The Inner Rhythms Podcast

Episode 61 - The Connection Between Chakras, Menstrual Cycles & Emotional Health with Julia Rugosa

• Iris Josephina • Episode 61

Share episode

 🐚Topics covered

  • How Iris and Julia met on a magical retreat in France and became instant friends
  • What the chakra system is and how it connects to our physical and emotional wellbeing
  • Understanding the seven chakras from root to crown and their individual qualities
  • How to identify when chakras are blocked or imbalanced through internal and external signs
  • The connection between menstrual cycles and the sacral chakra (womb space)
  • How our cycles naturally change and flow like water, and why this fluidity is beautiful
  • Julia's personal journey from bipolar disorder to balance through chakra work and mindfulness
  • How emotional expression and feeling our emotions safely can bring us back to harmony
  • Practical tools for people who find it hard to connect with their feelings
  • The importance of creating emotional safety and self-trust through mindfulness practices



About Julia Rugosa

Julia Rugosa is a transformational life coach whose work is rooted in the yoga and chakra systems. She helps clients understand their lives through a chakra-based lens, focusing on the energy within us that relates to how we feel emotionally, financially, in our homes, relationships, and personal expression. Julia's approach combines ancient wisdom with practical application, helping people identify energetic imbalances and welcome shifts through habits and practices. Her personal journey from bipolar disorder to balanced wellness through chakra work and mindfulness informs her trauma-informed, gentle approach to emotional healing and self-trust.


Where to find Julia

Instagram: @juliarugosa 

Website: juliarugosa.com 

Programs: "Radiant Self" group course (runs 3x/year), one-to-one sessions including reiki/coaching/yoga, and longer-term transformational programs


About the Host

I’m Iris Josephina—functional hormone specialist, orthomolecular hormone coach, and entrepreneur. Through Cycle Seeds and The Inner Rhythms Podcast, I support people in reconnecting with their cyclical nature, deepening body literacy, and reclaiming hormonal harmony from a place of sovereignty and embodied knowledge. Most people know me from Instagram, where I share stories, tools, and inspiration on cyclical living, menstrual cycles, fertility, hormones and more. 


Let’s stay connected:

📸 Instagram: @cycleseeds

📧 Join my newsletter: https://www.cycleseeds.com/

💻 Visit the Cycle Seeds website: https://www.cycleseeds.com/

📝 Check out the blog: https://www.cycleseeds.com/blog

🎓 Holistic Hormone & Cycle Coaching Certification Training: https://www.cycleseeds.com/hhcc-training-2025-selfstudy-vip

📚Join my courses: https://www.cycleseeds.com/courses-masterclasses

📊 Chart Your Cycle Masterclass: https://cycleseeds.plugandpay.nl/checkout/chart-your-cycle-97 

[00:00:00] Iris Josephina: You are listening to the podcast of Iris Josephina. If you are passionate about exploring the menstrual cycle, cyclical living, body wisdom, personal growth, spirituality, and running a business in alignment with your natural cycles, you're in the right place. I'm Iris. I'm an entrepreneur, functional hormone specialist, trainer and coach, and I am on a mission.

[00:00:29] Iris Josephina: To share insights, fun facts, and inspiration I discover along the way as I run my business and walk my own path on earth. Here you'll hear my personal stories, guest interviews, and vulnerable shares from clients and students. Most people know me from Instagram where you can find me under at cycle seeds, or they have been a coaching client or student in one of my courses.

[00:00:52] Iris Josephina: I'm so grateful you're here. Let's dive into today's episode. So today I am sitting here with my dear, dear friend Julia, welcome to the show, Julia. 

[00:01:05] Julia Rugosa: Thank you. Thanks for having me. 

[00:01:08] Iris Josephina: So before we dive into all the juicy topics that we're gonna talk about, maybe it's nice for the audience to share a bit how we met, because I think it's a really sweet story.

[00:01:21] Iris Josephina: Mm-hmm. would you like to share? 

