tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33350548353872343382023-11-16T06:57:22.116-05:00Ms MenopauseAs women we often discount our knowlege and try to skew our information or our perceptions so that they are acceptable to others. In so doing, we rob the world of our accumulated knowledge. Accurate information is important to the world. Accurate information from a variety of perspectives is essential.
Anne Wilson ShaefCreative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.comBlogger99125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-65382671626084076282016-04-14T12:41:00.001-04:002016-04-14T12:41:29.405-04:00Creative Soulful Woman As you can see, there have been no new posts since 2012, when my new book came out.<br />
<br />
Since then, I've joined the 60's club, and have moved away from the menopause discussion.<br />
<br />
But this blog remains, and has some excellent resources for any woman headed out onto that journey of ups and downs and rollercoaster ride.<br />
<br />
Please browse the articles and blog posts here. Know that the Mid-Life Transition is more than just menopause.<br />
<br />
It affects all of us. Carl Jung wrote that this was a key transition time in human beings, and requires time for reflection, looking back at our past. We restory the old stories, the baggage, the pain we have been lugging around, and sometimes we find a surprise beginning!<br />
<br />
So check out this page, but come and visit me on my Creative Soulful Woman blog, or on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest (all of which are linked from my website <a href="http://www.jenniferboire.com/">http://jenniferboire.com/ </a><br />
<br />
Namaste,<br />
Peace,<br />
<br />
Jennifer<br />
<a href="http://www.jenniferboire.com/">www.jenniferboire.com</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQCWb2W99ZVNrbykEqolvM4jskI2uB5vpWEg1rd0alIOgb-JbUSX-OnyfguPf1vV0HmRZ4B9HndDshYa9GBgx4o47xssdvCjP2QWEPNYunB9X16WNNayS67lLv5j_jw0BytzmudBfNTBh-/s1600/creative+soulful+backdrop+facebook.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQCWb2W99ZVNrbykEqolvM4jskI2uB5vpWEg1rd0alIOgb-JbUSX-OnyfguPf1vV0HmRZ4B9HndDshYa9GBgx4o47xssdvCjP2QWEPNYunB9X16WNNayS67lLv5j_jw0BytzmudBfNTBh-/s400/creative+soulful+backdrop+facebook.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-36130440115448508912012-04-20T14:52:00.002-04:002012-04-20T14:52:37.226-04:00Check out these blogs on Menopause<a href="http://www.healthline.com/health-slideshow/best-menopause-blogs#3">best-menopause-blog of 2012</a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Coming soon on Musemother Blog: interviews with Wendy from The Menopause Blog and Susan Tolles from Flourish over Fifty</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">come back again!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Musemother/jenn</span><br />
<a href="http://www.jenniferboire.com/">www.jenniferboire.com</a><br />
<br />Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-15117700262413943222012-02-14T14:48:00.005-05:002012-03-21T11:42:46.120-04:00The Tao of Turning Fifty Book Launch<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzkrE9FUUxhafsUW8D_FYgRDG9Pi7bAKdtMKp4d9Hhht0ywPHHpeXU0XB2vV3Wb-Sh1y-YiycOFpgPnJArWYQkueOroesTs6xlzzM4cwyL_qS5I-qgfDO3jy1WnvbJ9n-B5V1PWVXQAEJS/s1600/Tao+of+Fifty+BookCoverImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzkrE9FUUxhafsUW8D_FYgRDG9Pi7bAKdtMKp4d9Hhht0ywPHHpeXU0XB2vV3Wb-Sh1y-YiycOFpgPnJArWYQkueOroesTs6xlzzM4cwyL_qS5I-qgfDO3jy1WnvbJ9n-B5V1PWVXQAEJS/s320/Tao+of+Fifty+BookCoverImage.jpg" width="224" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Now available on Amazon at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tao-Turning-Fifty-Every-Forties/dp/1466378115/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329248639&sr=1-1">http://www.amazon.com/Tao-Turning-Fifty</a><br />
<br />
Also linked to <a href="http://www.jenniferboire.com/">www.jenniferboire.com</a> under Books. Plus a free excerpt.<br />
<br />
This book addresses the oftentimes overwhelming journey of the mid-life woman, and offers tips and exercises for finding calm int he middle of the storm. It encourages you to give yourself a break, before you get a break down. There is a struggle in most women about being selfish versus beginning to take the time for self care, and inner reflection, but we benefit when we put ourselves on the agenda - take time to sort things out, write in our journal. This is also a workbook, with journal pages, calming and centering breath exercises, and mostly, encouragement that you are not going crazy. Menopause is not a disease - it's an important transition in a woman's life and part of her inner journey.<br />
<br />
This book grew out of my research for a blog on menopause (here) and now that the book is done, I'm blogging over at Musemother. See sidebar for a link.<br />
<br />
namaste,<br />
Musemother/jenn<br />
<br />Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-46236710141485382692012-02-03T15:56:00.002-05:002012-02-03T16:00:41.660-05:00Heroic Task of Menopausal WomenWomen are unique beings. We go through many phases in our life, on this heroic feminine journey. First the transformation from child to adolescent, the budding body, the menstrual cycle, initiating us into the blood mysteries.<br />
<br />
Then for some, pregnancy and childbirth - the complete transformation of our bodies to harbor for a new life, the giving over of oneself to another, as Joseph Campbell says, transformation from maiden to mother. This has always implied a bit of risk and danger, and loss of blood; less so in contemporary times in most countries. Still, it is a major change, sometimes inconvenient (when you can't bend over to tie your shoes), causing mood swings and happiness and sacrifice, joy and frustration. Breastfeeding can be joyful but oh so life-changing in terms of our schedule and lifestyle adjustments.<br />
<br />
Then, we're not done changing. The Change arrives sometimes in our mid-forties, announces itself gently or loudly, pushes and pulls us in hormonal swings, hot and cold, yet again. This time, the blood is on its way out. And greater wisdom or connection to our intuition is coming in. Something is lost, but something important is gained. A woman is ripe with her own knowing, learns to speak up for herself, embodies compassion if she is gentle with herself.<br />
<br />
Women are unique, yes, and I believe it is a woman's goal or task to learn awareness of her cycle all the way along - from birth to menarche, from giving birth to menopause.<br />
<br />
This blog and Musemother blog (where I more frequently write) address that rite of passage. I believe the most important tool a woman has is her self-awareness, and journal writing is a beautiful tool for knowing oneself.<br />
<br />
<i><b>The Tao of Turning Fifty </b></i>will launch on Amazon by Feb. 9 (next week), and every woman in her forties (and sixties) will benefit from the information in this book, from Where Did My Libido Go, to I Need to Get Away, Why Rest is Radical and Tools for Inner Guidance, this workbook allows you to journal along with it, and answer your own questions. Enjoy the journey. A link will be posted on the website www.jenniferboire.com as soon as it is ready. Many of the chapters in this book came from the blog.<br />
<br />
<br />Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-125304915491582902011-11-30T13:07:00.001-05:002012-02-03T16:00:31.942-05:00Turning FiftyWant to let you know I'm mainly blogging at <i>Musemother</i> blog, and on Facebook posting daily quotes from <i>Musemother </i>about the creative life, the inner journey, and a woman's heart and soul connection.<br />
