Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You're listening to the Wild Woman with Sarah Diop. Remembering your wild One episode at a time welcome back. I'm your host, Sarah, and this is our April Touchstone, our monthly forecast. An invitation to pause, listen, and realign.
[00:00:18] Just a quick note. This podcast is brought to you by my workbook Awaken youn Wild Women, a guided journey to reclaim your intuition, creativity, and sovereign soul.
[00:00:28] You can find the link to my book in the show notes below or go to my website sarahdeop.com all right, so let's begin. If you listened to our last episode, the Wild Woman Spotlight with Tamu Thomas and the author of Women who Work Too Much, you may be still sitting with some of what she shared. I know I am. Tamu talked about how women have been conditioned to believe our value lies in what we do, not who we are.
[00:00:57] She talked about our nervous system, about waning and waxing like the moon, and about the positive mindset and how it's the nectar of capitalism.
[00:01:07] She also shared something that I keep on going back to it's not your fault. That's the first line of her book, and it's an invitation that I want to carry into April because it's not our fault if the system was never built for us to thrive, if we've been running on empty because we've been told what makes a worthy woman, then maybe the only way forward is to reframe. Reframe what success looks like. Reframe what rest means. Reframe the stories we've been caring about. Our worth, our productivity, our purpose. This idea of reframe has really been bouncing around in my head ever since that interview. Now that word reframe kind of, you know, pops in my head almost in all these conversations I'm having with people.
[00:01:52] A friend of mine had a situation where she was trying to figure out what she needed to do differently, or maybe what she did wrong in a particular situation that caused her pain. And I was thinking as she was speaking how she had recently shifted the situation, and instead of thinking about what she could have done differently, she started to reframe it as maybe that environment wasn't healthy for her, which was the first time she was looking at it through that light. And it just made me think once again of reframing and how a lot of times, particularly highly productive women tend to try to figure out, I know I do, a solution to whatever problem. And sometimes a reframe is to look at it not through how can I be more productive or do more or fix more or Be more sometime. The reframe is just sitting with yourself.
[00:02:53] Maybe it's not up to you to fix the circumstances around you. Maybe they just need to be what they are and you need to accept them.
[00:03:00] Anyway, that word reframe just keeps on coming back up over and over for me. So that's what I like our theme to be this month. I'd like that to be an invitation to all the listeners that maybe there's a way you can look at situations in your own life with a different lens and see how maybe you can reframe your thoughts about a certain situation. And maybe if you're thinking along the lines of how can I fix this? Maybe reframe it that what would it look like if you didn't? What if you didn't do anything? How would that look?
[00:03:36] You know, take moments in your life and like look at them from different angles and what would be the outcome if you did something differently? So that's what I'm doing right now, so I invite you to do the same.
[00:03:48] This month we're leaning into reframing and we're going to anchor that theme in the astrology of April.
[00:03:55] We're going to do a simple ritual to bless our homes, a health tip that reframes how we start our day, and a collective card pull to guide us.
[00:04:05] So let's get into April's astrology.
[00:04:09] April arrives with a shift in energy.
[00:04:13] The eclipses of March have finally settled.
[00:04:16] Mercury retrograde is finally behind us. I know I'm thankful for that, I always am.
[00:04:24] And we're moving into a month that invites us to ground, grow and reframe. So let's look at some of the important dates for this month. Astrologically. On April 12, Venus moves into Taurus, her home sign.
[00:04:39] So this is a slow, sensual, pleasure oriented energy.
[00:04:43] If March asked us to be bold and direct, April is asking us to slow down, savor and ask what actually feels good. This is a beautiful time to reconnect with your body, with nature, and with just the simple pleasures in life.
[00:05:00] April 19th, Mars enters Leo. So action becomes bold, creative and heart centered.
[00:05:09] Mars in Leo asks us to move from a place of passion, not obligation.
[00:05:15] What are we doing because we want to, not because we think we should.
[00:05:21] And April 21, the sun enters Taurus. Taurus season begins grounding us after the fires of Aries. This is earthy, steady, patient energy.
[00:05:34] A time to plant, to build, and to tend to what matters. All right, so let's go into our moon dates. So if you'd like to mark your calendars, now's the time.
[00:05:45] So the new moon is on April 7, and it's in Aries.
[00:05:50] So this is the first new moon of the astrological New year, perfect for bold intentions, fresh starts, and planting seeds for what you want to grow.
[00:06:00] Then our full moon for April is on the 22nd, and it's in Scorpio. This is a powerful moon for release, transformation, and letting go of what no longer serves you all right. So this month I want to offer you a simple ritual to bless your home. Spring is a time of clearing out the old, inviting in the new. And what better way to honor that than by blessing the space where you rest, create, and become.
[00:06:29] For the house blessing, you'll need cinnamon and salt.
