The Solar Plexus - Manipura Chakra
YELLOW – the colour of mental energy
This Chakra is extremely complex. It is the Chakra of the mind, ruling rational thought, discernment and individuality. Yet it is also a very physical Chakra, governing your digestive system, liver and spleen as well as your back. It is the Chakra from which your moral judgements emerge, and from which you draw the moral courage to stand up for what you believe in.
The Sanskrit name for the solar plexus means, “jewel in the city” and the jewel it refers to is the mind. When your solar plexus Chakra is in balance, your mind is also in balance. You are in control of yourself and the challenges and decisions that you face in life. As well as being warm in nature, people with balanced solar plexus Chakras tend to have a healthy intuition, they can generally rely on their hunches or “gut instincts”, and they can express themselves well.
When your solar plexus Chakra is in balance, you are discerning, disciplined and assertive, and you face life’s challenges with courage and integrity. Your ego will no longer need continual gratification. You will discover a moderation in thought and action; you are able to listen to people without being overwhelmed by them. You instinctively find a comfortable relationship with the world. Your character becomes gemlike: solid, multifaceted, filed with life.
The fire in this Chakra gives you your “glow”, burnishes your ego, and illuminates your mind; it helps you to see the world around you clearly. This fire also creates the necessary heat for the metabolism of food, cellular transactions and thought.
An overly dominant solar plexus leads to bullying, egotistical and aggressive behaviour. These people believe they are always right and get angry easily, and seek to control others through their anger.
A weak solar plexus Chakra results in depression, guilt and lack of confidence; it becomes hard for you to see your life clearly, leading to feelings of heightened vulnerability.
Ailments resulting from an unbalanced Solar Plexus Chakra include ulcers, irritable bowl syndrome, liver and digestive problems.
Because the solar plexus is the centre of the intellect and decision-making, it is important for the health and development of this Chakra that you make your own choices, rather than have them made for you. The development of the solar plexus is hindered if you have a feeling of powerlessness in life.
You can have, be and do anything you choose in your life...anything, you just have to choose wisely and believe in yourself. So don’t settle for second best and please don't give your power away. Chakra is a powerful receiver and transmitter of energy, as you give, so you receive, so balance is essential here.
If you are giving out feelings of being a failure then this will be reflected straight back at you, if you give out feelings of being a success then this will be reflected straight back at you. Give to yourself first and foremost otherwise you won’t have anything to give to others.
This Chakra can be energised with colour like wearing bright yellow or eating yellow foods such as yellow peppers, lemons, bananas and sweetcorn. Plus enjoying the sunshine. Crystals for this chakra include citrine and yellow jasper.
In your yoga practice, work with core strengthening poses such as Navasana (boat pose) and Santolanasana (plank pose), or with twisting poses such as Ardha Matsyenasana (half fish pose) and Jathara Parvartanasana (revolved supine twist - also a core strengthener).
You can also work with Uddiyana Bandha, which is the abdominal lock and is mentioned in the ancient scriptures as being the most powerful way to positively influence and affect the solar plexus. Please ensure you only practice this under the guidance of an experienced teacher and never if you have abdominal issues or are pregnant.
Notice where you give your power away in life. Notice also your posture, especially on your mat, do you engage your core muscles or allow your stomach to stick out and thereby giving your power away? Draw in and up, energise and retain your power (healthy power) within.
The Sacral Chakra - Svadhishthana
ORANGE – balances the red of the physical energy with the yellow of the mental energy.
The second Chakra, Svadhishthana, is linked to taste in the broadest sense - your likes and dislikes. It is the seat of creativity, pleasure, attraction and, in particular, sexuality. The sacral Chakra is also the seat of our emotions.
This Chakra is the most feminine of the 7 Chakras. It is profoundly connected with fertility and is ruled by the moon, which pulls not only the seas and oceans, but also the waters within our own bodies.
A balanced sacral Chakra is characterised by physical fluidity and grace. People with a balanced sacral Chakra tend to be friendly, open and trusting, in touch with their feelings and able to express them, willing to see the positive rather than the negative, and able to turn problems into challenges.
When this Chakra is out of balance nothing and no one is ever enough. Life has no constancy. You feel fragmented and volatile. Your desires dominate and oblige you to seek satisfaction through the senses – sex, food, material possessions, status. An out-of-balance sacral Chakra brings about guilt, self-pity, manipulative behaviour and envy.
