Explore the exciting arena of fertility awareness in my interview with Veronica Rickson, Herbalist, Fertility Awareness Instructor, and creator of the Menstrual Calendar Journal. Honor yourself, celebrate your strength, empower your transformation with your Yin-care®. This is the Yin-care® Podcast, and I’m your host, Margaret Jacobson, the Mother Rising.
Welcome everybody to the Yin-care® podcast. I am Margaret Jacobson. I am Yin-care®’s Mother Rising and today I am so excited to introduce to you Veronica Rickson. She is a Certified Fertility Awareness educator and a Clinical Herbalist. She teaches women how to chart their fertility signs so that they can naturally avoid or achieve pregnancy and have greater responsibility, which I love that she put this in there over their reproductive health. So we’re going to talk about that too. Veronica is a teacher and a clinician at the Berkeley herbal center in Berkeley, California, and also runs, , her own practice named Capu. Which is a dedicated to helping women live in tune with nature and their bodies because really guys, we are nature.
That’s the thing. She is also the creator of the beautiful Menstrual Calendar Journal, track your cycle, change your life. That’s it. There we go. I think I could get that. And she also has this awesome five week course called Fertility Now, the five week program to learn the fertility awareness method.
So you can ditch synthetic birth control forever, read your body with certainty, and build your future holistically. And so without further ado, I am welcoming with us Veronica. Thank you so much for coming today. Thank you, Margaret, for having me. So fun to be chatting with you. Yay, I’m so happy too. We got connected because I was so excited to see your calendar when I had been turned on to Steamy Chick.
And she, as part of one of her trainings, uses your calendar and teaches people how to use it. And I was just like, there’s a circular calendar. What? Who would have thought? I’ve had yours that we sold at our clinic for over a handful of years now.
But yours was the first one I ever saw. Was this like a thing that people started doing or how did that even evolve? It’s so interesting to me. Good question. I first saw, any kind of circular calendar in relation to a menstrual cycle from this author from the U. K. named Miranda Gray.
Oh. So she wrote this book called The Optimized Woman. And she wrote another book she might have written more than just these two. She wrote another book called Red Moon, White Moon. And, so basically she was one of the first authors that I really liked when I was looking at into holistic, ways of becoming more involved with your own menstrual cycle.
And so I yeah, the first time I ever saw a circular calendar was in one of her books that she mentions from another teacher that she had so and now I’m blanking on that original teacher’s name But no, I’m not the first person who’s ever thought of it. There may have been other creators of a circular calendar, but none that I’m aware of.
Yeah. And so I had the idea in 2017 and then it was printed in 2018. So a little while ago now, but that’s so great that Kelly Garza uses. Yeah, that’s right. Kelly Garza. Yeah. She shares the calendar in one of her classes. I so appreciate that. Yeah, I know. I’d love to have her on here too. She’s really interesting and got some cool stuff going on, but Yeah.
What I’d love if you could just share with everybody a little bit about your training and your background. And then, you can also weave in how you decided to get into that because I think like your training and your background is good for people to know to be exposed to like different types of Of healthcare practitioners and what they offer and what the studies are, because a lot of people don’t really know what methodologies are out there besides traditional medical doctors or some of the more known like chiropractors or naturopaths or whatever.
And there’s all these other little things that people are learning that are really detailed that they’re not teaching in any of these other practices that are extremely helpful for women in empowering themselves to learn more about themselves. Tell us a little bit about your profession and your journey.
Sure. So My journey in terms of herbalism and charting and getting to know my own cycle started in 2015. and that was because all of a sudden I was, I don’t know what came over me, but I was really freaked out about having my IUD. it had been causing pain for a couple of years, but I just always dealt with it because I was like, that’s the price to pay to not get pregnant.
That’s fine with me. I’ll deal with the pain. and then I don’t, yeah, just all of a sudden I was like, I am crazy. Why have I never considered what this could be doing to my body if I’m in pain, if I’m not feeling right it just didn’t resonate with me anymore. Previous to that, I had been on other forms of hormonal birth control including the Depo Provera shot, which is, I would just say dangerous at this point and various oral contraceptives, the NuvaRing you name it I was on it.
