy, basically, where men grew, where men made the systems that are linear.
Marieke Bodyn:And I think now women are realizing, like, yeah. But I I don't operate that way. We don't operate that way. We don't fit in that system. We are disconnected.
Marieke Bodyn:We are burned out, and we don't wanna live like that anymore. And I think, yeah, the first step to reclaiming the feminine, reclaiming a woman's life is to reconnect with herself again. And I think the most ideal thing you can do is reconnect with your cycle because it is such a big part of who we are and how we operate both physically and in our emotions and our hormones. So for me, that was also like, I've always been super, yeah, inspired and intrigued about the fact that we can create life in our in our bodies, in our wounds, that we shed every month, that we have these cycles that we're going through. And I think, yeah, reconnecting to that and really understanding that for yourself, how you operate physically, emotionally in these different phases is such a powerful tool.
Marieke Bodyn:And once you, like, live in a more cyclical life, you're like you're like, wow. But I've been been missing for all these years trying to force myself in a linear structure instead of, like, reading and being
Briana Donaldson:Right. Right.
Marieke Bodyn:Who I am meant to be.
Danielle Schleese:Yeah. It's like that it's like that acceptance of where you are and meeting yourself of where you're at in each of those phases. So kind of branching off on that thought, for instance, like, in in part of our cycle, some women experience pain with menstruation and cramps. So how do you find that that connection to pain is actually more of a connection to the self and like a step into the self versus trying to avoid it. Like, we look at a period in society, we were actually talking about it today Mhmm.
Danielle Schleese:As something that you're avoiding, you're like dreading, you're like, oh god, here it comes. And like, oh, hopefully I don't have to meet this person on this day because I'm supposed to get my period. It's almost like something we prepare for and avoid because of the pain associated with it. But how do you encourage or begin to explain to women that it's safe and okay to lean into that? And Yeah.
Danielle Schleese:That it's more of like a prophecy rather than protection to stray away from that.
Marieke Bodyn:Yeah. I think when you start seeing things in a holistic way, not like, oh, you're ovulating and you're bleeding, but each of the cycles also carry energies and emotions with it and your body is actually talking to you. And if you listen to that, then you will understand yourself and what's going on in your mind and make your emotions better. And it's actually funny because, like, I made on an other podcast, we made a video about when you have your bleed, the emotions that call up, that that are guideposts to what is actually going on within emotionally. And that went viral, and so many women reached out to me like, wow.
Marieke Bodyn:This is a perspective that I haven't had before. And, like, now when I'm bleeding, I'm actually listening and, like, trying to see, okay, what comes up? Is it frustration, anger, sadness? Am I happy? And that says something about your life and how you're living and whether you live in alignment with what you have to do or not.
Marieke Bodyn:And, yeah, just embracing that more, like, intuitive listening to your body because we, as women, we are super intuitive. And if you actually lean into that and try to, like, let go of, like, the rationality and logic that actually just, like, tap into, okay. What is what is happening internally now here for me? Yeah. It's just so powerful.
Marieke Bodyn:And you you can I do that in a journal every time that I bleed? I journal with my bleed, and it's very interesting to then see every month what changes, what comes up, like and it's all related always to the months that you went through. And even with, like, his pain and cramps, like, in so I wrote an ebook called lead like a woman. And in there, I also describe all the different, like, things that are not going well. So for example, PCOS, having long cycles, having short cycles.
Marieke Bodyn:These are not only physically and hormonal, like, guideposts of, like, okay. Something is not flowing right, but it also has to do emotionally and energetically with, like, where you are in your life. And often, these are related to, like, suppressed anger, letting your boundaries cross too much, not taking enough rest and time to actually integrate things. And it's just our bodies literally display what we don't process on an emotional and energetic level. And, yeah, it's very powerful, like, once you see start seeing these connections and actually work with them, how much you can change both physically.
Danielle Schleese:It's it's so well said when you said it's seeing these connections and then working with them where I feel like that's a really key statement, working with them versus working against them.
Marieke Bodyn:Yeah.
