Lauren Gaines

Hello! I’m Lauren, a highly sensitive Taurus and native Floridian who likes ocean swims, a good book, dark roast coffee, Yin yoga, and wild thunderstorms. I get excited talking about herbalism, Korean dramas, linguistics, and the friendliness of trees. I’m a former yoga instructor, curriculum designer, and refugee advocate, and now a Certified Menstrual Cycle Coach through UK’s Red School, and I am so glad you’re here!

Menstruation is not something we typically talk about at family gatherings or over dinner with friends, and yet we spend decades experiencing this common, and at times predictable, ebb and flow within our bodies. It’s as quietly familiar as the back of our hand and as culturally hidden as the new moon. So when we enter the stage of life called perimenopause, the years before our cycling ends, we can find ourselves in a terrain we’ve never experienced before, and this is the focus of my coaching work.

If you are in a season where you no longer feel like yourself, your emotions aren’t the reliable companions you’ve been used to, and your body is growing more and more unfamiliar, I get it. I’ve been there. I had very little preparation and guidance as I entered perimenopause, and I'll be honest, it was disorienting and lonely for a long time. This is the personal experience that brought me to this work, and I want to reassure you, you’re not alone and there is a way through. It is called Menstrual Cycle Awareness (MCA).

You are crossing into a sacred season, a rite of passage within which you deserve to be lovingly witnessed. As your coach, I will guide you towards living in harmony with your body’s natural rhythm, expressed through your menstrual cycle. As you progress through each cycle, there is a flow of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual changes you can pay attention to and track. And as your awareness of these shifts increases, you will notice there are patterns revealing your body’s energetic rhythm. For example, I know which days of my cycle I can expect my creative energy to skyrocket, my anxiety to get louder, when I'm most playful, and when I just need to rest.

The practice of tracking your cycle each day is quite simple, and yet it holds life-changing clues that can help reconnect you with your creativity, purpose, relationships, and self-trust. We will work on crafting regular routines and daily practices so you can stay connected to your body and aligned with what you are learning from your cycle. This includes staying present with big emotions, pacing yourself through rising creative energy, and gaining confidence in asking for what you need. The more you work with your cycle, the more you feel like yourself. The chaos begins to make sense. And things become a lot easier when you can anticipate what your body will need and how you will be feeling so you can plan life around your cycle.

Our modern culture has disconnected us from the wisdom and intuition of our unique and diverse bodies, and deep in our bones, I think you and I both know there is a more fulfilling way. Your menstrual cycle awareness practice will reignite an inner knowing of how to live your life that generates belonging, wholeness, and confident joy. And it is this radical act of claiming yourself fully, as you are, that brings you lovingly back home.