And now I think back I must have not been satisfied if I kept hopping around to try different methods, but either way, I. It finally dawned on me that I don’t want to be doing this anymore And I don’t know what i’m going to do, but it’s not this and as soon as I made that really firm decision That’s how I started coming across other ways of being and that also led me into herbalism because if I didn’t want to be on Any kind of hormonal synthetic birth control anymore.
I definitely wasn’t going to be taking Antibiotics for acne anymore either. which I had been on for years. I don’t even know how that’s allowed That’s also another pretty dangerous thing Either way, I stopped the acne medication, and I stopped hormonal birth control, and I, I was a mess for a little while as I figured out how to take care of myself.
And that led me to the Berkeley Herbal Center where I became a student. I took night classes there while I was still working full time. And then I After about three years of pursuing herbal studies just for my own sake, I realized, okay, this isn’t just a fun thing for me to be taking night classes anymore.
It’s clearly something I’m passionate about. And I think I could actually have this as my livelihood because I love it so much. And, people ask me questions and I enjoy sharing it. So that’s how that started. and at, during that time I was, completely tracking my own cycle for natural birth control.
And I think using the language tracker cycle can be a little bit confusing because maybe that just means marking on the calendar the day that you got your period. And of course it could be something as simple and basic as that because that’s really important to do. but when I. When I am using the language track your cycle, I am using, I am talking about a very specific method of fertility awareness or natural birth control so that not only are you confident that you’re not going to get pregnant you could also see what’s happening in your body hormonally based on charting your fertility signs.
So it’s really an in depth approach to taking care of your body. It’s not for everybody because there’s a level of commitment and dedication each day. And for me at this point it’s like as easy as breathing. I don’t think twice about what I need to do. It’s effortless, but when you’re first learning that first three to six months, it’s a learning curve and you do need to make a new habit out of charting your fertility signs.
Yeah, absolutely. You just said, which kind of made, stirred something inside of me when you said it’s not for everyone, because it’s really hard to stomach that it’s not for everyone. It’s hard to stomach that that we’re gifted these beautiful bodies, but we’re never taught how to use them, and as women you were even sharing and saying I’ve had the same experience, you know that as soon as you hit an age where you’re fertile you’re jammed down your throat, you know that you should be on some level of birth control, whatever it is. And that’s the only thing that you could possibly do and yet it is and it has become acceptable as well to now cross label apply fertility medications for other things. Other reasons for cramping or for acne, or for, I’m sure you hear the gamut of reasons when we’re on it. But I guess so if I had to frame that into a question, it’s really that’s, this is like a really deeper like thing to just jump into, but why, how do we change that? Like, how do we start to work to tea, is it through teaching our young girls? Is it through ourselves just becoming aware?
Like, how do we shift this? The cycle of madness. Cause like you said, you just stopped everything and I was thinking, yeah, you stopped the madness. It’s no, I’m not doing that anymore. So yes it’s not the best form of birth control for everybody, but everybody should learn.
That this is an option. I would say that including males. Yeah, that’s yes. Yeah So I think an age appropriate time would be high school because realistically that is when you know, younger people start learning negative, harmful things about sexual relations, basically.
And I think having a sense of respect for the female body and the male body and how the two can work together. Or even in same sex partnerships, either way there’s a level of respect that we need to have. And we could only have that if we understand how bodies function. and so if we’re not fully understanding the picture of how a female body functions and how our cycle and our hormones are so different than male body people how can we have that mutual respect for one another?
So I, I think Even just learning about hormones and and yeah, hormones of a cycle could be taught about in high school level. And, if, Parents aren’t okay with bringing that to another level of sexual relationships, then that part could be taught in college, it’s hard to say because as parents, we might all feel a little bit differently how much we want our children to be exposed to, you’re being very gracious. I do think that It’s something for all of us to consider and for any younger women that are, and young men, that may be watching this, like as you, as we grow into those areas where we’re developing deeper partnerships, that we need to start having those conversations about, about each other’s cycles, and specifically women’s cycles, because that is the one that That does set this set us up for pregnancy, predominantly but the other thing that, that, that brings up to me too, is what are some of the do women have questions for you sometimes about how to talk to their male partners about these things, not really. What has surprised me the one of the most surprising things I would say about sharing this work with people is how many male partners. Seek out this information for their female partners. Really? Yes. yay. Yay for that. I just got an email from some man in Australia who said my I got this calendar for my girlfriend last year I see that you’re now out of stock. How do I order her another one. It’s shocking, because we hear a lot of negative stereotypes with men that, they don’t care as long as, they’re not going to be responsible for getting somebody pregnant, whatever.
