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In this episode of She is a Leader , host Yvonne Heimann engages in a deeply insightful conversation with Briana Villegas, a certified menstrual cycle coach and mom of three. This thought-provoking discussion shines a light on the often-overlooked connection between feminine energy, productivity, and leadership.
The episode delves into how understanding the natural rhythms of the menstrual cycle can empower female leaders to better manage their energy, moods, and overall productivity.
By sharing her personal journey, Briana offers invaluable insights into her experiences with PMS and the more severe PMDD (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder). Her story, combined with practical strategies and tools, provides a roadmap for women striving to balance their personal health with the demands of leadership, creating space for a more harmonious and effective approach to both life and work.

PMDD: Recognizing What’s More Than Just “Normal” PMS
During the discussion, Briana explains the key distinctions between PMDD and regular PMS. PMDD manifests as a hormone-related mood disorder, causing severe mood swings, depression, anxiety, and intrusive thoughts—far beyond the irritability and mild mood fluctuations often associated with PMS. Briana recounts her journey of struggling with debilitating symptoms for years before receiving her diagnosis in 2016, a story that resonates with many female leaders who may not recognize the root of their challenges.
By understanding the difference between PMS and PMDD, women—and particularly female leaders—can seek appropriate help, empowering them to show up authentically in both personal and professional spheres.
The Importance of Tracking and Data Collection for Female Leaders
A core aspect of Briana’s approach to overcoming PMDD lies in tracking data. From moods and energy levels to physical symptoms, collecting and analyzing data enabled her to identify patterns and gain deeper insights into her cycle.
Yvonne shares her experience using tools like the Oura Ring to monitor health metrics, emphasizing that tracking these details can help female leaders navigate their energy fluctuations more effectively. This understanding not only enhances self-awareness but also enables women to align their schedules with their natural rhythms, leading to optimized productivity and well-being.
Holistic Approaches for Female Leaders
Briana describes her transition away from conventional Western medicine after finding that solutions like birth control and antidepressants often masked symptoms rather than addressing root causes. Instead, she embraced holistic methods, learning to soften the extreme edges of her symptoms and work with the natural fluctuations of her cycle.
This journey offers female leaders a reminder of the power in understanding and nurturing their unique feminine energy. By doing so, they can foster resilience and harmony in both their personal and professional lives.
Harnessing Feminine Power in Leadership
One of the episode’s most empowering takeaways is how understanding menstrual cycles can benefit women in leadership. Female leaders often feel pressured to adhere to traditionally masculine models of productivity that overlook natural ebbs and flows.
Briana advocates for syncing business tasks with the phases of the menstrual cycle. High-energy phases can be reserved for meetings, presentations, and action-oriented tasks, while reflective tasks, like strategic planning, are ideal for lower-energy phases. This cyclical approach allows female leaders to work smarter, not harder, fostering long-term success and sustainability.
Healing Generational Wounds to Empower Future Female Leaders
Briana and Yvonne discuss the societal and generational messages that shape how women perceive their bodies and energy. They highlight the importance of breaking these patterns to empower the next generation of female leaders. Educating daughters and younger women about their menstrual cycles fosters a healthier relationship with their bodies and helps dismantle outdated stigmas.
Conclusion
The debut episode of She is a Leader offers female leaders a profound exploration of understanding and harnessing the power of their menstrual cycles. By distinguishing between PMS and PMDD, tracking symptoms, and embracing holistic approaches, women can transform their relationship with their bodies. Integrating these insights into business and leadership allows female leaders to thrive authentically and powerfully.
As female leaders continue to rise across all industries, embracing their cycles unlocks new opportunities for balanced, innovative, and impactful leadership.