[00:06:34] Cinnamon invites prosperity, warmth and abundance, and salt cleanses and clears stagnant energy. You'll need a small bowl and to mix those two together. That's it. I'll put the details of this ritual also in the show notes below if you want to see it written out.
[00:06:51] So what you need to do is you stand at your front door facing into your home. Take a small amount of the mixture in your left hand. The left hand's important because traditionally that's the hand for receiving. Bring your hand to your heart center, close your eyes and set your intention with something such as I bless this home. May it be a place of peace, prosperity and presence. Then what you do is blow a little bit of the mixture that's in your hand into the house and watch it scatter through the air. Then as you walk through your home, you can speak this Gaelic house blessing.
[00:07:31] Or if you prefer, you can use your own words, whatever feels true to you. I particularly like this Gaelic house blessing, and I'll put the links to who I got this from on Instagram if you want to see where I source this blessing from in the show notes below. This is the blessing that moved me. But whatever works for you. And in between each line of your blessing or your poem, you take a little bit of the cinnamon and salt mixture and you blow it into the home. I'll read the first one and tell you what to do, and then I'm not going to say in between these lines, take a moment and blow. Bless this house and all that dwell within. Then you pick up some of the mixture and blow into the house and move to the next room. And I'll just continue reading the whole poem. Bless this house and all that dwells within.
[00:08:25] Bless each door that opens wide to strangers or kin.
[00:08:31] May peace and joy be found under its roof.
[00:08:35] Bless each place of rest.
[00:08:38] Bless each window pane that lets the starlight in. May it be a safe haven from the storms of life.
[00:08:46] Bless this house with warmth and light.
[00:08:51] May love and kindness thrive within its walls.
[00:08:55] Bless this house and all that dwells within.
[00:09:00] And when you finish, I usually say, so be it. And so it is. It is done.
[00:09:06] But whatever way you want to close your blessing that feels right to you, feel free to do that.
[00:09:13] A thought on the ritual, how it connects to reframing, and an invitation for you listeners to adapt it to your own tradition.
[00:09:24] So as wild women, I think about creative juices.
[00:09:29] So I really was moved by this Gaelic blessing. But after thinking about this and preparing this episode, it made me think, because I'm thinking a lot about reframing that writing your own poem to bless your house would put in your own creative energy and how that idea and intuition that you could put into that blessing and how it might change how the ritual feels to you.
[00:10:00] So I'm inviting everyone who's listening to maybe take some time and write your own poem or take some of this and put some of your extra blessings in there that you're hoping to manifest or what you think that you need within your own home.
[00:10:16] Reframe this ritual any way you see fit.
[00:10:20] Now for the health tip of the month. This health tip reframes how we start our day and how we rest. If you've listened to my conversation with Timu Thomas, you heard her talk about how rest isn't reward, it's survival. And for many of us, especially those who are navigating perimenopause, like myself, sleep doesn't always come so easily.
[00:10:44] So this month I wanted to offer a morning routine which helps to optimize your circadian rhythm and sets you up for better sleep at night. The routine actually happens in the morning to help you sleep at night, which I think is a perfect and simple reframe for the first hour of your day to help the last.
[00:11:05] So first what you're going to do is wait 60 to 90 minutes before you have a cup of coffee. Caffeine first thing in the morning disrupts the body's natural cortisol spike, the hormone that wakes you up. When you wait, you allow that natural waking process to happen. The result? More sustained energy throughout the day and less of that mid afternoon crash. Because what happens is when you take that caffeine too early, it actually stops your body's natural process. And when the caffeine wears off, you haven't actually fully Woken up, it's artificial. Secondly, get 10 minutes or more, but at least 10 minutes of morning sunlight. So within the first hour of waking, before you have that coffee, you need to step outside, even if it's cloudy. Natural light signals to your brain to stop producing melatonin. And that is the hormone that makes you go to sleep and start producing serotonin. And what happens when you start producing the serotonin? It sets a 16 hour clock for sleep. So it tells your body, in 16 hours, start producing melatonin again so that you can fall back into that deep sleep. You're literally telling your body, morning has arrived.
[00:12:21] Number three. This one's a bit hard.
[00:12:25] Consider a cold shower. This isn't for everyone, but if you're up for it, a cold shower, even for 30 seconds at the very end of your shower, triggers a visceral wake up effect. It boosts dopamine and lowers inflammation and wakes up your nervous system. It's a natural energy booster that pairs beautifully with delaying your coffee. So once again, this shower is going to happen before you have your coffee.
[00:12:57] Why does this matter for sleep? Because your circadian rhythm is everything for sleep. When you anchor your morning with light, movement and intentional wakefulness, your body knows when it's time to wind down. At night, the reframe is. Instead of trying all these things at bedtime to try to get a good night's sleep, this is something you can do in the morning.