But, when, often when somebody is in a loving partnership if a male sees that their female partner is struggling from the side effects of birth control. They don’t want that. That’s horrible. And honestly, if you ask them, they wouldn’t want to be on birth control either. When they find out that there’s other approaches, they are surprisingly supportive.
It’s too bad that it’s a surprise, but that, that that really has seemed to be the case. I had that too. You’re jogging my memory because we did have a couple of men within the clinic that were, shopping around cause we had a retail area space and it was the same thing.
They were buying it for someone. You know some a woman close woman friend or partner in their life that they wanted to share that with and they were so excited to see it. So I had totally forgotten about That’s a cool reminder and if somebody is trying to get their partner on board, I would say that maybe if a partner isn’t being at first like reception of the news that you want to try doing a natural method it’s probably only because they’re scared that you might get pregnant.
And so that’s where the education comes along you have to feel confident yourself that you’re going to be able to learn the method and then you share that confidence with your partner and it doesn’t just fall on the woman’s hands anymore. The partner is going to be involved too, knowing when his partner is in her fertile wave.
And yeah there’s a level of responsibility on both partners. Totally. It’s cool. So the other thing that I think is really important to, to highlight is that for those of us that are not totally immersed in this is that the window of time to get pregnant is very short, the woman’s cycle, right?
How many days does that vary between that for women in general, would you say? We say seven days would be generous. Five days is probably more accurate. But when we teach the rules of the Symptothermal Method is the method that I use and teach we account for not knowing the exact day of ovulation and give it like a buffer of a couple of days on either side more than a couple of days on either side.
So that way there’s very little room for error, right? And ovulation only happens once in a cycle. Contrary to what some people have been saying it, that happens once per cycle. And people are saying, people say it happens more. Oh, good old social media. There’s I’m like, this is news to me, I didn’t know this.
Basically, I don’t even want to talk about it because I don’t want to confuse people. Let’s not even say it. We ovulate once per cycle and unless you are identical, a twin and then the egg, there’s two eggs, if you’re an identical twin, one egg, but if you’re the other kind of twin, then.
Yeah. Okay. That happens in a 24 hour period, back to back. It’s not, you ovulate, and then, a week later or two weeks later, you operate again. That doesn’t happen. Got it. Okay. Interesting. But the point is that I’m looking to make is that we are so willing to go down these areas with with pharmaceutical interventions for something that we think is going to be an easy, a quick and easy fix for something that we’re so worried about, that is actually only that ends up having so many side effects that were never told about, like massive repercussions.
You’re talking hormones effect. All the areas of your body. It’s not just, they’re not targeting your ovaries, or your uterus or whatever. They’re going everywhere. So they’re affecting everything. So we’re willing to like sacrifice that you know, which can compound many pre, preconditioned scenarios within our own body, right?
For such a short period of time each month that we need to just be attentive to ourselves, right? No, and yeah, nobody knows going into birth control often 15, 16, that you could only get pregnant a very small amount of each month. Whereas the male is fertile every single day. The females fertile, really, yeah way shorter amount of time.
And it’s the cervical fluid that keeps us fertile for a longer period of time, basically. And I’m, and as you’re saying that too, it’s like, it’s making me realize like how that type of of education that’s jammed on us. Like the male is fertile all the time.
It’s then what’s your response? The initial response is, oh no, I should be afraid of that. We should, we want to celebrate that too. That’s a beautiful thing in and of itself. And we just have to work together on these things that, come back into balance around it. Because the bottom line is the female is mostly infertile. But the majority of the cycle, right? So if we know that, and we’re aware of that, we might make different choices. And in the end, we also want not to just know our bodies, but we want to bring, to birth beautiful, beings into this world that are wanted and loved and written that we’re all prepared for.
That’s really what everybody wants, which is why it all stems from, even all this fear around it is because we want to be ready for it. It’s a huge life changing experience. Of course, it’s right. It’s best when we could prepare for it. And, sometimes there’s It’s a happy surprise, but a lot of times it could ends in, it ends in traumatic events for people.