Danielle Schleese:Because when we're feeling and we're in these states, it's so natural to be like, these may be negative in society, especially in the Western culture. And it's not as accepted, so I'm going to save everybody else from my energies and what I'm gonna put there because it's inconvenient to them. Right. Right. So it's Well it's very fascinating.
Briana Donaldson:I mean, Danielle and I were talking about it earlier today. I am scheduled to start menstruating within the next two days. And so leading up to that, you know, like, I was laying outside doing my meditation today, and I had my hands on my womb. And I was trying to really, like, connect with myself and Prepare. And prepare and and, you know, like, be calm with myself.
Briana Donaldson:And she came over and I was like, you know, it's so interesting, and I love having these conversations because it's made me realize even more than I already had, which I feel I feel very grateful that I was at least raised with some wherewithal around, you know, wanting to connect to yourself and and your womanhood. But I'm like, still today, it's so viewed that and and so we're so programmed as women to feel as though when we're anticipating our cycle and our bleed and our period to come, we look at it as such a nuisance or like, ugh. Like have to deal with.
Danielle Schleese:Yeah. Something I have to deal with. It's like Or protect
Briana Donaldson:your like, ugh, I'm about to get my period. Or, you know, the week leading up to it if you have PMS and you're like warning people, you're like, just so you know, I'm PMS ing. So Well,
Danielle Schleese:you warned me. Remember?
Briana Donaldson:Yeah. Like It's just like
Danielle Schleese:a simple, like, just warning you that I'm PMS ing. I'm like, okay. Well As a poem was like for me, I looked at her and I was like, oh, I love that you're acknowledging you're so in sync with where you're at. I validate. I love that.
Danielle Schleese:Where for her, it was more so coming from initiation be like, don't like, it's not personal. It's just my hormones. Right.
Briana Donaldson:I'm like, you don't I get it. I get that. But but why is it that we and and I'm not I'm this is more rhetorical because I feel you've already actually literally answered answered it. But why is it that we as a society of women are so programmed to feel like our period is something that is a nuisance? And our luteal phase and our menstrual phase are something that should be that, oh, well, you can't handle it, so it should be pushed to the side and kind of hidden away as opposed to this celebratory phase in womanhood.
Danielle Schleese:Like you're protecting other people as the woman versus the other people protecting you as the woman.
Briana Donaldson:Right. But there's just like such a depth to those phases within us that I feel we can't reach unless we were to go through them. So, I mean, I would love your feedback and opinion on the evolution of all of that.
Marieke Bodyn:Yeah. I think a big part of what that is so, obviously, in both women and men, we have masculine energy and female energy, feminine energy. And so if you look at a cycle, we actually, like, are very compatible with the moon as women. So we we you can either bleed with the full moon or ovulate with the full moon, bleed with the new moon, or ovulate with the new moon. And so you basically have a waxing and waning phase.
Marieke Bodyn:So what you could say your waxing phase is from your bleed on onto your ovulation. This is a very masculine energy. So we feel great. We feel happy. We have a lot of energy.
Marieke Bodyn:We feel very productive. We feel creative. And so that is actually very, like I say, a very masculine energy. So in society, men have seen that women are like that, and they relate to it because they feel a similar way every day. But then the part from your ovulation, your neutral face, and your bleeding is the waning phase of the moon is a more soft feminine.
Marieke Bodyn:But not only soft, and this is also a misunderstanding that, like, the feminine is only, like, soft and receiving. No. There is a lot of emotions.
Danielle Schleese:Mhmm.
Marieke Bodyn:Rage, anger, frustration. And these things come up during that period. But the thing is because we live in a patriarchy, there's nothing set in place support wise or structure wise or even education wise Mhmm. That women go through these phases. Right.
Marieke Bodyn:So we feel like it's inconvenient that we feel angry, that we feel frustrated, that we bleed, that we feel tired, that we just, like, wanna hate everything and everyone. But if we would actually have a structure and support system set up for that, if their roles would be reversed and men would be bleeding, our whole society would look different. And I think there would be so many different things set in place for family situations and in work situations where men even men would like be in their neutral and their bleeding phase would have a different approach or a different, yeah, tasks or work or, yeah, functions to be within those spaces, and we don't have them. And I think it's up to us women to reclaim that back to be to the men and educate them like, hey. We don't function like that during those phases, and we shouldn't either.
