Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom (23 page)

After the witnessing of her wounds, a woman must then investigate how these wounds have affected her life. This is the naming stage—the stage when she realizes that her life has indeed been adversely affected by someone or something. Denial has now left. The recovery movement that characterized the 1970s and 1980s marked the beginning of this stage for many women.

The final stage required for healing and the optimal functioning of the woman’s energy system involves releasing the power of the wound to control her life. This is the stage in which many of us now find ourselves. Forgiveness, releasing the past, and acceptance are required, for both herself and others. Once she understands and moves beyond the past, she is ready to assume personal dominion over her life and her choices for the future. She is now in a position to stop repeating the wounding and truly begin to flourish.

OTHER CHAKRA ISSUES

The
fifth chakra
is related to communication, timing, and will. When you communicate your ideas in the outer world, do you talk as much as you listen? Do you express yourself as well as you comprehend others? As far as timing goes, do you push forward or do you wait? I believe that the epidemic of thyroid problems in our society right now is energetically related to the perception that we have too much to do and never enough time in which to do it. We’re constantly rushed. But this perception itself is the chief problem. My colleague Gay Hendricks has a unique solution to this, which he calls “Einstein time”—and which I’ll cover in “Steps for Flourishing” chapter 15.

Finally, the thyroid has to do with one’s will. Do you tend toward willfulness or are you overly compliant? Associated with this chakra are the throat, mouth, teeth, gums, thyroid, trachea, and neck vertebrae. Dysfunctions in this chakra include chronic sore throats, throat and mouth ulcers, gum disease, neck pain, temporo mandibular joint disease (TMJ), thyroid disease, cervical disc problems, swollen neck glands, and laryngitis. Women with fifth-chakra problems such as hypothyroidism often have difficulty speaking up for themselves and holding their own point of view, and may have overly soft voices, making it difficult for them to be heard. On the other hand, an over developed will can result in disease such as hyperthyroidism and the exertion of one’s intellectual will without acknowledging a higher will or higher power—for example, “I don’t care what my body is telling me, I’m going to do it anyway” or “I’m going to will my way through this no matter what.”

The
sixth chakra,
sometimes known as the third eye, is related to perception, thought, and morality. When we perceive the outer world, do we have the capacity to see clearly while also tolerating ambiguity? Can we allow ourselves to have razor-sharp focus sometimes and at other times become relaxed and unfocused? Do we know when to be unreceptive to the ideas of others and when to be receptive? Can we accumulate knowledge but also allow ourselves to be open to what we still need to learn? Can we acknowledge our areas of ignorance? Can we appreciate rational and logical thought from the brain’s left hemisphere but also acknowledge the gift of the right hemisphere: the nonrational and the nonlinear? Are our thought processes rigid, obsessive, and ruminating, or do we have flexibility in our thinking? Finally, how do we apply our moral beliefs to ourselves and others? Do we tend to be repressed and overly conscientious model citizens who judge ourselves and others according to rigid standards, or do we allow ourselves, in some cases, to be more liberal, risk-taking, and uninhibited?

This chakra is located between the eyes, near the ears, nose, brain, and pineal gland. Dysfunctions associated with this chakra are vision problems, brain tumors, blood clots (blood clot formation is related to stop ping the flow of intuitive information), neurological disorders, blindness, deafness, seizures, and learning disabilities. Health-detracting statements associated with losing energy in this area are: “I don’t care how you feel. Tell me what you think”; “I don’t have enough information to make a decision”; “Can’t you see that I know what I’m talking about? Why are you arguing with me?”; “I’m surprised that you believe in that mind-body nonsense, given that you are an intellectual, educated person.”

The
seventh chakra
is related to seeing the larger purpose in our lives. It’s also related to our attitudes, faith, values, conscience, courage, and humanitarianism. Do we have a clear sense of purpose? Do we acknowledge that we as individuals have the power to create our lives, while simultaneously acknowledging the larger forces of the divine at work in the universe? Do we understand the paradox of knowing that we can influence some events, while also knowing that things happen that we can’t control, which we may not like, but that may ultimately serve a purpose we don’t understand at the time? This chakra is located near the crown of the head. The seventh chakra is the metaphysical framework around which you build your morals, your values, and your conscience.

