Well, here we are, week 13 of this 13 week series on Reclaiming our Feminine Nature I hope you’ve enjoyed being on this journey with me as much as I’ve enjoyed creating this series for you. I can feel you. I feel your energy. Your presence. Each week, I have been sensing into our collective energy and co-creating with The Divine to weave together a message that will serve our highest good.
As this series draws to a close, I thought I would recap what we’ve talked about this spring, and bring it all together into, what I hope will be, a coherent whole. A message of hope. Of inspiration. Of encouragement to take the baby steps towards a life that feels more aligned with the whispers of your heart. Your soul. Your essence.
In case you want to revisit any of the articles or listen to the “podcasts” I’ve recorded from week 3 onwards, I’ve include links throughout the text below. You can find the entire series on the Heart to Heart Newsletter page of my website.
We began the series by challenging the internalized voice of Patriarchy and opening to the quiet but loving message of our inner wise woman in Whose voice to you CHOOSE? We then built on this further as we talked about noticing when we are giving from a place of sacrifice, where we end up trying to pour from an increasingly empty cup as we put the needs of others before our own instead of making ourselves a priority and giving from the overflow in Sacrifice vs Service.
We then went on to talk about the importance of finding our “sisters” and creating Community and of seeing our emotions as E-Motions: Energy in Motion. Allowing the energy of our emotions to move through our bodies to be processed and released rather than getting trapped, causing dis-ease in our bodies. This helped set the stage for us to talk about The Wisdom of our Body and the different ways our body tells us “yes”, “no” and “this is really exciting but I’m scared”.
From there we went on to talk about the fast paced world we live in, and the challenge of being Eggs in Sperm World. To help us survive our fast paced world, we talked about the importance of spending time in nature and Rooting to Mama Gaia to find our grounding, our rooting to support us through these challenging times. We also talked about learning to let go of control and allowing ourselves to be guided and supported by The Divine in Surrendering to Divine Guidance.
As we root ourselves into Mama Gaia and tap into the infinite wisdom of The Divine, we become like acupuncture needles – the embodiment of The Divine, here on Earth. In my view, this is why we are here. We came into these human bodies to have the experience of human-ing. Yes, it’s hard sometimes, but as we begin Tapping into our Inner Wisdom and following our inner guidance instead of trying to “figure it out” with our minds, life becomes a great adventure rather than something to be endured. It becomes a journey of growth and discovery – the ultimate virtual reality game, where we get to create, experience, learn and grow.
We then spent some time weaving together elements of the Divine Masculine and the Divine Feminine, and talked about the importance of having a BALANCE of the two energies despite our cultural conditioning which places FAR more emphasis on masculine qualities than it does on feminine qualities.
In The Art of Healing, we talked about weaving together some of the masculine, action oriented, problem-solution successes of Western Medicine with some of the more feminine healing practices that are often considered more “woo-woo”.
In Creative Expression, we talked about weaving together the more masculine, action oriented Central Executive Network (CEN) part of our brain with the more feminine, receptive, interconnected Default Mode Network (DMN) part of our brain, and that we need BOTH to help us bring our creations to life. We also talked about the importance of honouring our cyclic nature, especially as women, and about being mindful of how our energy changes throughout our monthly cycle and how it changes with the seasons of the year.
As this series draws to a close, I want to bring this all together by talking about Aliveness. When I think back to what my life was like 6 years ago, I remember feeling heavy, tight, shut down, cut off from my aliveness. There was so little joy in my life by the time I left my practice. I was spending the vast majority of my time looking after everyone else and putting my own needs last. I had become a shell of my former self. I was moving through life at a pace that was much faster than my nervous system was designed to move. I was exhausted. Stressed out. Getting through each day with this vague thought of “I just have to get through XYZ, then I can rest” but I kept moving the goal post, making a new XYZ that I was striving towards before I could finally relax. And in the process, I was cutting myself off from any joy or aliveness in my life. My life was getting smaller. More constricted. Busier. Heavier. Harder.
It probably sounds a bit weird to say, but I’m so grateful I burnt out. I’m glad I hit a point where I couldn’t do it anymore because in the process, I finally had to make different, more aligned choices.
As I’ve said before, I’m not going to candy coat it and tell you it was all sunshine and rainbows when I left my practice. It wasn’t. It was really hard. For a long time. It took time and energy to rebuild my life and rehabilitate my frazzled, exhausted, stressed out nervous system. But you know what? It was TOTALLY worth it! It’s not like it’s all sunshine and rainbows now either. I’m still learning, growing, evolving… but I feel so much more ALIVE! I still have plenty of challenges, and I’ve learned to support myself through them. I’ve become my own best friend. I feel stronger. More confident. I have an increasing sense of agency. Recognizing that nothing in my life happens TO me, it all happens FOR me. I’m not a victim of my life. I’m the creator of it. As I’ve begun to understand this distinction, it’s helped me to make more and more aligned choices in my life. I’m WAY better at saying “no” when something doesn’t feel aligned. I’m way better at feeling the fear and doing it anyway when an opportunity feels exciting but scary. I’m way better at listening to the whispers of my soul and following its guidance. As a result, I feel so much more alive. Even when times are tough. I feel a greater connection with my life force energy and am able to be with myself during the tough times and celebrate and enjoy the “good” times.
Over the summer, I invite you to ask yourself: Where am I following my aliveness and where am I “going through the motions” in habitual, conditioned patterns? Just noticing. With curiosity and kindness. In the most gentle, loving way.
As you do so, perhaps you open a dialogue with your inner wise woman. Talking it all out with her. Even if nothing changes, the simple act of talking it out with your inner wise woman in your journal or over voice mail, or with a friend over coffee will help you to begin to get clarity on some of the ways you might consider to invite in more aliveness. More presence. More life.
I hope you have enjoyed this series. If you have a moment to share with me some of your experience this spring on our journey together, I’d love to hear from you. You are all with me in my heart. You are my inspiration. It’s been a joy and a privilege to be of service to you in creating this series. I’m not sure what things will look like in the future, but I suspect I’ll be back in the fall with more to share. In the meantime, I’ll be letting my mind out to play for the summer, playing with ideas for what comes next.
Until then, sending you so much sister,
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.