Goal Setting and the Feminine Way

“In this culture we are told to set goals. We are supposed to know where we are going and then take specific steps to get there. But this is not always possible, or even wise. It is the male model of linear, rational thinking. But the life process of women…is more chaotic and disorderly, more circular and intuitive. Sometimes we can’t see the next horizon until we step out of the old life. We don’t yet know where we are going. We may not know the place until we arrive.”
A Woman’s Journey to God, Joan Borysenko

Here’s what one Jungian analyst and author says:

"The feeling values of the Feminine are woman’s earth and blood. They form the foundation of human interaction and flow out to nourish all of society. In places where Feminine feeling values are ignored or persecuted, life becomes oppressive and barren."
From I sit listening to the wind, Judith Duerk

Waiting, stillness, feelings, not knowing where I am going....

these are all uncomfortable places for me to be, to be waiting for my daughter during her physiotherapy appointment, to be waiting for my husband to come home from a golf tournament now knowing if he wants supper or not, to be inside my body feeling what I am feeling during all these moments instead of elsewhere in my thoughts, far in the future or lost in the past.

Every organization uses goal setting, every life coach encourages us to set goals for the future to help us get started on the present.

But if I listen to the feminine wisdom about being close to stillness, and feelings and being willing to wait until uncertainty clears, I may become less goal-centered and more centered: more willing to be circular....to listen to non-logic, to intuition, to quiet whisperings heaving up from underground. To pay attention to the non-visible, the not known by the 5 senses, and yes, to the five senses too.

To be a woman going in circles and spirals, getting closer to the center with each step. The goal, not out here, but in here, and unfolding.

nameste
musemother