The waning moon is here, and with it comes the medicine of the metal element — the energy of refining, releasing, and returning to what truly matters. In this final episode of the elements miniseries, we explore the premenstrual or luteal phase of the cycle as a time of sacred clarity, honest reassessment, and yes — grief.

If you've ever felt like your premenstrual self wants to "burn it all down," this episode is for you. We reframe PMS symptoms as messages from your body, explore the science behind why your nervous system feels so much more sensitive during this phase, and discover how the metal element teaches us to distill our lives down to the essence — like a pearl.

We also sit with grief, the emotion of metal, and explore how to make active space for the losses, disappointments, and unfulfilled visions that this phase often surfaces.

In this episode:

🍂 Why the late luteal phase makes us more emotionally sensitive (and the hormonal science behind it)

🍂 The "superpower" of the premenstrual filter — and how to use it wisely

🍂The pearl metaphor: refining your life down to what's most essential

🍂 Grief as the emotion of the metal element

🍂 Honoring the disappointment of an unfulfilled cycle

Donation-Based Trauma-Informed Somatic Meditation to Support You This Week

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Somatic Breathing to Hear Your Body's Wisdom

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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 & Care Planning Session: Your 75-minute 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. The starting point for working together 1:1 or in a group. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided introduction to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Begin here if you're new to this work. Download Here
• Explore 1:1 and Group Support: Learn about our virtual and in-person offerings. Learn Here
• Donation-Based Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices to support nervous system regulation and inner calm. Listen Here
• Watch "Reclamation": A music video and expressive arts project standing as a testament to this work. Watch Here
• Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe to Healing Her Story so you never miss an episode. Let's heal, grow, and rise together.

Questions or want to...

This week's Healing Her Story episode welcomes a guest whose work lives at the intersection of the body, pleasure, and reclamation.

Wren Morrow is a boudoir and erotic adventure photographer based in the Pacific Northwest. And her path to this work is anything but linear.

But this carries profound wisdom about what happens when we are taught from a young age that our bodies are the problem.

Wren grew up steeped in purity culture and religious dogma in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In that world, desire was dangerous. The body was something to be managed. And self-trust was replaced with a constant question: is this God's will or mine?

In this episode, Riva and Wren explore the long journey from that environment to one of radical reclamation. Wren shares how leaving the church, moving across the country, and finding healing in the natural landscape of the Olympic Peninsula slowly began to return her to herself.

They explore:

The difference between sensuality and sexuality and why Wren's photography invites clients into authentic felt experience rather than performance

What purity culture actually does to the nervous system and how those patterns of self-distrust can be unlearned

How patriarchal systems create scarcity around gender and sexuality and what it looks like to reclaim your own autonomy from within that

This episode is for every woman who has ever been told her desire was too much.

Connect with Wren Morrow:

Wren is a boudoir and erotic adventure photographer based in the Pacific Northwest.

Instagram: @wrenmorrow

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 & Care Planning Session: Your 75-minute 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. The starting point for working together 1:1 or in a group. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided introduction to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Begin here if you're new to this work. Download Here
• Explore 1:1 and Group Support: Learn about our virtual and in-person offerings. Learn Here
• Donation-Based Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices to support nervous system regulation and inner calm. Listen Here
• Watch "Reclamation": A music video and expressive arts project standing as a testament to this work. Watch Here
• Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe to Healing Her Story so you never miss an episode. Let's heal, grow, and rise together.

Questions or want to...

This week we're attuning to the Earth element — the brief, easy-to-miss phase that arrives just after the full moon and just after ovulation. Its medicine is grounding. In this episode, I explore the science of earthing, how grounding may help shift your nervous system out of fight-or-flight and into rest and repair, and how to create real stability in your body and your life through grounding practices and daily anchors. In a world that feels increasingly unstable, the Earth element offers us a simple but powerful question: how do we create steadiness within ourselves?

In this episode:

🌏 What the "secret phase" is and where it falls in your cycle

🌏 The Earth element's core invitation: how to find steadiness in instability

🌏 The science of grounding: what earthing is, how it works, and what the research shows

🌏 How grounding may shift your nervous system from fight-or-flight into rest and repair

🌏 Why routine creates real stability — and how to build daily anchors

Research referenced:

• Chevalier et al., research on earthing, inflammation, sleep, and cortisol regulation
• Menigoz et al. (2020), Integrative and lifestyle medicine strategies should include Earthing (grounding)
• Studies on grounding and improvements in heart rate variability, parasympathetic activation, and sleep quality

Resources to Support You This Week

🤲🏼🌹

• Yin Yoga practice inspired by the elements
• Qigong practice inspired by the elements

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 & Care Planning Session: Your 75-minute 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. The starting point for working together 1:1 or in a group. Book Here
• Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided introduction to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Begin here if you're new to this work. Download Here
• Explore 1:1 and Group Support: Learn about our virtual and in-person offerings. Learn Here
• Donation-Based Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices to support nervous system regulation and inner calm. Listen Here
• Watch "Reclamation": A music video and expressive arts project standing as a testament to this work. Watch Here
• Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast

Subscribe to Healing Her Story so you never miss an episode. Let's heal, grow, and rise together.

Questions or want to...