[00:01:23] Julia Rugosa: Sure, I'd love to. Okay. So I met Iris in France on a mermaids of the Magdalene retreat with Dakota Chanel. And it was a really beautiful, synchronistic, exciting meeting because we were in a group of, a smaller group of four women who chose to stay together the night before the retreat actually started and we booked an Airbnb together.

[00:01:54] Julia Rugosa: It was kind of a random occurrence. The entire group chat was just finding people that we could work with or, stay with. And so we had a lovely night together in ous with two other great flatmates, I'll call them Renee and Emily. And then the next day we made our way to the lands of AK with the rest to meet the rest of the retreat.

[00:02:23] Julia Rugosa: And then Iris and I were paired as roommates and it was really beautiful and very exciting for me because I. Initially felt just loving presence and easiness and connection with Iris. And then having her be my actual roommate in France where we literally slept on beds that were twin beds that were right squished next to each other, was just a really, really great experience and felt so wonderful and yeah.

[00:02:56] Julia Rugosa: What a magical time. it's bringing just. These light joyful tears sort of to my eyes right now too. So, oh, it was just so great and I am just so excited to be on this podcast and chatting today about our emotional and cyclical health. And thanks for, thanks for entering my life, Iris. 

[00:03:19] Iris Josephina: You're so welcome.

[00:03:21] Iris Josephina: I really think back with so much. Joy and rootedness about this time that we had in France and just as you were telling the story, when we, when we went from to lose to the long duck, we ordered an Uber, a taxi and we weren't sure whether we're we're able to fit. In the car and this poor man had to like stack up like gigantic American suitcases and we were all like squished in the car.

[00:03:59] Iris Josephina: A complete ride. 

[00:04:00] Julia Rugosa: I know. I was thinking of that too. So good. Yeah. 

[00:04:05] Iris Josephina: And then I felt like an immediate connection with you as well. And then I remember when Dakota. Mentioned our names because we didn't know who we would be, in the bedroom with. Like we, we didn't know. So when she mentioned you and I, I was like, oh, yay.

[00:04:25] Iris Josephina: I already have a connection with her. So, yeah, exactly. It was such a sweet time. 

[00:04:33] Julia Rugosa: So sweet, so 

[00:04:35] Iris Josephina: perfect. It really felt like. Summer camp for me. Yeah, yeah. To be in the room with you. And the, the beds were so like squeaky and a little bit like, not broken, but we weren't sure whether the beds were like strong enough.

[00:04:52] Iris Josephina: And I remember every night I would tell Julia like, ah, don't move too much. Be careful. Be careful.

[00:05:02] Iris Josephina: Ah, these bets were so ancient. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Such good times. So good. Yeah. So you mentioned, earlier that we'll be talking about our emotions and our cycles and how they are connected and how, Feeling safety, emotional safety in our bodies can, can bring us back to balance. That's what we're gonna talk about today.

[00:05:29] Iris Josephina: Mm-hmm. And before we dive in, I'm, I'm curious, whether you could share what it is that you do and how you serve people with the beautiful work that you came here to do for, 

[00:05:42] Julia Rugosa: Hmm. Yes. So I am a transformational life coach, and my work is based in the yoga and chakra systems. So I look and help clients with their life through a chakra based lens.

[00:06:01] Julia Rugosa: So essentially the energy that is inside of us that's related to how we feel. Emotionally, financially in our homes, through compassion, our ability to speak and think clearly, our ability to find focus and willpower and confidence. All of these things live within us through our chakra system and chakras are these energetic wheels.

[00:06:33] Julia Rugosa: That have a connection to our physical bodies, our internal beings, as well as everything that's around us. So our relationships, our home, the careers we have, how we show up in all of those things. And I love, love, love the chakra system because it's, it's what drew me into. Mental health, spiritual health, and then physical health as well.

[00:07:03] Julia Rugosa: And if there's any imbalances, we can actually note where in our body or where in our energy system there might be an imbalance. And just welcome the energy to shift. And that might include habits that we make or practices that we embody to help enhance a certain type of. Feeling or need that you have.

[00:07:29] Julia Rugosa: So maybe that's confidence and being able to speak clearly or maybe that's feeling secure in your body or in your relationships, and really beginning to source from inside to feel joy and happiness and create ripple effects in your community, your relationships, your work outside of you.

