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Awakening

What is Women’s Way of Awakening?

Women’s Way of Awakening is a more internal, relational, spiritual, and embodied journey than that of men. We don’t climb mountains, make and lose fortunes, fight dragons, and take the Hero’s Journey. No, our Heroine’s Journey is a risky voyage into the unknown landscape of the Inner World.

Here we confront everything responsible for the loss of connection to the Divine: our feelings of shame and guilt cause by neglect and the black holes  it left in our psyche; our sexuality; the loss of our sense of Self caused by pregnancy, birthing, and mothering; our broken mother-child attachment system; and our codependent and counterdependent relationship behaviors.  This deep healing work brings us face-to-face with our mortality, with death and dying.

Our way of awakening requires grounding ourselves  with what I call “primordial Earth” experiences–particularly connecting with stones, trees, and alive water. It also involves emotional turmoil: struggles, conflict, conscious suffering, effort, integrity, self-reflection, radical self-honesty, self-responsibility, sincerity, patience ,and humility.

We must  choose to give up our attachment to our False Self’s trauma story and wounded victim persona. Perhaps the biggest challenge is silencing the external voices that drown out our inner voice and guidance, and to trust only what we know in our bones, gut, and heart.

What is an Awakened Woman?

How does awakening happen psychologically?

The qualities on this list are an “ideal” . . . something to work towards, and even the work of several lifetimes.

  • Knows her high destiny as a woman to guide humanity away from self-destruction and wars and towards its highest potential
  • Understands and accepts her role as the Mother of Civilization
  • Strives to embody the qualities of feminine archetypes                                                           
  • Holds an inner moral compass that gives her ethical and spiritual authority
  • Has reclaimed her ancient role as guardian and protector of all life
  • Has committed to rebalancing the masculine and feminine energy on Earth
  • Feels her connection to Nature
  • Experiences herself as embedded in the web of life, and the world of nature, animals, and plants
  • Uses her mind as a tool for following her heart’s wisdom
  • Has a high level of emotional intelligence and well-developed sense of discernment
  • Uses “soft power” and her Presence to create equal footing with men
  • Needs beauty in her close environment
  • Strives to create harmony around her through power of her Presence
  • Is embodied—has sensory awareness and listens to messages from her body
  • Her mind, body and spirit are actively connected
  • Is comfortable with telling the truth and accepting the consequences
  • Her boundaries are firm, giving her protection, and flexible, allowing her to receive
  • Has an open heart in her intimate relationships
  • Functions as a sovereign, self- and inner-directed person
  • Is comfortable with her feminine nature
  • Has a deep commitment to her inner work and self-discovery

How awakening happens from a psychological perspective

Individuation is the term used in developmental psychology to describe a the awakening process that begins  between 9 and 36 months of age. During this period, children take their first steps in separating psychologically and emotionally from their mothers and building an internal structure that holds their own unique Self. The culmination of the individuation process is also known as the “psychological birth.”

During this time, the child’s focus gradually moves away from the mother and codependency to towards exploring the world. During the early stage of separation, the child physically ventures further from the safety of the “oneness” of the codependent stage and into increasing psychological and physical separateness. An exploring child who falls down or gets frightened quickly returns to the safety of his or her parents for comfort.

How awakening happens from a spiritual perspective.

This video explains the process of awakening through the perspective of Sri Auribindo’s Integral Yoga teachings — a yoga of Earth transformation. The aim of this yoga is not an escape from life or a shunning of worldly existence, but a radical change in our life even while living amidst it.