Harnessing Lunar Power: Moon Cycles And Menopause

Introduction to Menopause and the Moon 0:00

Hello, ladies. Welcome back to Mastering the Menopause Transition 3.0 or third year at it. I am your host, Dr. Sharon Stills, and it's truly an honor to be the the guide for you during this transition. It's such an important time. And as you know, I love to bring in topics of all the things that are important to me that I want you to know about. So I pick my topics and then I go and find the expert in the topic. So that's my my granddaughter's part. She was cooking for me before, so I got all sorts of stuff here.

But if you're here, if you hear the banging. So I pick the topics and then I find the experts. And so we are going to have a conversation that I am just so excited to have. It is a conversation we have not yet had on any of my previous summits. So as I promised, we're always bringing you new information. And so we're going to be talking about the moon and being connected to nature and the cycles and the impact the moon has on you. And I think often we feel when we stop cycling that, well, the moon cycles don't really matter to us anymore, but we're going to learn today that the moon is still a major, important player in your health, and you're being connected to your feminine power and to just all that surrounds you.

So I have Masami Covey with me here today. She is a dear friend and colleague. She is a wealth of knowledge. So we are going to just jump in. She has she she has so much experience in so many things. And she's just like wisdom embodied. So you're in for a treat. So welcome Masami It is so wonderful to have you here. Thank you so much. I've been looking forward to speaking with you and being with you. Yes yes yes me too. So let's just jump in. You know what? Why the moon? Because I know you. That is like your your thing.

There's so many things you do. But the moon is like where your attention.

Why the Moon Matters in Menopause 2:26

I know you're writing a book about the moon, so let's start there. Oh, right. Why moon? Right. Why moon and menopause. And the thing is, when you stop having monthly, you know, menstruation cycles, what I realize about me going into menopause and post menopause, I was just really connecting to the lunar cycles and lunar rhythms more and more and more. And I when I started speaking up about it, all these women in their post menopause for decades longer than I have been, started to email me and say, oh my gosh, somebody's talking about it.

Thank you so much. And that's when I started to dive into the science behind the moon. Because I love the moon, the celestial energies, the universe, the cosmic flow, the spirituality. But I'm also a huge fan of science. So I started diving into the science. And number one, we have to all understand that the without the moon, our moon life as we know it on this earth won't exist. Because without the moon we don't have the seasons. And without the moon we don't have the tilt of this earth to maintain that rotation at the right angle, basically.

And we wouldn't have the tidal waves either. And it's not just the tide, but the moon cycles are impacting so many of our systems that I didn't even realize how deep this rabbit hole was going to take me. And it's still, I'm in that rabbit hole. and, you know, just think of your this moon, our moon as like a training wheel for us to continue to go into this journey. And the training wheel is always going to be with us as we go into different parts of our menopause post menopause and then second half of our acts.

So I'm excited. And one of the things that that we want to keep in mind is that the moon for NASA, they called the moon. It's tuning fork. So it's literally tuning us all throughout our lives. And I guarantee you, as you go into menopause and post-menopausal longer and longer, your love in that connection that you have with the moon will increase. So that's number. One. Yeah. I love that you said the moon gives us our seasons because menopause is a season and it's a beautiful season. That's a big part of the reason why I host these summits, because I want women to love this season.

Because we've been taught by society that this season sucks. And I think this is such a beautiful season and it's just part of being alive. We we go through seasons. It is the natural thing. And if we fight against aging and we fight against the seasons, then we we miss the beauty that every season has to offer us, whether it's, you know, in our youth or when we're fertile or when we are in our menopausal time. So. So you could just maybe explain, like how is the moon affecting us, I guess, real quickly, like while we're cycling, because there are some women here for perimenopause who are still cycling and then take it to where it affects us when we are not cycling.