If the Chakra is too open you may forget your own needs and occupy so much with the needs of others that you end up feeling like a martyr. Lack of balance can also give rise to sexual problems, jealousy and obsession.
In essence, it is sexual expression – the most powerful and fundamental of your creative energies - that characterises the sacral Chakra. It guides our sexual identity, our ability to bond with a partner and to take pleasure in our sexuality.
When in balance it gives us profound sexual and emotional happiness. It is worth reflecting that the word “sacral” comes from the same root as “sacred”. Sex is not meant to be a casual, meaningless event, but nor is it meant to induce guilt. Rather with openness and empathy, it is something that brings great joy and pleasure.
This Chakra is situated in the bowl of the pelvis, directly over the ovaries and testes. It governs the spleen, reproductive organs, kidneys, bladder and all the bodily fluids. In order to find lightness and balance in this Chakra we must seek to balance the pelvis.
If you are not using this energy internally then you need to be expressing your sacral energy externally through writing, drawing, painting, singing, anything that encourages your creativity and encourages the energy to flow strongly and smoothly.
To enhance tour ability to feel this chakra in alignment then work with the following yoga poses to seek a balance through this centre:
- Virabhadrasana II (warrior 2) - this pose strengthens your legs and brings greater awareness of how your legs interact and stabilise your pelvis.
- Upavista Konasana (seated wide angle pose) - this pose helps you to find the balance in this Chakra, because you can feel how the position of your pelvis influences your ability to find a neutral spine.
- Bhujangasana (cobra pose) - in this pose you do not want to feel any pressure in your lumbar spine. Internally rotating the legs widens the lower back and creates space so that you can then lengthen your tailbone down toward your heels. This action balances the Chakra and supports the back bend in your thoracic spine.
Furthermore to energise and encourage greater balance to the sacral Chakra, try wearing orange, investing in some carnelian gemstones and keeping them close to your sacral area of the body, connecting with the moon and keeping a journal to write and express your emotions.
The Root Chakra - Muladhara
Muladhara Chakra is the first in the line of Chakras. It is the grounding Chakra, the one that connects you to the earth and your own physicality. Our most basic instinct – for survival – lies within this Chakra, as do our needs for food, sleep and shelter.
Muladhara Chakra is your source of power. When it is out of balance this affects everything related to your personal stability, safety and security. It controls how you deal with money, your body and your family: your roots.
An imbalanced root Chakra, which is low in vital energy may mean that you may suffer from low self-esteem, feel out of touch with your body and sexuality, you may constantly worry about money or never feel satisfied with your work or home. It can also lead to self-destructive or addictive behaviour – eating disorders, smoking, drug taking – or to illnesses such as lower back pain, depression, sciatica and constipation.
On the other hand a root Chakra which is imbalanced by being too strong can lead to isolation, materialism, bullying behaviour or selfishness.
When this Chakra is balanced you feel physically secure, confident, healthy and happy with your body and sexuality. You trust the Universe to take care of you and the world does not seem a scary place to be, you begin to realise that just for today you have a roof over your head, food on the table and some money in your pocket. Life is great – all your primary needs are met.
Physically, the root Chakra is located at the base of the spine between the pubic bone, tailbone and sitting bone. Its centre is the perineum, in the middle of the pelvic floor between the anus and genitals.
The pelvic floor is influenced and affected by the muscles of the legs and the feet. The integrity of the pelvic floor depends on the proper alignment of the legs and the balance of the feet, which act like the roots of a plant. We need our feet and legs to be firmly balanced in order to find grounding and stability.
This is where yoga can really help, especially poses like Virabhadrasana I, II and III (warrior 1,2 and 3) which help to strengthen the legs and root them firmly to the earth. Lengthening the backs of the legs can help too in poses such as Supta Padagusthasana (reclining hand to big toe pose) and strengthening the legs in Setu Bandasana (bridge pose).
To do a few other practical things to help to energise this area encourage red into your life, like wearing red underwear, eating grounding foods like beetroot, parsnips, carrots and potatoes etc. Furthermore do not underestimate the grounding effect of hugging a tree, or allowing your feet to sink into soft sand or spending time in nature to re-connect to the earth.
In short, to build a solid life, we need a solid base.
What are the chakras?
