Category: WELLBEING

New Period and Full Moon Diary App And So Much More

~ womeninlivingness

by AP, Sydney, Australia

I was really looking forward to hearing Natalie Benhayon talk about the new ‘Period and Full Moon Diary’ App she was launching. This is not just for women who are still menstruating, but is also just as applicable for menopausal women, like me, or even young women who haven’t started their periods yet. This new App will be a perfect way to record how I’m feeling from day to day so I can see when there’s a pattern emerging. Was I frustrated for just a few days, or was it actually a lot more than that?… and if so, I can then think about what caused that frustration. Did something happen at work, or with a friend? With this honesty and awareness, I have the opportunity to make different choices moving forward. Maybe I speak up more when I’m with my friends and say how I really feel about something, rather than just going along with the group. Or at home, I could explain to my teenage sons that I’m really tired and would love some help with dinner, rather than feeling frustrated and then snapping at everyone because I’m annoyed that I’m doing everything myself! As we can make notes on a daily basis with the period diary, I can see how the changes I make affect me, not just on a daily basis, but also with regard to my cycle. I know how I am feeling each day, but I can honestly say that I can’t remember, with clarity, how I felt yesterday, let alone the days before. I’m really looking forward to using the App, specifically as I’d like to look back over the days and weeks to see what I can learn from it. Continue reading “New Period and Full Moon Diary App And So Much More” →

Accepting Being a Woman

~ womeninlivingness

by Mrs Sandra Wilson, Brisbane, Australia, Master of Arts (MA)

I am 67 years old and am only just starting to accept myself as a woman.

I have been the dutiful daughter, the faithful wife and the caring mother. I played hippie, athlete, academic, all in an attempt to find meaning in life. Rarely have I been simply who I am as a woman, without trying to live up to other people’s expectations and to my own impossible ideals of how a perfect person should be.

When I looked in the mirror, the image looked gaunt and wasted. It is only since attending Universal Medicine courses that I realised how this came about. I had put myself through many hardships in order to prove that I was as good as any man. I spent many a night in wet bunks on ocean racing boats; many a night sleeping out under the stars in wild country; rock climbing or looking for aboriginal cave paintings. I brought up two children in a remote area without power or running water. For me then, it was a challenging adventure, but it was fuelled by a desperate need for love… Continue reading “Accepting Being a Woman” →

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” →

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” →

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” →

Walking back: Re-connecting to the True Woman I already am

~ womeninlivingness

by Anonymous

When I was about 11 years old, I became obsessed with getting my period. Now, at that point I hadn’t yet, but I had heard about it from my family and friends and in my 11-year old mind thought it was the coolest thing I had ever heard. Every month I get to be special! I thought…

After that, I listened intently to my body, and with any pain in my tummy I would get a little excited and hope I was finally getting my period. A year later, I started to really notice that I was alone in my feelings towards this special event. My friends thought it was gross and would tell horror stories about their sisters bleeding on their uniforms, or about how much it hurt. I started to feel embarrassed that I was looking forward to it and so I would pretend I felt the same way, but kept my little secret. Continue reading “Walking back: Re-connecting to the True Woman I already am” →

Healing Anxiety with My Own Loveliness

~ womeninlivingness

I look back over my life today and most of it doesn’t seem real to me anymore, as it is not part of my life now. I have come a long way and changed so much.

I have come from a life of severe anxiety and intense panic attacks with periods of agoraphobia (not being able to leave the house), and feeling like I had to grit my teeth and push myself to get through every day… to now, feeling like a calm and steady woman who is mostly guided through the day by a deep loveliness that comes from within. Continue reading “Healing Anxiety with My Own Loveliness” →

Self-Worth and Nurturing: How One Leads to the Other

~ womeninlivingness ~ 1 Comment

by Victoria Lister, Brisbane, Australia

Recently I attended a meeting of a group of women who regularly get together to discuss issues that arise in our daily lives. It was a beautiful chance to catch up with friends and re-cap on all we’ve covered so far. During the meeting, I found myself drawn to a very simple, yet key, aspect of our latest get-together – nurturing – and how we can all go deeper, and what that truly entails.

Simply, it was presented to us that although we have all come a long way in terms of developing a more nurturing connection with ourselves as women, we can all go much further by looking at what this means for us personally, and how we might develop simple routines and techniques we can use to support us in our daily lives.

Many of us could feel the truth of this, with several women commenting on the things they have found (or suspected) prevent them from being truly nurturing towards themselves. One woman linked it to a lack of self-worth, with the premise that we cannot truly nurture ourselves if we don’t believe it is worth giving that time, attention and loving support to ourselves. Continue reading “Self-Worth and Nurturing: How One Leads to the Other” →

Re-discovering the Delicateness Within

~ womeninlivingness

by Adrienne Ryan, Brisbane, Australia

There is an exquisite ‘quality’ deep within every human being that we can allow ourselves to feel, connect with and begin to nurture.

When we connect to this quality and allow it to be, it naturally and effortlessly becomes part of whatever we do – it becomes our expression.

The more we nurture it (like a seed with sunlight and water), the more it grows and the fuller our expression of it becomes. As we nurture it, over time the quality within grows from seed to sapling and onward to oak.

We all have it – we all have something within ourselves, a unique quality with its own flavour of delicateness, tenderness, or joyfulness; so beautiful, so lovely and so natural. When we connect to it and continue to nurture it along, it begins to radiate out in every activity. Continue reading “Re-discovering the Delicateness Within” →