The waning moon is here, and your body already knows it. In this final episode of our Cancer season self-care mini series, Riva explores the premenstrual phase through the lens of nervous system science, cyclical wisdom, and honest, practical self-care. If you've ever felt irritable, overstimulated, or just done during this time of the month, this episode will give you the language and the permission to understand why.

In this episode, you'll explore:

• Why the female nervous system has less capacity for stress and stimulation during the premenstrual and waning moon phase
• What the window of presence is and how it shifts throughout your cycle
• How resisting your body's natural downshift creates friction, dis-ease, and burnout — and what to do instead
• The rule of re — a simple Mercury retrograde framework that applies beautifully to the waning moon
• Practical self-care rituals for this phase: scheduling less, nourishing meals, bodywork, breathwork, and nesting
• Why your menstruation time is a built-in monthly health report and how the waning moon is your opportunity to prepare
• How to think of this phase as your inner autumn and what that reframe can unlock

Ready to go deeper?

If this episode resonated and you're ready to truly understand and work with your menstrual cycle, Synchronize is Riva's four-month menstrual cycle coaching program designed to help you reclaim every phase of your cycle, including this one. Click here to learn more

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Our intro and outro song, Reclamation (Reborn), is an anthem of remembering.

This song was created as a companion for the healing journey, especially for women reclaiming their voices, their rhythms, and their belonging in a world shaped by patriarchy.

You’re invited to listen, feel, and let the music meet you wherever you are.

Looking for support? Here's how to go deeper:

• Book a Somatic Assessment: Your 75-min 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided intro to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Download Here
• 1:1 and Group Support: Virtual and in-person offerings. Learn More
• Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices for nervous system regulation. Listen Here
• Watch Reclamation: A music video and expressive arts project. Watch Here

Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Email riva@windsofchangesac.com or DM @healingherstorypodcast on Instagram.

This week's Healing Her Story episode welcomes a guest whose work lives at the intersection of attachment, parenting, and generational healing.

Amanda Hill is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and founder of Connections of Hope. With nearly twenty years of experience as a psychotherapist, she has spent her career helping individuals and families create meaningful, lasting change.

But this carries profound wisdom about where so many of our adult relationship patterns actually begin.

Amanda opens up about her own experience growing up the fifth of six children in a loving but overwhelmed family, and how that shaped her own attachment style. In this episode, Riva and Amanda explore how the family dynamics we grew up in continue to show up in our relationships, our boundaries, and our sense of safety, decades later.

They cover:

How different attachment styles develop and why they follow us into adulthood

Authoritative parenting versus permissive and authoritarian styles and why firm boundaries paired with genuine listening matter so much

Why permissive parenting can leave children feeling unsafe even when it comes from a place of love

The real responsibility of parenting and why so many people underestimate its lifelong impact

Practical strategies for breaking unhelpful family cycles including journaling, therapy, and processing unresolved feelings with parents

Screen time, presence, and connection including simple practices for staying truly present with the people you love

If you have ever wondered why certain patterns keep repeating in your relationships, this conversation will help you understand where they began, and how to begin shifting them.

Connect with Amanda Hill:

Website

Podcast

Book: Making Sense of Dysfunction: How to Heal, Take Control and Move Forward

Send us Fan Mail

Our intro and outro song, Reclamation (Reborn), is an anthem of remembering.

This song was created as a companion for the healing journey, especially for women reclaiming their voices, their rhythms, and their belonging in a world shaped by patriarchy.

You’re invited to listen, feel, and let the music meet you wherever you are.

Looking for support? Here's how to go deeper:

• Book a Somatic Assessment: Your 75-min 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided intro to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Download Here
• 1:1 and Group Support: Virtual and in-person offerings. Learn More
• Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices for nervous system regulation. Listen Here
• Watch Reclamation: A music video and expressive arts project. Watch Here

Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Email riva@windsofchangesac.com or DM @healingherstorypodcast on Instagram.

This week's Healing Her Story episode tunes into the energy of the full moon, landing on the rare day when the episode airs right alongside the actual peak.

As Cancer season continues, the focus for these Monday episodes remains on care. And today's invitations apply just as much to this full moon as they do to your inner summer, your ovulation time.

But this carries profound wisdom about how to work with peak energy rather than against it.

The full moon is a time of fullness. The light is at its peak. And in the menstrual cycle, estrogen is at its peak too. In this episode, Riva shares three invitations for moving through this intensified energy with more support and intention.