I love working with the Chakras, be that through Yoga or indeed Reiki, they fascinate me. Those of you who come to yoga class or have a Reiki session with me - or indeed with others teachers/practitioners - will hear us talk about the Chakras and energy centres but may have very little awareness what these are, let alone how they affect how you feel or the impact their health has on your life. So over the next few postings I shall share with you a little about the Chakras, beginning today with a definition.
The word “Chakra” literally means “wheel” in Sanskrit and it is symbolised as a spinning wheel of light through which life force energy (e.g. Prana, Chi, Ki etc) moves. You cannot actually see the Chakras in your physical body because they are fields of energy.
There are 7 major Chakras and each one represents an important energetic centre of the body and the mind, as well as a stage of spiritual development.
The Chakras are aligned from root to crown as a ‘column’ of energy and they are both conduits and generators of energy. Life force energy flows through the Chakras and the rest of the body along a network of channels known as nadis. There are said to be 72,000 nadis in the human body.
When life force energy flows freely through the body the Chakras spin brighter and faster and the body and mind are in a state of health. This is when we feel most at peace, grounded and balanced in life – healthy in mind, body and spirit.
If life force energy does not find sufficient room in the body there can only be one reason: it is being forced out by something that really doesn’t belong there – the “rubbish”, which creates blocks within our energy channels. Such blockages affect the functioning of the Chakras so that life force energy cannot flow so freely and “dis-ease” of the body, mind or spirit may result.
When people have more life force energy outside of their body than within they can become troubled, restless or confused. Furthermore too little life force energy within the body can be expressed as a feeling of being stuck or restricted, of lacking in drive or motivation creating a sense of listlessness and depression - plus we may suffer from physical ailments too. On the other hand, the more peaceful and well balanced we are, the less our life force energy is dispersed outside the body.
Through the process of energetically balancing the Chakras we have the opportunity to release the “rubbish” and the blocks on all levels – physical, emotional, mental and spiritual – so that the life force energy can flow freely again. We need to understand that Chakras are energy centres, regulating the flow of energy throughout our body. The correct functioning and balancing of the Chakras reflects in our health and wellbeing.
The Chakras are also linked closely to the endocrine system which produces the hormones that act as chemical messengers. It is believed that when you balance the Chakras, you also regulate your hormones. Furthermore the Chakras are also related to the organs of the body where they are positioned and are associated positively or negatively with their healthy function. Needless to say the body often reflects imbalances, acting as a mirror through which you can gauge how each Chakra is functioning.
Chakra energy work is holistic: it involves the body and mind equally. By working with Yoga and holistic therapies such as Reiki to balance our Chakras we also open up to our potential in life. We not only improve our physical health, but we achieve a sense of emotional wholeness, a deeper connection with those around us and a sense of harmony with the world and our part and purpose in it. On an aside it should be noted that just as we are aiming for a sense a peace and harmony with the Universe, the Universe’s energy is ready to support us – all we have to do is recognise this.
My next posting will be all about the base chakra, Muladhara.
x
Yoga - The World's Boldest Ever Happiness Experiment
It was UN International Day of Happiness on 20th March 2016 and here in Guernsey, to coincide with this, the Dandelion Project has been running the "World’s Boldest Ever Happiness Experiment". Their vision is a happier Guernsey, with fewer people suffering with mental health problems and more people feeling good, functioning well and helping others.
It’s a great vision, but it is nothing new. Yoga has been offering the world’s boldest happiness experience for over 5,000 years now. As George Feuerstein Ph.D. (Founder-Director of the Yoga Research and Education Centre) writes, “The complex five-thousand-year-old-tradition of yoga is all about a very simple thing: happiness”. So you see Yoga is ALL about happiness.
Furthermore, the ancient yoga texts are as relevant now as when they were written thousands of years ago and provide us with important insights into how to live well. What’s more they have been tried and tested by millions and millions of people, and you know what, there is total truth in the wisdom that they share – and we don’t need science to prove that, we don’t even need a mat, we just need an openness and willingness to practice.
You see the strive for happiness is what makes us human. As Rod Stryker, a renowned international yoga master writes: "Happiness. We all seek it. There is no more basic or universal drive than the desire to be happy. It is inherent, something we are compelled to by virtue of who and what we are. Everything human beings have accomplished and aspired to, our every endeavour, has been and always will be rooted in the impulse to satisfy our longing for happiness.”