Take Briana’s PMDD Quiz: https://brianavillegas.com/quiz
Meet Briana Villegas
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📄 Video Transcription:
Yvonne Heimann [00:00:06]:
And with that, welcome back to another episode of She Is A Leader. And today I’m really excited to have Briana here because we actually work and, and, and live and communicate and talk and meet people in the same circles. And I’m like, huh? I think we actually follow each other on Instagram. We have mutual friends. And I’m like, it’s always fun when, when those circles close again. And with that, everybody, I want to introduce you to Briana. She is a certified menstrual cycle coach and mom of three. Damn girl.
After being diagnosed with premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Also pmdd, you ladies might have seen that stuff around as finally getting more knowledge and just more sharing happening. And Briana got certified with that. You know, you’ve been diagnosed in 2016 and that kind of started that journey, that eight year journey of doing your research with trial and error and healing and just doing the work that so many of us doing. Just because there’s honestly, I don’t know if there’s a lot of research out there. I haven’t seen anything much. And with that, you are now PMDD free and specialized in helping others harness the power of their menstrual cycle to heal period problems, find ease and motherhood and optimize the flow of energy and productivity in their business. Now I’m really excited to have you on because that’s been my journey of leveling out emotions, leveling out hormones, being okay if I have a I want to kill everybody day.
So I’m really, really excited to have you here and chat with you, just how you show up as a leader today, how you are honoring yourself. So thank you for joining me today.
Briana Villegas [00:02:15]:
Thanks for having me. Yeah. I’m so excited to have this conversation and I feel like I’ve been in a little bit of a hibernation season, a little bit just growing, evolving. So I’m excited to, to be able to have this conversation in this like newer up leveled version of it as well.
Yvonne Heimann [00:02:30]:
Love it. Now my audience already knows what’s coming and we already heard a little bit of there was a turning point right there about in 2016. Tell me about little Briana. Did she, did she think she is going to go into mental and physical health education or was it more of the I know exactly what I’m going to do and life just decided differently.
Briana Villegas [00:02:57]:
Yeah. So I think none of those like I was not really, I didn’t really have like a clear, like this is the path I’m taking. I was a really good student in school so all the people like, well, what are you good at? And I was like, well, I’m good at all of the. Like, I’m good at learning, essentially. So I’m like, you know, how do I apply that? How do I use that? But I think the fact that I’m teaching and educating there were signs. I think one of my earliest memories of getting in trouble is probably like, four. And we had this brick fireplace, and I had it with the little, like, hearth that you could step on. And my little body just fit, like, between that and the mantle.
And I climbed up there with a black crayon, and I wrote out my notes. And I was teaching from, you know, the fireplace, and I could still remember my mom trying to scrub this crayon out of the red bricks. And I was like, oh, maybe. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to do that. And then later, like, when I was a little bit older, like, probably six, like, I. I got cardboard boxes and made myself, like, a podium to, like, teach my stuffed animals. So I was definitely like, educator, teacher.
Yvonne Heimann [00:04:04]:
It was always kind of like this. Teaching, educate. I freaking love it. I’m like, I have that. I have that picture literally in my head. I can completely envision you, little Briana in front of that fireplace. And just.
Briana Villegas [00:04:17]:
Yeah. And then I went the academic route. Like, I got my master’s. I was in a PhD program for Hispanic linguistics. So I was going to teach. I was going to do that. And then, yeah, just along that path was like, this isn’t it. And kind of collided with those, like, health issues of, like, I’m not showing up as a mom, as a wife, as a person.
Like, I want to be, and I need to get that under control. And the academic. The pressure of, you know, you. You’re teaching. Research is important for, you know, progress, but it’s basically your side hobby because you have all these other things that you’re required to do. So I stepped away from that. I did a stint in corporate.
The fact that I’m teaching about women’s health and the relationship to feminine energy in our bodies is so far off the radar from where I was at. Like, I had such a bad relationship with my body and with even being a woman in general because of a couple things. I think as a kid, I was a little tomboyish. I idolized my older brother, and I very much paid attention to and internalized the messages around. What are these, like, masculine characteristics that get celebrated, respected, taken seriously? And what are the things like being emotional that quickly get you, you know.