[00:07:55] Iris Josephina: Hmm. I love that. And I love that you work with, with the chakras. Mm-hmm. And I can imagine you explained a little bit, I can imagine that there are people out there who actually have no idea 

[00:08:09] Julia Rugosa: mm-hmm. 

[00:08:09] Iris Josephina: What the chakras are. so maybe you can share a little bit more about what they are and how people can.

[00:08:20] Iris Josephina: Potentially connect with them? 

[00:08:22] Julia Rugosa: Yes, absolutely. So the chakra system is traditionally from the yoga or Ayurvedic systems, and what they refer to is chakra means wheel in Sanskrit, which is the yogic language, and it's referring to this energy. So a. You could almost imagine it as an orb that is sitting, there are seven of them in our physical bodies that run along the base of our spine or from the base of our spine to the crowd of my head.

[00:09:04] Julia Rugosa: And these orbs carry your life force. So your prana, your breath will actually enhance. Your energy or allow your energy to flow a little more easier. And each of the chakras holding this energetic space, starting with the root chakra at the base of the spine, it's connected to your physical wellbeing, your financial health, your home, your security, your

[00:09:43] Julia Rugosa: earthly thing. So your ability to be here, your ability to procreate, your survival essentially, and then moving up the chakra system, moving to the sacral chakra, which is your womb space or the lower, belly on non on all people, connecting to your emotional expression, your sensuality, your ability to create and feel and express your emotions.

[00:10:15] Julia Rugosa: And then the solar plexus chakra, which is in the above the belly button. It's like your son. It's your confidence, your willpower, your ability to make decisions. I. Your ability to really stand up for yourself and feel true to your values and identify your values. And then the heart chakra is in our heart space, so in the lungs and the heart, the arms, the hands, and it is the place of compassion, empathy, self-love giving, and receiving love.

[00:10:58] Julia Rugosa: And it is this bridge between the earthly chakras that we just spoke about and the spiritual chakras, so that that connects us to what's above us or what's around us in terms of the universe or our relation to even the plants around us or your garden, or whatever it might be that you like to do. So that would be the throat chakra, which sits in the throat.

[00:11:25] Julia Rugosa: And is your ability to both listen and speak. So communicate, share, and then the third eye chakra, which is at your forehead, a spinning wheel of energy that allows you to see the bigger picture. It allows you to intuitively understand things and. Go a little higher than what is right in front of you right now.

[00:11:58] Julia Rugosa: And then the crown chakra is at the top of our heads, and it's your space of meditation. It's your space of connecting to. Your spiritual guides to God, to the universe, to whatever you wanna call it, whether that be your higher self or the cosmos, or even just a further connection to planet Earth in the skies here.

[00:12:23] Julia Rugosa: That is your crown chakra, and it connects you to this greater purpose of life. So the chakras, as you can see, they run from the base of us all the way up to the crown of our head. And they each have a quality and they're each connected to a certain emotional aspect of you as well as the physical parts of you that they may govern.

[00:12:49] Julia Rugosa: So again, if that's the root chakra, that would be the legs, the feet, the uh, pelvis. And moving up from there. So if we're having low back problems, we can look towards our chakra system and that might be the, the sacral or the root chakra. And we can kind of just take a larger scale picture of what's going on in our bodies and in our emotional life or our physical life, and attribute that to understanding our energy a little more through the chakra system.

[00:13:23] Iris Josephina: Hmm. I love how you explained that and the chakras are such a, such an easy tool for, for me personally to, to work with my embodiment and to really make sure that I'm like. In my body because it's, you can like run past all of the chakras. Uh, and that's something that I do often before I go to sleep.

[00:13:51] Iris Josephina: thank you for sharing that. Yeah. Really beautiful. absolutely. And earlier, 

[00:13:58] Julia Rugosa: sorry, 

[00:13:59] Iris Josephina: go ahead. Oh 

[00:14:00] Julia Rugosa: yeah. I was just going to say some ways to connect are exactly as you said. So maybe you're falling asleep and you're just kind of tuning into each of those spaces in your body and that will help you connect with them, you know, and maybe even listing some of the qualities of each of them in your personal life and.