Marieke Bodyn:Because, like, that is also a big part of, like that I realized. If I work super hard and active as much in my luteal phase as I would do in my follicular or my ovular phase, I burn myself out. I'm even more angry and more frustrated. It's like, no. Those are the times that you need to take it easy.
Marieke Bodyn:Rest, be with yourself, journal, reflect on things.
Danielle Schleese:But people don't want to do that.
Briana Donaldson:Yeah. Like me more
Marieke Bodyn:you thrive as well during the phases that you're meant to, like, be active and thrive.
Danielle Schleese:Yes. Right. Yeah. It's very true. I see myself a lot in that pattern that you're saying, and that's something that I personally work on, which is why I'm also so fascinated to talk to you and the work that you do because I'm like, this is something I aspire to I wouldn't say master because that's kind of like a masculine approach to it.
Danielle Schleese:To connect more to. Connect more with, especially I think when we were talking previously because I've just had my daughter, like I'm still waiting for my cycle to come back in my my life. And I'm kind of living half in cycle, half not because I still believe cycles are happening because, you know, even women when when they go through menopause, they stop their bleeds. They say that cycles still are going on. And it's just becoming more in tune and in touch with the signals and the systems.
Danielle Schleese:And I do find myself because I'm like, Oh, I feel great. I have a burst of energy. These next five or six days, I'm good to go. But then once that shifts into the next phase, I personally find I have a very difficult time letting go
Marieke Bodyn:Mhmm.
Danielle Schleese:And accepting that. So I push further into my rest phase, which causes even deeper and bigger imbalance which makes me feel even less than and Right. And harder on myself because I'm not producing in a way that's effective and valued in the way that is expected. In our society. In society.
Danielle Schleese:In the specifically the Western society. Right. So in as we're reading through your work, Marike, I was looking through and you're talking a lot about in your work about we bleed the same blood as our grandmothers do. And was just wondering if you can touch a little bit more about that cyclical or ancestral thread that connects all of the lineage for women, for every woman in this world.
Marieke Bodyn:Yeah. Beautiful. This is something that I I also love sharing about. But actually, back in the days, there was not such a thing as giving the male name and pass that on generations. That is something because back in the days, they were not sure, like, which man made which woman pregnant, but the only certain thing was the mother.
Marieke Bodyn:You know? You always knew what which mom which woman was the mother of a child. So the bloodline is something maternally, it's something very secure, and I think it's because men were so scared of that that they then started giving the last name of the men to make sure that their lineage, their bloodline continues. But, actually, a bloodline goes through the female and not through the male. This is, again, a patriarchal construct that has been brought in and that, yeah, gets it all the way around backwards.
Marieke Bodyn:And so also super beautiful that the egg that created you was already formed within your grandmother's womb, within when when your mom was being created in your grandmother's womb, like, for females, all the eggs get already created within the womb and then eventually become you. So you carry literally the energy and the DNA of your grandmother with you. And, yeah, it's like this continuous water flow that goes between generations. It's very difficult to think about it in that way that, actually, the maternal line is way stronger and is way more sacred than you could say than the paternal line, but this is, again, something that we've been, dismissed and pushed aside and not been taught about.
Danielle Schleese:So It's so funny. I always think that I'm like, why the men's last name? It's like I know. But I never had last name. Oh, you just, like, sparked me on a thought.
Briana Donaldson:It's so it is interesting, though. I'm I'm recently married and change did change my last name to my husband's last name, and it was really hard for me. I I felt like it was a child I I don't and I don't wanna say a challenge because I the man's last name? And literally, my thought process instantly went to basically this. I was like, well, I do as the female, I am the one that, you know, creates the life and bursts the life.
Briana Donaldson:So there's never a question regarding who the mother
Danielle Schleese:Oh, wow.
Briana Donaldson:Could possibly be. So you said that, and I was like, yes. I was I feel like I was recently having a similar thought process.