Yvonne Heimann [00:05:35]:
Like, yeah, you’re just emotional today again.
Briana Villegas [00:05:38]:
So that was sort of my identity going into puberty and then my cycle hit and I, from my very first period, I had pmdd. I just didn’t, you know, have the language and the diagnosis till later to.
Yvonne Heimann [00:05:50]:
Jump in, to jump in here because I want to make sure that everybody in audience has. Has a picture in their head. What does PMDD mean? How does it manifest? How does it potentially show up? How do women that might not know, or even men, partners that are paying attention, how, how do you. How does it, how does it show up? How do you know? You might want to dig deeper into this and see if there’s more behind it. Because I’m like, there’s the next issue with you talked about, oh, yeah, just emotional today. Go, go away. So often I grew up with, oh, yeah, this is just normal. This is just what it is.
And we are finally starting to figure out now it’s. No, it’s not. So with that, I want to push the question to you. How, what should be normal? And how did it manifest for you? How did you figure out, yes, this is actually pmdd. This is not what this is supposed to be like.
Briana Villegas [00:06:52]:
Yeah. So I think understanding what’s normal is such a helpful starting point because it is normal for our moods to fluctuate across the month. It’s normal for our focus to fluctuate premenstrually. It’s normal to be more inward and be more concerned with, like, what are my needs, what are my boundaries, who is crossing them, who is demanding too much of me? And in a society where we don’t have a lot of space for that, we don’t really have it built in where we pause and get space to just like, be with our own energy, check in, listen to our own bodies. That presents like, normal, common PMS where it’s like, we’re more irritable, we’re more frustrated, we’re more sensitive, we fly off the handle a little bit faster. So all of that is like, that is normal when our body is very clearly communicating that we need something, and the structure of our day, our life is not in alignment with that. And so then we’re in that tension of, like, I know what I need and these little humans or my boss or whoever, like, won’t stop asking and demanding things of me. So that’s very much like the normal experience.
Yvonne Heimann [00:07:57]:
And it’s, it’s kind of interesting because our body aligns with what it’s going to do. It’s like, it’s to me it feels like a season where it’s like we are getting ready to shed everything if that’s our body or if that’s our life. Where it’s like, okay, really going inside and what do I need? What’s aligning with me, what’s not aligning with me, what do I need to get rid of? It’s I’ve, I’ve seen that circle with me where it’s like, yeah, I have about a week where I’m deep into what needs to get out of my life or what do I just need to step away from. So it’s interesting how those emotions and everything completely aligns for me with what my body is physically doing.
Briana Villegas [00:08:45]:
Yeah. And that’s the thing I like to tell people too is like you already know this cycle. You may not have the words and the whole schema of it, but you’re living it. You know it’s there and you may not be planning ahead for it, but when it’s happening, like you’re like, okay, it’s that time of the month again, here we are. And this is something that’s kind of really interesting with tapping into the cycle and really feminine energy is that when we’re aligned with it, that’s a super powerful like creative life force that can serve our goals and help move us forward. But when we’re not making space for it, it’s chaos, it’s disruptive. It’s going to find a way to get us what we need in a constructive way if we allow it, or a non constructive way. Right.
We’re going to blow up the relationship, we’re going to blow up the things. Because that energy is just like, I am here and I know what I need and I know how to get it.
Yvonne Heimann [00:09:40]:
And it’s like everybody that’s just listening and I’m watching on YouTube, I’m just laughing over here because it’s like, yeah, it’s going to happen either way. How do you want it? How you do, how do you want it to happen? Are you going to go with the flow? Are you going to just do accordingly? Are you going to fight it? And it’s going to bite you in the ass. How would you like to take this? So now that we have a little bit of an idea of what normal is, what is not normal?
