Luna Living

Living the Luna Life™ was inspired by the transformative experiences of many women who sought comfort, healing and insights as they worked through common women’s health issues whether they be showing up as an ailment of the mind, body or spirit.

Founder of Living the Luna Life™, Danielle Rickwood has been working in the world of women’s health and wellness for over 15 years and it has been an honour and a privilege to continue to witness more and more women gracefully walk more moonlit paths and establish a healthier happier connection with themselves as well as with those around them.

Through their work with Danielle women have discovered that many of their life lessons have manifested as a health issue. In implementing and applying the tools, insights and techniques that Danielle shares they have experienced shifts that have replaced discomfort in the body and dissatisfaction of life with a body and a life that feels more aligned with wellness.

Here at Living the Luna Life™ HQ (Heart Quarters) we are all about providing and sharing the tools that Danielle uses within her work as an abdominal therapist and that her clients continue to use in moving through common women’s health challenges as well as applying self care practices that we may already do but learning when to do them for optimal effect throughout out the different inner seasons of our cycle.

Living a more luna inspired life allows a more balanced life to be lived, one that embraces both the need to do and the need to be. Our wonderful menstrual cycle is an awesome little mode of internal transport that if pedalled well, will allow us to experience a more happy, healthy, rewarding time throughout our menstrual month.

Cyclical Wellbeing plays an incredibly important part to an overall wellbeing approach for any woman in her menstruating years.

Abdominal Therapy

Learning to love the parts of yourself that have caused pain, frustration, fear, anxiety, embarrassment in the form of reproductive and digestive health issues has been life changing for so many women that come to see Danielle. Danielle applies the modalities she has trained and qualified in – The Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy®, Reproflexology, Reiki, Nutrition as well as further training in women’s menstrual health and wellness and studies in astrology to support wellness and address common women’s health complaints including:

Menstrual Pain

Infertility

Endometriosis

Cycle irregularities

Uterine position

Ovarian Cysts

Bloating

IBS

UTI’s

For a full list of conditions that Abdominal Therapy can help with as well as discover more about Arvigo Therapy visit: daniellerickwood.com.

For Danielle, Arvigo Therapy played a key role in addressing her own health challenges but she also discovered that living a more luna inspired life offered her a realistic and flexible way in maintaining the health and happiness of her tum and female organs. To say she despised her menstrual month would be an understatement. But can now, hand on womb, happily say that her cycle offers her a chance to beautifully align the need to do and the need to be.

womb and moon on bicycle

Cyclical Wellbeing

Who’d a thought that the moon and your womb shared such an ancient history together. Their relationship dates back many moons ago when women were so in tune with their own cycles, the moon’s cycles in fact all the cycles of life. They share much in common, a cycle that lasts around 28-29 days as well as embodying all that is beautiful, graceful and creative. They experience similar experiences, desires and energies as they move through 4 key phases. The need to hide away from the world, the growing desire to engage with the world a little more, the thrill of taking centre stage in life as they shine bright for all the world to see, the need to begin a slow retreat from the world..

Vibe: The need to hide away from the world.

Inner Season: INNER WINTER

Moon Phase: DARK MOON

Menstrual Phase:
PERIOD (Menses/Menstruation)

Vibe: The growing desire to engage with the world a little more.
Inner Season: INNER SPRING

Moon Phase: WAXING MOON

Menstrual Phase:
Post period, pre ovulation

Vibe: The thrill of taking centre stage in life as you shine bright for all the world to see.
Inner Season: INNER SUMMER

Moon Phase: FULL MOON

Menstrual Phase:
OVULATION

Vibe: The need to begin a slow retreat from the world.

Inner Season: INNER AUTUMN

Moon Phase: WANING MOON

Menstrual Phase:
Post ovulation, pre period

Wherever you find yourself in your cyclical life – just starting out with your period, preparing for pregnancy, recovering from giving birth, moving into peri-menopause, navigating menopause or out the other side in your golden years – your womb, physically and energetically remains central to that journey. The journey to feeling connected to our core, our centre begins with acknowledging the presence of our womb and the journey she too has been on so that you may move forward together harmoniously.

Inner Seasons of Your Cycle

Women are cyclical by nature. By tuning into the rhythm and flow of the inner seasons of our cycle allows us to align with a more cyclical way of living, enjoying the benefits that all natural cycles offer – the chance to retreat, to rest, to renew and to rejoice and round it goes.

Most of our blog posts will highlight where in your cycle is a great time to enjoy many different self care practices, so look out for posts that have the words that appear in the table above.

Especially if you are looking for inspo in a particular phase of your cycle either for fun or to support a health issue you are currently challenged with. For example for PMS, look for posts that have these tags – inner autumn, waning moon, post ovulation, pre period. You can also let other luna lovelies know about your experiences and hallelujah moments using the hashtags below.

