After years of failed gym memberships, personal trainers, dumbbells, and Swiss balls, I have discovered that my subtle bodies most yearn for meaningful, flowing physical movement where I can move and express myself freely. I find that my creations actually depend on it. As I allow my body to release and fluidly move it’s as if I am both strengthening my ability to be moved by my soul and unlocking wisdom within my physical body. The more I check into my mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies and allow them to move me, the more free I feel in my physical body, as if I am clearing the energetic fields around me and allowing them all to communicate together. Yin yoga, siddha yoga, kundalini yoga, walking in nature, and intuitive dance. It’s taken me a while but I’ve figured out that these forms of exercise clear, soothe, and free my subtle bodies, and allow me to truly embody my soul and let Shakti move through me.
If you put me on a treadmill or in a spin class or a boot camp where the instructor yells at you I will shut down. Knowing what forms of movement your physical and subtle bodies most yearn for is powerful.
After being inspired by a friend I have recently picked up swimming as a devotional practice. Instead of doing the laps to lose weight or some other kind of outcome, I devote every stroke to being in harmony with the planet by chanting. My favorite chant for swimming is the ancient yogic mantra ‘Ra Ma Daa Saa, Saa Say So Hung.’ Here’s the translation.
Ra – Sun
Ma – Moon
Daa – Earth
Saa – Impersonal Infinity
Saa Say – Totality of Infinity
So – Personal sense of merger and identity
Hung – The infinite
It’s a fabulous Kundalini chant for healing. While you are chanting it, you can send the healing to someone else, the planet, or yourself. With whatever chant I am doing at the time I imagine every single stroke gliding me closer and closer home to my true Self.
RISE SISTER RISE
Ask the part of you that knows:
What type of movement nourishes your physical body?
What type of movement nourishes your mental body?
What type of movement nourishes your emotional body?
What type of movement nourishes your spiritual body?
What type of movement are your subtle bodies most craving?
LETTING SHAKTI DANCE YOU
Your body has wisdom, memories, lifetimes locked in it. Those of your own and those of all of the women that have come before, in your direct lineage and beyond.
The more you sway, swing, circle, move, and shake, the more you unlock, unfurl, unwind, and unbind. The more you let your body move the way it longs to move, the more free you will feel. Let movement be your soul’s medicine. Let the Shakti that is coiled within you rise and spiral free.
You are here to remember, uncover, and transmit it all. Don’t dance from your head, dance from the depths of your ancient soul. Allow yourself to be danced. Let Shakti dance you.
Dance has been something that I always come back to. Like most young girls I did it growing up. But it wasn’t until my mid to late teens that it began to be a soul practice. When I had the house to myself, I would put on the speakers and do what I called interpretive dance. I allowed my body to be moved by the creative force within me – bending, leaping, shaking, and moving in ways that just felt good. Studying for my exams I would give myself ‘interpretive dance breaks’ amazed at how recharged, free, and focused I would feel despite having been confined to my desk for hours on end.
At school dances I recruited some friends to be part of ‘Becky’s Dance Group,’ which turned into a show of its own. We would dress up in theme (when there wasn’t one) and claim our podium, where we would stay dancing all night. Much more exhilarated by letting Shakti move through us than chatting to boys.
During my 20s my dance practice lay dormant. And with every year, I found myself feeling more and more trapped. In 2010 I was reminded of my love affair with dance by one of my teachers and, as I reincorporated this age-old practice back into my life, I could feel the shackles start falling away. As I allowed myself to be moved by a force so much greater than me, I felt the Shakti begin to rise once again. I was not doing the dancing, rather She was moving me.
RISE SISTER RISE
How long has it been since you danced?
CHOOSING TO BE HERE NOW
‘The long sleep of Mother Goddess is ended.
May She awaken in each of our hearts.’
STARHAWK
Earth is thought to be the densest place in our solar system. I often say to clients and students that if we can manage to turn our light on here, we can turn it on anywhere.
At soul level, we are used to being one. The earth experience however puts us in separate bodies. We experience polarity and duality and all that comes with being human.
Many feel the weight of being bound by our separate human bodies. The burden of being in a female body, having the rug pulled out from underneath us each month, especially through the past thousands of years of patriarchy where woman has gone unrecognized for being the divine vessel that She is. It’s as if we have been doing this journey for such a long time, and are not sure how much longer we want to continue returning here.
If this is you, I want you to know:
This is the time that we have been incarnating for.
While this planet may not be your original home,
while you may find being in a human body difficult,
while the state of the planet may not be aligned with
your ideal experience of it, you chose to be here
now. To be human now. To be a woman now. To
bring back the feminine healing codes and free the
feminine voice now. Now is the time for us to heal
our wounds and step into our womanhood. To initiate
ourselves in the way we wish we were initiated.
