Is your PERIOD a SENTENCE?

February 2, 2014

Posted by Sharon

Fertility and Reproductive Health Coaching

Your menstrual cycle is unique and I provide individually designed programs that support your optimum reproductive health. Whether you are trying to conceive, hoping to avoid pregnancy or if you are looking to tame symptoms that are reducing your quality of life, we will work together to bring your moon cycles into harmony with your creativity, intelligence and vitality.

Believe it or not, within six-months, you can be pain free and enjoying predictable periods. Not only can we reduce your period-related pain and discomfort, you will find at the end of your program that you have a map for taking advantage of the various energies of your moon cycle. You will know when you are most fertile, turned-on, tuned-in, creative and energetic and when you are most supported with an inward focus and nourishing activities. Not only will your health improve, but your whole quality of life will evolve for the better as you find yourself more efficient, aware, responsive and confident.

With my six-month coaching program, you will feel completely understood and supported as we work towards radically reducing your symptoms, identifying patterns in your unique cycle and using proven techniques for meeting your personal wellness goals. Although the transformation you experience will be radical, the work is gentle. No strict diets or severe lifestyle changes. We work from where you are and then take you where you want to go.

I know that you may feel right now that it is impossible to even imagine not being in pain or having regular menstrual cycles. But, I KNOW that it is not only possible, but it is your right to enjoy a healthy, beautiful and pain free menstrual cycle. I’m so sure that I can help you that I offer a 100% money back guarantee. Start today with a FREE evaluation and a guided meditation so you can reduce your stress level immediately. There is no obligation to work with me.

My Story

I’ve been there. As a teenager, my doctor prescribed birth control pills to “help” correct my irregular and incredibly painful menstrual cycles. But, taking synthetic hormones so early in my life and for so many years backfired. By my early twenties I had cervical abnormalities that lead to painful biopsies and was experiencing large ovarian cysts. Each doctor I would see would say that by taking birth control pills I was already doing what was “best” for my “condition”. Finally, I had an ovarian cyst that was so large you could feel it through my abdominal wall and a doctor suggested that I have surgery as soon as possible to remove it.

No one ever asked me about my stress level, diet, sleeping patterns, satisfaction in my relationships or how I envisioned reproductive health or how my symptoms impacted my sexuality or ability to be creative and joyful in other areas of my life. I just kept checking off the boxes “irregular periods” on the forms.

But surgery? Surgery seemed so drastic that I woke up and started asking around. In whispered conversations in the ladies room in my office building I heard about an amazing acupuncturist who might be able to help. And help she did! Within 4-weeks the cyst that was the size of a tangerine was no longer identifiable on an ultrasound. The surgeon made me go back for a second ultrasound because she couldn’t believe that a cyst that gigantic had just disappeared. I am sure that the acupuncture and herbs that I took were helpful, but what I believe to have changed my life forever were the conversations that I had with my acupuncturist. Was I happy in my marriage? Did I like my job? What was I eating for breakfast? How was my quality of sleep? And each week, she would suggest that I add a little something new and delicious to my diet—-pumpkin seeds? Walnuts? Why, yes, I like pumpkin seeds and walnuts! I could eat more of those. Try wheat grass? Why not? I’ve been pumping synthetic hormones through my body and organs and brain for the better part of 15-years. Why not wheat grass?

Ovarian cysts–gone forever. I re-defined what a “regular” cycle was based on my own beautiful body and connection to the earth and rhythms of the moon, oceans and earth itself. Knowing when I ovulated helped me design a work and study schedule that respected my most creative periods. When I was more inward focused I knew better than to schedule big presentations or force multiple-deadlines. And, although many intelligent doctors said it would never be possible to conceive a baby naturally, I had two beautiful children.

Imagine

Imagine what it would be like to be liberated from painful periods, heavy bleeding, bloating, moodiness, cysts, infections and irregular cycles that keep you guessing.

Imagine what it would be like to know exactly when you are most fertile and creative.

Imagine what it would be like to look forward to your period.

Holistic Approach

Step One: Start Where you are

We start with where you are: your reproductive health as you experience it right now. I take the time to really listen to your experiences, symptoms, hopes and how you envision what a healthy menstrual cycle looks like for you. I offer some very simple to implement nutritional advice and teach you how to chart your menstrual cycle, be aware of fertility and ovulation signs and teach you some ways to relieve stress, tension in the body and address specific symptoms (for example: headaches, cramps, back and breast pain).

Step Two: Now We Know What We Know

After you take a couple of months to chart your cycles using my methods, then we have some information to work with. This information will help you communicate more clearly with your doctors. For example, just checking off the “irregular periods” box doesn’t help your doctor as much as you saying, “I only ovulate every 40-days.” You may also notice things that are energy related, but within your control. For example, you may see that you ovulate on day 20 of your cycle for 3-months in a row, but in the 4th month you have a really stressful presentation on the 20th day of your cycle and you don’t ovulate that month until day 22. In this stage, we have real information to work with and create goals for working with this information so that we can see change over time.

Step Three: Making Change

Now that we know specific information about your cycle, we can use that information to implement changes at the right times to support you in creating a healthy menstrual cycle and optimum fertility. Fertility isn’t just about making a baby, it is about growing into your most creative, juicy and sexy self!

Step Four: Optimum Reproductive Health

In the final stage of the coaching program, you find that you are experiencing a great reduction in pain and discomfort. Your cycles are not only predictable, but you look forward to their arrival. You marvel at how beautiful you feel around your ovulation and schedule time to be alone and quiet when you approach your time of bleeding. You see the wisdom in your blood.