<br />
Soon to be released on Amazon is The Tao of Turning Fifty, available for sale on my website, <a href="http://www.jenniferboire.com/">www.jenniferboire.com</a>. Subtitle: What Every Woman in Her Forties Needs to Know.<br />
<br />
So hop on over to<i> Musemother's</i> blog, or visit the website for upcoming events and news.<br />
<br />
What's in the works: online journal writing classes for women who want to connect with the Inner Feminine wisdom and just hang out with like-minded women who seek to know themselves better through jotting things down on paper - a mysterious process that seems to work really well !<br />
<br />
have a creative, transformative mid-life journey<br />
Jenn/Musemother<br />
<br />Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-1218100220884331382011-04-25T10:57:00.000-04:002011-11-30T13:07:38.550-05:00Feminine Knowing and Menopausal JourneyIs menopause merely the cessation of your period? is it about losing your memory and having hot flashes? losing your fertility? Or is it a mid-life reorientation project?<br />
<br />
This a journey you are embarking on, a deeper phase to your woman's journey, a developing and a continuing and an unknowing. It feels to me like being in a labyrinthe in the woods, a circular path that branches out and leads in so many different directions it's easy to get lost.<br />
<br />
What is the path of a woman's life? especially a woman who decides to have children, who gives over her body to create another body. How does she regain her centre (if she has lost it)? and how does she keep those boundaries clear - me, us, them? How does she find herself again? Menopause is part of that journey.<br />
<br />
Menopause is not an overnight thing. It creeps up on you slowly. You don't notice it happening until one day you realize your period hasn't come this month, and your pregnancy test comes back negative. Then it comes back the next six months so you forget there's something going on. Or your PMS increases to two weeks out of the month, and if you really stop and look at it, you see your emotional landscape is a little out of control. Or maybe you aren't sleeping well at night and not even Chamomile tea or hot milk helps calm the little gerbil on its cage running all night long in your brain.<br />
<br />
There are many many symptoms, and lots of websites to describe them to you. What this blog tries to point to is not the symptoms, but the journey. It's as if you are on the highway to Ottawa from Montreal, and took a side road without realizing it. You look up and wonder where you are, the landscape doesn't look familiar, the trees are in the wrong place, and the road signs post names of towns you don't remember or recognize. You need to figure out where you are.<br />
<br />
Honour your not knowing by standing still. The first thing to do when you feel lost, is to stop. Stop running in circles, stop pretending you know where you are. Stop and ask for help.<br />
<br />
Someone who has been there before may help you. Someone who has been lost and found the way again.<br />
<br />
This mid-life woman's way has been largely uncharted till recently. The women who came before us were told they didn't matter, or they were second best. Or their uterus was hysterical. The male hero story describes the quest of the masculine, but where are the stories of the feminine quest?<br />
<br />
There are wise women who are writing now about women's cycles, women's journey, woman's life trajectory, especially about menopause. Browse this website for some of their articles, for reviews of their books, for mention of the sacred journey.<br />
<br />
It is time to honour your own knowing. Begin with admitting you don't know, and stay with the question. Questing. Know that the way out is the way in. Going down and in will lead you up and out.<br />
<br />
And watch www.questinggirl.blogspot.com for all new postings. I am working on a book for women in mid-life called <span style="color: #741b47;">The Tao of Turning Fifty, </span>and a new website and classes to go with it, sometime in 2011.<br />
<br />
Take good care now,<br />
Musemother/JennCreative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-25138575646005887652010-04-12T15:43:00.001-04:002010-04-12T15:48:11.785-04:00Astrology of Menopause<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS5trEJpO2npetzPPRvrS90vx8qJ1Z4EuOsDFbDV1DTjMNpABDlbPkbjlJmsnoPbRLcqpxyMXkX4ZP3KXCZPm2qIpa7_KymvohxurPMSQAEtq95nfgcKdlrglq07P8Hq3cvYqaHs8Ae34K/s1600/england+daffodils.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS5trEJpO2npetzPPRvrS90vx8qJ1Z4EuOsDFbDV1DTjMNpABDlbPkbjlJmsnoPbRLcqpxyMXkX4ZP3KXCZPm2qIpa7_KymvohxurPMSQAEtq95nfgcKdlrglq07P8Hq3cvYqaHs8Ae34K/s320/england+daffodils.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><style>
<!--
.hmmessage P
{
margin:0px;
padding:0px
}
body.hmmessage
{
font-size: 10pt;
font-family:Verdana
}
-->
</style><a href="http://www.elizabethspring.com/Astrology_of_Menopause.html">http://www.elizabethspring.com/Astrology_of_Menopause</a><br />
<br />
OK, one last post, because this is too interesting.<br />
<br />
Check out the website above, my sister sent me, as she is a budding astrologer herself.<br />
<br />
Apparently our life cycles move with the planets too. Very cool information.<br />
<br />
JennCreative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-42671814519454575842010-04-06T08:55:00.000-04:002010-04-06T08:55:23.713-04:00MOVING OVER TO MUSEMOTHERGood morning or afternoon<br />
I've decided to continue blogging any menopause notes on the questinggirl/Musemother blog, so that I can consolidate my blogging time.<br />
<br />
This blog will remain present for those who want to research by the labels on the side, under heading topics. There is a ton of good information there, and lots of links to other sites about menopause.<br />
<br />
Above all, know that I am still writing, still curious, still looking for new information and posting on www.questinggirl.blogspot.com under Musemother.<br />
<br />
Have a happy peri-menopause, and check my blog for news of The Tao of Turning Fifty, what every woman in her forties needs to know about the menopausal journey, coming to a bookstore near you sometime in the near future.<br />
<br />
best<br />
JennCreative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-75549690098950267682010-03-30T18:03:00.000-04:002010-03-30T18:03:15.605-04:00Rest is RadicalHow is it we get to mid-life so tired?<br />
<br />
I was talking with my husband last night over supper, trying to remember if I was this tired and stressed about everything when I was in my 20's and 30's. No, absolutely not, unless memory fails me (which it does regularly, but that's another topic).<br />
<br />
Before kids is more to the point - we started late, due to miscarriages, and I had my first child at 36, second at 38 years old. Barely time for them to hit puberty before I hit peri-menopause and more lack of sleep. My daughter had just started sleeping full nights in her own bed, when I began demanding it was time for her to tuck me in at 9:00 p.m. I was very tired.<br />
<br />
Now, postmenopause, I can say that my energy levels are better. I can even stay up till 11:00 p.m. without yawning too much. However, rest days and naps are a saving grace, and I think they are wonderful medicine, and very cheap.<br />
<br />