If we can avoid that based on just being more informed about how our bodies work, I’m starting at a younger age than I think some people are. That’s a beautiful thing for everybody involved. Exactly. And then the other thing that’s coming to me too, that I’m remembering is that some women have reactions that decrease their libido from hormonal birth control interventions, and then that’s defeats the whole.
Purpose of I’m going to make it easier to have sex, but now I don’t even want it. Yeah. That is one of the libido loss of libido and depression, anxiety are the two most common complaints. Wow. Yeah. Wow. And so that’s good. let’s segue into your, a little bit into your course and we can touch on the calendar and everything, but in your in your course, like what are the, as far as the outcomes, what are you noticing that are big, like the big changes for people in getting connected with their cycle and what do people report back to you?
Really just having a greater sense of like awe for their body. oh my gosh, this is so cool. this is a secret that’s been, like, kept from me. This is the best kept secret from my own self about my own body. And not wanting to say necessarily that anybody has intentionally kept this, I guess we’ll say power from women, but if we’re not taught about it and then, When once we reach the age where we would discover it our own selves, maybe naturally but instead we’re put on hormonal birth control that would stop that magic, you know how would we ever learn about it?
So when they are when women are 25 30 35 and then getting off of hormonal birth control and then discovering what it is like to just cycle naturally and learn about the hormonal changes that happen and and all the different really cool things that happen with the cervix and the cervical fluid and our basal body temperature.
Yeah, people are just really proud of their body. And see how it clearly mimics nature and Mother Earth. It’s really cool. So I think that’s probably the biggest aha is just wow, my body’s really incredible. And that doesn’t happen for everybody. Some women, of course, don’t have regular cycles or are discovering through charting that they’re having PCOS or another condition that’s preventing them from ovulating, for months on end it still gives them power to, to recognize what’s going on in their body and think of how they can change their own lifestyle and diet and yeah it’s just a way, more empowered way of being.
In my opinion, absolutely. Yeah. And I love that, that they start to resonate with being nature, which is what I like to, people are always like, oh, I want to go out in nature. I wanted this, but it’s we the realization really is that we are nature, we’re one in the same, that we aren’t, there’s no, it doesn’t just because we live in a city or in a house or with walls and everything, it doesn’t mean that we’re not nature.
But one of the things I love that is in your calendar related to it. Is this the seasonal cycle thing that you put over the calendar. So maybe this is a good moment to segue into looking at the calendar. And what do you think? Oh, sure. Okay, cool. All right. tell us a little bit about about the calendar.
Let’s just start with this slide. How’s that sound? Okay. So the way so again, people use this differently. Some people use it like very strictly for natural birth control. So they’re talking, tracking their cervical fluid and their basal body temperature and making sure they understand the rules of the method.
But other people are just using the calendar as a better way to get to know themselves cyclically. So it’s more of a little low key, lighthearted, fun approach to the calendar as well. And this. large circular page is has 31 segments for 31 days in a month at the most. And the way I like to use it is as an actual calendar.
So let’s say we were just approaching the month of September because we are, I would write down okay, it’s September. And then I would say on September 1st, I am on day, for example, seven of my cycle. So in the little spot, like wherever one is here, I think one is right up here, you’d put seven? Yes, in that, in the little rectangle area.
And then in that small circular cycle dial you would match it up to day seven in that cycle dial and it’s just offering a gentle reminder like, oh, you’re in your inner spring phase where your estrogen is starting to build up. And these are some gentle reminders of what you might be feeling right now.
And so you could take advantage of having that estrogen rise, and it’s just a fun way to think about navigating your daily life. With having the ebbs and flows the gifts of each inner season, right? Plan your calendar or plan your schedule, and it’s based on the energy level that you may be experiencing at that time of your cycle.
Exactly. So if on September 14th, you’re on day 21 of your cycle and you know that you’ve already ovulated. You might know, okay I’m still likely and in good spirits here better than I’ll be in my, days leading up to bleeding again. So it might be a good time to gather with family and friends during this time versus I wouldn’t, necessarily want to be leading a work lecture or something during my PMS days.