We desire love, pleasure, beauty, friendship, accomplishment, wisdom and power. Each of us longs for an abiding sense of purpose and meaning, peace, health, and security. At some level, we also aspire to freedom, to a greater capacity to shape our destiny, and to connect with something greater than ourselves, which some call Source, Self, or God.”
It was the longing for happiness that brought me to yoga. I was very depressed and desperately unhappy, to the extent that I thought that life was not worth living, it lacked purpose and depth and I felt that I had no control in my destiny, I was just bumbling along living a life that wasn’t true to me and I didn’t even know who I was. I sought happiness in all the wrong places, through inappropriate and unfulfilling relationships, through material possessions, and through an unhealthy lifestyle with far too much wine, cigarettes and late nights!
Finding yoga was a little like coming home for me, I was hooked immediately. Not only did it make me feel better physically and indeed mentally, but it enhanced my sense of spirituality and allowed my soul expression. Furthermore, it helped me to find myself and deepen my connection and compassion for ALL beings and indeed my connection with something far greater than me and yet a part of me, the Divine then. Yoga healed and saved me and continues to transform my life beyond my wildest dreams.
Not that it has been an easy process. Yoga demands that we meet ourselves as we are and work from that point forwards. And this is not always easy. More often than not, we don’t like what we see, to the extent that many people stop the practice before they have really gotten going because it all becomes a little too confrontational and painful. If anything it is humbling, for we must constantly, bravely and compassionately face our limitations in order to realise our unlimited potential as spiritual beings. Not only that, but it doesn’t just happen overnight, it demands consistent, committed and dedicated practice.
As you will know yourself, we are often our own worse enemy constantly judging and berating ourselves and struggling with our neuroses and insecurities, so that we have created all sorts of habits, negative tendencies and addictions to distance ourselves from our own inner reality – some work too much, some drink too much, some talk too much, some give to much, some take too much, some hoard too much, some clean too much, some create constant drama, we all have some way in which we do too much of one thing to detract from our need to be silent and go truly within.
But it is in learning about ourselves, our negative tendencies and habits, that we come to see the manner in which we allow our mind, out thoughts then, to contribute to our own unhappiness. There is this fabulous Chinese proverb which supports this need to be mindful of our thoughts, “Be careful of your thoughts, for your thoughts become your words. Be careful of your words, for your words become your actions. Be careful of your actions, for your actions become your habits. Be careful of your habits, for your habits become your character. Be careful of your character, for your character becomes your destiny.”
It all starts with our own thinking, our emotions and our behaviour patterns. As George Feuerstein Ph.D writes, “Yoga tells us that in order to realise lasting happiness, we must discover our true, spiritual nature. This requires that we commit ourselves to nothing less than self-transformation and self-transcendence. For although our true nature, or spiritual Self, is always the same, it tends to be obscured by conventional thoughts, emotions, and patterns of behaviour.
The yoga tradition compares this circumstance to the brightly shining sun, which is ever radiant but periodically hidden from our view by drifting dark clouds. Yoga helps us to remove all obstructing (mental) clouds, so that we may come to enjoy the sunshine within. It is an extensive program of re-education through which we learn, step by step, to live in the light of our true nature. Only when we have truly found ourselves will we be able to live in peace, harmony, and happiness in the world".
This has certainly been my experience of practicing yoga and I know that I am not alone. Yoga is officially an industry in America. By some estimates it generates nearly five and a half billion dollars a year. It seems that yoga has become an integral part of modern Western society for good reason. As Judith Lasater writes: “In an era of increasingly sophisticated technology, this centuries-old art and philosophy has ever-increasing appeal. Yoga’s resurgence of popularity is a reflection of our urge to reconnect with the sacred.”
And this is huge. So many people these days are so disconnected from the greater purpose, their greater purpose then, and the manner in which all of life is connected and inter-related. And this is where the joy of yoga really lies, as Rod Stryker writes, “yoga has less to do with what you can do with your body or with being able to still your mind than it has to do with the happiness that unfolds from realizing your full potential”. Now that’s big, real, achievable and inspiring.
It is for this reason that I am forever committed to sharing the blessing and indeed joy of yoga with others. It works! It can help you to realise your true potential and achieve real enduring happiness. It is really quite magical. All you need to do is make the time in your life, get off social media, stop reading about it and listening to others talking about it and get practicing instead – it is only through the practice that you will experience the change. So get on your mat, and move and breathe and sit and meditate and rest and watch and feel and repeat, repeat, repeat. Its really very easy, and its free!
