Month: February 2013

I Am Enough – The Confirming of ME

~ womeninlivingness

by Emily Billsborough, Wollongbar, Australia

As women we quite often can get caught up in looking outside of ourselves for attention or approval. This ‘seeking of approval’ is something that many of us get affected by in various ways throughout our lives. For example, we may seek approval from being recognised as the ‘best mother’ (or best wife, girlfriend, daughter); the ‘most attractive’, ‘smartest’, ‘most successful’ or ‘athletic woman’.

In the past I have felt that I was ‘not enough’. And I mainly sought attention or approval from men. It could be my partner (if I had one at the time), male friends, or in fact any young man around my age who caught my eye whilst I’d be walking down the street and whose directed attention could easily help make me feel better about myself…

It didn’t seem to matter how I received this attention or approval. Continue reading “I Am Enough – The Confirming of ME” →

Nature versus Nurture – A Loving Perspective

~ womeninlivingness

by Sarah C. London, UK

In the middle of my media career I felt that I wasn’t ‘contributing’ at all to the world and decided to take up part-time study for a Diploma in Childcare. The childcare industry’s definition of nurturing is “something that comes from outside the child, personal experiences / environment”.

Definition of Nurturing:

  1. Care for and encourage the growth or development of.
  2. Cherish (a hope, belief, or ambition).
  3. To feed, nourish (Middle French Origin 1300-50).

In the “Nature versus Nurture” study within childcare, Nature is referred to as “the individual’s innate qualities, hereditary”. These two factors are considered to be the core of caring for a child. At no point during this time did I feel that these qualities of caring, cherishing or nourishing ever applied to me. Continue reading “Nature versus Nurture – A Loving Perspective” →

Real Beauty versus Outer Looks

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by Aimee Edmonds, Mackay, Australia

For most of my life, I have looked out at the world and others to see how they were living – believing the answers of how to be a woman were ‘out there’, or held in other people. I thought if I looked like, talked like, or was more intelligent like others, then I would be happy… I would be content. One of the sad things about this picture (and there are plenty), is that I missed out on meeting and truly appreciating other girls and women for who they were… and they, in turn, missed out on meeting me for who I truly am.

Can you relate to this – looking outside of yourself for validation that you are enough, that you are doing enough or that you tick the boxes as being the ‘perfect’ partner, mother, friend, daughter or employee? There is so much out there showing us that we need to be more, do more or look a certain way. We see it in teenage and women’s magazines, on T.V., and from other women – what our body, home, children or job should look like, and how we should have it all together. Continue reading “Real Beauty versus Outer Looks” →

Me and My Hair

~ womeninlivingness

by Shevon Simon, London, England

As I sit here twisting my hair I keep having thoughts of how beautiful it is and how beautiful I am.

What a turnaround!

The changes both in and towards myself began to occur three years ago, when I started regular sessions with an Esoteric Healing Practitioner in London. At this time my hair was at its worst. It was in its natural state as I had stopped all the pressing, chemical relaxing and even blow drying which had started at least 7-10 years earlier. However, my hair was still thinning and falling out. The purpose of having these healing sessions wasn’t to do with my hair at all, and in fact ‘my hair state’ was only ever mentioned once. The reason I chose to have these sessions was to feel better in my body, since at the time I was living with an enormous amount of emotional pain and stress. Slowly, slowly as I began to make changes in my life, and lifestyle, I turned my attention to my hair. I began by buying quality products, noticing the effects that such products had upon my hair, and also seeking professional help from a Trichologist. This all helped me to understand my hair, and what it needed to help repair it. Continue reading “Me and My Hair” →

Putting Down the Bat

~ womeninlivingness

by Natalie Hawthorne, General Manager, Hospitality, London, UK

I am just finishing the most amazing period I have ever had in my life! I know, how cool is that?… and I thought that the ones before that recently had been pretty good. Lately my ‘normal’ would consist of: tender breasts, with swelling coming up sometimes before the period was due, along with feeling tired. And on its arrival, most times I would feel a little foggy or dazed – not clear headed – and my lower back would have an ache, nothing major, but it was there. By day 3, when I am in full flow, I would sometimes get an ache in the ovaries and, depending on the month, it could be sometimes worse than others, but never crippling.

What had I done this month differently to others, for me to feel amazing in this period? Continue reading “Putting Down the Bat” →

Single Woman, Aged 38, No husband, No kids – No problem

~ womeninlivingness

by Zofia S, UK

The prospect of this article’s title, in my early 30’s, filled me, my single friends and probably most family members with dread – destined to have a life of misery and aloneness that was to be avoided!