And you could just schedule that into your own calendar, really just make it. Applicable to you in your life. That’s awesome. and then in this in this little triangular section, you guide people through as I. And I may be remembering this wrong, but this is how I was using it too, is really like keeping track of all the little things that were going on in my day, like a journal, like a mini little journal.
Exactly. So how do you, how, what would you recommend? So I tend to put my mood and my energy levels and did I feel like being around people that day or did I not? More of that kind of energetic, emotional or just like the day events and because they’re this journal is 12 by 12.
So this is a fairly good sized journal. So there’s enough space to write down, two, sentences of whatever you want, and I love it because I’ve never been a person who journals or does diary entries. However, doing two sentences per day is completely especially as it relates to my cycle, that is something I’ve always that’s very doable, and And that’s just a fun way to look back at your cycle that you just had or the month that you just had and notice when you were really feeling great, what tough days did you have?
And what do you want to have happen in your next cycle? How can you make things easier for yourself in your next cycle if you had a hard time this past cycle? Because how, yeah, how we treat ourselves every day impacts. The any premenstrual tension that we might have, or, potentially impact or bleeding days as well.
It compounds itself. Exactly. Let’s, let me take a look and see what is, okay, so then this is a and you could, this is the though you tell us what is this? So this is just graph paper where, if you want to, if you’re the kind of person who really wants to track your basal body temperature so that because you’re using this as a natural birth control method you will just, on a day to day basis, wake up in the morning if you’re using an oral basal body temperature thermometer and write down what your temperature was.
There’s another device called a temp drop that just sits on your arm and overnight and then you wake up in the morning and see what your temperature is. And that’s what I use because if you’re not somebody who wakes up at the exact, more or less the same time every morning then it’s a great way to go.
And so I love the temp drop. That’s what I use. but either way, you’ll keep track of your basal body temperature and you’ll notice that after you ovulate, your temperature goes up, usually about a half a degree. And that’s and if your temperature stays risen for a given amount of days you can base, you can confirm ovulation and then you cross check with cervical fluid and make sure it’s dried up.
There’s, that’s like the very condensed version. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, but you can also do people sometimes once they’ve got their their temperature, do they also maybe write it in the first over here too, or no? You can, I just think for, you really want to make sure sometimes people’s temp shift is very obvious, but sometimes and you could clearly see it with the, just skimming your data, but I just want to make sure people understand as much as possible what their information is saying, and it’s actually easier with this type of data to see it linear in a linear fashion versus the cyclical circular page that is more.
Fun and for emotions and energy. I wouldn’t necessarily say that you can look at that chart even if you put your temperature in each segment and clearly say oh I can see follow the rules that I need to follow. it just doesn’t work that way. I would recommend that people look at it in a linear way.
Got it. you so alternatively, if you’re looking and you find when you are the days that you’re fertile, you could simply like, just go, Oh, those were days X, through X, what was going on in my life and flip back to those other pages. Yes. That’s a great way to do it. Yeah. Okay. And then this is what it looks like on the front.
It’s so beautiful. I love that. I love the imagery that you have in here. The artists that you work with is just done phenomenal work. Oh, I know she’s absolutely a genius. and then on the inside, you have all kinds of great information. do you want to tell us a little bit about some of the things that you cover in the introduction before people are able to track in there in the journal?
Yes. So first and foremost, I really want whoever uses this to make it completely their own. So yeah, if you want to be a diehard charter and use this for natural birth control, great. Okay. I’ve given you framework to get started and further reading recommendations so you can continue educating yourself or you could take a class with me, but I just really want to encourage people to make sure they know what they’re doing if they are using it for natural birth control because like I said, there’s a lot of education involved and a learning curve.
So I explained that in the calendar, but I also share ways how you could just use this to enhance your life. So you get to know your cycle better and the what we call interseasons menstruation, preovulation, ovulation, and premenstruation. We can liken it to the outer seasons of winter, spring, summer, and fall.
So teaching a little bit about that. And and then of course, as, as much as we would love to have picture perfect, easy, pain free cycles and periods, that doesn’t happen all the time or for some people ever. And there’s so many things that we can do to make our cycles easier, come in better balance with us so that you can eventually have a pain free period and little to no PMS and yeah, there’s lots that you can do. Because of my herbal background, I share a lot of herbal Western Herbalism mostly. Sorry, I just flipping at the same time. I was trying to see if there was. There’s, you’ve got some beautiful more imagery. Oh, yeah.