In order for us to do this we must accept our humanness and all that comes with it and learn to be present in our bodies now.
Your feminine body holds so much wisdom. Wisdom that is waiting to be unlocked, as you give yourself space to breathe and receive it; wisdom that is waiting to be set free, as you give yourself the freedom to move and be moved. As you do this, the collective female suffering will be transmuted, clearing the way for all to hear Her call.
RISE SISTER RISE
How can you honor your human body more?
How do you wish you were initiated into womanhood?
How can you give this to yourself now?
I GOT BODY
For women, one of the most significant ways we stop ourselves from stepping into our power and rising is through feeling something is wrong with us or that we are not ready enough because of the way our body looks. We live in a society that idealizes images of highly airbrushed distorted-reality women and looks at real women such as Lena Dunham and Amy Schumer as being ‘plus sized,’ when rather they are NORMAL – if not more slender than the average woman. With this constant bombardment of crazy body distortions fed to us through magazines and advertising, it’s no wonder that most of us are running on a body acceptance treadmill that never ever stops. We say if I could just lose a dress size or three, then I’d be happy with my body.
We use food as a way to control life or as a way of numbing out our ‘too muchness’. I was recently on a girls’ trip with fellow authors and journalists. Upon returning home I noticed a sadness in my heart. Inquiring into it, I discovered that it was because so many conversations kept coming back to weight, food, and appearance, revealing an inadequacy amongst so many of us about our appearance and body, including me. Now, the women on the trip were some of the most conscious women I know, which is why it was so saddening, that after all of the work we had each done, this inadequacy still existed.
Body acceptance doesn’t mean getting to your ideal weight. It means loving and accepting your body as it is right now. You don’t need to love your body but you can begin to accept it by choos
ing to see it with compassion and not comparing yourself to a distorted ideal that is not even real. Or just as bad, strive to reach the ideal size or shape that your were five years ago.
A little while ago I bought a Nintendo Wii, as I thought the dancing games would offer fun quick writing breaks. Upon setting up the Wii Fit board, the annoying thing took my measurements and pronounced out loud to the entire room (Craig and I), ‘You are slightly overweight.’
F you! I thought. And went on a rant about how wrong it was that a stupid machine with a high-pitched voice was telling me what I should or shouldn’t look like.
But when I sat with it I realized that the reason I was upset was because I hadn’t accepted my own body. If I had, I certainly wouldn’t have cared what a machine said. And when I looked at it, at a time in my life where so much had been going right and so much of my life had been demanding my attention, it was exercise that I had let slip. I knew this. I consciously chose this. But I was still expecting my body to remain the same as when I was exercising for an hour each day, or how I looked when I was 25.
The extra weight I had been carrying was made from very real things. Two years of celebrating being in love. Birthing two books into the world. And facing my lifelong fear of sharing my soul’s voice with the world through my creations. Would I change any part of that? No.
We are living in a cyclic world. You are not meant to look a certain way for longer than that specific moment. We are ever-changing, cyclic beings who are here to experience change. To experience our soul in a human body over time. And human bodies are in a constant state of change. If we strive to reverse the clock or get back to a previous state we are going against the flow of Life.
In order to do the work we came here to do and truly rise, we need to be able to embody it fully, to hold the vibration of our message/calling/creations. And that starts with accepting our miracle of a body as it is, right now.
PRACTICE: I GOT BODY
Stand in front of the mirror naked for three minutes every day
for 21 days. Pick a song or mantra, such as ‘Om Nama Shivaya’
(meaning ‘I honor my true self’), to play each time if you like.
Now notice your inner dialogue, as you witness all of yourself
in the mirror. Allow all of your feelings and judgments to
emerge. This is the inner dialogue that you are carrying
around with you. You are listening to it every day anyway.
Watch as your inner dialogue begins to soften to love
and compassion the more time you spend in front
of the mirror. Watch as your distorted image of the
way you really look begins to shift back to reality.
You may also discover different parts of your body in which
you are holding hurt, pain, anger, shame, or sadness. Where
in your body you are holding in your feelings, holding in your
voice, holding in your truth, holding in your bigness. Where
in your body are you holding things that are not even yours?
Your belly could be reminding you of a creation that is ready
to be birthed. Your left shoulder could be trying to get you
to rest more often. Your hips may be longing to dance.
Warning. This exercise has the power to change your
life. Uncomfortableness will turn into acceptance.
YOU DO NOT GET TO DETERMINE MY WORTH
‘Fate whispers to the warrior, “You cannot withstand the
storm,” and the warrior whispers back, “I am the storm.”’