Right? So while we are cycling, you know, there are a lot of studies that are out there that that there is a million connections with it. Right? And although my emphasis right now is menopause and post menopause, of course I'm going to learn about perimenopause and even the women that are cycling. And this is a great information to have. But usually think of it like, let's just talk about estrogen and progesterone okay? So estrogen tends to go up as we are heading towards the full moon. That's been proven actually.

And they have seen it across all mammals. And we do synchronize together with the moon.

Moon Cycles, Sleep, and Melatonin 6:29

And some of you might be saying, well I'm not menstruating at this time or the new moon time of the full moon. Don't worry so much that the your cycles may be irregular at this time, okay, but it's important that you give yourself a little bit of time to connect. So number one, when is the new moon? Write it down on your calendar so you're aware of it. And when is the full moon. And just become aware of just those two phases in the moon. That alone is going to be very important. And then you if you're menstruating, generally what happens is the leading up to the full moon, your energy is going to be going up.

And that's actually true for children, post-menopausal women. And, you know, even going through the perimenopausal kind of up and down different, you know, hormonal cycles and things like that gets all irregular. But generally speaking, leading up to the full moon, you are going to have a little bit more production of oxytocin. You're going to have a little more energy. Mitochondria actually gets excited as the lunar energy goes up. And it's not just about the lunar light. You know, we tend to think of moon as a moon light, but it's the gravitational force that has the impact on our cellular health, basically overall health.

So just remember that leading up to the full moon, you might find yourself wanting to maybe socialize a little bit more. You want to increase your oxytocin by being around other people, finding your communities, doing an external kind of a work or, you know, going out to reach other people. So that's kind of all across the board, very similar. But what happens is that there's this one interesting thing that happens, and I'm going to speak kind of in general. So this is for women who are still menstruating to post-menopausal women.

So about 72 hours prior to the full moon, the melatonin level is going to go down. And this is for young kids as well. So they just did this really great study that just came out last year in fact actually was 2024. So it was this year that said age. They studied ages between 3 and 6 year olds, and they found out that they're very sensitive to the lunar cycles, but especially leading up to the full moon. And they can get really a little bit more excited. Right. Like I said, mitochondria gets more energized and you have a little bit more of external energy.

But what that means is the melatonin level is also going down. So sleep cycles are going to be impacted and you're going to have about 30% less deep sleep during that time. We all take in general all across the board. But post-menopausal women might struggle with this even a little bit more in menopausal time as well, that you may not be able to fall asleep as quickly, so it might take you about 45 minutes or 75 minutes longer for you to fall asleep leading up to the full moon. Okay, so one. Second is your connection weird or something?

You're like, you all of a sudden got staticky. Yeah, I know I heard that, but no, nothing that the I can see chute. Do I sound staticky to you? Am I staticky? Still, you're not wearing a mic, are you? Yes, I am, but I always do that for all my interviews. What if you don't wear the mic? You and I have a lot of energy. Oh, I know, so. Oh, shoot. When did that start? Should I. Just started? So let's let's see if you move the mic or take like if you set it down how you. Say I'm just going to unplug the mic and then let's. Just use the.

Computer mic. But that's weird because I had two other interviews and didn't have any issues today. But okay, so the MacBook Pro microphone okay. So yeah, that's one I'm using. So now I switched over to the computer. It's the Mercury retrograde two. We have to remember there's a lot going on. Yeah I know I'm just. Fine. And I'll say something now. Yeah. Is it is it still working? I'm just kind of. I have most of the windows closed as well, so that shouldn't be impacting anything. You know, sometimes, like when I have too many things open, I could do that.

Like, okay, am I sounding okay now? So weird. So keep say something else. Okay. Yeah. No, I mean, I don't know. I can't hear anything on my end. So is it still staticky? Better. Is it? Is that is it getting better? Yeah. I don't know. I don't know, I don't really understand. Whatever you did, I think taking the mic off helped. Okay. Okay. So who knows. I don't know where that started. So. So where are we going to cut it? Let's say. So what were you saying? It was about the melatonin. Got the melatonin. Right.