So that page is about period troubleshooting tips. So I go into very little bit of information about if you’re having really short cycles. here are some pointers and what herbs might be nice for you if this is you. yeah, just letting, encouraging people that there’s many ways to go about something if you’re seeking better cycles or more improved cycles.
And you cover some herbs in there and stuff too. Which is cool. And wanting, yeah, wanting people to know how to make their own medicinal strength herbal infusions. And or if I don’t want to do that, what’s a tincture and yeah. I love that you do that, because this is often I talk about how sometimes women who have, are just entering into more of a holistic framework, there can be a little bit of reticence in working with herbs or just concern.
We’ve been a little bit taught to be somewhat fearful of them. I know this just because of the herbal wash, and women. And of course, in our clinical practice as well, just interacting with people that are new to this, there can be reticence around that. But the nice thing is when you’re working with when you’re motivated to make a change like this, and then you’re, you’re educating yourself around what you can do.
You get to be your own guide, like what is working for you, what you get to check in with yourself around some of these things, and there’s some that are really just very gentle, gentle herbs that can really be supportive of different times of the month. What would be one herb that you say you often recommend for people for something in particular?
One of my favorite adaptogens is ashwagandha, which is an Ayurvedic herb. But I really love that herb because It just melts tension and stress away from your nervous system. Especially if you find that impacting your sleep. So obviously I’m biased. You can clearly tell that it’s helped me a lot with my stresses and sleep issues.
I mean that it honestly, it cures it. It’s incredible. That’s definitely one of my, but it really depends on the person. That’s, that is why I like working in clinical herbalism because I get to meet the person individually and, hear their personal complaints and what’s going on and think of something, really special for them that will specifically help them.
But, a lot of times people have really bad menstrual cramps or PMS or yeah, all types of PMS symptoms and acne. And so with that we could say, okay, the liver likely needs a little bit of support. You could either go to the grocery store and buy and start introducing your body to more bitter greens.
And really try to make a habit of eating something green and slightly bitter that maybe your body is not accustomed to. And over time, that liver, that your liver is going to really benefit from that and your PMS symptoms will start to dissipate more and more. Or, you can give somebody a dandelion root tincture which would be the quick, easier thing to do.
However, whenever possible, I do like to encourage things through food and lifestyle. Yeah, absolutely. Yep. Food as medicine, people. yes. The ultimate form. Food and our thoughts. Let’s not forget. Our thoughts, inner thoughts. Absolutely. Thoughts are powerful. But let me just go I know I went through these quickly, but I wanted to go back to this so people could see like how you would write, the cycle day in there and then your journaling, and then what do you use in this inner circle for in that inner circle, what I tend to use are, so my, the days that I bleed or I’m spotting the days that I had sex full moon, new moon. I also put, when did I do a V steam? I think that’s why steamy chick likes my calendars because I I talk about the benefits a little bit. I talk about the benefits of Yoni steaming.
If that’s something that resonates with you. And how could you plan that into your calendar? And you used to make, although I think you stopped doing it, you used to make a little a vaginal steam stool, correct? That’s right. that’s, that was my first endeavor, which was fun, but so much work.
And so that’s how Kelly Garza and I, came to even know each other was because of that. And then. Wait, and I loved it. I just it’s a lot of work. Oh for sure, right? Yeah, that’s awesome okay, very cool. And then we’ve got all you know, just there’s just some great introductory stuff There’s the slide the beautiful pictures.
I think we’ve got it all and then of course this is that little seasonal thing that you’re going to pop on there so to tell you what part of your cycle, within what season you’re at to assist in planning activities in your regular everyday life. And then you also have these great calendars for the different moon cycles also, which is great.
So I love it because you can color in the moon red on your bleeding days and you’ll see how your cycle shifts over the years. And to line up, are you bleeding on the new moon? Are you ovulating on the new moon? What’s going on for you and your life phase? Right now. That’s awesome. Very cool. Yeah.
Cause it does change. Doesn’t it? Which is interesting. Yeah. Very cool. All right. Wonderful. And so I wanted to just chat about your your course that you have, the five week course. Tell us a little bit about what that looks like. And then you and I were chatting beforehand that you offer it a couple of times a year.