So while I believe that raising awareness of happiness through the “World’s Boldest Ever Happiness Experiment” is a positive thing – how it be anything other than this – I also believe that it is already happening. In the ten years that I have been teaching yoga on Guernsey I have witnessed a massive increase in the number of people practicing yoga locally. It is amazing. Yoga has most definitely arrived in Guernsey, which means many people are already engaged in the quest for happiness, the experiment has already been taking place.
So if you find yourself here, reading these words, then close off now and go and lay your your mat and begin. And remember that you cannot force this on anyone, you have got to want to be happy.
With gratitude x
There's a Red-volution taking place!
I recently read this fabulous book called “Code Red: Know Your Flow, Unlock Your Super Powers and Create a Bloody Amazing Life. Period” by Lisa Lister. It is a fascinating and inspiring book, which every menstruating lady should read regardless of how well she thinks she knows her menstrual cycle and all that it reveals to her on a monthly basis.
I thought I knew mine rather well after years of getting familiar with it in an effort to manage hormonal imbalance and depression, and from the knowledge I have gained through my spiritual practice and healing work. However, Lisa shares some beautiful nuggets of wisdom and some wonderful suggestions of how to deepen one’s connection to the power and energy of the Divine feminine that I have certainly embraced and incorporated each month.
If, like me, you have always been a little bit dubious and resistant to anything that sounds like it’s throwing the feminine-in-a-feminist-type-way thing down your throat (I’ve never been a fan of feminism, far too masculine and aggressive in its energy), then you needn’t worry, this is a whole new paradigm, which isn’t so new at all, but is old and ancient and steeped in wisdom, vulnerability and rawness and yet full of strength, beauty and empowerment.
There is beyond doubt a “Red-volution” going on, you’ve only got to read Sera Beak’s book, “Red, Hot & Holy” and Meggan Watterson’s book, “Reveal” to recognise this. Both these books and others like them are becoming increasingly popular reads for women, especially those of us on our spiritual journeys, who are being called, yes called (yes you too if you are reading this) to embrace our souls, trust in our unique paths, create our own spiritual love stories, unleash our true selves and, as Sera Beak would say, “burn, baby, burn with divine love”.
I have also recently read “The Red Tent” by Anita Diamant, which is an absolutely fascinating tale of ancient womanhood and family honour as it looks at the daily life of a biblical sorority of mothers and wives and their one and only daughter Dinah. The Red Tent is a place where these women gathered together during their cycles of birthing, menses and illness - each new moon for example they would retreat from the rest of the world for three days and take to their tent to bleed, chatter and spend time together.
Not only does this story confirm the well-known belief that women in close proximity menstruate at the same time of the month, but serves as a reminder that today we women are often so out of touch with our own innate nature and cycles that we may have forgotten, or never known, that we are indeed cyclical in nature and not linear as one would have us believe in this masculine-orientated world in which we have tried to fit in and often end up doing battle within in our quest for an equal, “we can do anything you can do” approach to living.
We see this showing up all over the place, and never is it clearer than in those awful sanitary product adverts that have us roller-skating in white trousers when we have our period. I mean honestly, come on, who really wants to wear white trousers when they are bleeding and who really feels that they want to be out in public exercising. When I’m menstruating, I barely have the energy for a gentle stretch on my mat or a gentle stroll along the beach let alone a roller skate and all I really want to do is retreat from the world wearing my PJs, and keep a very low profile.
Furthermore, I’m not sure who thought it was a good idea that we cyclical women should try and live our lives in a linear fashion so that we are expected to feel the same each and every day, negating the natural cycles that see our mood change depending on where we are at in our menstrual cycle. Whomever it was should bog right off. We are creative, ever changing and fluid creatures, who are joyfully and sometimes less joyfully affected (and effected) by our hormonal changes and the moon cycle. Our moods are meant to change, that is the joy, the wisdom, the beauty that comes from being female, being a woman; we are alive and full of potential.
Only that we are not encouraged to embrace this. These days too many of we ladies are de-sensitised from this aspect of our selves. We don’t talk openly about our periods or our moods or our menstrual cycles. I can’t remember the last time I talked to one of my friends about this, other than to discuss fertility or whether periods have resumed after having a baby. But in fairness, I do have two special friends with whom I used to chat quite openly about my period and them about theirs. One now lives in Australia and another in America so we don’t get too much opportunity for these discussions these days.