UNKNOWN
Trees don’t shrink and stand tall, according to who is standing beneath them. They own their greatness regardless. Flowers don’t open and close according to who is walking by. They show their beauty regardless.
Don’t let someone else’s presence change your true nature. Do not let their power or skill change what is great about you. Do not let someone else’s opinion of you change yours. Do not expand or shrink according to who is around. Do not allow situations or people to determine how tall you stand or how strong you feel. Do not change the size of your presence according to the bigness or smallness of someone else’s.
Walk as though you are a mighty oak, open like you are a royal rose. Know that you deserve to be here just as much as anyone else. Do not draw your value on the number of followers or the title on your office door. Respect and admire your elders but do not give away your power to someone else. You need it for yourself. It doesn’t belong to anyone but you.
If we are looking to another for any kind of approval we are giving our power away, saying, ‘If you approve then I am.’ But you already ARE all that you are, you do not need some external force to deem it so.
As I described earlier, patriarchal society has been built on a linear model of few leading many. This model assumes that the few are better than the many. There is a big difference between respecting your elders, teachers, bosses, etc., and bowing to them in the hope that they recognize your worth. You don’t need any external force to validate who you are. And you certainly don’t need them to tell you who you are.
Four years ago someone I admired and had been looking to for approval failed to truly see me and questioned my worth. At first it upset me deeply. But after the ugly tears came and went, I discovered that they had just given me a gift. See, prior to this I had been looking to their approval. And in them failing to give it to me, it forced me to see and claim it for myself.
You know that moment… when someone says, ‘You can’t do that…’ and a fire in your belly roars, ‘Don’t you tell me what I can or can’t do…’ Now, that’s what I’m talking about.
RISE SISTER RISE
Who do you give your power away to?
In whose presence do you diminish your bigness?
Who do you not quite feel worthy of being around?
RITUAL: CALLING BACK YOUR POWER
Get a piece of paper and write down the names of any person, people, organization, or experience that you have either willingly or unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously, given or lost your power to in the past. Or anyone that intimidates you today. Write their names on the piece of paper.
In a fireproof bowl (or cauldron, if you have one) burn the piece of paper while saying the following out loud with conviction:
‘I call back my power in entirety from anyone or any circumstance that I have given it away to in the past either willingly or unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously. The only one who says what I can or can’t do is me. I call back my power in entirety now.’
Put on your favorite power song (mine is ‘You Don’t Own Me’ by Grace, G-Easy) and call back your power as you dance, invoke, and embody your fierceness in full.
THE REUNION
Deep in the English countryside in a forest of silver birch, hazel, cherry, and oak, She found herself in circle with three women who truly saw Her.
Priestesses from times past. For so long journeying solo. At last, at last, reunited at last. Their parched souls yearning for the nourishment that only a sacred circle of sisters could provide. As they rested their weary foreheads, their second hearts opened in the deepest caverns of their wombs. Like sweet nectar they drank it all in. Everything barren and brittle brought back to life.
They took turns in revealing their most tender of wounds. The result of wandering on their own for millennia. Of doing this work alone. In hiding. Underground. Cut off from the sweet and nourishing ambrosia of their sisters’ and Mother’s song. Fumbling around in isolation, led only by the mysterious red-lit thread in their heart. They wondered, How on Earth had they had survived all this time doing this work on their own?
They let their tears roll free, releasing lifetimes of persecution and layers of protection that were no longer necessary to hold on to. Not now. Not ever again. With each hot salty drop, you could hear their chalice replenish and overspill guilt-free. Wounds were soothed. So-called weaknesses alche
mized into their own unique offering of medicine both for themselves and the world at large.
Together they initiated themselves into womanhood. Into Priestesshood. Just like they had in long ago lands that their soul remembered. Entwined by heart, they began to see the magnificent tapestry of light that they, we, She had for so long been weaving. Sisters. Priestesses. Recognized at last.
THE ONES WHO CAME BEFORE US
‘Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me.
Be still, they say. Watch and listen.
You are the result of the love of thousands.’
LINDA HOGAN
When you choose to rise, you never walk alone. When you choose to rise you tap into the collective strength of an ocean of women who, despite the circumstances, found the courage to rise. When you choose to rise you tap into a portal of sisterhood that, while invisible, can be deeply felt. You tap into the power of the Mother and the spinning of the moon.
They kiss the ground before you. They cheer you on from the rafters. Silently showing you the way. When you allow yourself to be held by their grace, you realize that even when you feel you might be, you never ever walk alone.
So stand with conviction. Walk tall on their shoulders. Let their voices carry. Dance unrestrained.
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