The Underbelly Truth

We live in interesting times ...

I remember the early 90's, sitting in the Lyric Theatre in Brisbane, when the evocative Canadian Celtic singer, Loreena McKennit walked on stage. She had two sets of gigantuan candelabras on either side of the stage, topped with huge thick candles, alighting the space with dramatic overtones. She walked in with her long golden hair and sat at her massive sculptural masterpiece of a harp. I felt transported to a heavenly realm and moved to tears by her mesmerising music and haunting vocals, and then... she began to speak.

"Tomorrow is a big day," she said. "The World Wide Web will open. It's the day that is going to change the world." She seemed to know what it would mean.

I didn't. I had little to no idea what she was talking about and really was not interested. Holy man, I was busy with small kids, relationships, and businesses, I didn't want anything else to distract me.

But there it came, like a massive blob that just grew and grew. And much for good, But some for bad.

Internet and Facebook (and the rest) have changed everything.

Before the Internet, you were just ... well, you.

These days it seems, you can be anything you want on the internet.

One can project anything - being happy, being cool, being sexy, being spiritual, being successful, being wealthy, being healthy, being together, being this, being that...

Don't get me wrong, I also think that the creativity of expression, both visually and in words through the internet is amazing and I have loved that.

The truth is, that when the computer is off, who are you? .... really?

We live in such a positivist culture, completely saturated by social media, subscribing to the ideology of things always needing to be 'good', 'on track' leading us, in the personal development field, to the persona of becoming the 'spiritually evolved being'. If we are not good, not happy, not 'on', then we don't quite belong to that club.

The underbelly truth when you scratch the surface of any modern-day woman (or man) is that we all have challenges. 

Being a modern-day woman in the world of this 'positivist culture' can sometimes lead to feelings of shame or failure because of the life experiences we are going through. 

It takes a tremendous amount of energy to hold the shame, grief or fear of having physical aliments/illnesses, how and why our bodies are changing as we grow older, not feeling good enough, feeling disconnected within our relationships, having children who don't behave the way that textbooks and society say they should, just to name a few.

Add to that ... caring for an elderly parent or adult children who are still needing guidance and attention. There is so much to juggle, so much that we hold!

Women ... pretty much always... put themselves last. So when it comes to making time ... self-care and even our intimate sexual relationships move WAY down the list.

The pressures on women, particularly women in the peri-menopausal and menopausal age group are huge! But all women, really.

It's easy to lose sight of our heart, to close it off to just survive. To have a mind that is racing at a million miles an hour, creating enormous tension in our bodies. It is so easy to dis-embody and to lose sight of the fact that we even live in such a sacred holy vessel - our woman's body.

And in the process, we lose sight of who we are - lose the sense of ourselves, our hearts and our bodies. 

That's why MORE THAN EVER, it's important for women to be with one another.

When we come together as women in a safe environment where we are nourished by being seen and heard without pretense, without holding, without the pressures of what we 'should' be...  coming back home. Finding ground again.

When that happens, we relax and let go of judgements and criticisms, our whole body system comes back into coherence with the heart.  

That's where the gold is. In that space.

So find something that can bring you back - either carving out that time to be with your partner, creating time to be with others you love and who you know love you.

And this is why I created Womantime Immersion. It's the space for a small group of women to come together to deepen their healing, to 'find' themselves again - it's almost like taking an oath to themselves. To honour and cherish their own hearts and bodies and be tender with others.

So if you feel it's time .... to slow down to just being ... and be in a space of safety, love and honour of who you really are, masks down, we welcome you.

Womantime Immersion is a 6 Month Interactive Program designed as a kick start to get you back on track, back to simply 'being', through subtle and powerful experiential transformation, or to deepen your current practices of self-care and embodiment. Click on the link to register your interest.

If you would like to learn more about the transitional stage of menopause, as well as a practical guide to incorporate into your life, my book Tantric Sex and Menopause is available online and in stores.