[00:14:23] Julia Rugosa: How they are flowing or aren't flowing, and maybe you can sort of help yourself that way by giving yourself more self-love or whatever it might be that's blocked in your body. 

[00:14:35] Iris Josephina: So how would, how would somebody discover that some or one of their chakras are blocked or not flowing? 

[00:14:48] Julia Rugosa: Mostly by looking at both the internal and external world.

[00:14:54] Julia Rugosa: So I do believe that you're going to have an intuition. you're gonna have an idea of where to start. And the point of that intuition is to allow yourself to trust it, you know? Or maybe if you have no idea whatsoever, that could be leading you to your third eye, which is the intuition. So by kind of noting how I just explained the chakras and then noticing, okay, it's very hard for me to speak up for myself, that would lead you to the throat chakra and the solar plexus chakra if it's very hard for you to give yourself space and.

[00:15:39] Julia Rugosa: Love, like meaning, just compassion for yourself and gentleness with yourself. That might be your heart cha, heart chakra. so kind of just getting to know yourself and how you relate to you and what points within you are challenging. So maybe that is you have a hard time. Keeping clutter out of your home or feeling safe and happy in your home, that would be the root chakra.

[00:16:10] Julia Rugosa: And then there's also the way to look at it in terms of your physical body. So if your low back hurts, like I had mentioned, that would be the lower chakras, the sacral or the root chakra that might need some love or maybe a reiki session. and then same thing with. I actually had an issue recently in my upper lung space area, which is very much my throat and my heart chakra.

[00:16:40] Julia Rugosa: So I knew that those portals of me were essentially activating and asking for extra love through what my body was showing me. And then the final way would be to look outside of you. So. How are your relationships doing? How is your happiness within life? Are you feeling disconnected from people or are you feeling good?

[00:17:08] Julia Rugosa: You know, are you able to communicate your needs in a relationship? Are you able to love the person in front of you exactly as they are? Both of those would be heart and throat chakra. and then again, like maybe feeling small or not able to share your opinions in your work or your home life, that would be the solar plexus I.

[00:17:34] Julia Rugosa: So little clues like that each person is individually gonna know probably pretty quickly. Like, oh yeah, this is really hard for me, or this is feeling really great for me. But this is kind of a a hard thing. So if you're feeling overly great in something like really, really able to give love, for example, you can give love so easily, but maybe you're not receiving love as much, then.

[00:18:03] Julia Rugosa: That's the heart chakra, and that's an imbalance. That's actually an overactive heart chakra because you're so able to give love, but having trouble receiving it or allowing it within yourself. So you can kind of imagine drawing the energy that's within your heart space, down into your body, like down into your belly, into the low belly, into the hips, to begin to.

[00:18:32] Julia Rugosa: Move that energy down, which will allow you to receive more love by bringing it to your solar plexus and your sacral, which will stand up for your love and allow you to receive love a little more. 

[00:18:48] Iris Josephina: Hmm. I love how you explained that and it makes so much sense. And, one thing that I was thinking about when you, I.

[00:18:59] Iris Josephina: We're sharing all of this is obviously when we, when we move through the various phases of our menstrual cycle, our inner emotional landscapes like naturally shift and change and morph and transform and alchemize. and I'm curious what your, what your wisdom is on that and how. Our like emotional centers in the form of chakras are connected to our menstrual cycles.

[00:19:30] Iris Josephina: Hmm. How do you see that? 

[00:19:32] Julia Rugosa: Yeah. I love this question because another important part of all of us all the time, whether we have a menstrual cycle or we do not, is that no day is going to look the same. We are constantly transitioning, we're always changing, and it's actually a part of the beauty of life, which I would say would be your crown and third eye chakra to allow that ebb and flow to see how your luteal phase differs emotionally from your ovulation phase and all of the above, or even just, oh, today I feel I'm feeling good and ah.

