Feminine Wisdom

The world needs our feminine values, to return to balance. But sometimes when we're overwhelmed with busyness and the work-life balance takes a plunge into overtime, I wonder, what will it take to find ourselves as resplendent, strong, centered women in touch with our bodies and our own rhythms?

Our ability to tune in and find wisdom through our insight and self-reflection calls on our creativity and compassion.  Yes, we can help heal the world.  Our influence is already being felt in the ecology and peace movements, wherever taking care of others is happening. But first of all, we have to make self-care a prioirity. It takes some downtime, some quiet time and that takes Making Time.

If we can begin by trusting our own instincts, standing up for life, valuing the feminine ways of knowing (in women and in men), learning how to listen to our intuition.

One way to grow these skills is through paying attention to the body, to your own monthly rhythms.You can become more self-aware through journalling, and/or make yourself a short retreat at your monthly period time. Feminine power is the kind of power that can sit and patiently rock a teething baby for hours in the middle of the night, or give birth after many hours of labour.  Female wisdom resides inside the body. It values awareness, sensitivity, the ability to nurture, and it honours the bleeding time with solitude and retreat - with self-love.

"Women don't have to do anything" to receive this wisdom, according to Lara Owen; in fact, the less they do the better.  (adapted from Lara Owen, Her Blood is Gold http://laraowen.com/books/her-blood-is-gold/)

Above all, be gentle with yourself.  If you hear the harsh voice of criticism, soften it, for yourself and others. Give yourself some breathing room to welcome your growing self.  Your intuition will be heightened if you give it a welcome place to land, if you don't pooh-pooh it out of existence.  Be willing to be open, curious about your self, your habitual thought patterns, and don't second guess your immediate instinctual reaction to something from the gut that wells up, that comes as 'just a feeling' or an image, or a book that jumps off the shelves wanting to be read.

"Whatever the source, I have learned to pay very close attention. To ignore these promptings is usually not in my best interests. This irrationality, sometimes called women's intuition, is often demeaned and dismissed as an invalid way of knowing....I am a woman trusting my intuition."  I Am A woman Finding my Voice, Janet F. Quinn www.haelanworks.com/janetquinn.htm


Give yourself time this month to rest and retreat occasionally. Whether it be a nap, a long bath, a walk outdoors at lunchtime, let your body have some downtime,( and your mind), so you can tap into something irrational, out of the ordinary, be it as simple as listening to your breath as you sit or walk. Listen in....


nameste,
musemother