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How to Glow From the Inside Out
By Monica Yates
When you hear the word ‘glow up,’ what do you envision? It’s not just about a new look, is it? It’s about a new energy, vibe, and way that you carry yourself.
Glowing in a way that lights up the room and turns heads is something that most, if not all, of us desire. That glow, though, comes from a deep inner glow that you have going on about yourself. Everything is in alignment. Your body is beaming with vitality and health. You’re working with your biology and hormones, and you’re not punishing yourself, exercising, or eating in a way that media shoves down your throat.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who grew up with this idea that I had to be someone else to feel ‘enough’ or like I was ‘worthy’ of love. Many of us internalize the belief that if we are hustling, burnt out, and surviving on three cups of coffee, we are ‘killing it.’ All this does is deplete our life force energy (referred to as “chi” in Traditional Chinese Medicine), and our kidney energy (where we house reproductive energy) becomes drained.
Instagram and Tik Tok normalize things like bloating, PMS, and acne, making you think that there's “nothing wrong” if your body is showing these symptoms. And whilst normalizing these conversations is healthy and fantastic, normalizing these symptoms that are indicators of your body being in distress - is not.
Your body is constantly communicating with you. Take a moment right now to tune in for a second and notice how you’re feeling. Are you tired, irritable, bloated, edgy, or anxious, is your skin having an unwelcome freak-out? Or are you feeling good, light, energized, and playful, and your skin also reflects that (with a glow)? All these things don’t need to be shamed or judged but instead looked at with love and through the lens of “what does my body need from me?”
You’re going to love this…
Stop overcomplicating health. You don’t need 347 supplements and a 13-step skincare routine to glow. You actually just need your body to be in alignment with its essence.
If you’re a woman reading this, you have predominantly feminine energy within you. Your hormonal makeup and biology are what determine this, and thus, when we work against our biology, it causes our body to be out of balance. And boy, do we feel it when we are out of balance. Many of us feel shame, judgment, and even unsafety towards our feminine energy because of conditioning. We create this masculine armor to protect ourselves from feeling (insert your personal belief about feminine energy and feminine women). Our feminine energy is one of the most alluring, magnetizing, and intoxicating energies out there, and unfortunately, many of us don’t feel safe to fully embrace it.
As much as I would love to, I cannot give you a quick fix (quick fixes do not work). I can, however, give you three core things to start doing so that you can instantly see and feel your ‘glow up.’ Oh, and others will notice it too ;)
Start to bring more of your awareness into your bodyTune into your senses and feel more. Pilates is something that I personally swear by, and what I love the most about it is that its core message is to listen to your body. The feminine energy resides in the body, and the masculine energy resides in the head. Nowadays, we often spend 10-14 hours stuck in our heads. Working all day, making decisions, leading our children, leading team members, and then over-analyzing and criticizing ourselves. When you connect more with your body, you begin to feel more at home, and your body leans away from a stress response and leans more into your inner glow.
Start trying out these body-based practices:
- Pilates
- Dancing
- Sensual self-massage with body oil
- Taking baths
- Walking barefoot in the grass
- Sleeping naked
Exercise with your cycle instead of against it
This is an important step in bringing more health into your body, and you’ll be blown away by the results. My clients cannot believe that by exercising less between post-ovulation and their period, they end up achieving their health goals faster! If you’ve been seeing ‘cycle syncing on social media, I want to clear up some misinformation that’s really important so that you’re making this work for YOU.
You must know your day of ovulation. So if someone says, for example, “do XYZ kind of exercise between days 14-20,” well, that might work for them, but if your ovulation day is different from theirs, then you cannot follow their advice. So here’s the truth for you:
From the last day of your bleed to the day of ovulation for you (that could be day 14, 18, 20, etc.), you can start to slowly increase your level of exercise, cardio, and HIIT training. If you have a high-stress life or you’re trying to reduce your stress, stop doing HIIT training as it’s giving you the opposite of the results that you want.
The 2nd day after your bleed has finished should be looking like a strong mat class or some low-impact cardio, and then you can work your way “up” with the intensity of your exercise until you hit ovulation.
After your day of ovulation (for me, for example, I ovulate on day 18 *most* of the time), you go into your ‘luteal phase.’ At this time, you need to reduce your stress. Otherwise, you’ll deplete your progesterone stores and cause more hormonal chaos and/or water retention/weight retention. So during this phase, you want to be making sure your workouts are not high impact, high cardio, or intense weights. They would look like the ‘satisfying’ or ‘chill’ classes in TPC and limited low-impact cardio.
On your period, I recommend not exercising the first 2 days because your body is going through a significant process. Doing a stretch class (do not do abs) and going for walks is perfect for this time. During your bleed, you need to listen to YOUR body and figure out what would feel the best for it during this cycle, as we all have different experiences.
Ask for helpWhether you're a mother, a business owner, or working an intense job and trying to manage a house and a dog, women are not made to do it alone. The ‘village’ aspect has been nearly completely eradicated from our modern lives, and having your friend on facetime is not the same as having her in person. The mental load, burnout, and exhaustion that women are facing these days is a real thing, and often it can be self-inflicted. We don’t ask for help, we see help as a sign of weakness, and/or we have our own stories and conditioning about what ‘success’ is or ‘just’ being a mum looks like. We have devalued the role of the feminine, mother, lover, and nurturer, and it’s causing women to feel like it’s not safe or acceptable to do less. Instead, they have to be doing it all. Over time, this depletes your creative, sexual, and life force energy resulting in you feeling ‘numb’ and just going through the motions. Let this be your permission piece to, just for a second, dream up what you would love your life to look like. Take our society's expectations and what your parents would think and just let yourself admit to yourself what you desire.
Then, what do you need to tell yourself, give yourself permission for, and take action on so that this can start to become your reality?
The truth is, you, right now, are able to make a plan on how your body can start to come back to a place of balance and alignment rooted within its feminine essence. And from that place, you will notice that the energy you give off and the aura you have around you seems to be, and glow in a more potent way. I’m not joking when I say that people’s physical appearance changes, in a good way, as a result of doing this work. Because your body is holding onto everything you are not letting go of, when that release occurs, the shift is tangible and visible.
Monica’s Bio
Monica is a trauma healer, feminine/masculine embodiment coach, and period whisperer (for women). She’s the host of Feminine As F*ck Podcast, a soon-to-be author, and runs a 7 figure business helping people from all walks of life across the globe break free of the trauma and energetic blocks that hold them back from living their dream life. Over the past 6 years working with her clients, she has developed numerous life-changing programs and events with her signature, original modalities that have healed thousands of people from their trauma and triggers so that they can manifest their dream life.