A wonderful group of women came together and transformed pain into peace and healing. If you missed the workshop, take heart: there are more in the works.
The more I hear from survivors, the more it hits home to me that sexual harassment and abuse is incredibly widespread. Of course, I know this from statistics. I know that I’ve experienced abuse that affected me deeply.
When survivors reach out and connect with each other, we find we all have something to teach. We support and strengthen each other by listening without judgment, sharing victories, grieving our losses in community.
We begin to see how deep and profound recovery is—and the meaning and ramifications of recovering sovereignty over our bodies and souls.
Sexual abuse can be seen as a shamanic initiation. Renowned shaman Sandra Ingermann speaks of this: in shamanic cultures, adolescents moving into adulthood are taken through life threatening shamanic initiations. This is not meant to be cruel—it is meant to give every person the experience of surviving extreme situations of physical and soul level hardship. When the person survives and learns from their ordeal with the help of their medicine teachers, they emerge knowing their own resilience.
Our priorities change when we realize how precious life is. We become more devoted to contributing to the well being of others, caring for our planet, protecting one another in times of challenge.
We live in challenging times. Ingermann says that survivors are in a unique position to help others through these challenging times.
I wholeheartedly agree. I see survivors becoming sources of strength, vision and leadership for healing our planet and ushering a new era of living with Sacred Feminine and Masculine in balance.
Our recovery and being included in the collective dialog is key to moving forward, making the changes so needed to heal our relationship to life itself, and live in balance with nature.
Next week, I will publish a blog on self-soothing practices.
