I have been thinking a lot about why I am called to offer this work, why women's healing and healing in general means so much to me. I want to be clear that I care deeply about men's healing too. Of course. I want healing for all of us. A big motivation for me is that I truly believe that when one person in the community or family heals, everyone around them benefits from the resonance of that new understanding and space. When I meet you in a moment of vulnerability and I watch you rise to the occasion by being honest about your humanness, when you show me the confusion and pain sitting alongside the joyous and fluid an expansion takes place and there is a deep recognition of the truth. There is a deep sigh of relief in remembering that life is all of it: mess and magic both...light and dark as two sides of the same coin. When I get to experience the wholeness of who you are it gives me courage to start to peel back the layers and move towards those darker unclaimed spaces inside. When we witness each other healing and wholing we are nudged to explore the untapped possibilities lying in the shadows we may have previously been encouraged to shun and ignore.
Why women's healing?
In my experience, women are often at center stage in their family unit. It is the nature of the feminine to care for, to anticipate needs, to provide love and nourishment. Women have been trained to be the caretakers, have been trained to put others needs before their own, and this is partially biological because we have to for the health of our brood from day one when nurturing a child in our bodies and then on our breasts. We are the weavers, the gatherers, the growers, the medicine makers. We carry the sacred waters that allow us to create life and that give us milk to feed the children. For many of us, somewhere along the way we begin to forget that it was essential to use those very gifts for our own healing. Being told we are selfish we were scolded for using our gifts on ourselves for our own joy and unfolding. We were told how to look and act, told what to say, told that our bodies were not sacred unless... and otherwise cajoled into forgetting. Our wildness was dampened and though we continued to give it got harder and harder to hear the voice of our own needs, our own heart, our own wildness.
The empty well cannot give water. I know far too many women (men, too) who have lived much of their life operating from this place: of giving and giving and giving from an empty well and thus becoming tired, depressed, sick, and resentful. Each of us must find the balance between giving and receiving so the well always has enough water for our own nourishment. I believe we are living in a time where a great shift is being presented, where the masculine and feminine are finding balance inside each human being. We are discovering that we have a powerful choice to make about the way in which we curate our lives. We are realizing that those preconceived notions of "who we should be" or "how we should act" or "how we should feel" are an old paradigm that is outmoded and crumbling. We are realizing that to heal the world we must first heal ourselves. We are realizing that in order to truly heal we have to let go of the ways we think we should so that what is natural to our spirit can finally have the space to blossom.
It's a lot of work to unravel all the "should's" but dammit, it's worth it!
Over the last 3-years Tara & I have been offering women's healing groups. We were inspired to start offering these groups because we have and continue to experience the holy space that is created when women support other women. We were empowered and excited to be choosing the brave journey towards authenticity and honoring ones truth. We saw the healing waves being created in our own lives and wanted to share that possibility with others.
Women have a tremendous power for empathy and compassion. By supporting each other in inward reflection, honesty, and openness in a space we feel safe, we begin to open the doors for truth to flow and healing to occur. By sharing your story you share a piece of your heart and that honesty and openness inspires others in negotiating the wild terrain of their own unique life circumstances.
We have had the honor of witnessing many courageous, open-hearted women over the years, and in supporting them we were also healed and nourished. Blessings abound! Together we are free to let our truths have wings and to use that which challenges us as the very stepping stones we were seeking to evolve. That healing space resonates out into all the other parts of our life, into our relationships, our work, and most importantly our ability to find solutions and be a part of the healing needed on this planet.
I think that when women heal the world heals too, bit by bit, breath by breath, tear by tear, we create a healing resonance in all that we touch. That is why I offer this work.
Tara & I are honored and excited to be offering our first Women's Healing Retreat this September. Receive the early-bird discount if you register by midnight this coming sunday, august 13th. We would be so honored to heal by your side.
With Love & Gratitude ~
Sara Rose