For example, last Sunday, I had a huge list of things to do, furniture to put outside if it was nice, bicycles to pump up, a year's worth of bills to file, and a messy home office that needed organizing. But we had had a very rich dinner the night before at Au Pied du Cochon <a href="http://cabaneasucreaupieddecochon.com/index.html">http://cabaneasucreaupieddecochon.com/index.html</a>. Suffice it to say that after the gravlax and buckwheat pancakes, pork and beef tourtiere, roast chicken, lobster stuffed cabbage, omelette, fried pork rinds (oreilles de crisse), and beef tongue, oh yes and the pea soup with foie gras starter, we could barely roll into our beds let alone roll out of them Sunday morning.<br />
<br />
So we not only slept in, we had an afternoon nap after a hot bath. It was a first for my husband, to ignore the list of spring cleaning items and just take it easy with a good book in the bathtub, then sleep in the afternoon. But how heavenly. And I thought, make this a real Sabbath, and take care of yourself for once. Do not get up and read emails, or turn on the computer. Unplug!<br />
<br />
As you come into midlife, give yourself the gift of rest, at least once a week, and if you can make time every day! Rest is a radical option, cheaper than medication, and often all you need.<br />
<br />
musemother<br />
ps title taken from a chapter in The Piill, are yous ure it's for you, Jane Bennett and Alexandra Pope<br />
<a href="http://www.wildgenie.com/books_fs.html">http://www.wildgenie.com/books_fs.html</a>Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-79229356920521606522010-03-25T08:22:00.000-04:002010-03-25T08:22:59.532-04:00Weight Gain in Menopause"women and men may be closer in size than the males and females of some other great apes not because men have been freed of the selective pressure toward enlarged body size but because women have been under some pressure to become fairly large themselves. Assuming that women have been selected for enhanced longevity - a<b> long life after menopause - i</b>t helps to have a respectable body mass to persist through the decades. Large animals generally live longer than small animals. Many factors besides lifespan influence the evolution of a female's body size, including habitat, method of locomtion, diet and the demands of pregnancy and lactation....but it is possible that in the triangulating, negotiatingt process of adaptive change, women's physiology has seen a modest thrust toward maximizing body size while still remaining with the developmental constraints of reproductive demands. <br />
<br />
Afer all,women are the second largest female primates on the planet, bested only female gorillas who weigh an average of 185 pounds, compared to our nonobese norm of 125-130 pounds. Women are bigger than female orangutans, who weigh less than 100 pounds an dconsiderably bigger than female chimpanzees or bonobos. By comparison, men, with their standard weight of 160 pounds are much smaller than male gorillas, and smaller too than male organutans who average 200 poundes.<br />
<br />
....what I am doing is offering grist for the argument that women need muscle mass more than men do, and that ... we must take the hint and make the most of our long-lived vessel. We need muscle....we have an extraordinary capacity for strength, the more impressive given our comparatively low levels of testosterone....Women are workhhorses in most of the developing world (carrying loads on ther heads or backs for miles and miles). If the world's women went on strike, the world of work would effectively stop...."<br />
<br />
The gist of her argument is that.. in the West, longevity has increased while the need for physical strength has declined. We are living longer....and we need muscle more than ever to protect our health. If we exchange muscle for fat as we age, we having nothing to shield our bones and weather illness.<br />
<br />
fascinating book, by Natalie Angier, Woman, An Intimate Geography,Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-56640107474121045922010-02-15T10:25:00.002-05:002010-02-15T10:27:49.317-05:00Menopause and Sex"We are all born sexual beings, from the moment we are born till the day we die. Whether or not we are in a sexual relationship with another person, we can feel good in our bodies, appreciate sensual pleasures, and learn what excites us sexually. Our sexuality has the potential to be a powerful and positive force in our lives, filling us with energy and deepening our most intimate connections."<br />
<br />
- Our Bodies, Ourselves: A New Edition for a New Era<br />
<br />
There are million and one ways to find pleasure as a menopausal or peri-menopausal woman. Even if you think there is nothing left of your libido, don't give up on yourself. Sex is one of the few pleasures that doesn't make you fat or raise your cholesterol, so you'd think more women would indulge.<br />
<br />
Part of low libido could be from fatigue, from overwork, from not wanting to give into one more demand on our fragile ecosystem. I think women are used to 'putting out' as they call it, instead of being able to receive.<br />
<br />
One day on Oprah 2 years ago, I heard Dr. Christiane Nortrhup talk about how we can revisualize our whole bodies as an erogenous zone, not just the genitalia. It takes some imagination, some dream time, but you can use whatever props or visual aids you need to help you feel excited again about sex. Sometimes, what a woman needs is some self-loving, and for some of us, an extra aid to achieve that goal.<br />
<br />
If you are also interested in the environment, here is a website with some eco-friendly sex toys:<a href="http://www.ecosex.ca/">www.ecosex.ca</a> <a href="http://www.ecosex.ca/"></a>. which I found on the redtent sisters website.<a href="http://www.redtentsisters.com/">www.redtentsisters.com</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.redtentsisters.com/"></a>Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-26735126829541016072010-02-01T16:51:00.004-05:002010-02-01T16:54:59.691-05:00Let's hear it for menopause<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijPwQrb70hE6xApYPmsPs_IfaE-Qip5MpKtUL8wcHx4NjEgbjG-6kzpeoqTEIBWZKP4Npow19nlo9TWLJ7CZwArPWu5LuC2y_tWv-l55TGZrTveRU6qNtFnGf8YxTnKwG14GUwi8D9zgfL/s1600-h/women's+faces.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br />
</a></div><meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"></meta><meta content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"></meta><meta content="Microsoft Word 12" name="Generator"></meta><meta content="Microsoft Word 12" name="Originator"></meta><link href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CJennifer%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"></link><link href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CJennifer%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx" rel="themeData"></link><link href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CJennifer%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml" rel="colorSchemeMapping"></link><style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:swiss;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0cm;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
mso-themecolor:hyperlink;
text-decoration:underline;
text-underline:single;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink;
text-decoration:underline;
text-underline:single;}
p
{mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0cm;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0cm;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
@page Section1
{size:612.0pt 792.0pt;
margin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt;
mso-header-margin:35.4pt;
mso-footer-margin:35.4pt;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style> <br />
<b> </b><br />
This excerpt is from the Power of Aging an article about 80 year old activist Betty Krawczyk.<br />