[00:20:17] Julia Rugosa: Today I'm feeling annoyed that my tea isn't hot enough or something. You know, just the little things. That's kind of the beauty of life and a lot of things that times with clients. I like to let them or teach them to embrace that change. Actually find joy in your annoyance. Maybe like, oh, today I'm feeling extra annoyed.

[00:20:45] Julia Rugosa: How can I sort of find some joy with that or just honor it? Let it be a transition. Let it be different from yesterday. Because that's the beauty of being a human on earth, is that we are always changing what's around us is always changing, and that's a part of the beauty of life. And then our literal menstrual cycles are coming from our sacral chakra, so that's the womb space chakra, and it's the place of emotional expression, or you know, your biggest emotional center.

[00:21:26] Julia Rugosa: Essentially, the element associated with your sacral chakra as well as your womb is water. So the waters, and you can sort of imagine waves and kind of riding or gliding upon those waves. And a wave also indicates a cycle. So the beauty is that those are so interconnected. They're the same thing, but sort of with a two different ways of looking at it.

[00:22:01] Julia Rugosa: So you can look at. A wave as if it's an expression. Like we see that we are moving through this phase and it's the crest of the wave, for example. And I feel really good on the crest of the wave. I feel happy, I feel excited. I feel this, that, and now we're moving towards the. Other end of our cycle and we're feeling a little low, we're maybe feeling more annoyance.

[00:22:31] Julia Rugosa: This, that, the other, your sacral chakra is meant to do that. It's meant to ride the waves and be in a cycle and flow the way water does. It isn't a stagnant thing. It's allowed to, and actually welcome to. Move, change and morph with each day feeling and thing.

[00:23:02] Iris Josephina: Hmm. I love that. And I love that you. made the connection with water. obviously we went on a water retreat. Mm-hmm. And our bodies are water and our cycles are water. so I love that you made that connection. And to me it also like making this analogy automatically. Makes it feel for me as if it gives us permission to be fluid.

[00:23:32] Iris Josephina: Mm-hmm. In every single way possible. And I have the feeling that even when we're like trying to understand our menstrual cycles, there are these ideas about the various phases and how they are supposedly. Like designed and how they have to be or how they have to express themselves. And I love that you just explain it so well that it's, it's always new.

[00:24:04] Iris Josephina: Mm-hmm. And it's forever changing. And every, you know, every menstrual cycle. And with that, every single menstrual cycle phase is a new opportunity to discover change. And I love that. 

[00:24:20] Julia Rugosa: Absolutely. I so, so agree. And when I actually started really tracking my cycle, I noticed that I had sort of the opposite feelings and effects.

[00:24:35] Julia Rugosa: meaning I actually had a lot of energy during my period and less when I was ovulating. And that was through a big. Time shift. I mean, I had been on birth control for many, many years and it was just cool to witness that and to allow that and see even how it shifts through my life. now I'm, I'm a little more traditional in terms of, I.

[00:25:02] Julia Rugosa: Really going inward with my period and having more social energy when I'm ovulating. but your phases can show up exactly as they are, and that's the beauty of our chakra system and our bodies. They're going to show up the way they, they need to and the way they're meant to. And as we do any of this work, we're not trying to force it to be anything other than what it is.

[00:25:33] Julia Rugosa: We are simply encouraging it. And that is another important, important aspect of my work and specifically the sacral chakra is emotional expression. And creating and finding safe places to feel and be exactly as you are. It's really a work and welcoming of acceptance of what you're feeling, and then having tools to manage those feelings and allow those feelings to move through you safely.

[00:26:09] Julia Rugosa: That will. Bring the greatest happiness and ease and peace to your life and to your cycle.

[00:26:18] Iris Josephina: Hmm. I love how you just explained that. Yeah. And I, I feel that there's so much wisdom in what you just said. because like I said, like there are so many like stagnant ideas about how it should be. and I also wanted to speak a little bit about how the expression of all of these shifts and changes in emotion and feeling and sensation, how.

[00:26:54] Iris Josephina: The expression of all of these can bring our bodies back to a place of harmony and a place of balance. And I was wondering whether you could speak to that. 

