ARTICLE. Reawakened Revolution: A Call To Womanhood

Photograph by Ewelina Karbowiak

REAWAKENED REVOLUTION: A CALL TO WOMANHOOD

Mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers – Let’s rise up! As a collective let’s free ourselves from the bonds of our deeply held disconnect. Our self-loathing. Our self-destruction. Let’s break from the shackles of our intense shame!

It’s time for a revolution!

Too long have we lived in a state of detachment. Living within and yet divided from our physical bodies. Too often have we treated our bodies harshly; contorting ourselves into a shape and a form that does not belong to us until we silently cry out in pain. Holding up that a misshapen and twisted image as the norm. A goal to be reached in the name of beauty. Self-sacrifice in the name of allurement.

And our sovereign voices have been lost.

We have been taught to live in almost complete disconnect with our bodies and we are suffering the consequences of it. Our dissociation has caused a rift between ourselves and our feminine aspect. Our divine and gorgeous sensuality. The Goddess. She has been repressed. She has been forced into a specific form – a form that is for the pleasure of others rather than as a celebration of the self. Poured into an unrealistic and unachievable mould of societal beauty and sexuality. A mould that diminishes us more and more by causing us to feel less and less.

We neglect ourselves, don’t we? We ignore the messages our bodies speak to us – until she screams at us to stop! We pop pills to override those messages and ease the little aches and pains that are the body’s way of communicating to us. We pop pills to control our menstrual cycles until we no longer recognise the natural undulations of our hormonal landscapes. We pop pills to revitalise us rather than resting as much as we need to. We swallow more to send us to sleep when our heads swirl with a tsunami of overwhelming anxieties. Gulping down more to silence those anxious voices warning us of the stress that we constantly face until we are comfortably numb.

We over eat. We under-eat. We obsessively exercise or we don’t exercise at all. We drink too much. We smoke too much. We forget self-care in order to care for everyone else around us because it feels selfish and self-centred to demand some time to ourselves. So we repress every intuition and subdue every instinct.

But by doing so we suppress who and what we truly are!

We loathe ourselves don’t we? We turn this way and that in front of a mirror, grabbing at pieces of ourselves with revulsion. Pinching and prodding at parts of ourselves as if we are examining meat. Disgusted by ourselves. We search our bodies and faces for all imperfections, feeling both bereft and yet somehow triumphant that we do not meet the standards that we have given ourselves. And we search our features for any signs of ageing, for signs that our fuckability is diminished – as if we believe our deep sensuality recedes with every year we have been alive. As if carefully constructing ourselves to fit the false idol of perfect beauty that we have all worshiped is the only thing that makes us worthy.

Because we secretly find safety in feeling unworthy, don’t we? It is familiar. It is comfortably habitual. Although it keeps us locked within the societal boundaries we have been set, we can use it as an excuse to stay small and stay silent. We can use it to hide behind. To break free would be taking a risk. Daring to dream big may result in failure.  Recklessly tearing down our boundaries means that we are free to create our own stories – but that takes hard graft. It is hard work. It is terrifying! So we keep to the familiar status quo of unworthiness.

And dare we admit that too often we secretly resent those who have broken free. How dare they know their own beauty? How dare they know their own worth!

But by feeling unworthy we diminish our own value. We limit our abundant power. We restrict our potent magic!

Mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers – Let’s throw back our heads and howl. Together, let’s lift up our voices. One by one. A small and seemingly insignificant act to unite us all. Whether in pain. Aching. Frustrated or joyful. Let’s call out our song to the skies.

And then …. stop!

Stop what we are doing right now and close our eyes. Breathe. Breathe deeply. Inhale so deeply that we can feel ourselves awaken. The physical self. That gorgeously sensual self.

When was the last time any of us were truly in touch with our physical body? When was the last time any of us sat with her and experienced her in her glorious form? Wildly unashamed and unabashed. When was the last time we took time to be fully present with her?

So let’s take time to journey deeply within her landscapes. Feel the heart beating deep within our chests – that rhythmic, life-giving pulse which drums the animation into our existence. Feel the rush of our blood – that precious crimson life-blood, which courses through our veins like a river, bringing vitality to our limbs. Let’s sit with our pain and listen to it. Sit with our anxiety without judgement. Let’s re-acquaint ourselves with our bellies and our breasts, our limbs and our torso. Let’s get to know every hair. Let’s re-familiarise ourselves with our most intimate places – the places we retreat to. The places we repress. Dark and light. Let’s become familiar again with the flesh that enswathes us and how it feels just to BE.

Let’s celebrate our body! Love her outrageously. Let’s all learn to be fully and physically present.

Let’s be grateful to her for carrying us through. Be gentle with her. Caress her. Let’s look at her with the eyes of tender affection. Ask her what she needs and ask how to cherish her. How to nourish her. Let’s ask her forgiveness – for all we have done to abuse her and neglect her. For all the times we have berated her or hated her. Let’s talk to her with kindness and understanding. Let’s connect with her and build a new relationship based upon love and respect. Let’s learn her language – a language that has been long-lost to us. And let’s listen to her. To her wisdom. To the intelligence within every cell.

And let’s do it often. Not once but every single day.

Mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers – I call out to you! Because until we can all reconnect with our bodies, we will never heal the wounds that are hundreds of generations old. Until we reawaken to our full and sensual selves, we will never claim our full and authentic power. The power of the Goddess.