She covers:

Creative expression — why getting what is inside of you outside of you, through art, cooking, movement, or making, is one of the most healing things you can do during this phase

Connection — discerning what nourishes you right now, whether that is a solo date, deep rest, or a long dinner with a friend who actually fills you up

Taking action — why the full moon has a way of making things undeniable, and why now might be the time to finally move on what you have been overthinking

Riva closes with an invitation to celebrate yourself this week, drawing on the trauma-informed concept of resourcing, acknowledging what is already going well as a way to build confidence and create space for more positive change.

Donation-Based Trauma-Informed Somatic Meditation to Support You, This Week 🤲🏼🌹

Somatic Body Scan for Self-Love and Body Appreciation

This simple practice invites you to pause, breathe, and reconnect with your body in a gentle and trauma-informed way.

Listen here

Send us Fan Mail

Our intro and outro song, Reclamation (Reborn), is an anthem of remembering.

This song was created as a companion for the healing journey, especially for women reclaiming their voices, their rhythms, and their belonging in a world shaped by patriarchy.

You’re invited to listen, feel, and let the music meet you wherever you are.

Looking for support? Here's how to go deeper:

• Book a Somatic Assessment: Your 75-min 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided intro to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Download Here
• 1:1 and Group Support: Virtual and in-person offerings. Learn More
• Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices for nervous system regulation. Listen Here
• Watch Reclamation: A music video and expressive arts project. Watch Here

Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Email riva@windsofchangesac.com or DM @healingherstorypodcast on Instagram.

This week's Healing Her Story episode opens a new cycle with a focus on care. What it costs. Who provides it. And why so many women are running on empty.

Riva revisits a conversation she started on the show last year, this time with a deeper understanding, not just intellectually, but in her own body and nervous system.

But this carries profound wisdom about what happens when an entire society fails to value the work that holds it together.

In this episode, Riva breaks down the staggering economic reality of unpaid care work in America, the racial disparities within that data, and why care work remains one of the most undervalued forms of labor in the world. She explores the biological truth that oxytocin, not dopamine, is the primary regulator of the female nervous system, and why so many women are not receiving the reciprocal connection their bodies actually need to thrive.

She also gets personal, sharing her own ongoing search for answers through the Western medical system, and why so many women leave talk therapy feeling like it simply wasn't built for them.

In this episode Riva explores:

The real dollar value of unpaid care work and why the numbers look different across race

Why care work is the most essential industry in the world and remains chronically underpaid

The biological need for oxytocin in the female nervous system and why dopamine-driven productivity culture leaves women depleted

Why your rage, anxiety, and exhaustion are not problems to fix but intelligent responses to an oppressive system

What it actually means to receive care rather than only give it

This episode closes with three questions Riva invites you to sit with: do you see your caregiving as valuable, do you feel obligated to care for others at the expense of yourself, and is it easier to show up for others than for yourself.

Send us Fan Mail

Our intro and outro song, Reclamation (Reborn), is an anthem of remembering.

This song was created as a companion for the healing journey, especially for women reclaiming their voices, their rhythms, and their belonging in a world shaped by patriarchy.

You’re invited to listen, feel, and let the music meet you wherever you are.

Looking for support? Here's how to go deeper:

• Book a Somatic Assessment: Your 75-min 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided intro to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Download Here
• 1:1 and Group Support: Virtual and in-person offerings. Learn More
• Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices for nervous system regulation. Listen Here
• Watch Reclamation: A music video and expressive arts project. Watch Here

Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Email riva@windsofchangesac.com or DM @healingherstorypodcast on Instagram.

This week's Healing Her Story episode tunes into the energy of the waxing moon and the follicular phase, one of the most tender and misunderstood windows of the cycle.

This is a transitional energy. Estrogen is rising. The light is returning. And so often, this is exactly where women push too hard too fast, burning out before they even reach ovulation.

But this carries profound wisdom about how to move through this phase with care instead of force.

In this episode, Riva explores what the waxing moon is actually for. Not maximum output, but grounded, sustainable momentum. She shares her own evolving practices, including slow strength training, morning nourishment, and why progesterone loves steadiness and consistency.

She covers:

Why grounding matters most during this rising energy and how to find what actually grounds you

Why this is the perfect time to explore something new without the pressure of committing yet

Why HIIT and intense cardio aren't always the answer here and what gentle, joyful movement can offer instead

A simple anchor question for Cancer season — how can you tend to yourself the way you tend to everyone else

If you have ever crashed right before ovulation and wondered why, this episode will help you understand what your body actually needed.