[00:27:07] Julia Rugosa: Yeah. so this is just one of my favorite topics and it's been truly lived by me. My story in a short and skinny version is that I had bipolar and essentially that bipolar, this was at least a decade ago at this point that I've been in the healing phase or recovery phase of it.

[00:27:31] Julia Rugosa: that bipolar was expressed or came to this. Extreme notion or extreme mental challenge because I was not allowing myself to express myself throughout growing up, throughout, being a teenager throughout any of those things. So my emotions had become so large and non expressed that I, I was unbalanced.

[00:27:59] Julia Rugosa: I came out of balance. So what brought me back into balance was. first learning about the chakra system, honestly, and beginning to practice yoga and mindfulness. And I had a place in my body to understand what was happening in my mind, and by funneling, essentially funneling the energy. From my brain, my overactive brain, my brain that was thinking so much rather than feeling, rather than being in my body and feeling these things I was thinking, and then I'm judging that thought and then I'm this, that, the other.

[00:28:41] Julia Rugosa: So what I did was I funneled the mental energy that was all up in my head space and allowed it to start coming into my body space. And that meant that my body. Was beginning to feel deeper and these emotions that I had ignored, like depression or feeling unworthy or feeling low self-esteem, all of those feelings were able to be welcomed by my body rather than being thought of through my brain and my body.

[00:29:21] Julia Rugosa: I. Was able to harmonize them because our bodies and our energy is such a natural wisdom. It's a natural tool. Just the way your immune system takes care of your. Sickness that's come or even healing from a surgery, your body takes care of you, and your body's going to do that with your emotions as well, and your energy system helps with that.

[00:29:53] Julia Rugosa: The energy system and the body system work together to let your emotions be. So you might have this huge wave of sadness and, and you can ride that sadness, you can ride it to the crest of the wave, and you will have a dipping point where eventually it fades away. It fades off, but you've allowed yourself and your body to take care of that by simply feeling it.

[00:30:24] Julia Rugosa: And it can be hard to feel it. It can feel very uncomfortable to feel everything that you're feeling or, or need or want to feel or maybe that you haven't felt before. But allowing yourself to actually sit with the feeling, and maybe even starting with 10 minute increments, you know, you start, okay, I've been feeling pretty depressed for some time.

[00:30:47] Julia Rugosa: I'm going to sit here and allow myself to feel depressed. Write it down. What's it feel like? What does it feel like in your body? Does your heart feel heavy? Do you feel this weight on your shoulders? Let yourself fully feel the extremity of that, and then it will start to lighten. It will start to move because feelings just want to be seen, and our bodies and our energy have.

[00:31:19] Julia Rugosa: This natural wisdom to allow the feeling and let it move so that you become lighter in your body and in your energy because you've simply honored the emotion through your body rather than your thinking brain.

[00:31:38] Iris Josephina: Thank you for explaining this so clearly, um, because I really think that it gives people an opportunity to understand better and I was also wondering whether you have any advice or tips for people on how to start when they find it really hard? Because I've definitely been. In moments and places in my life where I felt actually just like you, like so disconnected from my body that even trying to observe what I was feeling or trying to observe that I even had a feeling was too overwhelming.

[00:32:27] Julia Rugosa: Mm-hmm. 

[00:32:28] Iris Josephina: And I'm curious whether you have like just some wisdom or advice for, for people who are in that space. And maybe you can speak from your own experience because you've, you've experienced Yeah. Like pretty, pretty big feelings in your past. Absolutely. 

[00:32:50] Julia Rugosa: So, again, I'm gonna come back to that theme of not forcing, so you're not going to force yourself to feel the feelings.

[00:33:03] Julia Rugosa: Instead, I suggest making a self-care practice, a really small one to start. maybe that is drinking some warm water, warm tea, and just letting yourself be with that warmth and then you can move to something else. Maybe that will, that will start to soften your ability to feel. The other really great suggestion is to start with your breath.

[00:33:38] Julia Rugosa: So start with maybe if you don't like to, just sit in meditation, or if you're not used to meditation or meditation practice, you can turn on some calming music and just watch your breath. So close your eyes. And feel your breath come in through your nose and out through your nose, and you're just feeling that coolness as it comes in and the warmth as it comes out, you might notice your posture and welcome a lengthening of your spine.

