The moon offers a natural rhythm for reflection, release, and renewal. Working with the Full and New Moon cycles can become a simple yet powerful way to reconnect with yourself and the deeper patterns shaping your life.
Have you ever felt like certain emotions, insights, or desires surface at particular times, as though they’re asking you to slow down and pay attention?
Rather than requiring complex rituals, the lunar cycle simply invites you to slow down and reconnect twice a month to notice what is ready to be released and what you wish to call in. In this blog, you can explore how aligning with the moon’s cycles can support healing, self-discovery, and meaningful personal growth.
I’m no astrologer but working with the Full and New Moon cycles was one of the foundational practices that I began over a decade ago, which helped launch me to where I am today.
How Working with Full and New Moon Cycles Supports Personal Growth
Developing a consistent routine of connecting with yourself in relation to the cycles of nature can support you in weaving in somatic healing, energy healing, developing your intuition and manifesting the life you desire. This is not just “woo”, there are lessons to be embodied through these rituals and the exploration of where the various themes show up in your life.
Each Full and New Moon shows up in a different astrological sign, bringing with it different energetics and themes for each month. How each of these themes shows up specifically in your own healing or self discovery and personal growth journey is dependent on your specific birth chart, however, there are overarching themes that we can witness playing out both collectively and in our own lives, despite the variances.
Using the Moon Cycle as a Sustainable Self-Reflection Practice
With each month having one Full Moon and one New Moon, with the exception of a “blue moon” which is when one month has an extra moon cycle in it, this gives us 24 or more checkpoints a year. When you’re just beginning on the journey of coming home to yourself, or reconnecting with yourself in a new way, twice a month doesn’t sound like very much. However, it is important that we build practices that support the life we’re in. When we build self-care or inner reflection practices that are too large, too frequent or too labour heavy for the lives we’re living, it becomes unsustainable and this is where people slip back into old habits.
For someone just starting out, who hasn’t yet developed their intuition, resiliency or sustainable daily somatic, energetic or embodiment connection points yet, twice a month with the Full and New Moons as their guide can be a powerful new beginning.
While the general themes for each Full and New Moon will have overlap, the details will differ.
Full Moon Release & New Moon Manifestation: A Practical Framework
For example, the way I typically teach and practice is that we release on the Full Moon to create space for manifestation and bringing in what is in alignment with our highest and best selves, and, with the exception of eclipses, we manifest on the New Moon; calling in and embodying the energy of what we most desire and what is in true alignment with the highest and best of who we are now and who we are becoming.
When I teach manifestation, it is not all affirmations and moon work. There are layers to this. First, we need to release what is holding us back from what we desire. This could be physical items, but it could also be energy, attachments, outdated patterns, old belief systems, habits, or ways of being that are holding us back and out of alignment with who we are becoming.
Manifestation and Nervous System Capacity: Can You Hold What You’re Calling In?
We also need to address our nervous system capacity.
Do we have the nervous system flexibility, resiliency and capacity to expand, hold and maintain all that we are calling in?
How do our systems respond and adapt to what we are asking for?
When we sit with the sensations present in our bodies as we explore what we wish to call in, is there an expansion in our body and energy body? Or do we contract?
In my work we explore this through somatic inquiry, somatic parts work, intuitive energy healing and past life regression lenses. There are many avenues available to begin to work with our systems as well as our subconscious minds, rather than against them, to begin to effectively create sustainable change in our lives.
Creating Bi-Weekly Moon Rituals That Lead to Tangible Change
Through beginning to create the space for yourself approximately every two weeks, at each Full and New Moon, and exploring the various themes related to each moon cycle with openness, curiosity and self reflection into how they may be showing up in your own life, body, or nervous system at the time, you will begin to experience tangible shifts in your life.
These practices and rituals can become an anchor that invites you to come home to yourself and embody your highest self regularly. Through ongoing practice these shifts can naturally become embodied in your way of being and in how you move through the world; this is what compounds to create significant ripple effects throughout your health, wellbeing, relationships, career, wealth, and life.
Moon Rituals as an Anchor, Not a Replacement for Deeper Healing Work
Working with the Full and New Moon’s might not be the whole picture. It won’t replace going deeper with a 1:1 practitioner, teacher or guide, nor will it replace individualized intuitive development, energy healing or somatic inquiry, somatic parts work and nervous system healing. However, after 13+ years of this work, ongoing personal development, a lifetime of lived experience and multiple layers of professional education in energy healing, meditation, somatic inquiry, nervous system healing, oracle card reading, past life regression and more, I still embrace my bi-weekly anchor of Full and New Moon attunement and rituals. Some months I host ceremony with meditation, energy healing, somatic practices, oracle card reading and channelling; other months it’s a shorter embodied manifestation practice, a journaling ritual, or a somatic energy healing process for myself as I go to bed. Often, it’s somewhere in between. Once you’ve established an embodied connection to these practices, the intuitive energetics and somatic felt sense that supports them, many doors of opportunity open for how you can connect with and work with the moon cycles ongoing. As I said earlier, it’s important to create rituals and routine that work within the life you’re living and become a natural, sustainable anchor and connection point, rather than something that is so laborious you begin to dread it or feel fear, guilt or shame when you can’t fit it into a busy life.