Danielle Schleese:To back. But to
Briana Donaldson:but to circle but to circle back, I I think that, you know, not only is it so ancestral in the fact that, like you said, even when you were an egg in your grandmother's womb because your mother was an egg in her womb, first of all, that is fascinating. I feel as though the ancestry of womanhood and menstrual cycles in the womb are so interconnected that that's probably a topic all on its own that we could talk about, I feel, for ages. But what would you say is a message that you feel is very easy to connect with people when you're telling them about menstruation and the menstrual blood and how accepted it should be in today's society because it has transformed so much over the years. It used to be something very accepted and celebrated and seen as divine. And over time, it's really become this kind of tainted taboo shush shush thing.
Briana Donaldson:So what's something that you would maybe say to a client or a group of people that could help resonate with them to make it seem a little bit more accepted? And, you know, there's so many things that we do accept in our current society that maybe we should question, and yet we don't. And there's something like this that's so beautiful and divine that we
Danielle Schleese:We're like, why don't we question that? Right.
Briana Donaldson:Yeah. Right. So take it away. Take it away.
Marieke Bodyn:I actually have a, like, a weird analogy that I like to use that really lands for a lot of people if I put it this way. So just imagine meeting your best friend for coffee in the morning, and she asks you or you ask her, like, oh, what were you up to last night? And she says, like, oh, me and my partner, we love, and he ejaculated on my face. And your reaction to that would probably be like, okay. That's a bit TMI, but, like, good for you.
Marieke Bodyn:Like, I'm I'm glad you had fun. And if that same friend would say, oh, well, I made a face mask. Your first reaction would probably be like, what the hell? That's weird. That's gross.
Marieke Bodyn:That's dirty.
Danielle Schleese:Right.
Marieke Bodyn:Well, it's both bodily fluids, and it's actually like your own menstrual blood that is super good, by the way, to, like, do a face mask because antibacterial had so many nutrients and stem cells. But still, we see it as something so, like, dirty and we're so disconnected from it. So it's like this conditioning around blood and especially menstrual blood Yeah. That scares
Danielle Schleese:So true.
Marieke Bodyn:People. So, yeah, that analogy often really lands on people that I can't
Briana Donaldson:Totally. Remember.
Marieke Bodyn:I'd have seen it in that way.
Danielle Schleese:You know what's so fascinating? I was just, like, kinda thinking on that thought, and I'm like, how you were saying that? I'm like, that is so true. That's such a visionary I don't even know how to Visual. Visual depiction that it's like you cannot remember it or be impacted it by it.
Danielle Schleese:But it's also like, is that almost a sign because we're in such a patriarchal society and world that like, oh, I made a man desire me so much to the point that he literally ejaculated all over my face. My thing I present myself with identity that I must be it's such a subtle subtle weird subconscious thing where some people are like, no, just I fucking love it because I love the feeling of cum on my face. Whereas like Right. When you really really really really strip back the layers, it's like, well, would you do that with your period? Just go scoop, plop.
Danielle Schleese:Right. Would you?
Marieke Bodyn:Or would you do that with your man? Give him, a face mask with your mouth exactly. Right.
Danielle Schleese:Girl, that's our next date night. Yeah.
Briana Donaldson:And so and so why is it And why are we as women so ashamed of something that Well, think
Danielle Schleese:that's exactly why it is. It's tied to patriarchal Yeah.
Briana Donaldson:Cologne. Yeah.
Danielle Schleese:It's There's just such a layered Yeah.
Marieke Bodyn:Build of Conditioning. Conditioning.
Danielle Schleese:Yeah. Exactly. Like, it's it's it's such a fascinating answer that you
Briana Donaldson:gave because it's very true. But I'm gonna use that analogy, and I'm gonna tell that story on repeat Forever. Pretty much everyone that I speak to that's a man or a woman moving forward. So thank true.
Marieke Bodyn:It is so long.
Danielle Schleese:It's so true. Both have living enzymes?
Briana Donaldson:But also it's like flabbergasting that we're so Yes. Accepting, and it's almost like this desirable, sensual act when a man puts his bodily fluids on a woman's face. But if a woman would want to put her bodily fluids on a man's face, it's looked at as disgusting That's gross all good. And But dirty and
Danielle Schleese:be honest with you, like, up until probably a few years ago when I've I actually had joined a woman's container, and I it was like my first experience with working with a healer. And and in this container, women were so open to the point where they're like, oh, last night I did a period blood mask. And I was like, I was like shocked The first time. Yeah. To my core because I was ew.