Briana Villegas [00:10:06]:
Yeah. So for me with, well, with pmdd, it’s very much like mood related as there are. You can also have physical symptoms. But really the criteria for pmdd, it’s considered a hormone related mood disorder. So it’s not an imbalance with hormones, but it’s that the brain is responding to the rise and fall of those hormones in an adverse way. So for me, that showed up like it was almost immediately after ovulation. Like, as soon as that point crossed over, I could feel myself like land in this, like, really dark space where I would be depressed, anxious, full of intrusive thoughts. Like, I, like, my body would feel like, so heavy.
Like, just shut down. And I was really had to work so hard to do bare minimum. Like, I showed up for things, but I was numb. I was a shell. Like, and then my period would start and I was back to like overachiever mode. Like. And so it really felt like for me, like I’m two different people. And it took.
And even with that, it took a long time because I was like, oh, PMS is normal. Everyone is doing this. And because of all the messaging and shame in the conversation, I assumed my inability to make it to the gym to show up and all these things meant I. There was something wrong with me. I just couldn’t hack it. I couldn’t handle it. And not like, no, that person at the gym is not experiencing their cycle the way that you’re experiencing it. And so really the tipping point for me, I was studying abroad in Spain and I was essentially, you know, kind of more isolated from my community, from my family and everything.
And that’s when the pattern became very clear of like, this is not okay. Things got a little bit darker, you know, and you don’t have that community to, to help and support. And that’s when I just got in the Google rabbit hole and was like, this, this can’t be normal. And that’s when I stumbled upon, it was like in a blog that wasn’t even active anymore. So it was like, you know, four or five pages deep into Google. Like, you know, you know you’re struggling and it’s bad when you’re like clicking through multiple pages on Google.
Yvonne Heimann [00:12:15]:
Oh yeah.
I’ve been there, been there, done that.
Briana Villegas [00:12:20]:
Yeah.
Yvonne Heimann [00:12:21]:
But it’s also, it’s also a sign for me where it’s like, you know, what if I have to get five, six pages into Google to find something? You know what the mainstream message is, right? Where it’s. And it’s like, I think the issue is so much bigger than. And I’m not taking anything away from the struggle of this specific manifestation of our issues where it’s like just this age old and fortunately finally starting to change message of we don’t have enough research when it comes to women, there is so much research done with men, but not with women. It’s this brush off of, oh yeah, you are just overdoing it. And I’m like, I know how, how high my pain tolerance is when I come in and I say I’m in pain, I’m in pain. It’s like, I didn’t just cut my finger, I pretty much cut off my hand when I come in and say I’m in pain. And just this brushing off.
And it’s been really nice to see, especially also in my own journey and also following your content. So guys, make sure you get the link at the end. Follow her, Follow Briana on Instagram. Just educating myself and, and getting information and combining it with my journey of just collecting data where it’s like I just started collecting the data of how are my emotions changing throughout the month, how are things happening and, and getting that data back to be able to, to figure out how my body specifically reacts because it’s a body. It’s like my body is also going to be reacting differently than somebody else, while somebody else might experience the same thing, but it manifests different than it does to me. So in my journey, I really focused on, on data. I love my aura ring because it’s like, it’s so easy to wear. It’s not as bulky as an Apple watch and doesn’t constantly ding and get me out of my everyday life, but I also get basal temperature, my basic temperatures, my sleep patterns, all the things.
And I was able to get a lot of that data to, to really get an understanding because again, as I said, even though we might have the same diagnosis, even though we might go through similar issues, our bodies are different. I’m like, we see it even with mainstream medicine where it’s like anesthesia works different on different bodies and everything. It’s like, yes, we are in this together, but it can show up differently. So how did you go from, okay, something is off here. What is off? And diving deep into Google researches to be more balanced to, to have taken charge of this and not go down. I call it doomsday, not go down those doomsday routes anymore and be able to just, yeah, be more balanced rather than this whole.