Any life-threatening event in your life or any serious illness holds the potential to awaken wisdom in this area by connecting you with a larger view of the universe and your purpose in it. Those individuals who’ve undergone a near-death experience often relate how this changed their lives on every level and left them with a deep certainty about how best to spend the rest of their lives. Although all life-threatening illness can have seventh-chakra meaning, those that are specifically related to awakening wisdom in this chakra include paralysis and multisystem disease affecting the muscular and nervous systems, such as multiple sclerosis and Lou Gehrig’s disease. An individual may be born with a seventh-chakra challenge such as genetic disease. Life-threatening accidents are also related to this chakra and can be major wake-up calls.

Understanding vibrational anatomy and the law of attraction holds the key to true healing, rather than just masking our symptoms, because it offers a comprehensive and holistic view of how each of us co-creates health or disease. Regardless of our past, our power to heal and stay healthy is in the present moment, right now. When we’re truly present, we can heal almost anything. But most people tie up the bulk of their energy in woundings from their past, while the rest of it is consumed by worrying about the future. You cannot heal anything unless a significant amount of your energy and spirit is available in the present moment.

The late Lewis Thomas, M.D., the former president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, once said that he had come to believe that cancer was the physical metaphor for the extreme need to grow. Healthy growth involves getting as many parts of yourself as possible available in the present moment, the now—the only place that healing can happen. Rarely is a person always present right now, today. Living in the now is a skill that is developed through introspection, meditation, and taking leaps of faith into freedom and joy—one small leap at a time, one day at a time.

Part Two

The Anatomy of Women’s Wisdom

5
The Menstrual Cycle

How might it have been different for you if, on your first menstrual day, your mother had given you a bouquet of flowers and taken you to lunch, and then the two of you had gone to meet your father at the jeweler, where your ears were pierced, and your father bought you your first pair of earrings, and then you went with a few of your friends and your mother’s friends to get your first lip colouring; and then you went, for the very first time,

to the Women’s Lodge,

to learn

the wisdom of women?

How might your life be different?

—Judith Duerk,
Circle of Stones

W
e can reclaim the wisdom of the menstrual cycle by tuning in to our cyclic nature and celebrating it as a source of our female power. Astrologer Sioux Rose put it this way in her book
Moon
Dance: The Feminine Dimensions of Time
(iUniverse, 2009): “Since women are biologically clocked to the moon, we are destined to feel her cycle changes via our monthly menses. This rhythmic correspondence represents the uncharted feminine realm of time. A Divine heritage bequeathed to women.” The ebb and flow of dreams, creativity, and hormones associated with different parts of the cycle offer us a pro found opportunity to deepen our connection with our inner knowing. This is a gradual process for most women, one that involves unearthing our personal history and then, day by day, thinking dif ferently about our cycles and living with them in a mindful way.

TABLE 5

T
HE
A
NATOMY OF
W
OMEN’S
W
ISDOM

OUR CYCLICAL NATURE

The menstrual cycle is the most basic, earthy cycle we have. Our moon cycles and our blood are our connection to the archetypal feminine. The macrocosmic cycles of nature—the waxing and waning of the moon, the ebb and flow of the tides, the changes of the seasons—are reflected on a smaller scale in the menstrual cycle of the individual female body. The monthly ripening of an egg and subsequent pregnancy or release of menstrual blood mirror the process of creation as it occurs not only in nature but in human endeavor. In many cultures, the menstrual cycle has been viewed as a sacred source of insight and renewal. (These cultures weren’t far off. One day in the not-too-distant future, menstrual blood may even save lives. Recent research reveals that it’s a potential new source of stem cells, which can be used to treat a variety of diseases, including cancer.)
¹