So you were talking about, Yeah. Well the kids. And then also. Falling asleep. Yeah. And then it takes a little bit longer to fall asleep. So why don't you start with. And Carla, this is where you'll cut it. why don't you just start with. Yes.

Lunar Phases and Organ Support 12:13

So at this point of time, you know, a few days before the full moon, you have a hard time falling asleep, and then she came gather. Okay, I hope so. Yeah. Yeah, I yeah. So I was saying that the we do sleep less all across the board. So if you are having babysitting time with your grandkids be awake because this could be happening to all of us, but especially women I would say perimenopause, menopause. It's one of the main complaints, let's say symptoms that the I hear when I'm working with my clients is that I'm not sleeping through the night, and that not sleeping through the night.

If you want to look at the moon cycles and be aware of that also, I think that can be very helpful because we do live in the cycles of the moon influences, and the sleep is very much influenced by the lunar cycles. So okay, so this is important. So you're saying a few days before the full moon your sleep can be impacted. So I have two questions. One is is there anything you can do about it. Right in the second one is what parts of the moon, the lunar cycle are beneficial where you should find yourself sleeping better, right?

I love that question because that's where we need to go, right? So let me answer the latter question first because that's very, very helpful. So and then before I answer that, I think it's very important for us women to look at our lives not just from the circadian rhythm where it's just the 24 hour cycles. And because I think there's a lot of pressure in health world that they have to sleep every day really well, and you have to digest everything really well and you have to eat well every day. You know, it's just there's like so much every day, 24 hour pressure.

And there's a cultural bias to only studying circadian rhythm. And a lot of the Western cultures only study circadian rhythms. So far. And most of this research that that I'm finding are cultures that have always embraced the lunar culture, like Japan uses the solar lunar calendar, places like India, China, Korea, Middle East, Russia, a lot of these kind of, I would say, older cultures. I would say they tend to use the lunar cycle. So they are very much aware of that. So as you go into menopause and post menopause and perimenopause as well, be aware of the bigger picture of the 29.5 day cycles and not just the 24 hour cycles.

That's extremely important to answer your question, it's when you're heading towards the new moon. Looks on. Okay, I think it's when you're moving your hands. So if you can I cause it start. You were fine. And then you got excited and started moving your hands while you were talking. And then I heard the static. So I think you need I think you need to sit on your hands. I think that. Okay, I'll sit on my hands. Okay. Yeah. It's not doing it. Wow. That's that's really. Interesting. Okay. Never happened.

Never happened before. Okay. So this part needs to be cut. Okay. To answer the question, it's during the new moon that your actually production of melatonin goes up. And then during the new moon, another interesting thing that happens is that the size or the volume of your brain goes down, meaning shrinks in size. So the lymphatic system works better. So the drainage of the brain starts to work. As the melatonin levels go up. So there's such thing as you can catch up to your sleep. If you can look at the calendar and say, oh, during that leading up to 72 hours leading up to the full moon, I have less sleep.

Then you can look at your calendar and say, okay, I am now going into the waning part of the moon. So now I can start to catch up to my sleep. But also you can address your lymphatic system and lymphatic system better. So that's another thing that that you can do to support your system. Look at your life as more of a 29 9.5 days. Instead of getting really frustrated with the 24 hour cycles and having to do something right every day. So that's one. And I am a fan of melatonin, you know, using melatonin as a supplement.

And I know you are too. So I would love to hear your thoughts on this too. But one thing about melatonin that is really important for, I would say for post-menopausal women in particular, is that it's connection to the osteoporosis. So in the United States, 1 in 2 women will most likely experience some kind of a bone density issues as we go into post-menopausal longer and longer. And one of the things that that we want to look at is the melatonin can be so supportive of bone building and among other things, omegas.