[00:34:19] Julia Rugosa: Little things like this will bring us into the body and if it's too overwhelming, if you start to really feel and you're scared of that feeling, allow yourself to just keep coming back to the breath practice. Just watching it come in and watching it go out. Both the tea and breath practice, these are forms of mindfulness.

[00:34:46] Julia Rugosa: And mindfulness allows our capacity of being to grow. And when you are being, you will be feeling. Because feeling and being are essentially the same thing, but you're a little bit higher than the feeling when you're in a mindfulness practice because you can keep coming back to that breath or feeling the warmth of the tea in your hands.

[00:35:20] Julia Rugosa: You can keep coming back to that as an anchor. And then a further part of the mindfulness practice is to. Allow the feeling to come. So if you find that you sit down with your tea or with your breath and you're gonna, you start to cry, let yourself cry. You don't have to judge that crying or change that crying.

[00:35:51] Julia Rugosa: You can just let it happen, and that will be bringing you into the being of the feeling. More than forcing it to be something that it's not, or forcing yourself to not be sad or trying to push, push it all away. Instead, you can really just come to yourself because what you're gaining and what every person really, really needs is this deep self trust.

[00:36:24] Julia Rugosa: You are the. A singular thing that will be with you in every moment throughout your life and cultivating self-trust and being here with you is so worth it. You are absolutely worthy of that, and as we let ourselves make that space. Just five minutes a day to start and let yourself be with your breath.

[00:36:57] Julia Rugosa: Let yourself be with your being. You're going to notice that you've got this. You can be safe with you. You can let yourself breathe and be here for you. And as those emotions crest. The other beautiful, beautiful thing about a wave and the crest of a wave is that it recedes, and that's exactly what you'll find through a mindfulness practice.

[00:37:31] Julia Rugosa: Once you're ready to start feeling, you will notice that the feeling always moves. It always changes. It might get more intense, but it will always, always continue to move. So once that intensity peaks, it's going to move into a lighter realm. And that's also what I found and what I did when I, when into this chakra work.

[00:38:02] Julia Rugosa: I practiced it alongside mindfulness meditation and what I found after probably. It is probably like the fifth week or something. because that's sort of the steps of mindfulness, is to start with your breath, then start noticing your body. You slowly expand your awareness and eventually that expansion of awareness comes to your emotional field and you get to this emotional field and you relate the emotion to what's happening in your body.

[00:38:40] Julia Rugosa: Meaning you're now feeling your breath. You're now focusing on your body feelings, like tingly or whatever it might be, and you simply label those things. You even notice your thoughts and you say thinking, thinking. You label what it is. And then when you get to this emotional being portion, you feel the emotion like sad, overwhelmed.

[00:39:08] Julia Rugosa: You label it to allow yourself to elevate above it in this sense where your body is being and feeling and being completely full and true here, but your mindfulness or your meditation is allowing you to sort of observe it and witness it and find safety within it because it's going to move, it's going to change.

[00:39:36] Julia Rugosa: And that is something you can also use as an anchor to welcome safety in this practice, is that it will change, it will move, it will change, it will move, and you'll build self-trust through welcoming that practice and welcoming the reality of that emotion.

[00:39:58] Iris Josephina: Thank you for clarifying that So elaborately, and I love how you said that you'll always notice that whatever it is that you're experiencing, that it always moves and it's always in, in flow and in movement. Because this is also what, what I share when, when people have a hard time with specific phases in their cycle, for a lot of people it seems that they're like stuck in a cycle phase and it's like overcoming them, like it, it comes over them instead of them having agency over the experience and, and having no ability to be the observer.

[00:40:45] Iris Josephina: So I love how you, how you just explained that because it's so perfectly applicable to, some of the intensities that we may experience during our menstrual cycles, whether it is mood swings before we bleed or feeling more tired in whatever phase, or having, physical sensation or physical pain. So thank you for giving us such a.