Begin Today

The first step towards optimum reproductive health and fertility is filling out this new client form so that I can provide you with a FREE initial consultation and evaluation. Your response is completely confidential. Within 48-hours of submitting your new client form, I will send you a personalized e-mail with a link to a FREE 10-minute guided meditation so that you can start to reduce your stress level today. I will let you know if I feel that my coaching program is right for you and suggest a plan of action based on your symptoms and goals. The price of your program will depend on the number of sessions that we determine is appropriate for maximum benefit. Programs range from 3-9 months and payment plans are available to meet your needs.

Pain free and regular periods are priceless! This is an investment in your health and well-being that will improve every area of your life. You know how much you’ve already spent on doctors, diets, tests, medications, sick days, missed vacations……….instead of spending money on “something” this coaching program is an investment in YOU and you deserve it!

I believe in you. I believe that you can feel better and have a pain free and higher quality of life. I know it is possible for you.

The Beautiful and The Hilarious: Both Yoga?

January 22, 2013

Posted by Sharon

Desire & Deserve

October 17, 2009

Posted by Sharon

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I was recently supervising my preschooler in the tub and, while he engaged in an imaginary battle between a Thomas the Tank Engine bath squirter and a Fisher Price fisherman, decided to pick up my shampoo bottle and read the text. This text informed me that, by using this particular product, I would obtain results that would give me the hair that I both desired and deserved.

The desired part, I could identify with. Of course, I desire healthy, shiny, full, fresh smelling and bouncy hair with appropriate fullness. I certainly desire to protect my hair from anything that might cause damage. This may be a whole lot of hope to place in dead skin cells, but I could not deny as I read the back of that bottle that, yes, I desired these things. Admittedly, I also made my purchase with some hope that using this particular product would, in fact, help me obtain a head of hair that had just this list of delicious qualities. For those of you who know me, I currently have a head of hair to rival Elvira—-it’s super long, grey at the temples and generally swept up in a casual way with a clip. So, if I have desires for my hair, it’s both a whole lot of desire and a whole lot of hair to desire it with.

The deserved part, well, this seems problematic (at best!). Exactly what kind of hair do I deserve and what have I done to deserve hair with these qualities? I was immediately brought back to a Bill Crosby sketch where he made fun of folks who got drunk to the point of being physically ill at happy hours on Fridays because they had worked so hard that week that they deserved to get drunk. [Curious? Need a good laugh? Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYsko_tc3a0 ] After an immediate chuckle at this remembering, I started to think about the relationship between our yoga practice and what we desire and deserve.

In general, although we may not be honest with ourselves about the nature of our desire, we start taking yoga classes or start any specific class or practice with a certain goal or want or need that we would like to have satisfied. We want to relieve stress, feel better, have more energy, look younger, be more fit, lose weight, make friends, be able to say that we too do yoga and fit in, lower our chances of heart disease, get pregnant or find some kind of blissful state. These desires can be helpful in our practice when we acknowledge them with honesty (satya) and a certain level of willingness to release the desire long enough to focus on our breath and the practice at hand. Perhaps our practice will show us that we have passions and desires that we were not aware of or not able to name. In this sense, our practice can help illuminate certain truths about ourselves that may have been hidden. This type of self-awareness is priceless and our practice, as it evolves, will reveal a revolving set of desires as well.

Thinking about the concept of deserve is at once very non-yogic and what yoga is all about. It’s at the heart of so many philosophical debates about why bad things happen to good people. Exactly what does anyone deserve and what role do we play in facilitating our own receipt of that just reward or just punishment. In some ways, this is part of our exploration of satya (honesty) and ahimsa (non-violence). When we are honest during our practices and create a flow of movement and breath that is steady and rhythmic that, in turn, steadies the mind, then we are also honoring our limits. We are, one might say, getting the practice we deserve. What happens when we fail to honor our limits? The breath is short and our muscles are shaky and our footing is un-centered. We feel weak, overwhelmed and our minds jump from one instruction to the next, one pose to the next, one shaky and aching shoulder/neck/thigh to the next. In this case, one might also say that we are getting the practice we deserve. On the other hand, we may just be re-enforcing the beliefs that we have about what we deserve that we carry with us on and off the mat.

I would like to suggest that you deserve a calm breath, ease through body and mind and a relationship with spirit that is both an inspiration and guide to act according to your highest ideals. I desire this for you. While you may desire a toned and lighter body, less stress, greater sex appeal or a sweaty romp through a familiar and anonymous flow—-you might get what you don’t deserve! Injury, headaches, a racing heart, exhaustion, shallow breath and negative thoughts racing through your mind about how you would have been able to keep up if you were just a little younger, thinner, or more fabulous. Desire is an intention that we can guide to a variety of opportunities and possibilities. This week, in your practice, notice what you desire and see if you get what you deserve.

If all seems a great failure, I assure you that, apparently, bliss is available from an easily obtained bottle of shampoo straight off the shelf at Rite Aid—-for less than $4.00. So, with a guarantee so close by and so economically obtained, what do you have to lose if you expand these concepts and take them onto your mat with you this week? Before coming into a pose, honestly ask what it is that you desire from it. When you come out of the pose, experience what it is that you deserve. Exhale. You are beautiful!

Posted by Sharon Fennimore Rudyk
Owner and Director of Yoga Matrika in Pittsburgh, PA
https://www.yogamatrika.com/
http://www.sharonrudykyoga.info
http://www.prenatalyogapittsburgh.com