Melatonin can help with your blood pressure. It can help with your cortisol level. It can be great for your brain health. It's important for fighting diseases like breast cancer and other cancers as well. And it modulates all your sex hormones as well. And hypertension, you know, cardiovascular disease and all these things are so important for postmenopausal women because we tend to get diagnosed with these things and especially like gut health as well. So I think substituting a little bit of melatonin leading up to the full moon, I'm a huge fan of it, clinically speaking.

I have seen really good, support by adding the melatonin and other things are obviously get the morning sun on your pituitary gland and, you know, getting some of the dark, darkening shades. And there are a lot of things you can do. But also this is as a side note, and I will stop after this, is that instead of looking at your life in terms of biohacking, I like to look at my life as a postmenopausal women as a bio hugging. So bio hugging practice is more of accepting a lunar cycles. Yes, that I'm a bio hugger.

I love that. So yeah. So this is very fascinating. it's making me I'm seeing a study with my 24 hour urine testing where I measure melatonin levels. And what is the difference between measuring. Right. So you're talking about 72 hours either before the full moon or the new moon. What's going on in all those other days? Is there. Well, there are other things that are happening there, but those are the two most powerful times in terms of the titles. So like Tidal Waves, but also us as a fluid, right.

The we are the crystalline structures that, you know, we are this easy water inside wrapped in fashion. So we are being impacted. The fascia gets impacted as we head into the to the new moon, but full moon as well. And you might find yourself feeling a little bit puffier. Maybe water retention can go up as you go into the full moon and then towards the new moon. You'll find yourself less puffy, you know, less anemic, things like that. But the other times of the moon, there are things that are happening.

And this is where the the Japanese moon medicine and the Chinese moon medicine that I incorporate into my work comes in. So certain time of the lunar cycles we address kidneys more. And, you know, for instance, like the first part of the lunar cycle. So let's say new moon to the first quarter moon. I love addressing liver and gallbladder and making sure that the your among among three organs basically, you know, are draining but particularly liver and gallbladder and making sure that the bile flow is there to support because then you can actually support the detoxification of like, you know, estrogen and other toxic materials and, you know, bacteria and fungus and things like that too, because if you don't support your liver and gallbladder the first week of the lunar cycle, what happens is that when the melatonin goes down, the full moon is kicking in and the light is getting added to the moon.

We can actually experience increase in parasitic activities and other bacterial activities. That's been shown over and over. And one reason is that the serotonin can be exciting to the parasites and the conversion to the melatonin isn't quite happening so that the serotonin level can impact your parasites. And that is going to wake you up in the middle of the night. And you may have vivid dreams leading up to the full moon. So, you know, one of the biohacking that I actually recommend for women to do is to get yourself a full moon journal and write down some of the things that are coming up for for you physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, because it's a great time to get to know what's inside you.

Because a lot of kind of a this regulations, maybe dis disease, other imbalances will show up fully. It gets they get illuminated basically during leading up to the full moon. Okay. So we have the first week we're going to focus on our liver and our kidneys. And we have this second week is leading up to the full moon. So we have to be really paying attention to our melatonin and our serotonin.

Dark Moon Reflection and Inner Wisdom 22:08

So then what's what's the week after the. Yeah, the fall. Yeah. So the second week I will add a couple more things. But you really want to address your digestion as well because melatonin has such an impact on your digestive health. Right? The lining of your gut and also the estrogen levels can because we have a lot of estrogen receptor sites in our gut as well. So that can get dysregulated around that time too. So making sure that I have seen clinically to support women with hydrochloric acid, like using betaine HCl type of thing on the second week has been really, really helpful.

And the second week is a really good week to increase your protein intake. Because sarcopenia is a huge as you know, you know, one of the symptoms of the post menopause or symptoms, right? The loss of muscle tissues and loss of muscle strength. So adding that hydrochloric acid in the second week to support the digestion of the protein and converting that into amino acids. And then the third week we actually start to enter into the more of a breathing and lung health. And that kind of makes sense.