You’ve got a time coming up. Tell us about that and then I’ll pop up the information so we can have that on there, too. Okay. yeah, so as I mentioned, a lot of, that’s okay. I had been telling my girlfriends and some clients this is what I use for natural birth control. It’s incredible.
You learn so much about your body this way. And I’ll never go back now that I know how to do this for myself. And then they would ask me to teach them. And this was even before I made the menstrual calendar, but even after I made the menstrual calendar and gave people really good, solid foundation, it’s not enough to just have the information in the calendar to feel confident in using this method for natural birth control. And I wanted to become a better teacher. And so I went to a two year training to be a certified fertility awareness educator. And so I combine that now with my herbalism to work with. With clients, but either way, I really love this work and I wanted to present it in a way where people can feel confident about getting off birth control if they don’t want to be on birth control, or a lot of people, never have been on birth control and so they have a much better idea of how the female body works.
But, there’s still a lot of missing information and so this is a great class if you really want to completely understand what’s going on in your body and why, and if you’re seeing certain things in your chart, what does that indicate and what can you do about it. so we’re, I’m thoroughly teaching you the methods so that you can feel confident and and then you have education so that no matter what stage of life you may be in, maybe, going into perimenopause or maybe one day trying to conceive, whatever stage you’re in, you already know your body, you know what’s going on, so you’re set and that is what I really want to share with people.
I think I more so target people just getting off of birth control because it’s to me it’s really important that. they don’t second guess their decision that they feel like they have the mentorship and guidance and somebody rooting them on because often if they’re younger and their doctor is trying to basically tell them not to get off birth control, which does happen a lot, that feels really bad.
And so I just, I really love to offer that mentorship that, you can do this. so that’s, maybe more so why I’m marketing it that way, although it’s for anybody who wants to learn how to use a symptothermal method, which is it’s not necessarily important what it’s called, but the reason why I use that method is because it has the highest efficacy of fertility awareness methods.
Tell us what it says. Symptothermal. Is that right? Yes. Sympto as in what symptoms is your body having. Thermal, as in the thermal body temperature shift. Symptothermal. Cool. And where and and it was a how long was the program that you did? Or I don’t even know. Oh, it was a two year, beautiful two year program.
That’s awesome. Very cool. Because the I loved it because okay, great, now you know how to chart your cycle, but what happens if you notice potentially a health condition going on in one of your client’s charts. How can you teach them about it? because you do see conditions like hypothyroidism, fibroids, ketonitriosis yeah, lots of conditions pop up in the chart. So that’s why it was a more in depth training. That’s awesome. That’s great. Yeah. You have a cute little kitty in the background. Grooming. I love it. Yeah. Cool. Okay. So the five, so it’s a five week course. You’re probably going to start it in October.
Is that right? Yes. I think October 18th, which is a Wednesday, I it, since it is a live program, I try to make it convenient for everybody, which is impossible. we all know how that goes. More than likely, I’ll choose Wednesday evenings and everything’s recorded. You have access to the recordings if you were not able to make it live.
Although I do encourage people to watch the class recording that same week so that you could ask me questions in real time and I’ll it’s, I’ll answer it via email and then I’ll make sure and I also answer it and share it with the whole group the following class as well. Because I really love class participation and questions so that everybody benefits from the question and answers.
And is there homework or is it really like self homework, I would think, like? It’s self homework but not necessarily until like class four because I’ll give you some practice charts and I’ll have the students Tell me when this person ovulated and how can you prove ovulation and, just make sure that they understand what’s going on.
But then after the class series, once they’ve had, obviously everybody’s cycle is different. Some people have 25 day cycles. Some people have 40 day cycles. I let The students know after you complete your first cycle, let’s schedule our one on one consultation so I can make sure that you are understanding what you’re doing.
So that’s really the homework. And we were chatting about that a little bit too. It is going to be first come, first serve for those one on one like everybody, every, and as many people as want, can sign up for the class, but you have limited space for the one on one consults. And First come, first serve.
Just to be clear so that everybody’s not wait a second, I thought I was going to, just. Yeah, important to know. And I’ll definitely, make that clear in the information I’ll be sending out. Cool and so everybody go to the website and you can sign up for her email list there and then she will notify you of when she’s launching the registration right for the course.