Briana Villegas [00:15:41]:
Yeah, yeah. So I mean it was all of that. There was definitely the doomsday of like, great, I am broken. Confirming these stories, right. That like, I already thought this but like now I have a label to prove it. Right? So that was definitely like initial things. Having my kids was definitely a huge motivator. Especially when my daughter was born.
Because I was like, I’ve been tolerating a lot of for myself and accepting it because I was told that that’s how it is. Welcome to womanhood. But when I had that little girl, I was like, I need better answers for her. Like, this isn’t good enough for her. So that really helped shift me out of like, okay, we can plan for this now. And we just kind of have to accept that this is how I am to like, there has to be a way to get a few more good days out of the month. So that was really like the goal I had when I started. Started a similar way.
Tracking everything, recording everything. And because there wasn’t. Yeah, like eight years ago, there was like no information.
Yvonne Heimann [00:16:43]:
I’m like, there wasn’t even the conversation going on. There was no.
Briana Villegas [00:16:46]:
And what I found from Google was if I went the western medical route, it would be the pill. Tried that did not help. Right. Antidepressants. Antidepressants. Yeah, go ahead.
Yvonne Heimann [00:16:58]:
The. Yeah, I had, I had done well on hormon birth control. So I thought, I’ve done it twice. I had initially taken the pill and then got off of it because my late husband was snipped. It’s like, there is no need to be on the pill. It took me two years to rebalance to feel normal again and not be like I was all over the place those two years. And then losing him and getting back into dating life and all the things I had decided to do the implant because doing some research, it’s like there is less crap in addition to the hormones you are getting. I’m like, yeah, I’m still putting something into my body under my skin, but there is less additional I’m putting in my body.
And again, it’s like I could tell at that point it was still the three year. Rather when it. When they say now four years where I’m like, I don’t know, I’m not so sure about that one. But I already could feel again when. When it was cutting down. When I came towards the end of the three years, I literally could feel it in my body and it was a reset again. So it’s like, holy crap with those whole hormones. And I’m like, you know, there is birth control for guys now too, but why would we do that?
Briana Villegas [00:18:23]:
Well, and even that, right? Like the studies around that is they’re shut down because they have the same side effects as the women’s do. And like guys, it’s too much of a risk, right? Which is, you know, that’s a whole societal misogynistic, like, side of it. But honestly, like, the pill conversation that I had when I went on it should have been what tipped me off, because my mom was definitely more, like, crunchy. Like, you know, she was very hesitant about me going on the pill and all the things. But when we were talking about it, I’m, like, looking at the list of side effects.
Yvonne Heimann [00:18:57]:
Oh, my God.
Yvonne Heimann [00:18:58]:
You can use that stuff as wallpaper.
Briana Villegas [00:19:01]:
Yeah. But I was reading it, and I was like, I feel like this now, so it’s not gonna be worse. And, like, why was that not a tip off to myself or anyone else that, like, if you feel like, the side effect list of hormonal birth control, like, something is not right.
Yvonne Heimann [00:19:20]:
I actually like that one because it’s such. Such a specific way of being able to check into you, ladies. You can look up the side effects online. It’s like, you literally can get the package impact, the package thingy online and read through it, and it’s like, yeah, if you have. If you even just have 50% of those side effects, something isn’t right. How did you start to get answers? How did you start to get on a way of. I don’t want to say feel normal, but it kind of, like, is feel normal again.
Briana Villegas [00:19:59]:
Yeah. So for me, it started with. I was like, I know it’s related to my cycle. I know it’s a hormone thing. And so I was like. I worked with someone, did a couple sessions with someone who specializes in, like, pcos. And I was like, I know this isn’t even close to the same thing or root cause, but that was so helpful because it started me down a path of what is normal, what am I even trying to emulate or get my body to. Because at that point, I was still thinking, like, normal is what my husband looks like, which means, like, you know, he’s up at 5 every morning working out his, like, his routine, his mood.