You know, you've been working on the liver, the digestion, and you have a little more strength. This is when you can begin to address your viral infections as well as the strength of your breathing. And I recommend people to really focus on their exhales, because now we're not adding light anymore to the moon, right? We're now waning. So as go as we go into the waning cycle of the moons, start thinking about how can I decrease the stress, but how do I really elongate the exhales a little bit more?

And as you know, when you can really focus on your exhales, you can increase your nitric oxide level as well. So, you know, those are all really important things for us to be doing. So focus on what can I eliminate, what can I decrease. So it's not just about the physical body, but look around your closet okay. Look around your home. What can I decrease? What can I clean out. What needs attention that the I can pack it up or remove or release. Right. So and once you start to focus on the lungs, as you know, you've studied Chinese medicine, you have that background to your large intestine will start coming in and say, hey, can we work on the colon?

So this is the really yeah. Good time to add maybe a probiotics kind of thing as well, because it's very helpful to add that in the third week and then the fourth week, I know you're going to ask me that. So I'm going to answer am. And the fourth week is really good to focus on your kidneys and your bladder. But so this is when clinical. I have been recommending all my female clients to decrease certain food intake that can increase your oxalic acids. So that can be things like, you know, not doing spinach salads and not so many almonds and not almond milk with the breakfast and decreasing sweet potatoes eating and and maybe not too many beans and lentils and things like that too, that can really increase oxalic acid because oxalates can bind with your minerals are very necessary and they can bind with calcium, magnesium and zinc and, you know, create kind of these like a stone crystalline structures and can impact your not only kidneys but maybe your eyesight.

It could impact your arthritis and, you know, other bone issues as well. So for menopausal and postmenopausal women, really focusing in on cleaning up your diet a little bit on the fourth week and remove some of those, maybe, create a little bit of an intermittent fasting. This is when I really like a lot of the post menopausal women to maybe have an early dinner and just have a herbal tea or something. And at night, if your blood sugar is regulated enough, and to support the decreasing of the light, it's all about darkening.

And as we head into the dark moon phase. Yeah. So and you talk a lot about the dark moon phase. So and then it's really important in, in menopause. So I'd love to hear when what the dark moon phase is and what it represents to you and what you'd like the listeners to start doing in their own lives. Yeah. So darkness actually helps us to heal. You know, I always think of maybe your pets like dogs and cats that if they are wounded, what they do is they go to the dark corner of your house and curl up and try to heal their right.

So it's kind of what's happening to us every month. We get to kind of curl up and the dark moon phase, it kind of depends on the months, a month, but generally about a day to two and a half days prior to the new moon. This is a really wonderful time for you to have an introspective time. Your inner you get to tap into your inner knowing space. This is when you get to reflect, not just on your last 28 days or 27 days, but to reflect on your 28 years, maybe even longer, you know, and just to, acknowledge yourself, you know, this is the time of celebration of your inner knowing space and your inner wisdom that you've been accumulating.

And this is to me, the oxytocin kicks in here, too, because oxytocin is a very short lived, you know, hormone. Right. And neurotransmitter is kind of a thing that really impacts our whole system. And the oxytocin can be really replenished for especially menopause and postmenopausal women during the dark moon time, as a self-care practice. So that dark reflection time using the darkness, maybe lighting the candle, turning off the artificial lights and really allow yourself to soak in, dip in, and take in that darkness.

And that can be really important. And for, you know, children too. This is a really good practice that the when I used to work at a the school and my husband used to work at a school, we would take kids out on outings on the during the new moon and have them explore the pitch black darkness till their eyes adjust and they get to practice their own boundaries. They learn about how to navigate life, and I think that kind of a tool can be such a good tool at any age. So Dark Moon period have a different journal than a full moon journal that emphasizes the beauty in the grace of darkness.