<br />
"Grandmothers have long played an important role in sustaining life and nurturing their families and the community at large, Betty says.<br />
"The human female is the only animal to live so long after the reproductive organs shut down," she says, adding that according to anthropologists, the role of providing food for the clan often fell to older women when the traditional male 'hunter' could not find enough. <br />
"Menopause allowed older women to give back to the community by allowing them to focus not on reproducing, but nurturing," Betty says. In fact, when looking at human evolution, menopause was the gift "nature gave to the human species that enabled our species to multiply and spread out over the globe."<br />
It is this "ancient connection between old and young" and the tradition of elder leadership that Betty says more older people need to embrace. "Elders and grandmothers in particular are way too meek and mild," she says, adding that to harness the power born of experience, more older people need to insist on an important leadership role.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">Betty Krawczyk is the author of <i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Clallyoquot: The Sound of my Heart</span></i> and <i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";">Lock Me Up or Let Me Go</span></i>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Excerpt from an interview with Betty:</div>Elders and grandmothers in particular are way too meek and mild. We are a huge population and we should go straight for the sources of power, not to become co-managers of a monstrous unmanageable environmental and economic mess, but to strike out for new territory in refusing to accept the corporate culture as an ideal way to live. <br />
Practically speaking, running for office, getting behind progressive moves that promises to make children a priority, that promises to actually bring forth measures to preserve the environment before every last tree is cut, every last fish caught, every bit of farm land developed, etc., grandmothers know what needs to be done if our life support systems are to be preserved and we should be busy about doing them.<br />
<br />
Read the whole article at: <br />
<a href="http://50plus.com/Lifestyle/BrowseAllArticles/index.cfm?t_offset=2&documentID=21635">http://50plus.com/Lifestyle/BrowseAllArticles/index.cfm?t_offset=2&documentID=21635</a><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-33519649866275564942010-01-30T14:04:00.000-05:002010-01-30T14:04:09.521-05:00Menopause the MusicalIf you are anywhere in your forties and wondering what menopause is about, go see Menopause the Musical.<br />
It is hilarious. Using songs from the 60's and 70's, the 4 women characters act, sing and dance their way through several floors of Bloomingdale's while consoling themselves and each other about hot flashes, memory loss, empowerment, mothers who still see them as children even though they have grown children of their own, and a host of other funny scenarios.<br />
<br />
I laughed out loud a lot! and so did the theatre full of women - some young, some middle-aged, some accompanied by men (ok about 12 men in the whole theatre, I counted).<br />
<br />
It feels good to laugh at the uproar The change causes in women's lives. Enjoy!<br />
<br />
jenn/musemotherCreative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-35108140174705701382010-01-15T14:24:00.001-05:002010-01-15T14:25:09.692-05:00Great articles on menopauseOne of the great advantages to the web and to this blog is the speed with which we can discover or uncover new information. <br />
<br />
I've been thinking about rewriting the front section of the Tao of Turning 50, a manual for peri-menopause, but busy in the car doing errands all morning. Just got home and my sister had left me an email with a website link from a wholistic pharmacist in Calgary, friend of hers, and someone who writes about menopause with great intelligence and scientific knowledge.<br />
<br />
Here's the link: to RoseMarie Pierce's article on menopause:<br />
<a href="http://www.sunstreams.ca/023_MenopausalYea.html">http://www.sunstreams.ca/023_MenopausalYea.html</a><br />
<br />
and there are some wonderful articles about PMS and the hormonal imbalances that contribute to it.<br />
Most of us think we need estrogen, and she points out that estrogen dominance and low progesterone also are culprits of PMS and menopausal symptoms.<br />
<br />
thanks for sharing, Sue<br />
always on the look-out for wise women input,<br />
<br />
Jenn/musemotherCreative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-90073147935943089712010-01-11T14:15:00.000-05:002010-01-11T14:15:35.802-05:00Honour the Feminine QuestWhat is it to enter menopause? is it merely the cessation of your period? is it a mid-life reorientation project? is it about losing your memory and having hot flashes? losing your fertility?<br />
<br />
Or is this a journey you are embarking on, a deeper phase to your woman's journey, a developing and continuing and an unknowing. It feels to me like a labyrinthe in the woods, a circular path that branches out and leads in so many different directions it's easy to get lost.<br />
<br />
What is the path of a woman's life? especially a woman who decides to have children, who gives over her body to create another body. How does she regain her centre (if she has lost it)? and how does she keep those boundaries clear - me, us, them? How does she find herself again? Menopause is part of that journey.<br />
<br />
Menopause is not an overnight thing. It creeps up on you slowly. You don't notice it happening until one day you realize your period hasn't come this month, and your pregnancy test comes back negative. Then it comes back the next six mnnths so you forget about it. Or your PMS increases to two weeks out of the month, and if you really stop and look at it, you see your emotional landscape is a little out of control. Or maybe you aren't sleeping at night and even Chamomile tea or hot milk doesn't help the little gerbil on its cage running all night long in your brain to calm down.<br />
<br />
There are many many symptoms, and lots of websites to describe them to you. What this blog tries to point to is not the symptoms, but the journey. It's as if you were on the highway to Ottawa from Montreal, and took a side road without realizing it. You look up and wonder where you are, the landscape doesn't look familiar, the trees are in the wrong place, and the road signs post names of towns you don't remember or recognize. You need to figure out where you are.<br />
<br />
Honour your not knowing by standing still. The first thing to do when you feel lost, is to stop. Stop running in circles, stop pretending you know where you are. Stop and ask for help.<br />
<br />
Someone who has been there before may help you. Someone who has been lost and found the way again.<br />
<br />
A woman's way has been largely uncharted till recently. The women who came before us were told they didn't matter, or they were second best. The male hero story describes the quest of the masculine, but where are the stories of the feminine quest?<br />
<br />
There are many wise women who are writing now about women's cycles, women's journey, woman's life trajectory, especially about menopause. Browse this website for some of their articles, for reviews of their books, for mention of the sacred journey.<br />
<br />