Together we have shared many a happy adventure travelling throughout the world together and we have also spent quite some time hanging out in London when they both lived there and we came to recognise that our periods would indeed align with one another - usually led by our American friend whose hormones, we joked, were obviously far stronger than that of my Australian living friend and I. Funnily enough she was the one, the American friends that is, to get pregnant on her first attempt, just like that, at the age of 38. If only!
Special friends aside, on the whole, weladies have very little knowledge of the menstrual cycles of other ladies in our lives. And for many, periods are viewed very negatively, as a monthly pain in the backside (or front side to be more exact), as an inconvenience and as something further to consider in already hectic lives. For some it means bloating, depression, acute mood swings, cravings, pain and the need to take time off from work. For others it means another month without getting pregnant and all the heartache and frustration (and indeed self-pity) that that can bring.
I know all these feelings well, I’ve been there myself. In the days before yoga I used to suffer with PMS that made me feel dreadful, a combination of bloated, insecure, miserable, moody, anxious, paranoid and depressed. In fact, it was the depression that was particularly all consuming, and while I have written about it before, it is still worth mentioning, because what I hadn’t recognised initially, when I sought help from the doctor and was prescribed Prozac, is that my depression was cyclical, and therefore hormonal, rather than something that needed prescribed medication.
It was the depression and the detrimental effect this was having on my general sense of wellbeing and the resulting impact this was having on my life - plus the prescription for Prozac that I never ended up taking - that initially led me to yoga. So for that, I am eternally grateful to the PMS, what was once a curse (or so it felt, a monthly one at that), soon became a blessing because it opened my world to the joy of yoga and healing and Reiki and holistic therapies and all those wonderful things that have helped to transform my life in ways I could never have dreamed or indeed imagined.
Over time I have gained an understanding of how diet and lifestyle impact hugely on my experience of my menstrual cycle. So too I have come to recognise how much my cycle and my relationship to it, has been influenced by my relationship to my body and how well (or not) I am treating it. So too I have come to notice that the more I live my life in alignment with the whisperings of my heart and my soul, the less I experience any bouts of depression, and the more balanced I feel both within myself, during my monthly cycle and on my yoga mat, now how amazing is that? The body is always trying to tell us something!
It was this awareness that helped me to recognise how much I had come to neglect my divine feminine energy in my pursuit of trying to fit in and be strong in this male dominant world. I wanted to be as equal as the next – I wanted it all - but for we women this often means a lot of extra work, so that now we have to juggle careers, child rearing, shopping, running a home and – ha, depending on the time of the month: wink – still try to be good and kind human beings. It is perhaps not surprising that so many of us ladies end up exhausted and with hormonal and menstrual problems, let alone strained relationships!
The truth is, there is another way. It has taken me an awful long time to learn this, that indeed there is much strength that comes from simply being female, in embracing the feminine energy within. You know us women are pretty amazing. We are far more powerful than we realise. All the discomfort and yucky-ness we may feel at certain times of our cycle is generally our body’s way of trying to commune with us, of trying to let us know that something is out of balance, that we need to pay greater attention, get more intimate, understand ourselves that little bit better perhaps.
Which begs the question, why do we try to suffocate the body’s messages with synthetic pills and potions? Why do we think that doctors and other practitioners know our bodies better than we do ourselves? Why do we constantly give our energy away and negate our ability to know ourselves? Why do we not embrace our imbalances as opportunities to heal, get to know ourselves a little better and connect a little more with our innate wisdom? Why do we see our monthly bleed as such an inconsideration, why do we not celebrate its arrival as providing us with an opportunity to rest and renew, to let go of that which we no longer need?
Admittedly the arrival of our period is not always a cause for celebration. I too have known the heartache, frustration and sadness that comes with the arrival of blood and the knowledge that once again I was not pregnant when I so longed to be. It meant another month of a dream unfulfilled and another month where I wondered what was wrong with me. As it happens there was nothing wrong with me per se, but there followed a whole heap of tests and IVF, which all gave me an insight into how upsetting this can be – especially when we have spent so much of our lives trying not to get pregnant in the first place!
It was through this that I became even more intimate with my cycle and while it went against everything I believed I subjected my body to a whole heap of synthetic hormones to be able to conceive through IVF. We were lucky in that Elijah was conceived on our first attempt, but we have since experienced a failed attempt that saw more blood and more tears and more frustration at not only putting my body through such stress but at not getting your wish granted. Still, it is all a process, a part of the journey and often a test of one’s faith, patience and trust.
