If you’ve ever pushed through exhaustion to stay productive, only to burn out and wonder why you can’t sustain your momentum, your body might be asking you to work with your natural rhythm instead of against it.

There’s something I’ve been reflecting on lately as a woman who creates, builds, and leads – and it’s something I wish I had understood years ago.

We were never meant to operate at the same capacity all month long.

For so many years, I would plow through whatever energy was present – just to perform, produce, and keep the momentum going. If my body felt slower, I’d override it. If my creativity felt quieter, I’d push harder. If I didn’t have the emotional resilience I had the week before, I’d judge myself for it.

I thought being a strong entrepreneur meant showing up with the same fire every single day, regardless of what my body was communicating.

But that approach cost me my health. And it took falling apart to finally understand what my body had been trying to teach me all along.

The Four Inner Seasons of Your Monthly Cycle

Our bodies move through inner seasons every single month. Just like the earth cycles through spring, summer, fall, and winter – so do we. And you don’t need a menstrual cycle to be in tune with your seasons either.

Inner Spring arrives in the days after your bleed, when energy starts to rise again. Creativity feels fresh. There’s a natural desire to initiate new things, to plan, to move forward. This is when estrogen begins climbing and the body feels lighter, more optimistic, more ready to engage with the world.

Inner Summer is the time around ovulation, when you feel magnetic, confident, and capable of moving mountains. Energy peaks. Communication flows more easily. This is often when we feel most “ourselves” – social, productive, and clear.

Inner Autumn is the luteal phase, when energy begins to turn inward. Emotional resilience decreases. Creative drive starts to quiet. The body asks for more rest, more space, more slowness. This phase often gets labeled as “PMS” and dismissed – but it carries profound wisdom when we’re willing to listen.

Inner Winter is menstruation itself, when our systems ask us to rest, release, and restore. Hormones drop to their lowest levels. The invitation is to retreat, reflect, and let go of what’s complete.

Each of these phases carries its own medicine. And you don’t need to have a menstrual cycle to honor your inner seasons – these rhythms exist in all of us in different forms.

Why Slowing Down Feels So Hard

Here’s where it gets tricky for most of us…

Slowing down to feel what’s actually present can be incredibly difficult when what’s present feels inconvenient.

You know what I mean?

Like when you wish your body would cooperate so you could finish what’s on your list. Or when you feel like you shouldn’t be resting because there are things to do. Or when you start labeling your own needs as unimportant because they don’t match your timeline.

So many of us live caught in-between what our bodies are asking for and what our minds think we should be doing.

We’ve been conditioned to believe that productivity looks the same every day. That successful people don’t slow down. That needing rest is a weakness rather than a biological requirement.

But this conditioning doesn’t account for the reality of living in a cyclical body.

The Wisdom Hidden in Your Quieter Phases

When we actually use our slower seasons to listen – really listen – there are messages trying to come through.

Our inner autumn, for example, is when our intuition becomes more charged. It’s a time to witness what’s ready to be released before our bleed comes. The patterns that keep playing out. The paradigms of thought that no longer serve. The things we keep doing even though they’re draining us.

This phase has a reputation for being difficult – the mood swings, the sensitivity, the irritability. But what if those responses are actually information? What if the things that suddenly bother you in your luteal phase are the things that have been bothering you all along, just finally loud enough to hear?

What keeps coming up for me in those quieter phases is this need to control and arrive somewhere quickly.

There’s still a part of me that wants to hustle things into success – make it happen fast, see the results now, create urgency so I can feel like I’m getting somewhere.

But creating urgency in my business is what got me sick in the first place.

I know this. I’ve lived it. And still, the pattern whispers.

Rewriting the Story of How We Build

So what I’m feeling right now is an invitation to rewrite the story.

To meet my need for slowness – especially when I’m in my luteal phase – without making it mean I’m falling behind. To be patient with myself. To rest and restore and repair… and trust that what I’m building doesn’t need to be rushed into existence.

Because here’s the truth I’ve found –

When we weave our lives and our work through the seasons of our bodies, we stop fighting ourselves. We stop burning out trying to maintain a pace that was never sustainable. And we start creating from a place that actually has room for us to be human.

This doesn’t mean abandoning your goals or letting everything fall apart. It means being strategic about when you push and when you restore. It means understanding that your inner summer is built for visibility and action, while your inner winter is built for rest and reflection.

It means trusting that sustainable success requires rhythm, not relentless output.

The Larger Cycles Mirroring Our Own

Interestingly, this mirrors what’s happening in the larger cycle of the year right now too.

We’re still in the final stretch energetically of the Year of the Snake – the process of shedding, deep transformation, and releasing what no longer belongs. And we’re in the last weeks of a nine year in the Chinese calendar… a year of completions, endings, and honoring what’s finished.

In February, we’ll energetically step into the Year of the Horse, which brings a cycle of new beginnings, movement, and building something new.

But right now, in these remaining weeks, the invitation is to slow down and let go. To reflect and honor the final release. To make space for the magic that’s coming.

Just as our bodies cycle through seasons each month, the year itself is asking us to honor this quieter, more reflective phase before the energy of initiation returns.

An Invitation for This Season

So if you’re in a season right now where your body is asking you to slow down… and your mind is telling you that you can’t afford to…

I want you to know that the slowness might be the very thing preparing you for what’s next, so you can hold all of the beauty that you’re meant to create this year.

There’s no rush. And there’s room to let yourself be human and feel what you feel.

Your body’s rhythm isn’t an obstacle to your success – it’s the foundation your success is meant to be built upon.

Grounding Into Your Body’s Wisdom

Notice where you are in your inner season this week – and what your body is actually asking for.

Is your energy rising or turning inward? Does your creativity feel charged or quiet? Let that awareness inform how you move through your days… as guidance and information. Your cycle is not an obstacle to your productivity – it’s the rhythm your life is meant to be built around.

Conscious Release for the Soul

Use your quieter phases to witness what’s ready to be released.

Instead of pushing those slower feelings away, get curious. What patterns keep playing out? What are you still carrying that isn’t yours anymore? Write it down. Name it. Let this be a conscious shedding before you step into a new season.

Building a Sustainable Business

Let your work breathe with your body’s rhythm instead of against it.

If you’re in an inner autumn or winter, this might not be the week for big launches or heavy creative output. Trust that the quieter work of reflecting, refining, and resting is just as valuable as the visible momentum. Your business doesn’t need urgency to thrive. It needs you, whole and sustainable.

xoxo,
Lauren