It is time to honour your own knowing. Begin with admitting you don't know, and stay with the question. Questing. Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-20089071742606698862009-12-16T13:36:00.002-05:002009-12-16T13:39:43.498-05:00Winter Rest in MidlifeSnow hastens to reach ground<br />Up-gusts blow sideways<br />Water is harsh, moving to shore in a hurry<br />Waves bump rocks over the side and onto grass<br />Backyard view almost obscured by white<br />wind and shades of grey<br />island’s shoreline obliterated by violent tempest.<br /><br />we are safe inside the window warm and heated<br />we are on solid ground watching white caps<br />winter showed up to day grizzly beard and big boots<br />white hair scraggled and long<br />not father Christmas with jolly belly and smiles<br />but burly lumberjack all bluster and blizzard<br />it is best to be inside, not venture out<br />it is wiser by far to stay put, drink chai from the red Chinese pot<br />read the I Ching for aphorisms<br />throw the coins and divine the future<br />“It will snow today, tomorrow and the next day” (says the<br />weatherman) so hunker down in the bedside bunker<br />with your little dog on your lap and the cats spread like living fur coats<br />ease the angst in the stomach about the list of things<br />take the day off<br />to dream and be remiss<br />you have an excuse to be late<br />to not return those library books<br />to miss an appointment<br />to stay home in bed and do nothing but read a novel<br /><br />You have been blessed<br />with a snow day of rest.Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-75913087979266309782009-12-09T14:51:00.005-05:002009-12-09T15:18:03.878-05:00Finding Sanctuary and Serenity in Mid-LifeHere in this room I have created a sancturary and this is what I want - nothing on my list of goals to achieve, nothing on my to do list or to to buy list. Just blessed peace, for a moment, in which to find a still point, a place to let go of thinking, and always running the show.<br /><br />I have built this sanctuary, this house on the edge of the lake, to have somewhere to dream in, to find whatever it is I need. I do not feel the urge to leave anymore, that mid-life restlessness has been removed. I do not feel the urge to flee myself or keep busy constantly. I even begin to feel joy in the kitchen, in the center of the house, in receiving guests to celebrate the new year with us.<br /><br />Up until now, what I enjoyed doing most was uncovering new information then disseminating it. Making the unknown known (which was whispered to me during a Soul Purpose exercise at the Writer's Spa in Taos in 2006).<br /><br />I find healing in Bija's chants, in soothing yoga classes, in lying down on my bedroom rug to do yoga stretches, a vibration that rocks the soul. No need for talking, just being breathed.<br /><br />There seems no end to war and vengeance in the outside world, but here in my sancturary, I have glimpses of surrender, of letting go and letting fate take its course.<br /><br />I no longer know what I want to do. What does a know it all do when she no longer knows, I ask myself. Breathe, relax, iron and do laundry. Buy groceries and prepare my class for next week, prepare a mini-retreat for myself on this snowy day. Reconnect with myself through my journal, find my inner self and record it here.<br /><br />High on the list of pleasure filling activities are music and singing.<br />I feel strong when I get good feedback about my singing. I feel strong when I help other people feel better about themselves. I feel strong when I am quiet and alone listening to soothing music. I feel strong when I do yoga. I feel strong when I am not rushed and can go at my own pace.<br /><br />I feel the urge to surrender the direction of my life to an inner current, my heart wants to lead the dance, and my mind is terrible at following the heart's lead. I put my heart's foot first, trust in the unknown. I have strengths in intuition, to guide me if I trust it.<br /><br />I know what I know. Information comes to me from within.<br />Follow up on that insight, impulse.<br /><br />Shut down the internet/computer/emails and reliance on outside information, more often.<br />Rely more on the whispered truths, subtle influence of the god/ess within, higher power, creative team, guidance from within, pilot light turned on.<br /><br />In stormy times, seek the center.<br /><br />Keep the foundation strong by nourishing self-love, water the root. Find the eye of the storm in 'I'ness.<br /><br />The fear I have that sometimes prevents me from hanging out in this peaceful place is that I will turn into mush if I do nothing, if I explore with curiosity this place of acceptance and waiting for an impulse from within.<br /><br />This morning I felt so tired of moving from someone else's impulse, energy and always responding as if I have to, as if I am a puppet whose strings are pulled by someone else. I felt resistance to moving this way anymore. I feel how passive I have been, how disconnected from my own passion.<br /><br />I am at a crossroads, here in the heart and hearth of my new home. I don't want to go out. I don't want to rely on outside sources to fill me with information and inspiration, all the while hungry for my own truth.<br /><br />Where does my candle get lit from, which fire? It's a new feeling, to feel blank, without direction, with no moral code or order to guide me. and to be ok with it. This is a new acceptance, to stop before heading out in the snowfilled blizzard without compass or direction.<br /><br />In my mind I am in a snowblind place. But the heart feels the sun's pull, its direction and asks me to be patient. Trust that I have everything I need. Don't let self-doubt sabotage me as I experiment with not knowing how it will all turn out.<br /><br />Written January 13, 2009.Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-944539044433885632009-11-25T11:51:00.003-05:002009-11-25T12:17:00.220-05:00I am enoughDuring the menopausal journey, all kinds of old ghosts have come back to haunt me.<br /><br />Unfinished dreams from adolescence (so you think you can dance/act/sing?). Unfinished loves: remember that boy in Grade 11 who idolized you? maybe you thought he was too immature, even if he was cute. You took him for granted at the time. Maybe he really saw you. Maybe you feel like you want to be really seen that way again.<br /><br />I found all kinds of circles coming back at me in my forties. In my last year of high school, I was in a dance/mime play of Inuit legends called the Land before Time. It was one of the highlights of my creative life to be chosen for that play, to have rehearsals in the National Arts Center and a tour of high schools in the Ottawa area for 2 weeks (off school, too).<br /><br />Later, I hooked up with one of the women who was in the play with me, who now lives in Montreal and we became good friends again. One of my unfinished dreams was to be involved with theatre once more, and Jo and I began a project to put a long poem series of my friend Carolyn Souaid, Sedna, on stage (which just happened to be based on an Inuit legend). We hired two actresses and began rehearsals, and during that time, Jo gave me the director of the Student Young Company, Dennis Hayes' email address. He sent me the text of Land Before Time, which absolutely blew my mind, to come full circle with that piece. Our production of Sedna played one night only for the Circus of Words, a night of poetry in performance. But it brought me a lot of satisfaction to be involved with 'theatre people' again.<br /><br />I also had the chance to clear up some ancient longings and meet with former love interests, to close the door on the <em>'what if'</em> scenarios my mind was cooking up. There was a lot of unfinished business that came to a head in my forties.