Like that sort of what you get every single day is what you get. Like, it’s just this, you know, consistent thing. And I didn’t see myself as consistent. So I’m like, I’m trying to be like this. And when I actually got into understanding what is normal, what is this, what is it supposed to feel like, what is it supposed to do? And it’s like, oh, there are supposed to be this ebb and flow, these waves. So all I really am trying to do at this point is soften the edges.
Yvonne Heimann [00:21:03]:
Yeah.
Briana Villegas [00:21:03]:
And that actually opened it up to like, this is something that’s possible. Where before I was like, maybe, but that was like, there’s actually a path here where I could see a version of myself with softened edges where I couldn’t see myself as being flat. And it’s like, oh, that’s because that’s not the point. That’s not how a cyclical body is supposed to be. So that was really the. What kicked things off. And I just kept digging, I just kept exploring. And what ultimately started out as this path of I need to fix my body, I need to fix myself, and then, oh, maybe I’m not as far off from normal as I thought I was.
And then really turn into this beautiful path of learning how to come back home to myself and to my body to create internal safety so that I actually feel at home in my body and expand my capacity where I was so afraid of those mood swings because I felt out of control. I felt so lost to can I hold this experience? Can I be angry and that be okay? Because again, like growing up, it was like I was angry. It’s like, go, you’re being disrespectful. Go to your root. You know, it’s kind of like, go deal with this.
Yvonne Heimann [00:22:16]:
So it’s become an even bigger journey. It’s not just been a. Okay, how can we balance this out a little bit? It sounds like a way bigger healing journey from the tomboy, from the. This is what, this is what I believe I should look like to. No, actually not. And figuring out who you want to. It sounds like figuring out who you want to be.
Briana Villegas [00:22:43]:
Yeah, it’s crazy because it was like, there was definitely elements of like when I first started cycles thinking it’s like, okay, I have a little more energy, I have a couple good, more good days. But what really took me from being able to say, like, I now manage my PMDD to like, I am PMDD free is that piece of like I now feel at home in my body. I am present with the ebbs and flows of it. And like the, the intensity of that has also decreased a lot. So it’s not like I’m experiencing the same level now and I’m just like accepting. But in that journey of like working with my menstrual cycle, working with my nervous system, creating that healing and a lot of that has opened up. This capacity to be like the feminine is not a scary, dangerous, crazy, out of control thing. It’s something that gets that way when we don’t listen to her, which like, let’s look at the history of women’s movements.
What happens? Like, we get loud, we get angry, we get, you know, called crazy. And all those things. When we hit that breaking point of, you are not hearing me. My voice matters. And that’s essentially what our bodies are doing. So I like to look at a lot of these hormone disorders and diagnoses is even with a hormone imbalance, like, your body will continue to get louder because it’s not something being broken. It’s an alarm system. An alarm system is supposed to wake you up to something needs support.
Yvonne Heimann [00:24:13]:
And have you seen. You just. You just triggered something in me. Have you seen where they have done studies finally, specifically on women, how women have a higher possibility of immune disorders? And just simply. I don’t want to say simply. It’s not simply.
More of the immune disorders show up, more things like parts and all of those where our own body is literally just fighting than men. And it’s like, it’s been interesting. I just started digging into it where it’s like they’re drawing the connection to how we are brought up. Coming back around to your story, too, where it’s like, oh, yeah, you’re just crazy. Go away. We are here to. To just be mother to everybody. We are not allowed to have any kind of desires or any kind of voice or just show up and just be us.
And it seems like from literally just having started doing this research, it’s. It’s manifesting into those immune disorders, and our body is just like, you are not listening to me, and I’m going to fight you.
