46: Flourishing with the Cycles of the Moon with Dr. Ezzie Spencer

Welcome to today's episode of Unclassified Woman and today we have a special episode for moon lovers! It seems very apt with today's full moon.

If you'd like to understand more about how the phases of the moon can affect your mood, mind, body and soul, join Michelle and her guest, Dr. Ezzie Spencer, with today's show. 

Today we're going to be talking about Ezzie's new book, An Abundant Life, Flourishing With The Cycles Of The Moon, which is her concept of Lunar Abundance and also her personal practice. This practice partners intellect with intuition and it has helped many women throughout the world, through one to one coaching sessions and through the support of Ezzie's flourishing online community at Lunar Abundance.com

Ezzie has trained as a lawyer, worked in government non-profit and research sectors and earned a Ph.D in Women's Wellbeing and Justice After Violence. As a result of feeling that something elemental was missing in the intellectual world of law, Ezzie began to explore the correlation that she noticed between her feelings and the phases of the moon. Listen in... I know that you're going to love this magical topic!

On today's show, Ezzie and Michelle discuss:

• Ezzie's book- Ezzie starts out by giving a summary of the subject at hand, as in her book. 
• She says: “It's a step-by-step guide to working with the moon cycles, to be able to create your best version of your life - and it's really practical.”
• How it stood out for Ezzie in her cultural research, that different cultures, in their beliefs about the moon, would view it as either a Goddess or as a God.        As she says: “Often times we think about the moon as feminine and indeed it is Goddess-related in many cultures, but in other cultures, it may viewed as masculine.
• Ezzie's favourite phase within these cycles, with the understanding that things are constantly moving within the different stages and cycles of the moon, going between the yin and the yang.  She says: “I would find that those yin phases would really be welcome and really my favourite phases throughout the month- although they had their own sets of challenges.”
• Michelle and Ezzie discuss a particular time that people tend to struggle with the most during the cycle. People are familiar with the obvious setting of intentions at the new moon and the dramatic and visible impact of the full moon, but there's a lot more to working with the moon!                                 Ezzie says: “I would say that the number one phase which women tend to struggle with in the practice, is the Gibbous moon phase- a few days before the full moon.”
• The daily practice which is necessary to develop the awareness within you to assist you through the transitory phases, which may be really intense.        Ezzie says: “Just following that constant practice over time will render really great results and change.”
• Whether this is yet another example of how we have become disconnected from the cycles of nature. Ezzie says: “You're hear anecdotally all the time, even from people you wouldn't expect about the impact of the full moon...”
• The original meaning of lunacy, according to the Greek Triple Moon Goddess. Ezzie says: “Hecate was a very powerful Goddess and she was one of the very senior priestesses (or patron of priestesses, or patron of witches in Ancient Greece) and she represented wealth and magical powers.” 
• Whether Ezzie has found, in her working with women with her Lunar Abundance Practice, that they have become more in touch with their menstrual cycle. Ezzie says: “I would say that it's one of the things that women are most interested in with the moon work.”
• What is the best approach when working to deadlines, when one feels that the current moon phase is counter productive to what needs to be done?               “It's about working with these two principles (yin and yang) in tandem and harmony.”
• Working with non-negotiable principles and values during the moon cycles. Ezzie says: “To find those pockets of agency you have to be able to be very intentional about how it is that you live your life.”
• Ezzie shares some wonderful advice for those women who are still challenged with learning to receive.                                                                                “There is a whole chapter in the book on receiving and it is correlated in the Abundance Practice with the sixth of the eight lunar phases.”
• How working with the lunar cycles can have a really positive effect on your level of productivity.                                                                                       Ezzie says: “The yin cycle is key to being, I feel, highly productive, highly effective, but doing it in a way where you're really able to take care of yourself.”
• The greatest gift that Ezzie feels she's received in practising Lunar Abundance. She says: “I feel like...this sense of relaxing and being able to enjoy life a bit more has been central to my life now, vs my life before this practice.”  

I hope you love this episode. Find out more about Dr Ezzie Spencer's work and her book at www.lunarabundance.com and for more episodes of Unclassified Woman with Michelle, please see www.michellemariemcgrath.com

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