<br /><br />Now, I've just turned 55, and recently received a birthday card from a close friend that said, Jenn, you are so serene, you've changed since I've known you. Is this what post-menopause looks like? I had to laugh, and gave her a big hug of thanks. Yes, this is how it feels, once the rollercoaster of emotions has calmed down, the night sweats are over, and sleep is your friend again.<br /><br />So this post is about closing the circle, and probably new ones begininng. It is the end of something, for me. One cycle has finished. Another one begins. <br /><br />I am at peace with myself. I am surrounded by wondferful women friends. I am still married to my best friend. And I feel finally ready to send my work out to the world, to share what I am learning along the way.<br /><br />blessed be,<br />Jenn/musemotherCreative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-31111334606380262912009-11-08T21:42:00.002-05:002009-11-08T21:45:22.723-05:00The way of going down, of letting goA woman in the middle of her life may need to go through a down time, to journey into her depths; it may even look like a depression. She may need some time in isolation to find her own inner powers – connection to her body, her emotions and her sexuality, her intuition, her values, and her soul. She may feel as if she doesn’t know where she is going, what’s coming next. It’s a time of passage in-between – letting go of the old self, not sure of the new self yet. It may imply a change of job, or of roles (mother to grandmother), a divorce, grown kids leaving home, dying parents.<br /><br />Menopause is a time of dying to the old way and opening up to a new way of being. Sometimes it is difficult to live this change, to accept the end of one thing and open our hearts and arms to a new self. It is not a linear journey.<br /><br />It helps to look at this as a sacred journey. We do the careful work of an archeologist, excavating in the dark, in dreams and memory for the lost pieces of our selves.<br /><br />“In the middle of the journey of our life, I found myself within a dark woods, where the straight way was lost.” Dante, quoted in Broken Open by Elizabeth Lesser.<br /><br /> It takes a great amount of trust to surrender to a higher power, trust the life force, admit we feel lost and let God’s will be done. Sometimes the choice seems limited – either break down or break open, as Lesser puts it so well in her book.<br /><br />Have you had dreams of feeding or birthing a baby who needs to be fed but has been neglected almost to the point of dying? This may represent an urgent need to reconnect with your own wisdom, your own knowing. And subsequently be reborn as a sensual being, cherishing and nourishing your female body, recognizing that you embody the sacred feminine. <br /><br />Sumerian goddess Inanna’s story is an example of a dark night or initiation. In her descent to the underworld lies a story of a dying of the outer self and a rebirth. It is an archetypal story for soul growth, by one of the earliest writers in history on clay tablets, Princess Enheduanna of Akkad in Sumeria, 2300 BCE (translation from tables discovered in 1940’s).<br /><br />The Descent of Inanna: (taken from Joan Borysenko's book)<br />“Inanna prepares to descend to hell to visit her sister Erishkegal, queen of the Underworld. She instructs her loyal friend and servant Ninshubur to wait for 3 days at the entrance to the Underworld and if she doesn’t come back to call upon the gods for help. Then she girds herself with all her powers, a crown on her head, a circle of lapis beads under her neck, to strands of gems over her heart, a wondrous breastplate, a gold ring for a bracelet, royal robes and a lapis measuring rode and line.<br /><br />Seeing her coming, arrayed in all her glory, the Gatekeeper Beti calls his mistress Erishkegal – she instructs him to open each of the seven doors just a crack, so that in squeezing through Inanna will have to divest herself of one power at each gate and arrive bowed low and powerless before her.<br /><br />At the first gate Beti removes the crown of Inanna’s intellect. At the second gate: her lapis necklace (power to defend herself through speech); At the third gate, he removes the double strand of beads over her heart, the twin flames of wisdom and compassion. At the fourth gate he removes the breastplate called ‘come, man, come’ through which she can summon the help of men through her charisma. At the fifth gate he removes the golden ring from her wrist, curtailing her power to strike back. At the sixth gate, the laps measuring rod and line are taken so that she cannot divine her bearings. At the seventh gate her royal robes are stripped away, her outer personality, her ego.<br /><br />Inanna as naked and defenseless as a newborn is ushered into the throne room before Erishkegal. There, the seven fierce Annuna, judges of the Underworld, surround Inanna and pass judgment against her. Erishkegal fastened on her the eye of death, and spoke against her the word of wrath. She uttered against her the cry of guilt. She struck her. Inanna was turned into a corpse, a piece of rotting meat, and was hung from a hook on the wall.”<br /><br />Meanwhile, the faithful Ninshubur has waited for three days and three nights for her mistress to return. She suspects foul play and begins a loud lament, accompanied by the beating of drums. She dons a simple mourning dress and hurries off to the gods to ask for help in saving the queen of heaven and earth. Father Enlil, god of air, refuses aid. She asked for it, but he grumbles. “Whoever receives the powers of the Underworld has to stay there.” Then she goes to Father Nanna, god of the moon, and begs him to save Inanna. He is as grumbly as Enlil and will not lift a finger for his daughter for she has chosen her destiny. Finally Ninsubur visits Enki, the god of wisdom who had gifted Inanna with the fourteen me, the blessings of power, to begin with. Enki is distraught, filled with love and concern for his beautiful daughter, the holy priestess of heaven.<br /><br />Enki scrapes dirt from beneath his fingernails and fashions two odd and wonderful creatures, neither male nor female. To the kurgarra he gives the food of life, to the falatur the water of life. He instructs them to sneak into the underworld like flies through the cracks in the gates and gifts them with the secret of love’s true power.<br /><br />Queen Erishkegal is in great pain, giving birth, writhing naked and uncovered. He tells the creatures to mirror her pain – oh my insides, oh my outsides. Oh my belly, and this they do. The queen is so touched at being acknowledged and seen, that she is willing to grant these two creatures whatever they want. They ask for Inanna’s corpse, hanging form the hook on the wall. As instructed, they sprinkle food of life and water of life, and Inanna rises up out of death.<br /><br />The seven judges grab her and inform her she must replace herself with someone else or she can’t leave. The galla, demons from hell, go with her. They pick Ninshubur, but Inanna refuses to give up her loyal friend. Next they try to claim Shara, Inanna’s son, who is grieving his dead mother, dressed in sackcloth. Inanna, sees her husband Dumuzi, sitting on his throne, resplendent in garments of me, reveling to music, not in mourning at all – and she is infuriated, feels dishonoured, unloved. So she fastened the gaze of death on him, and the word of wrath, the cry of guilty (like Erishkegal). The galla clutch him, but he turns into a snake and slithers away. Dumuzi’s sister prays that she might be taken to hell instead of her brother, Innana agrees to a compromise, Dumuzi will stay in hell for 6 months of the year, his sister the other 6. (The alternation of light and dark prefigures many myths of agrarian cultures). A Woman’s Journey to God, Joan Borysenko<br /><br />Inanna descended to meet her own shadow, death, and the judgments it held of her, so she could reclaim true power she had been gifted with (wisdom and love). Enki had gifted her with the mastery of truth and the art of lovemaking.