Danielle Schleese:Right? But then after I was like thinking about it, this moment has stuck with me four years. And I was like, I can't wait to get my period so I can do that. Yeah. Because it makes so much sense.
Danielle Schleese:It's like a simple ritual that connects you to It's nourishing. Nourishing your ancestors, your body, your fluids. It's just it's the fast I haven't done it yet, but it's fascinating because I do want to do it. I want to partake. I want to put myself in the uncomfortable positions.
Danielle Schleese:I want to question why. And I think a lot of women, especially in our audience and our listeners, are in the same position. It's like, yeah, we grew up and we're connected to the western modern world, but at the same time, we wanna know Right. What else there is because there's so much ancient knowledge out there and so much wisdom from other women and womb wisdom. Like, that's its own like Brianna said, that's its own power.
Danielle Schleese:Yeah.
Marieke Bodyn:And I think it's like looking at least sorry. Looking at these triggers, like, I I've been in similar positions as you've been that I was, like, triggered by it, like, seeing women put menstrual blood on their face or talking about these things. But I feel those triggers always show, like, where you haven't looked within yourself of, like Yeah. Why am I actually triggered by this? And I think if you look at that with everything, it will show you a lot of, like, where the conditioning still is, and then you can differentiate, like, do I really just not connect with menstrual blood and these practices, or is it because I've been conditioned to think it's gross and dirty?
Marieke Bodyn:And I think, yeah, that's such a good tool and way to, like, look at new triggers that can help you grow, like,
Briana Donaldson:immensely. So for someone who is newly experiencing these types of conversations or these kind of topics, Danielle and I, obviously, being more in the wellness space a little bit, we are really seeing this resurgence of women being more connected to their bleed and to their blood and to their cycle. What do you feel has kind of been impacting that change and that revolution of us be coming more home to the self? The first part of my question. And the second part of my question is what would be the first steps for someone who maybe is interested in trying to dive down that path a little bit further and reconnect the with themselves more, but doesn't really know where to begin?
Marieke Bodyn:So to answer your first question, I think just worldwide, we're in an age of disconnect. People feel ill, you know, but mentally, there is an insane amount of mental health issues, physical issues. There's war. I think that patriarchy is coming to an end and to a point where everyone's realizing it's just not working neither for men or for females. And I think people are just like, yeah, but done with the system and feeling burned out, feeling disconnected, feeling not good in their body, in their lives, and not being happy.
Marieke Bodyn:And so it's always like when there's a darkness or a tipping point within society that people start to, like, question things and change things around. So I think that's a big part of it that and especially women, because I think we are the most affected by our society at the moment, that they're like, I don't wanna do this anymore. You know? Like, I don't wanna grind and hustle and burn myself out and lose my cycle and need to go through and all these things. Like, we don't love and not listen to my emotions.
Marieke Bodyn:So, yeah, there is I think that's why the big surge of women that are actually reclaiming, like going back to our roots, going back to nature, and going back to ancient practices. And I feel like in the wellness space, it's not only females. I think a lot of people are looking back at, like, how did civilizations do it when it comes to how back in the days, eating more clean, pure, falling back on herbal remedies, Ayurveda, Chinese medicine, they're all, like, in a big rise because people realize, like, that the Western medicine system is not it. Like, it's good for certain things, but not to lean on completely. Right.
Marieke Bodyn:Right. And then, yeah, on your second question, I think you wanna connect more with yourself as a woman. It's just I would start with, like, just tracking your cycle and maybe keeping a little journal that every time you bleed or you're in your little phase that you just, like, without judgment, just, like, write down, like, how you feel, what you feel in your body, what you've experienced in the past month. And, yeah, just connect more with that. And I feel like the more you do that, the more you will see, like, oh, okay.
Marieke Bodyn:There's a pattern here or there's things that come back. I also personally love living with the moon because she's very connected to the female. She also goes through the cycles. And I'm someone I bleed on the new moon and, yeah, and I operate on the full moon, which is, like, most feminine cycle you can have. Not that there is anything wrong with not living on years and face to the moon, but it just, like, yeah, helps you track how you feel, how what, like, energy boosters do.