Over the years, not once did I (nor any of my friends) really embrace ‘single status’, always in the hope of meeting someone at the next party or dinner etc. So why did I (and do so many others) struggle with this issue of being single? Why is it so important to us to have someone to call a boyfriend, partner or husband? What’s wrong with us being a single us? Is the only way to have fun, when one is with another? I asked myself such questions AND MORE – after all, I have good health, looks, own property, have a career, am financially, emotionally and mentally sound, am fun to be with and have no ‘baggage’ (kids or ex-husbands). Yet in spite of all this, I still felt a stigma (and could feel it from others too) of not being in a relationship; that there was something missing or that something was the matter, or wrong with me. “It will happen when you are not looking”, said friends who had successfully found ‘their key’. But I couldn’t help wonder to myself, had they really found the key, or just any key? Continue reading “Single Woman, Aged 38, No husband, No kids – No problem” →

My Bosom Buddies: an Esoteric Breast Massage Journey – Part 2

~ womeninlivingness

by Victoria Lister, Brisbane, Australia

In Part 1 I outlined how the uneasy relationship I had with my frequently lumpy breasts was a pretty good reflection of the bumpy ride life was turning out to be… or should I say, it was an excellent reflection of the very uneven choices I was making in terms of how I was choosing to live my life. By my early 40s, I had reached the point of recognising I was headed for a miserable second innings if I didn’t change… so change it was. With the help of my Esoteric Healing practitioner, I found I was able to begin to turn things around: in this Part 2, I describe how the next step, Esoteric Breast Massage (EBM), deepened the process considerably. Continue reading “My Bosom Buddies: an Esoteric Breast Massage Journey – Part 2” →

My Bosom Buddies: an Esoteric Breast Massage Journey – Part 1

~ womeninlivingness

by Victoria Lister, Brisbane, Australia

A long-time recipient of Esoteric Breast Massages (EBMs), I’ve decided to share my story so readers who are unfamiliar with this modality can get a sense of what it’s about, and how important it can be. Before I begin, I want to stress that I in no way, shape or form endorse abandoning medical advice or treatment in favour of a so-called ‘alternative’ approach. Rather, I have learned that the Esoteric modalities offered via Universal Medicine are not an ‘alternative’ to mainstream medicine but an amazing complement to it – the ‘missing link’ that has enabled me, and many others, to understand our bodies and what they’re telling us by way of the ills and discomforts we experience. Esoteric Medicine further acknowledges that whilst mainstream medicine is amazing in terms of what it can achieve in human health and alleviate in terms of human suffering, it does not have all the answers.

I’ve had sore, lumpy breasts for most of my adult life. I had my first mammogram in my 20s, worried I was getting cancer (the anti-breast cancer publicity was extremely effective!) as one area had become particularly dense. As it turned out, I was fine, and the doctor told me I simply had ‘wholegrain’ breasts: that breasts vary in texture with some ‘plain’, others ‘wholemeal’ and mine grainy. I was comforted by this advice (I didn’t feel so abnormal and the wholegrain analogy did sound rather healthy). The extra-lumpy area subsided, and although I didn’t feel the need to seek further medical intervention for at least a decade, I was left with a pervasive sense of unease, as if on some level I knew what I had been told – and what I was feeling in my body – wasn’t quite right. Continue reading “My Bosom Buddies: an Esoteric Breast Massage Journey – Part 1” →

Our Natural Monthly Cycle

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by Sandra Dallimore, Melbourne, Australia

At the Melbourne presentation for International Women’s Day 2013 titled; ‘Nurturing the woman within: Reclaiming your natural rhythm within our modern times’ Natalie Benhayon presented a new app for iPhone, iPad (and in future, Android) called ‘Our Cycles’.

Natalie had tried various apps to track her own symptoms, moods and feelings during her monthly menstrual cycle, and due to the limitations she found with these apps, and the emphasis on them being for a woman to either become pregnant or to prevent becoming pregnant, she decided to develop her own app and the ‘Our Cycles’ app was born.

The ‘Our Cycles’ app is not just for menstruating women, it is also for women in Menopause and for all men, as they too have a natural monthly cycle which follows the full moon cycle – the full moon being a time of healing and clearing, just as the bleeding is for a woman during her menstrual cycle, (For more information about the full moon cycle, visit www.ourcyclesapp.com). Continue reading “Our Natural Monthly Cycle” →

A Letter to my 13 year old Self

~ womeninlivingness

by Rebecca Baldwin, 31 years, Australia

Dear Me,

If there was one thing I could tell you when you were 13 years old it would be this – drug taking is not rebellious; it is not just ‘experimentation’; it’s not really even defiance – it’s just compliant. It is one of many things in this world that is engineered to keep you from your power and your beauty. You are not the first person to think that smoking a cigarette is cool and you won’t be the last. You are not a rebel. You are walking a well-trodden path paved by all the other bright kids and teens who thought they were breaking the rules, only to play right into them. But I know there is more to it than that. I know that your bravado is just that and I know that you miss yourself. You miss the easy way you were with yourself when you were a kid, before the onset of all this intensity. And for the time being and for many years to come, the thick smoke in your lungs will make you feel for a moment that you are full. At the top of the drag there will be a split second, a fleeting moment where you feel there is an end to the empty feelings; the vague but persistent anxiousness; and you will feel at peace. Of course, and you already know this, it is then that you have to breathe the smoke out again, and your predicament will be the same as it was before. Continue reading “A Letter to my 13 year old Self” →