A Special Offering

Riva also shares a new menstrual cycle coaching package called Synchronize, with two spots available at the pilot rate through August. The next step is booking a Somatic Assessment and Care Planning Session to explore if this is the right fit for you. Book Here

Send us Fan Mail

Our intro and outro song, Reclamation (Reborn), is an anthem of remembering.

This song was created as a companion for the healing journey, especially for women reclaiming their voices, their rhythms, and their belonging in a world shaped by patriarchy.

You’re invited to listen, feel, and let the music meet you wherever you are.

Looking for support? Here's how to go deeper:

• Book a Somatic Assessment: Your 75-min 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided intro to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Download Here
• 1:1 and Group Support: Virtual and in-person offerings. Learn More
• Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices for nervous system regulation. Listen Here
• Watch Reclamation: A music video and expressive arts project. Watch Here

Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Email riva@windsofchangesac.com or DM @healingherstorypodcast on Instagram.

This week's Healing Her Story episode welcomes a guest whose life refuses to fit inside a single box.

Dr. Tavina Lynn holds a PhD in Chemistry and teaches at Sacramento City College. She is also a writer, a dancer, a creative visionary. And for years, she believed she had to choose between these parts of herself.

But this carries profound wisdom about what becomes possible when we stop choosing.

Riva and Tavina met at a mural project, and the instant connection that followed set the stage for this conversation. In honor of Gemini season, this episode explores multiplicity, duality, and what it means to be more than one thing.

They cover:

Growing up in chaos and finding structure through learning and how that shaped Tavina's relationship to curiosity

The internal pressure to choose between science and art and the misery that came from forcing herself into chemistry alone

How COVID became an unexpected reset that reconnected her to her multifaceted self

Why rigid, linear systems no longer serve everyone and how the breakdown of those systems creates space for something more fluid

The real cost of suppressing parts of yourself to belong and why true belonging starts with accepting yourself first

Creative life force energy and what it feels like to be danced by the dance instead of controlling it

This episode is an invitation to stop asking which version of you is allowed to show up, and start asking what becomes possible when all of you does.

Connect with Dr. Tavina Lynn:

Substack

Tavina’s Book: STILL in My Mother’s Womb: A Daughter’s Healing Experience

Send us Fan Mail

Our intro and outro song, Reclamation (Reborn), is an anthem of remembering.

This song was created as a companion for the healing journey, especially for women reclaiming their voices, their rhythms, and their belonging in a world shaped by patriarchy.

You’re invited to listen, feel, and let the music meet you wherever you are.

Looking for support? Here's how to go deeper:

• Book a Somatic Assessment: Your 75-min 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided intro to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Download Here
• 1:1 and Group Support: Virtual and in-person offerings. Learn More
• Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices for nervous system regulation. Listen Here
• Watch Reclamation: A music video and expressive arts project. Watch Here

Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Email riva@windsofchangesac.com or DM @healingherstorypodcast on Instagram.

The new moon is here — and so is a new focus for our Cycle Sync episodes. This week, Riva introduces the themes of Cancer season as a guiding lens for the cycles ahead, with one central question at the heart of it all: how do we actually care for ourselves?

This episode is an invitation to move away from rigid, one-size-fits-all self-care and toward something more fluid, personal, and cyclically aware. Riva shares how the new moon and menstruating phase call us toward lower energy, inward focus, and genuine rest — and what it practically looks like to create, prioritize, and protect that rest in a busy life.

In This Episode

• Introducing Cancer season and its themes of care: self-care, community care, and deeper nurturance
• How Riva's own self-care shifts between structured seasons and spacious ones
• The new moon and menstruating phase: what to expect energetically and how to work with it
• A practical strategy for protecting rest using your calendar
• What rest actually means — and why Netflix might not be cutting it
• Restorative movement ideas for the new moon phase
• Alone time vs. social recharging: how to discern what you actually need
• Why there is no universal prescription for self-care — and why that's a good thing
  
  

Ready to go deeper? Download the Cycle Support Map — your guide to tracking and working with your cycle week by week.

Send us Fan Mail

Our intro and outro song, Reclamation (Reborn), is an anthem of remembering.

This song was created as a companion for the healing journey, especially for women reclaiming their voices, their rhythms, and their belonging in a world shaped by patriarchy.

You’re invited to listen, feel, and let the music meet you wherever you are.

Looking for support? Here's how to go deeper:

• Book a Somatic Assessment: Your 75-min 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided intro to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Download Here
• 1:1 and Group Support: Virtual and in-person offerings. Learn More
• Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices for nervous system regulation. Listen Here
• Watch Reclamation: A music video and expressive arts project. Watch Here

Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Email riva@windsofchangesac.com or DM @healingherstorypodcast on Instagram.