Marieke Bodyn:I even plan within my business everything around, like, okay. When I'm in my ovulatory or follicular phase, that's where we do the heavy lifting, heavy work where I go go go when I launch my programs. And then in my neutral phase And during my bleach, I do either nothing or just, like, small little things that are, like, editing some stuff or, you know, just to be working some things that are, like, not needing that much creativity of energy of me. And it works great, and I have also a team of people that works with me, and I'm also like, tell me when you're reading. Tell me when you're in your usual place.
Marieke Bodyn:Like, we know from each other when what is happening. And it's so nice to also do business in a feminine way and respect other women, like, when they're bleeding, when they're struggling, when they're needing more time, space to do stuff. And I feel like it works great because then because they rest when they're supposed to rest, they're also that much more productive and feeling motivated to actually, like, get stuff done, when they're in their
Briana Donaldson:Absolutely. Perfect.
Marieke Bodyn:So yeah. I love that. I think, yeah, connecting connecting back to your cycles is the main the main thing you can do and trying to integrate that in your day to day life and see Even if it's small things, if you still have a corporate job where you cannot take rest, just maybe, like, food prep for your little and your bleeding face. Make sure that you don't have any plans. Sit with it.
Marieke Bodyn:Cancel and just, like, allow yourself to just, like, rest Yeah.
Danielle Schleese:Yeah. Allow yourself So I feel like almost that tracking is, like, that sense of permission. So to because women, I just love women. Okay? They're just the best, the most I love being a woman.
Danielle Schleese:Call forth becoming a woman in each lifetime here on forward. Yeah. But I just feel like there's so much magic and power to it that it's almost like by tracking something simple as simple as your cycle, it almost gives you that permission to to ease into that rest because we are naturally such givers, such people pleasers, and show up above and beyond. Mhmm. For everyone all the time.
Danielle Schleese:Mhmm. And it's exhausting. And as we know, there's a lot of burnout culture. There's a lot of symptoms coming up. And that's why I think we're turning to a lot of ancient practices and kind of going back into ritual, which is different than routine.
Danielle Schleese:So I think that in a way, we're learning to decondition this good girl archetype that comes Yes. With like showing up in only these great cycles and phases of ourselves. And even we've been so conditioned that even when we are experiencing these tougher times when we're bleeding, we don't wanna burden anybody. So we retreat to save everybody else's Discomfort. Discomfort versus being like, this is the way the world works.
Danielle Schleese:This is the way it is. So everybody works in kind of tandem with one another.
Briana Donaldson:And let's work in harmony In
Marieke Bodyn:harmony. To
Briana Donaldson:support each other through those phases. So I love that you said that about the even the people that you work with, you discuss your cycle and and when you're bleeding and when you're in which phase.
Marieke Bodyn:And how do
Danielle Schleese:we get in the same
Briana Donaldson:cycle all the time. But also so that you can truly support each other
Danielle Schleese:Yes. Through all of it.
Briana Donaldson:I think that that's spectacular. I'm a big advocate for that. I do it in my own household. I'm very open. I have a calendar on my fridge
Danielle Schleese:Me too.
Briana Donaldson:That says which cycle I'm in at on which week of the month so that everyone in my household knows, like, where I'm at. I think that it is extremely important that all of us interconnect so that we can all support each other through our cycles, both men and women. So that's really great.
Danielle Schleese:Yeah. So this kind of like leads me into more of our closing statement here. And seasonal question I would say is, why do you think, Ricky, that most women it could just actually be generalize. Most people wait until there is some sort of symptom or issue that's going on within our body or our health before we actually take action into understanding where that comes from versus band aiding that symptom. Or, like, seeking
Briana Donaldson:the true depth of help from someone like yourself to understand the root. Yeah. Understand the root problem.
Marieke Bodyn:Yeah. I think that comes down again to our patriarchy and to the conditioning of that. Also, the medical system works, they don't go to the root. We don't see things in a holistic way. It's, again, more linear.