Briana Villegas [00:25:32]:
And I think learning that, that reaction, it feels like it’s attacking us, and it feels like our body is, like, at us. But I think learning, too, that we can partner with our body because it’s not actually angry at us. It’s saying that, like, we no longer fit in this box, in this, you know, role that we’ve been put in. And especially when we talk about those autoimmune dysfunctions and how those are higher in women, there’s such an epigenetic component of that as well, which is it’s not just having the genetic, like, predisposition to something, but how those things get turned on. And that is not just for you, your lifestyle choices, what’s happened in your lifetime, but what was your mom experiencing and going through when she was pregnant with you? What was your grandmother experiencing? Because I don’t know if you’ve seen this, but it just blows my mind that for female babies, when they’re in the womb, they already have all of the follicles that they’ll ever have. So you were present at some level, right? Some like cellular level in the body of your grandmother. So what was she experiencing? Her life. And I think these things get passed down.
These things are in us. And then at some point it has built up enough and our body says, no more.
Yvonne Heimann [00:26:53]:
And you have, you have that genetic memory where a lot of studies have been done on animals, where baby animal has never been taught a specific behavior yet because it’s like we are five days in. Yet you already can see a certain pattern in behavior where they literally shown from studies that certain things are genetically being handed down through the generations. So it’s like I own when somebody, when somebody tells me, asks me what my belief system is and how I see every everything, I think the best visual for me how I believe, how we are all kind of connected and how things are being handed down is the Avatar movie where it’s like it to me, it put the best visual to it because it’s like you look at everything, you look at how nature is connected with each other, the synchronicities that suddenly happen. How genetic memory is handed down. You can’t tell me. We are just now. Now I’m thinking of another one. We are not just a coconut that just fell off the tree. We are connected.
We are with other people, with our family, with our handed down. And I’m like, we can take this so far into mindset and all the things. You can’t, you can’t just say it’s like it’s just ours. There is so much we carry. So it’s like, damn.
Briana Villegas [00:28:32]:
But it’s also this in like the collective right now, right? Like across the board, women are waking up to this. And what language they use to describe it or how it’s coming online for them is different. But even if we talk about it in like terms of business, like, the conversation around women in business is so different now than it was a generation or two ago. And I see this very much as like now. Like women had to go through bro hustle, like mode to get a seat at the table, to get in the position where we can now say, okay, we made it here, but the way we got here is not taking us into the future. This is not serving the full picture of success as we define it. And so that’s what’s happening now. And it’s like we needed to get into the places to have the voice, but now that we’re there, we get to say no.
There is a very. We have to bring the feminine into this for it to be sustainable, for it to not just be the numbers and the roi, but the life that we want to live as well.
Yvonne Heimann [00:29:34]:
And I always say changes happens in extreme when. When you look through history, whatever it is, it’s always full on to one side. We then happen to go full on the other side where it’s like, women have no rights. Then you look at the feminist movement and we. We even burn bras. Sorry, ladies. I actually like wearing a bra. They are supposed to be where they are.
But again, it’s like, it’s. It’s. It’s an experience. We go through extremes and then we seem to be, as humans finally come to a point where it’s like, we get to have rights. It’s not about us not having rights. It’s not about if we. If we burn brass or if we don’t burn brass. It’s.
It’s our experience. It’s our thing. So how do you think. I think it’s just kind of a twofold question. How do you see female leadership in the future? And what do you think is the unique power within female leadership?
Briana Villegas [00:30:34]:
Yeah, I think where we’re headed is really like learning to actually have our feminine and masculine energies, like, play nice with each other. Because I think we’re at this tipping point of we’re seeing it get like the extremeness of each of these versions in their most toxic forms being highlighted.
Briana Villegas [00:30:54]:
You know, not to go down this path, but this is being the toxic. Masculinity is very much in the spotlight right now in the U.S. it.
Yvonne Heimann [00:31:04]:
Sorry to jump in there because that is such a big topic with. With my partner and coach where it’s like one of his big things is there is no such thing as toxic masculinity. You are not in your masculinity when you are toxic. And that has spoken so much to me. So completely agree. Where it’s like that toxicity finally came into the conscious and is being shown and is being shown that you are not being a man. You are not actually really in your masculine. And how that shows up when you were being toxic.