<br /><br />Exercise –<br /><br />Dying to old Self: what time is it in my life? <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />What is it Time to let go of?<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Draw a clock on a sheet of paper, and circle the time on it.<br /><br />Is it 11:00? Near the end of a cycle?<br />Or 9 am, near the beginning?<br />Or noon, right in the middle?<br /> .Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-23173135020076588632009-10-27T12:08:00.003-04:002009-10-27T12:21:12.611-04:00Health Bloggers Vote NowHey people<br />Just got invited to join the People's Health Blogger Award contest for best health blog with Wellsphere.<br /><br />I invite you to browse this blog, and if you like what you see, Vote for me! on the sidebar.<br />here is what I've been blogging about over there (and they link to my wisdomforwomen blog as well).<br /><br />Healing Ourselves (recent Wellsphere blogpost)<br /><br />The one single most important thing I have learned about menopause, and it has been a wonderful learning opportunity, is about self-care.<br /><br />There is no fast easy way through menopause. For some of us, it's an emotional roller coaster (I raise my hand on that one). For others, it's hot flash season and lack of sleep that has them tossing and turning.<br /><br /> Others swear they never felt a thing, hardly noticed anything had changed (just too busy I guess, or in prime shape).<br /><br />Menopause is not an illness. But it does require you to pay attention to your health. In fact, most of the symptoms arise from our body-mind connection - too tired? not getting enough sleep? never stopping to take care of yourself? eating on the run? burning the candle at both ends? adrenaline junkie? your body will let you know what you need to do. Mostly, it involves slowing down, taking stock, being real with yourself.<br /><br />What do you really need right now? A nap may be enough, or a trip to the osteopath or ayurvedic consultant. Or maybe some help with taking care of your elderly parents.<br /><br />Most women I know are working moms, or just working. We easily get over busy and over burdened with things we do for others. The last person on our list is ourself.<br /><br />I invite you to browse my blog/website <a href="http://www.wellsphere.com/linkOut.s?link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.msmenopause.blogspot.com%2F" rel="nofollow">www.msmenopause.blogspot.com</a> for articles on and tips on how to take better care of yourself.<br /><br />For health related information on symptoms, the best site ever is <a href="http://www.wellsphere.com/linkOut.s?link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.womentowomen.com%2F" rel="nofollow">www.womentowomen.com</a>. I've used them as a resource for over two years now and have found they are way ahead of everyone else, mixing holistic and western approaches with success.<br /><br />So ladies, it begins with you, with me. It does get better. It does require serious slowing down. Listen to your body, it is your best teacher.<br /><br />Jennifer<br />aka musemotherCreative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-69480750322147001512009-10-22T15:36:00.001-04:002009-10-22T15:38:12.843-04:00Remember PeaceYou have fallen in love with sound,<br />why not silence?<br /><br />You have fallen in love with war.<br />Why not peace?<br /><br />You have fallen in love with doubt,<br />why not clarity?<br /><br />You have fallen in love with hate.<br />Why not love?<br /><br />You have fallen in love with death.<br />Why not life?<br /><br />You have fallen in love with knowing when the time is up.<br />Why not fall in love with knowing where time stands still?<br /><br />Prem Rawat<br /><br />Check out this website for a way to cultivate Peace in a world of turmoil<br /><a href="http://www.wordsofpeace.ca/">www.wordsofpeace.ca</a><br /><a href="http://www.wopg.org/">www.wopg.org</a>Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-80992544422932080032009-10-08T11:07:00.003-04:002009-10-08T11:29:12.450-04:00Live where your fear isReading the Art of Extreme Self-Care by Cheryl Richardson, <a href="http://www.cherylrichardson.com/">http://www.cherylrichardson.com/</a> I came across this line: Forget Safety. Live where you fear to live."<br /><br />I've been sitting with my fear for a while now, letting it keep me playing small, keep me inside, in the closed circle of comfort and routine, or what is known and familiar. Yet aching to stretch, own my power, get out and play with the larger world.<br /><br />For myself, it begins with sitting with the feeling in my body, letting tears come, letting feelings rise up, then breathing with it. Being a companion to my sadness or fear or anxiety instead of rejecting it and pushing it back under. This doesn't feel comfortable but it can be done safely, if I am patient with myself. It's like the poem by Rumi, Guesthouse, all these emotions are gifts or guests that come and stay with us, to teach us how to be in the world.<br /><br />The Guest House<br />This being human is a guest house.<br />Every morning a new arrival.<br />A joy, a depression, a meanness,<br />some momentary awareness comes<br />as an unexpected visitor.<br /><br />Welcome and entertain them all!<br />Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,<br />who violently sweep your house<br />empty of its furniture,<br />still, treat each guest honorably.<br />He may be clearing you out<br />for some new delight.<br /><br />The dark thought, the shame, the malice.<br />meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.<br /><br />Be grateful for whatever comes.<br />because each has been sent<br />as a guide from beyond.<br /><br />-- Jelaluddin Rumi, translation by Coleman Barks<br /><a href="http://www.gratefulness.org/poetry/guest_house.htm">http://www.gratefulness.org/poetry/guest_house.htm</a><br /><br />So live with your fear as a gift, that can lead to greater opening, to more acceptance.<br />Cradle and mother with tenderness the tender young self imprisoned in the cave of your heart.<br />Give her a name and breathe her to life.....Creative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-31733002906668785852009-09-28T11:16:00.004-04:002009-09-28T11:28:23.834-04:0010 Best Things about Menopause"<span style="color:#990000;"><em>The joy of menopause is the world's best-kept secret. Like venturing through the gateway to enter an ancient temple, in order to claim that joy a woman must be willing to pass beyond the monsters who guard its gate. As you stand at the brink of it, it can appear that only darkness, danger and decay lie beyond...but as thousands of woman from all cultures throughout history have whispered to each other, it is the most exciting passage a woman ever makes."</em></span> Leslie Kenton, Passage to Power<br /><br />The Ten Best Things about Menopause are:<br /><br />1. Freedom to have sex without worry of getting pregnant, No more birth control.<br />2. Rediscovering my own interests, now that my children have grown older.<br />3. Rediscovering my life as a couple, more time for just the two of us (see #1).