Marieke Bodyn:It's like, okay. You have this symptom. Let's, like, find a bandage to put it on instead of looking, like, where is this symptom coming from? And, yeah, it's also the way that we've been conditioned to look at our body. Like, I have the same with my mom.
Marieke Bodyn:She's, like, very yeah. I would say, like, masculine in her way of being, and, like, she felt not, like, super late that she had kidney cancer, like in a very a far stage already. And I was like, mom, did you not like tune into your body and feel that? And she's like, yeah. I felt like something in my side, but yeah, I didn't I didn't worry about it.
Marieke Bodyn:And I was like, woah. How can you be so disconnected from your body? Luckily, everything
Danielle Schleese:Like the fear of it. Right?
Marieke Bodyn:Yeah. Racial, everything is fine. But, yeah, it's just weird that we've been taught not to listen to our bodies. We've been taught not to listen to our intuition, and I think, yeah, like I said, the masculine, the patriarchal way of seeing things is rational, is structured, is controlled, and how the feminine energy works is intuition. It's more holistic.
Marieke Bodyn:It's literally circular again. So, yeah, if we learn to, like, listen to our bodies and really be in tune with them, then we will feel, like, very fast, like, oh, okay. Something is not working instead of letting our bodies speak for us because 100% believe that all diseases have an underlying, like, mental generational root cause that we neglect and that we don't listen to, and and then our body literally, like like, is in dis ease. Yeah. You know?
Marieke Bodyn:It's not not in a good relaxing natural holistic stage. It's in a dis ease, and our bodies then show us, hey, something is not going well. And it's, like, really cool. You can even, like, look at your body and see, like, which part of your body is such like in Chinese medicine. They make, like, the connection that certain parts of your body are connection are connected to certain emotions or to certain things that you don't process or that you're stuck with, and that's often then also related to where that disease come from.
Marieke Bodyn:So, yeah, I think it's a holistic approach that we've forgotten and that we're now coming back to seeing things as, like, a whole and that everything has an effect on each other. And then now, like, finally coming up with research and studies that how much our mind is controlling our body and vice versa that it's not like separate entities. So
Briana Donaldson:It's the connection between everything and everyone. It's all everything's interconnected.
Danielle Schleese:Oh my God. Yeah. How how esoteric can we go here? Yeah. I could just keep going and ask you so many questions.
Danielle Schleese:But Yeah. Just so we don't go too far off off into the ethers. Off. Yeah. Could you just share a little bit more of, like, where our listeners can find you, what it is that you offer, and any social links or any pages that you wanna mention or any offerings that you have going on at the moment?
Marieke Bodyn:So, yeah, my main account is momma ricky on Instagram. I wrote some ebooks, One Bleed Like a Woman. I also have one on how to align your life and your manifestations with the moon called manifestation. And I'm currently gonna host retreats in August and in October that are based around, like, yes, coming back to your feminine essence. I do also here in Bali, two weekly women circles, which I love.
Marieke Bodyn:And, yeah, I'm I'm planning on starting my own podcast very soon, and I'm just building my brand more and more. I think I'm still, for myself, also finding what is my best medium or format on how to do that and playing around with that. But, yeah, I think the main my main channel is my Instagram where you can reach out, just drop your questions, and follow me on the journey that I'm on as well to, like, speak my truth and share more knowledge of all the research I did with women.
Danielle Schleese:Absolutely. Amazing. Thank you
Briana Donaldson:so much for sharing. And we're gonna write all of this in our show notes as well. So for anyone that is interested to work with Ricky one on one or potentially attend one of her phenomenal retreats or hear more about what she information amazing information she's sharing, we'll have all of her links in our show notes
Danielle Schleese:below. Well, thank you so much, Ricky. We value you so much. We value your input, and we cannot wait to continue this conversation above and beyond. We appreciate your time and your energy.
Marieke Bodyn:Yeah. Thank you, ladies, for having me and for, yeah, making platform where we can share all this because it's I think it's so important and that this gets out in the world and more women, like, connect back to their bodies. So thank you so much for having me.
Briana Donaldson:Yes. Absolutely. Thank you so much for tuning in everyone today. We look forward to seeing more guests like this on our show, and we hope that you check-in for more episodes.