The Empowered Feminine has been such a blessing to me. I have met many very interesting women over the last six months. Recently, the meeting seems to have morphed into a way to share resources to help us all empower ourselves out of the feeling of being “stuck” and how to “get unstuck”.
We recently met and came up with some awesome resources that I’d like to share with everyone.
1. Morning pages – The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron. All of us had done journaling at one time or another. Julia introduces her students to Morning Pages, which isn’t typical journaling, more like a purging. The student writes three pages every morning of whatever comes to mind. One is not supposed to censor what comes out on the page but write whatever wants to come out. She says that often what comes out is some very ugly unconscious thoughts, but the point is to get them out of your head! What happens is over time those ugly thoughts are out of the head, and new thoughts start taking over life in a very miraculous way.
I wrote Morning Pages for about three months – and was so interested in the depth of the uncomplementary things I was saying – mostly about myself! Julia recommends burning your pages and never looking at them again. Its not typical journaling, just downloading garbage that stops us from pursuing what we truly want in life.
I kind lost in some of Julia’s exercises – such as my favorite things when I was young, or what I wanted to be when I was a child. Who I was as a child and who I am now are so different. Back then I was a child of the 1970s who thought that an engineer drove a train, and an architect would be fun because I could build cool houses like the Brady Bunch lived in. I wanted to be a dentist because I could help people, but most of all I wanted to be a Mouseketeer. Being on TV seemed like the most fabulous job to have – ever! I still hold a little bit of that dream, but have no idea how to make that one happen… lol
2. Movement – such as yoga – some of us were yoga teacher or took yoga classes regularly. A lot of us LOVED Zumba dance. One fine woman taught belly dancing. And another woman said she felt good when she was simply in action about ANYTHING! She got a sense of accomplishment and direction from doing something she had never done before. How are we going to know we like a new thing unless we try it?
As you all know, I absolutely LOVE Bikram yoga and have been doing it diligently for the last eight months. The practice has healed my body in many amazing ways. I also practice Yin Yoga and Vinyasa Flow as well when I am not in the studio. I took Zumba over the course of three months and shaped up very quickly. I recommend Zumba to any woman who wants to fit back into her skinny jeans! Someday I hope to take a belly dancing class – and I have taken the suggestion to simply be in action. It sure helps, even if its just a small project. For me, to get online and update my blog, that is an action…
3. Dance Church - most hippy downtowns have Dance Church on Sunday mornings, but the movement is spreading because so many people LOVE to move! Google “Concious Dance” and see what is happening in your area or create your own Dance Church. Its a space where people can move, dance and be free without any judgments from others.
4. StrengthsFinder by Tom Rath. This book has a test that you can take which will tell you your top five strengths. I think everyone should know what they are good at – because its often invisible to us when we are really good at something – we think its just easy for everyone and don’t realize this strength is something that can contribute greatly to others plus make us an income. Other great tests to take are DiSC and Meyers-Briggs/Jungian typology.
I took a test on assessment.com a few years back which outlined what I would be very good at in a career. My top three were counseling, interior design and fashion design. Apparently I am good at shapes, colors and textures. But I chose counseling because I really wanted to help people build and shape their dreams. I guess that is building an inner world to then reflect an outer world?
Anyway – our meeting was awesome and I was very happy to meet new Empowered Women – and proud of these fabulous women for teaching us all so much about “Getting Unstuck”