Do Moon Rituals Have to Be Formal Ceremonies?
Some people will tell you that it must be a proper ceremony to matter.
My work centers real people, with real lives that come with real barriers.
Ceremonies are beautiful, potent, and powerful, and I enjoy every moment of them and ride a unique energetic high long after they’re over; but they’re not the only way.
Final Thoughts
The moon will continue to rise and fall, whether we pause with it or not. Twice a month, you’re given an invitation to check in with your body, nervous system, desires, and the growing version of yourself. These tiny, regular connection points add up to actual, embodied change over time. You don’t need to do it all, all the time. Reconnect with a rhythm of nature that supports the life you’re actually living.
Visit the website, for more insights, resources, and grounded conversations, especially as we move through powerful seasonal portals like the eclipses, moon cycles, the Equinoxes and Solstices. Share, engage, and be part of a community that is reimagining care with compassion and trauma-informed, nervous-system awareness.
Frequently Asked Questions
1) Do you manifest or release during a New Moon?
Traditionally, the Full Moon is associated with release, while the New Moon is connected with manifestation and new beginnings. During the Full Moon, many people reflect on what has come to a culmination point, no longer aligned, or no longer serving them such as old beliefs, habits, or emotional patterns. They then intentionally, energetically or somatically allow these processes to complete and be released from their systems.
The New Moon, which signifies the start of the lunar cycle, is thought to be the best time to make plans and call in the things you wish to happen in your life. Working with these two moon phases in a harmonic and cyclical nature creates a natural flow of releasing to create space for your new intentions to land. This becomes a beautiful process of tuning in with yourself and bringing in fresh energy, chances, and personal development by first letting go and then establishing intentions.
2) What are 5 interesting facts about the Moon?
For thousands of years, people have been captivated by the moon. Here are some fascinating facts:
- The Moon’s gravitational influence on our oceans regulates the tides on Earth.
- We always see the same side of the Moon because it spins at the same speed that it orbits Earth.
- The Moon’s phases vary throughout the month because a full lunar cycle lasts roughly 29.5 days.
- Sunlight reflecting off the Moon’s surface is what we see; the Moon does not generate light on its own.
- For centuries, many societies have used the Moon’s cycles as a guide for spiritual rituals, farming, calendars, and rites.
3) Is the Full Moon and New Moon the same?
These are the same moon in two very different phases of the lunar cycle.
When the Moon is positioned between the Earth and the Sun, it is nearly invisible to us. This is known as a New Moon. This stage is frequently linked to making fresh starts and establishing goals.
When the Earth is positioned between the Sun and the Moon, the Moon appears completely lit up, which is known as a Full Moon. Completion, clarity, and letting go of things that do not feel aligned are frequently associated with this stage, as well as light being shown on what may have previously been hidden.
4) Do Full Moons affect behavior?
Many people think that our emotions and actions might be affected by the Full Moon. Around this time, some people report feeling more emotional, having problems falling asleep, or having more energy. For millennia, various civilizations have told tales about how the Full Moon influences people’s emotions and behaviors.
While there isn’t clear scientific proof that the Full Moon directly changes human behavior, there are many people who work in hospitals or first-responder type professions who express seeing an uptick in calls during this moon phase. Additionally, many people living with chronic pain syndromes or complex chronic illnesses such as Fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, parasitic infections, Chronic Lyme Disease and other illnesses report an increase in symptoms, and others report higher instances of sleep disturbances during a Full Moon.
Whether you believe the Full Moon impacts behaviour or not, the lunar cycle can still serve as a natural reminder to slow down and check in with yourself. Because the Full Moon represents a point of completion in the monthly cycle, many people use it as a time to reflect on what’s happening in their lives and release anything that no longer feels supportive.
Resources that may support you
If you’re tired of piecing together different practices that don’t support one another, or feel drawn to work with these natural cycles or embodied manifestations more intentionally, here are some other resources to support you. Each of these rituals, guided practices and workshops are available inside the EmbodiedSoul with Denise Elysa Community and included in your membership. Join for one month or stay as long as it serves you.
Full Moon Releasing
A self-paced, guided ritual to help you gently release what your body, mind, or energy may be ready to let go of. This can be repeated each Full Moon as often as you’d like.
New Moon Manifesting
A self-guided practice for planting intentions and aligning with what you’re ready to welcome into your life. This is used beautifully in conjunction with the Full Moon Releasing ritual, and can also be used at each New Moon as often as it serves you.
Embodied Manifesting Foundations
A deeper exploration of manifesting with flow and ease, without force or pushing through. This workshop explores manifestation through nervous system safety, embodiment, and intuitive alignment.
Gratitude Immersion
Gratitude is one of the main keys to manifesting. This workshop offers education and guided practices to reconnect with gratitude as an embodied experience that honors your lived reality rather than forced or faked positivity.
The Seasonal Pause: Equinox and Solstice Ceremonies
The Seasonal Pause is Denise Elysa’s signature quarterly offering. Set to align with the Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, these gatherings are held online for the EmbodiedSoul with Denise Elysa Community. These offerings are free to members, but pre-registration is required to gain the links to join the live events. Replays are available inside the app for those who cannot attend live.