I love that so much because, you know, I always talk about menopause with the parentheses around. Pause that it's such a good time to pause. So now you ladies know exactly when you can harness the energy of the moon and pause during that dark moon phase. And it's it's a cycle, right? Because we don't want to just do it once. We want it to be a practice. We want to continually be doing it because this is the time

Moon Bathing and Closing Thoughts 29:38

to extract and connect with our wisdom. So I have I mean, I have a lot of questions, but our time is running out. But I want to ask just like, are you naked in the moon? Are you howling at the moon? Right in the ladies do to like actually moon baby in the moon. I just love some suggestions from you. Yeah. So the moon bathing is really, really great in terms of drain the, full moon. And so I do recommend if you can and if you feel comfortable in the weather permits, just be naked and go out there and expose your entire body front and back to moon bathing.

The moon bathing has been used in our world for 5000 years, and it's been been proven actually to lower some of the hot flashes and, you know, some of the heating of the body, the young energy, the hot heated kind of a menopause, perimenopause symptoms. And it's it's got a very cooling impact on your body. And it's also helpful for fertility. So I think of fertility not just for for postmenopausal women, not just about the pregnancy, but it's about being pregnant with your own creativity, in your own dreams and imaginations.

So I highly recommend you do the moon bathing drained and the full moon. And then at the same time you can also. What I also do is I make my own ghee, homemade ghee during the full moon and let the moonlight be absorbed into the my ghee and I will be using that throughout the month until the next full moon. And I make new one again and new moon to me is less of that kind of maybe activity, more of like coming inward. Like I said, it's an introspective time. So it's a reflect active time. It's remembering who you are really asking yourself, who am I besides being a mother, besides being a wife, besides being a grandmother, besides being a daughter, sister, you know, coworker, all these labels, doctors, right?

All these labels that we carry around, you shed all that in the darkness and see if you can get back in touch with who you are inside. beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful. So I know because we know each other and we're friends, that you're writing a book. So what does remind me? The title of the book. So we can let everyone know to keep their eyes open for it. Well, and the title is still, you know, undecided, but it's really about rediscovering the wisdom of the moon, and it's all about menopause and post menopause for me, because I want to help us women who are living longer and longer and longer, and we have so much more that we can explore and share.

So look for a title that has something to do with the wisdom of the moon. And when? When will that be hitting the shelves? And it'll it will be, hoping in the end of 2025 I should have that out. Okay, well, where can the ladies learn more about you and the moon? do you have a website? Yeah. So you can go to Masamicovey.com. And so far, there's no other Masami Covey on this earth. So you can find me just by, you know, Googling Masami Covey And that's my website. Just. Yeah. Yeah, it's M A S A M I C O V as in Victor Covey.

C O V E Y.com And, you can go to my YouTube channel because that's where I post lots of videos. At least 2 to 3 videos per month, based on the moon cycle. So you can. Look me up there. So I always think of Stephen Covey, but there's no relation. Or there is no relation. my husband's it's like a second cousin is the Stephen Covey. okay. Right. The seven Habits of Highly Effective. Also, that's how to spell our last name. So go check out Masami, meet me there at the YouTube channel. And, you know, learn more about the moon.

And most importantly, I hope that you walk away from this conversation just expanding your view of health and why things are happening. Because something can be happening in your body, and it might just not be because you didn't eat the right food or you didn't take the right vitamin. Where we are, we are nature. We are we. We forget often that we're connected. And so, if nothing else, I hope you walk away understanding that you are you are part of the universe. You are connected to the moon. And then, you know, learning to live in the cycles of the moon and how there's all this interesting information about the moon.

So go follow Masami and learn more. And I feel like I've been percolating like I think I need to start a book club. So when your book comes out, we'll have to have your book and we'll read it together, and then we can. I'm a I'm a moon bather howler. So we can, I'll be howling at the moon. So, maybe if you live in my area. You hear me? Sometimes. So thank you. Thank you, Masami, for coming and sharing your amazing wisdom with us. And thank you, ladies, for being here and going on the journey. And, you know, let's all just let's just about.

And Masami and her wisdom and the moon and I will see you back for another talk. So,