[00:41:11] Iris Josephina: A big gift of, you know, this tool that we can use, in different settings and different experiences in our lives. I think that's, that's very useful for people. Thank you. Yeah. 

[00:41:24] Julia Rugosa: You're so welcome.

[00:41:26] Iris Josephina: So before we slowly close off, is there any other. wisdom or story that you would like to share with us

[00:41:39] Iris Josephina: in relation to the chakras to emotions, emotional safety and expression. Hmm. 

[00:41:48] Julia Rugosa: I think I just want to touch on in terms of the safety of your emotional expression. Is again, the, the trauma-informed version of this is to be really, really gentle with yourself. And again, coming back to the theme of not forcing anything but really.

[00:42:13] Julia Rugosa: Finding a safe place or person, whether that be a professional or something else, or even just a place in your home or outside in nature, that you can go to journal or, practice this mindfulness and, emotional connection portion. that it is, and you are. Worthy and able to handle safe emotions and creating that space for yourself and the trust within yourself will be built over time as you start to welcome space just for yourself to be with your emotions, and that means that you are totally taking that responsibility for how you're feeling. And as you do that, you're no longer going to be projecting your feelings onto others, whether consciously or unconsciously. yeah. So please just love your emotions. Love, love being sad, love being angry, love being joyful, love being neutral. Love just having a random day where you didn't feel like you did anything or love productivity, love all sides and all parts of the spectrum and, and let love be that final frequency that is holding you within all parts and feelings that you have within all of your ability to create safety and create love and emotion within you.

[00:44:08] Iris Josephina: Hmm. Such a beautiful piece of wisdom and I love how you mentioned allowing love to be to final frequency. I don't feel we talk enough about love and what that is and what that means and how. Specifically how we can make that tangible for ourselves to support ourselves, to hold ourselves. So I'm really grateful that you decided to touch upon that and to, you know, to give that to the listeners as like a final note for our conversation.

[00:44:50] Iris Josephina: I could literally. Talk for hours with you. I mean, you've done that. I know. I feel the same. Yeah. There's just so much to touch upon. but I really would love to thank you for coming on today, for making the time and space to come on and share your wisdom. And before we truly fully close off, can you share with us where people can find you if they wanna learn more about your work, if they wanna maybe visit your social media pages, what's the best way to get in touch with you and find you online?

[00:45:27] Julia Rugosa: Yay. Yes, so Instagram is the best place to find me. My name is Julia Rugosa. And that is also my Instagram handle, so at Julia Rugosa, R-U-G-O-S-A. And then my website is the same. So you can sign up for email list there and check out current offerings on my website, which is julia rugosa.com. I have, a group course that teaches about the chakra system and applies it to your life in terms of self-care and energetic and emotional expression that I run about three times a year.

[00:46:09] Julia Rugosa: It's a really small, intimate group space that's called Radiant Self. And then I have, one-off sessions that would, might consist of reiki or coaching or yoga or whatever you need to do to, welcome balance and happiness and fulfillment in your life. And then I also have a longer term, one-to-one program.

[00:46:32] Julia Rugosa: that just really dives super deep into what you might be feeling and, making those big shifts in your life to welcome the transitions and welcome a happy, regulated nervous system in a life that is making an impact and difference.

[00:46:52] Iris Josephina: Hmm. Thanks for sharing that. And I would love to invite everybody who is listening to hop onto the show notes where I will share all Julia's information so that you can find her and her work. Julia, thank you so much for, for coming on and for sharing your wisdom with all of us. It's really precious.

[00:47:17] Iris Josephina: Thank you so much. 

[00:47:18] Julia Rugosa: Thank you, Iris. I really, really appreciate it. So happy to be here. 

[00:47:23] Iris Josephina: Okay, this wraps up today's episode. Thank you so much for listening. Want to know more about me? The best way to reach me is via at Cycle Seeds on Instagram, and if you heard something today and you think, oh my God, wow, I learned something new.

[00:47:38] Iris Josephina: Feel free to share the podcast on your social media and tag me or leave a review of rating. In this way, you help me reach more people like you. Thank you so much. 

[00:47:48] I.