Last week I was talking to a friend who was in Montreal at the Formula 1 races. As she was telling me about the energy of the event with the fast moving cars, big crowds, and all the hype/big energy, I was thinking about how it’s such a perfect example of “sperm world” – a perfect place for boys to be boys.
A few days later, I was at the spa. A gift to myself on the 30th anniversary of my graduation from med school. Yup, I’ve been a doctor for 30 years! Where does the time go!?!?
As I was relaxing in the spa, I was reflecting on how the spa is such a great example of “egg world” – for me it has this lovely slow moving, calming, quiet, nourishing energy that allows me to receive. Sitting quietly with a cup of tea, smelling the essential oils from the diffuser, listening to the calm, relaxing spa music, taking time to pamper my body and nurture my spirit.
We all need a balance of masculine/action oriented energy, and feminine/receptive energy to live our best lives. The challenge is that, as a society, we are off balance. We don’t have a nice balance of masculine and feminine energy. We are heavily weighted towards masculine energy – action oriented, logical, goal driven, rational, direct, structured, linear thinking, where individuals use willpower and focused action towards a goal. Whereas we tend to devalue and/or dismiss feminine energy – intuition, receptivity, emotional expression, vulnerability, creativity, nurturing, flowing with life and honouring the cyclic rhythms of our bodies, the moon, the Earth and a focus on community rather than the individual.
To truly thrive, we need BOTH of these energies. Neither is better than the other. They are both important, but as our society is currently structured, we are living in a “sperm world” and we are deeply out of balance. As “eggs” in “sperm world”, we’re often even more aware of how off balanced we are feeling in our bodies. We’re desperately trying to keep up to the other “sperm” instead of slowing down, landing in our bodies, reconnecting with our feminine energy and allowing ourselves to be “eggs”.
This isn’t about gender, this is about finding balance. Individually and collectively. In a world that has become desperately out of balance. Our society is more of a “sperm world”, encouraging us to swim fast and do whatever we can to beat the other sperm to the finish line so we can get the “egg”. In this view, there’s only one egg, so we need to swim the fastest and push the hardest to “succeed”.
Eggs, on the other hand, have a different approach. They’re slow moving and receptive. Kate Northrup introduced me to the concept of “egg wisdom” in her book Do Less, which I highly recommend! She talks about being taught in school how eggs are kind of passive. That they sit there waiting to be “penetrated” by the “best” sperm, but that what actually happens is the egg releases a hormone that attracts the sperm so they can come find her. She sends out a signal, attracting what she wants, then when the sperm arrive she CHOOSES the “best” one and RECEIVES him. She isn’t penetrated by the sperm. She selects the one she wants and allows him in.
In “egg world”, we would be moving slowly, tapping into the wisdom of our bodies, feeling our feelings, and connecting to our intuitive knowing. We’d make aligned decisions from a place of discernment and choice based on this inner wisdom. We’d gather with others in community, building a network of love and support, knowing that we are stronger together.
One of the things that I love most about my Priestess training is that it feels like “egg world”. We’re learning to land in our bodies, slow the chatter in our minds and drop into “empty presence”. We’re learning to tap into our intuition, to come together in community, to feel our feelings and learn strength through vulnerability. We move with the cycles of the moon and the Earth, feeling our connection to the Earth – our Great Mother. There’s a part of me that has been longing for this my whole life, and it feels like I’ve finally come “home”.
Day to day life is medicine is fast moving, logical and has an undercurrent of being driven by efficiency, productivity and numbers. It’s slowly shifting, but I still experience it very much as a “sperm world”. Over my healing journey, my soul has been calling me to more and more opportunities to nurture my feminine energy – slowing down, quieting my mind, listening to my body, nurturing my spirit, playing with my creativity and being more present in my own life. Through these practices, I can feel my body/mind/spirit coming back into greater balance.
How about you? What are you doing to support your feminine energy? What are the ways you’re looking after yourself and reminding yourself you’re an egg? That the goal isn’t to swim faster. It’s to slow down, send out a clear signal for what you want, be discerning about what you take on through strong boundaries and clear choices about what does and doesn’t feel aligned for you.
It’s tough being “eggs in sperm world” but there’s strength in numbers. We really are stronger together. As we each slow down to a more natural pace, tune into the signals from our body, listen to the whispers of our soul and begin to quiet our minds and the ways we’ve been taught to push ourselves to survive in “sperm world”, we’ll shift the energy. We’ll change the narrative. We’ll build a new, more embodied, more balanced world. We can do this, together.
Sending you so much love,
Until next week,
Shana
* I understand that these newsletters and audio messages offered by Dr. Shana Johnston are designed to help me tap into my own inner wisdom and find my own answers. I understand the information presented by Dr. Johnston is based on a combination of her personal experience and current medical knowledge in a constantly evolving field where a variety of different opinions exist. I understand that the ideas and information presented should not act as a substitute for the individualized advice of my qualified and licensed healthcare practitioner. In reading/listening to the material presented, I agree to accept full responsibility for my interpretation of any content I consume, and thereby release Dr. Shana Johnston from any liability related to the information and ideas presented in any of her offerings.