[00:13:20] So at nighttime, your body receives all the signals it needs to go to sleep. Sixteen hours later, I started doing this and my sleep has never been better. The cold shower is tough, though. I have to warn you, the cold shower can be a bit tough, especially in the winter time. A little bit easier in the summer.
[00:13:39] Yeah. I offer this to you to give it a try and see how you feel. Try it for a week and see if, if you have a more restful night. Because remember, it's not a luxury to have a good night's sleep or a rest is necessary for our survival.
[00:13:56] And now, my favorite part of our touchstone. It's time to do our collective reading. I'll pull cards for all of us and we'll see what April has to offer. For our collective. I will pull, just like last month, three tarot cards and three ancestral cards. For our current situation, what actions need to be taken and the outcome if we take those actions.
[00:14:33] All right, so for the situation, the current situation, we got the Seven of Cups. We see Aphrodite and Psyche there. What does this mean for our collective so it means that there's an emotional situation because cups mean emotions, where there's many potentials that are evident, but where we're faced with the challenge of choosing and acting in realistic terms to make those potentials manifest. And for the ancestor cards, the current situation is the wise one. Grow within your current situation. Knuckle down. Be reliable and committed. Be open to wisdom and insights from your elders.
[00:15:15] When this card appears, you're being guided to continue working on your growth and expansion. Within your current situation. Be committed to your tasks and projects. It can be very easy to get bored or overwhelmed, but persevere. You're being reminded of how it feels to be let down and experience unreliability. Keep working on what you're working on because it's going to be extremely beneficial for you in the long run.
[00:15:45] Actions to be taken. We got the four of wands in the Tarot deck is a time of reward for efforts made. A creative idea has yield early fruit. And we have every single right to celebrate the concrete results of our efforts.
[00:16:03] All right. And for the ancestor card, we got Earth Guardian. Stay rooted and grounded.
[00:16:11] Take time to connect deeply with the energy of the earth so that you can feel supported and make decisions based on strength and integrity. It's important for you to take a grounded approach to your current situation. If you're rushing ahead or making a decision based on more fearful responses, you will miss out on the growth you deserve. Take some time to calm down.
[00:16:35] Get grounded before proceeding further. Breathe. Relax. Connect to your center. Then consider what to do. It's important to plant seeds that are going to grow into something beautiful rather than them turning into weeds you have to deal with. All right. And if we do these actions. Celebrate and ground in the earth. I don't know about you, but when I think grounding into the earth, I think gardening or planting something like get your hands dirty or it might be hard with winter, but like walking barefoot, which might be difficult right now, but hopefully by the end of June.
[00:17:11] But maybe like plant some seeds for the upcoming spring. Eat some root vegetables. Things that are very grounding. That's what we need to do right now. And the outcome. So the ace of pentacles is the possibility of material achievement because the raw energy for this kind of work is finally available to you. Often money is made available through some legacy or some other source, coupled with the persistence to utilize these resources efficiently and effectively. For ancestors cards two popped out. We've got the first one that popped out was Summer, which is Bask in joy and Light, rise up. Open your wings and shine. Bring your projects and plans out into the light into manifestation. This is a perfect opportunity for you to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Light has come to banish the darkness. Clarity is finally arriving too, allowing you to know exactly where you are and how you can move forward. Your angels and ancestor guides are encouraging you to enjoy this moment and not to rush forward because this is a time for pleasure, enjoyment and expansion. There is a great chance that you'll have extra energy, creativity and inspiration at this time. Notice what is coming in for you as it is inspiration directly from the divine. And then on the flip side, we got Winter. Take care of your needs. Do everything you need to be at your best. Then move beyond your fears and limitations. You have an opportunity to move beyond your fears. Although you may feel in the dark, get comfortable with being in the unknown. Trust that the light within you will sustain you through what may seem as a challenging process. Ask yourself what you need to do to feel more supported and alive, which is interesting when it comes to our reframe theme and how we need to rest. You may uncover something from your past that you have buried deep. Know that when you unearth it and shed light on it, you create space for miracles. You may feel like a lone wolf right now, but it's time for you to be the alpha.
[00:19:27] Okay, love that for April.
[00:19:30] And that brings us to a close for our April touchstone. Thank you for being here, Wild one. This month, as we step into the fresh energy of spring, I hope you give yourself permission to reframe, to see your worth beyond what you do, to rest without guilt, to bless the spaces you inhabit, and to begin your mornings with intention.
[00:19:52] Next month we'll have another Wild Woman spotlight and I can't wait to share her with you.
[00:19:58] Until then, take your morning sunlight, blow cinnamon and salt through your doorway, and remember, it's not your fault. I'm Sarah Diop and this is the Wild Woman. Thank you for listening to the Wild Woman with Sarah Diop. Remembering youg Wild One Episode at a Time.
[00:20:16] Don't forget to like subscribe and review. Every little bit helps and I'll see you next time.