Not passionate about this at all.
Briana Villegas [00:31:45]:
When you mentioned, like, the feminist movement and we see that as being like, here’s the feminine, where it was just like this rage and the chaos of it and the like. We need to take men down as opposed to like. No, we both need to be coming into alignment. And the thing is, it’s not just men, women either. It’s like, do we know how to play nice with the masculine and the feminine within us? And that’s where I think bringing in the cycle is such a beautiful and like tangible gateway into how do we have some structure and some predictability and like looking at consistency but using a month long view of it, but allowing for this sort of container for the feminine to kind of come through and like we can go through the flow but it doesn’t mean we have to throw out systems. We need the systems. And I see that so much like kind of that shadow of it of in leadership right now or women stepping into entrepreneurial spaces is there’s so much passion, there’s such a mission, there’s all of that life force, creative force coming at it. But then it’s shiny object syndrome.
And it’s one day being like, I can 100% do this. This is my life’s work, this is my mission. And then it’s premenstrual week and we’re like, imposter syndrome. I can’t, burn it all down. What is, who am I doing this for? Why? You know, what does it matter? And so we’re kind of getting thrown around between these different versions of ourselves. And when we have some awareness around like what comes up in each of these phases, then we can start to say like, okay, now I can align my expectations, I can align my support from my community, from coaches, whoever that you need to help you actually take this energy from out here to like a laser, to focus, to contained.
Yvonne Heimann [00:33:38]:
And it’s funny for me, funny in a sense because I’m like, as much as the feminine is flow, if you look at a 28 month long cycle, there’s still again a system behind it. There’s a pattern behind it. It’s just a different pattern. It’s just a different timeline. And oh my God, I could, I could go on for hours. I have a, I have a damn feeling I will have you back on the, on the show soon. Briana, Tell my audience if anybody, and I’m pretty sure some of my ladies will want to dig deeper into it. Where can they find you? Where can they educate themselves? Where can they connect with you?
Briana Villegas [00:34:23]:
Yeah, so the best way to connect is on Instagram @brianavillegascoaching. Yeah, slide into the dms, talk to me, ask me questions. I love that feedback from that. But I also have a couple resources that are going to be really helpful. One is a quiz. So it’s like normal or not PMS vs. PMDD quiz. This is a really great way.
So I. There’s so many, you know, like the diagnostic criteria is so like objective and like how do other people view you? But I created a quiz that’s like, what does it feel like when you’re going through this experience? What does the subjective feeling. So this is a great way. Especially if you’re resonating with the like, oh, maybe it’s more than pms. That’s a great way to start. And that’s gonna get you into kind of the funnel of what other resources that I have. The other one, since we kind of touched on business a little bit, is like a entrepreneur’s guide to the menstrual cycle. And that is not to be like, this is what it has to look like.
It’s like, let’s bring some awareness so you can start noticing your patterns and start to support yourself. So those are gonna be great ways. And then yeah, just being in those places in my email list, my. What I have in the works for this year is to create a community where it’s really about how do we integrate these things and come back to what we know and remember as. As feminine, you know, beings who are connected to the cycles of life and nature and all that stuff. But how do we integrate and express that as modern women in our modern world? So that’s what’s coming. So if this is speaking to you, yeah, definitely take advantage of those resources and just keep your eye out for what’s coming.
Yvonne Heimann [00:36:04]:
And ladies and gentlemen that pay attention to their ladies. As you know, the links are going to be in the description wherever you’re watching, listening or watching, reading. We have the links ready for you everywhere. And oh my God, what a timing to have you on to one of the first episodes of She Is A Leader. Just perfect. Briana, thank you so much for coming on today.
Briana Villegas [00:36:29]:
Thank you for having me. It’s been so fun.
Yvonne Heimann [00:36:31]:
Thanks everybody. And remember, hit that follow button so you don’t forget and miss any of the coming up episodes. I’ll see you guys soon.