That’s right. Cool. And then the other thing I wanted to just bring up is that she does, though not totally active right now, but once we get close to the is like me guys. I’m not great on social media, but on Instagram she does do some posting, especially around the time of the of the courses, et cetera.
And then the other thing to remember is that we at yincare. com actually have her lovely calendar and apparently are one of the only people who have it right now this time of year and the great thing about her calendar is that it doesn’t go out of date the only thing that changes are the moon cycle piece that she so generously sent me updated one.
So we’ve got all of the current up to date moon cycles in these calendars. So you can certainly purchase the the menstrual calendar journal on yincare.com and then also note that she will be offering and printing a new one because we only have a limited number here at yincare.com and once we run out of those she’s also out of them so they’re just making some updated edits that will be great for everybody and those ones will be available probably after the first of the year did I get that right? That’s right. So if you want them, you could literally only buy them from yincare.com I’m sold out, which is great. I love to say that totally sold out. And me and the co-creator will be printing out a newer version first of the year. I should hold it up because they are really beautiful.
You guys, they’re just like, I know we showed the pictures on on there, but like it’s just there. They hold. They’re just so nice. It’s the colors are so rich. The instructions are great. It really is. And actually, I was just I did an interview with a woman who’s her name’s Katherine Niven, who does Katherine’s Sewing.
Anyway, it’s a long story and you’ll, you can watch that interview separately, but we were really having a great conversation about how important being creative and creativity is for women. And this is like a really great outlet for taking some time to do to do that. So anyway, yeah. So anyway, is there anything else that you feel like we didn’t get to discuss that you’d like to wrap up with or? Just, if anybody has any questions I’m very approachable, just go ahead and send me an email and I’m happy to chat and connect with you.
Cool. And the email address is on the website, right? On the website [email protected] is my email address, but you’ll find that under the contact information as well. Okay. And the website. This let’s see, there, that one, right? Is that right? Kapu. community. Kapu. community. Okay. All right.
Let me just put that up correctly. And it’s not com? Kapu. community? Yeah. Ah, interesting. That’s pretty cool. I didn’t know you could do that. Very cool. So guys. I’m struggling with that, but you can certainly go to her website and yeah and check that out. And it was so awesome to have you. I’m so glad we finally got to make this happen.
This was great. Thank you so much, Margaret. Yeah, it was wonderful. And so everybody just remember for yourselves to honor yourself, celebrate your strength and empower your transformation. And I will be back with another edition of the Yin-care® podcast. Thanks so much for coming today. Bye
Hello everyone. I just wanted to take a few minutes to give you some updates on what Veronica Rickson is up to.
That interview that I did with Veronica was recorded in the fall of 2023 and I was unable to post that immediately afterwards due to some personal family circumstances that I will be going into in some other podcasts. And in any case, wanted to tell you about two courses that Veronica is currently offering.
The first is the FAM which is the Fertility Awareness Method in four weeks. So FAM in four weeks, it’s a four week program to learn the fertility awareness method so that you can ditch synthetic birth control forever, read your body with certainty and build your future holistically. Love that.
And of course we’re going to have links to these in the show notes and video descriptions episode descriptions, et cetera. The other one is called Fertility Now. And it’s holistic conception support for women who are ready to say goodbye to LH strips and AMH tests and hello to fertility charting and herbal medicine.
It’s a three module course and it’s live one on one coaching. You can definitely check that out on our website. Veronica has a fantastic Instagram page as well. It’s so much fun to follow her and just see what she’s up to. She’s very inspirational and she has her brand new journal that her menstrual calendar journal.
It’s a slightly smaller one. We have those currently on order. They’ll be arriving and they will be up in the Womb Wisdom Store on the yin-care.com website. So you’ll be able to purchase them there. They’re slightly smaller. We will be discounting the older version versions, which are larger, but they are all amazing.
Whichever one seems to suit your needs better, please go with that. And yeah, that is, that’s about it. We just wanted to update you a little bit on what Veronica is up to now. And if you know where, if you did this video, please be sure to do all the things like subscribe, share and review.
And we look forward to seeing you of course, in the next next Yin-care® podcast, thank you so much.