<br />4. Time alone: indulging in my need for time alone without guilt.<br />5. Finding my Voice: having a say, speaking my truth, speaking up.<br />6. Creativity Sparked: letting go of the old, making room for the new creative spirit.<br />7. Knowing my own body, getting comfortable with its shapes, quirks, needs<br />8. Growing my intuition, claiming my women's wisdom.<br />9. Healing time: allowing myself to rest, nap or do nothing; pampering myself without feeling guilty. Sometimes it's all about me<br />10. Inner Journey: looking deeply, listening, writing, reflecting on the inner life becomes a need.<br /><br />What are your 10 best things?<br /><br />jennCreative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-13670425263771688572009-09-03T10:54:00.004-04:002009-09-03T11:28:48.555-04:00The way of the conscious feminine(excerpt from <span style="color:#6600cc;">A Woman's Way, the tao of turning fifty</span> by Jennifer Boire)<br /><br />"It is difficult in life to find the Feminine Realm. The drawing of the water, the gathering of the grains no longer are performed under an open sky. ...The sense of her task as consecrated and necessary to the cosmos is gone. And I fear for women yet to come. For under the pressures of modern life, time has become compressed. The feminine sense of time has all but disappeared.<br /><br />Yet woman cannot exist with only a linear awareness of time, for her sense of sacred Kairos time is the precious essence of life. There must be time enough for her to experience the sacredness within each moment and within herself...."<br />I sit listening to the wind (Judith Duerk, author of Circle of Stones)<br /><br />According to Duerk, we have modeled ourselves on the masculine way, but the heroic task and journey of the masculine cannot provide what a woman needs to complete the journey of the conscious and developed feminine...we need a Feminine way.<br /><br />"When a woman uses her energy only to reinforce what is <strong>outside of herself</strong>, she becomes cut off from her depths. Her own feelings and life values become inaccessible to her. She molds herself to <strong>external standards</strong> and loses touch with her individuality. She is cut off from all that is uniquely her own that could nourish her and those around her, cut off from the creative new answers so badly needed in the world today.… And her depths become enraged!<br /><br />The whole wellspring of womanly creativity within her is furious for not being tapped."<br /><em>from I Sit Listening to the Wind</em><br /><br />Have you experienced this battle inside? A part of you that judges yourself harshly, strives to compete, be prepared, be on time, get things done, and runs steamroller over your own feelings or tiredness, your need for quiet time? Makes you feel guilty for needing down-time, playtime or rest? A force that keeps you primed to perform even at the expense of your own health.<br /><br />Reading Duerk’s book, I felt a tear trickle down my cheek; yes, my body was saying, you have been tricked into this harsh attitude of performance and perfectionism, and you whip yourself harder because you have no faith in your own feelings or emotions, the heart side.<br /><br />Focused on doing instead of being, the body resists, and by way of a message, my neck acts up. Freezes, cramps and gets so sore, that I have to quit working and rest....Ah, rest. I allow myself 30 minutes to lie on the lounge chair outside, in the last few sunny days of summer. I put down the book I am reviewing, and let myself nap. Get back in touch with my fatigue, my body's wisdom, and dream my own thoughts.....a woman dreaming the conscious feminine way.<br /><br />I invite you to find a short space for yourself to rest in today, even if for a brief 5-10 minutes of closing your eyes at your desk, resting your eyes in the palms of your hands. Or a short walk at lunchtime out in the sun. Don't try and do it all without rest. Your children, your co-workers and friends, your parents and students will all benefit from a rested, calm, replenished and present, you.<br /><br />nameste,<br />musemotherCreative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3335054835387234338.post-20320383088742100802009-08-27T09:07:00.004-04:002009-08-27T09:29:38.353-04:00Knowing the Power of the Feminine cycleBy power, I mean, the kind that comes from taking charge of your life and asserting yourself.<br /><br />Women have ignored, denied, and bullied their way through the menstrual time for hundreds, if not thousands of years, due to the denigration and fear of female processes. I think it is more than time that we reclaim this power, this unique connection to our inner healing and physical healing.<br /><br />Getting in touch with the power of the menstrual cycle mainly comes from what you don't do, according to Alexandra Pope, author of <strong>The Wild Genie</strong>. Now that you are in the menopausal journey, your periods may be very erratic, longer or shorter, come early or late. There is a change in the rhythm of your body. It's harder to predict when it's coming. It's time to listen in carefully.<br /><br />In our home and work lives, we are accustomed to struggling, setting goals, being heroines or supermoms, but in this case, we must face into what we experience and embody it, not try and rise above it.<br /><br />"If you are willing to court the rhythmical life of your body you are given access to something Other that happens naturally. And the very act of courting the inner life of your body itself builds an inner sweetness, surety and dignity - a spirit of sovereign authority that is priceless." From The Woman's Quest, Alexandra Pope.<br /><br />Sounds good, you say, how do I do that? It's mostly about slowing down, practicing surrender, and paying attention to your cycle. A good way to start is by keeping track of your cycle in a journal or even on your calendar.<br /><br />It feels empowering to know where you are in your cycle, and if you look up at the moon, you will discover how close you are to a pattern of fullness, waning and waxing in the universe. You will begin to recognize the shifts of mood and feeling, see the patterns in your dream life, and also, by charting your cycle says Pope, you build self-acceptance and an intimacy with yourself over time.<br /><br />"A deep process of awareness, the first task is to get to know your cycle," says Pope. This is also useful for contraception purposes - you need to know when you ovulate and when you menstruate; believe it or not, the first calendars were invented by women for this very purpose. Especially if you are not ovulating every 28 days anymore, (after age 40 your cycle starts to change).<br /><br />How to deal with the aches and pains that do arise? For me, the best place on the first day of my period was in bed with a hot water bottle getting some extra sleep. And feeling my way through the pain meant I exited on the other side, feeling less achy, less fearful and tense.<br /><br />Our need for rest at this time is higher, and it is not a sign of weakness to take care of yourself, it is a sign of wisdom.<br /><br />"Allow yourself a dose of the thirteen allies - silence, solitude, stillness, surrender, simplicity, slowness, softness, self-interest, serenity, sanctuary, sacred, support and sleep however small, as you come into and during menstruation."<br /><br />If you want to learn more, check out <a href="http://www.wildgenie.com/">http://www.wildgenie.com/</a> for more information on this workbook.<br /><br />take good care,<br />musemotherCreative Soulful Womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544165208876808443noreply@blogger.com0