All of these experiences have led me to embrace my monthly cycle and all that it reveals to me. I have come to recognise that certain times of the month will bring inspiration, insight and the creativity to birth new ideas, other times I feel to retreat from the world and undertake some restorative yoga, keeping low to the ground, and resting quietly, yet other times I have boundless energy and can go, go, go and when I am bleeding I like to wear something red and bleed back into the earth to give thanks for all that it has given to me. There is a time for arising, a time for abiding and a time for dissolving. It happens each month. Its amazing, just like us.
I long to see a world where women join together to celebrate their womanliness, where they share and weep and talk and heal and laugh and dance and commune with the moon without fear of being classed mad or crazy, feminist or flaky, as you may well have concluded about me now! A world where women support each other on their womanhood journey, feel that they can openly discuss their monthly flows, their births, their insights, their creations, their child rearing, the highs and lows and everything in between.
I long to see a revival in these ancient customs, so that women come to recognise, respect and honour the magnificence of their bodies and the power that comes from this. A world, where women join and bond together in protest at the inequality still experienced by so many other women around the world today, where women join together to support each other rather than fight against each other, where we collectively acknowledge that it’s time to slow down, to embrace our femininity, vulnerability and cyclical nature, rather than exhausting and compromising ourselves in trying to fit into a linear masculine world with all its striving and ego.
I long to see a world where women are conscious of their decision to pump themselves full of artificial hormones each month and haven’t just chosen to do so because that is what you do to stop yourself getting pregnant, and yet don’t question the short or indeed long term impact on their health and wellbeing of doing just this. Of course there are always exceptions where there is little option but to take this, but to do so consciously is a huge step in becoming more empowered and respectful of our bodies.
I long to see a world where we are not expected to wear tampons and simply carry on as normal when we are bleeding, a world where we don’t even consider that perhaps blocking our flow for hours at a time is not going to have some impact on our energetic flow and the ability for the body to release that which it is shedding. Where we may be a little more accepting rather than repulsed by the blood itself and give back to the land that which we have been given.
I long to see a world where we acknowledge our magnificence and our beauty, where our womanly curves and our flabby bits are celebrated as a mark of our womanliness, where we come to revere our monthly cycles and our ability to birth new life into this world, where we allow our vulnerability, our creativity and our tenderness some expression in the world, where we laugh in the face of adversity and embrace our souls, our hearts and our divine femininity. Watch out, the red-volution is here, lets make this world a better, more feminine place.
Here are some of my tips for getting more intimate with your cycle and your flow:
· Journal. Journal your cycle and how you feel to get more intimate with yourself and start to notice commonalities at similar stages of your cycle.
· Honour your body’s messages, at certain times of the month you will have more energy than at others. Your cravings will change, sometimes you will absolutely need some dark chocolate and other times not.
· If you are trying to conceive then notice changes in discharge and come to recognise when you are ovulating. Perhaps read “Fertility & Conception” by Zita West and do what you can to boost your fertility, If you still don’t manage to conceive then go and see your doctor for advice.
· If you suffer with PMS then look at your diet and lifestyle and see how these may be impacting on how you feel. Read “Natural Solutions to PMS” by Marilyn Glenville and practice regular yoga and holistic therapies.
· When you are bleeding wear something red, so that you come to recognise and ritualise this time of your monthly cycle. Or perhaps place some red jasper in your purse or by your bed.
· When you are bleeding perhaps take to the earth and give thanks by allowing the blood to flow directly onto it (it’s not as yucky as you may imagine, its actually deeply intimate and empowering).
· When you are bleeding try and allow the blood to flow, so as not to block the energy of this downward motion, and wear natural sanitary products where you can.
· When you are bleeding avoid rigorous exercise and keep your yoga practice gentle with restorative poses and poses to open the sacral chakra and allow the energy to move down, down, down. Do not invert the body.
· When the moon is full go outside and bask in her rays and give thanks for her wisdom, nourishment and beauty.
· When you feel active and clear and alive then embrace this stage of your cycle and give birth to new ideas.
· Join the Red Tent and Moon Lodge movements springing up all around the world and set up your own with your female friends when you can chatter about all things female, drink some wine and eat some chocolate together.