Heather’s Story

My first “period” arrived when I was 11.5 years old and brought a significant amount of pain with it. The extreme pain in my legs, lower back, and low abdomen along with exhaustion and severe headaches has been a challenge my whole life. My reaction to this was anger and resistance towards my cycles breeding a hatred for my womb. 
 
Working with Danielle and experiencing her Luna Rosa offerings introduced a whole new consciousness to my monthly cycles. Her gentle and compassionate way coupled with her magical hands and nourishing products began to soothe the sharp  edges of the pain with love and curiosity. 
 
Now many years later I can see how our first hands on session together created a love connection with my womb that has been growing ever since. When I feel my cycle coming I immediately place my hands on my belly and speak to my womb just like she did that first time; the gentle and even playful presence helps me know what my body needs in those moments allowing me to respond with love rather than react with anger. I have found that when pain is met with love and nourishment there is a melting of the intensity and an easeful transition into flowing with the cycles. The brilliant Living the Luna Life essential oils, moon calendar, and jewellery are such sweet reminders to stay present in each phase of my cycle. Seeing them on my altar reminds me to lean into each moment of each phase with a gentle curiosity and embrace of the sweetness of how our bodies are uniquely alive and evolving in every moment. 
Heather Hollander

Gilly’s Story

I used to absolutely dread my incredibly painful periods and was always so relieved when they were over. I got to a point in my mid twenties where I began to question why I was experiencing such pain and that surely this wasn’t ‘normal’ or the way nature intended. Over the years, and through deepening mind-body awareness, exploring various modalities to help ease this pain, I gained further understanding surrounding it. I came across Mayan abdominal massage and its philosophies and found Danielle’s offerings in Melbourne. Working with her one on one allowed me to see that I was working against my cycle – against the very rhythm of nature, and allowed me to see how this was contributing to the pain I was experiencing. Working with Danielle and seeing the menstrual cycle as ‘seasons’, helped me enormously. I was then able to step into a place of harmony within my cycle, and to honour each part of it; just like the seasons within the calendar year and to understand that each one is there for a reason. Menstrual cycle awareness has promoted creativity in all areas of my life, as I’m now deeply connected to my creative centre and womb.

Since becoming self employed, the honouring of my cycle and awareness surrounding it has deepened further. I can now plan my work schedule around my monthly cycle to allow a time of rest and recuperation, to take advantage of the times when I feel full of energy and ideas, and when I am super intuitive and connected, I use these times for deep meditation. It has been such a gift. I wish I had been shown this much earlier in life, and absolutely believe it should be taught at school.

Her teachings have often reminded me how to look after myself in the run up to my period, to deeply listen and in doing so, the pain has reduced over time, as my body too, has listened and responded with this deep wisdom. It has helped and continues to help me get to the root cause of my pain, so that it soothes and heals in the long term. With each new cycle, there is new awareness, and now instead of the dread and fear that was once attached to it, I feel a deeper connection, an honouring and reverence for this season of my life. After working with Danielle I always feel beautifully met, nourished and supported. She has a special combination of sensitivity, wisdom and intuition which makes any session with her a deeply healing experience. I cannot express enough how important I think her work is, and would encourage everyone to dive deeply into it.

Richard’s Story (Father to 2 girls)

I just wanted to say how great my girls and I have been finding your monthly planner.
For me its been an absolutely brilliant way to bring up the conversation of periods in a really relaxed and informal way. As a father of 2 girls it was something I was slightly worried about but made the conversation so easy and comfortable for all of us. It’s something we now talk about very freely and has helped me with planning our outings in terms of when to take it more easy. I’m involved in the whole cycle and have a way better understanding of my daughters energy levels and feelings throughout the month. It’s incredibly easy to follow which has been great.
Thanks again.

Looking for a Sign?

Then look no further than an LLLHASHTAG. Be inspired by others or inspire others with your luna life insights and experiences whether it be a yoga pose, a recipe, a food, a thought, a song that has worked its magic for you in a particular season within your cycle and add one of the following tags to your post:
#LLLinnerwinter
#LLLinnerspring
#LLLinnersummer
#LLLinnerautumn
or perhaps someone has inspired you to live a more luna inspired life, go ahead and tag them with:
#LLLlunalovely

You’ll see through the site the key hashtags we use, including the above ones also used on Instagram, to highlight key self care practices that work well in any given inner season of your cycle so feel free to use them on any inspired posts that share the luna love and search for them on any social media platform to see what other luna lovelies are up to. If you have purchased any of the Living the Luna Life product range you may also like to supersize your experience by joining the Facebook group that connects in amazing humans sharing great tips and thoughts around how they manage their menstrual month.