PH +1 401 212 3950
balancing act therapies - Bowen Therapy on Block Island
  • Home
  • About
  • Therapies
    • Bowen Therapy >
      • FAQs
    • Bowen Therapy for Dogs
    • Sessions & pricing
  • Other offerings
    • The Ocean Oracle
    • Shop
  • balance blog
  • Contact
  • Home
  • About
  • Therapies
    • Bowen Therapy >
      • FAQs
    • Bowen Therapy for Dogs
    • Sessions & pricing
  • Other offerings
    • The Ocean Oracle
    • Shop
  • balance blog
  • Contact

balance blog

the masculine & feminine energies in healing

7/1/2014

1 Comment

 
As humans, we live in duality ie. good/bad; right/wrong; left/right; light/dark; masculine/feminine. These dualities are constant and extremes to each other. While sometimes we are at one end (extreme) or the other of a duality spectrum, often we are somewhere moving along the continuum. It is the dance between the masculine and feminine duality which interests me, especially in regards to clients presenting with one-sided issues.

We, as humans, are both feminine & masculine energies. The balance between the two varies, often depending on what we are doing and what our perceived roles are. Our world, right now, is very much based in the masculine. For the most part, we live in a male-dominated patriarchal society. This means that traits such as success, wealth, empire building, climbing corporate ladders, excelling in tangibles (sports, business, finances) are to be admired and emulated. Our worth is tied up in the tangible aspects easily measured and compared. These tangible traits are especially coveted in men. Women are often encouraged to strive towards the same goals as men, and to hold the same ideals. This is detrimental to society because it minimises the importance of the masculine and feminine roles in our relationships, and our communities, by implying one aspect is more important, or better, than the other.

The balance of energy in the world is shifting. We are moving into the feminine being the dominant energy, while the masculine energy moves along side to hold the space, and support, what the feminine energy offers. Feminine aspects are intangibles such as intuition, empathy, creating community and connection, flow, opening space, being, vulnerability.

The shift from the masculine (or mental) to the feminine (or emotional),  means that traits such as kindness and empathy and compassion and opening space so others can live in their truth, authenticity and integrity will be the traits of ‘success’. It doesn’t mean the masculine aspect is diminished. Quite the contrary. It is movement towards an equal partnership where the energies of each are celebrated and appreciated instead of vilified and disparaged. The dance between the masculine and the feminine goes something like this: The masculine is the building or house; and the feminine is the interior of that house. A man works for, and provides a house (tangible) and a woman fills it with love and warmth and belonging (intangible). The two energies are equal but different and work together to provide and create a home. Our male/female relationships should be a dance of weaving the two energies together and allowing, and encouraging, each to stand in its power.

Read More
1 Comment

Walking & mindfulness

9/7/2013

0 Comments

 
I’ve just been for a walk. While that may not sound like much, for me - it’s huge right now. This walk involved actual forward motion, no patella brace and no walking stick. Very minimal jerky movement. And no crying with frustration. Last August, I wrote the blog ‘Bad knees and integrity’, talking about the difficulty I was having with walking and how I was contemplating the physical and metaphysical aspects of what that meant for me. It’s been nearly a year and walking has become increasingly difficult, to the point where a walk further than the front door usually brings me to tears.

It has thrown me, not being able to really go for a walk. And while I can actually walk, after about five steps I falter. It’s like my left leg has forgotten how to take steps. So after living with this for a year, with it getting increasingly worse, I decided I needed help.

As a wholistic practitioner, heading down a more conventional path of healthcare can make me feel hypocritical. If I can’t walk my talk, how can I keep talking my talk? So putting my judgements aside (of myself and other modalities) I took a step in the direction of my wellness. I knew I needed exercises to strengthen my vastus medialis, so my patella would track properly. The exercises proved very successful - my knee cap is tracking like nobody’s business! And with that, my walking has actually deteriorated. This has sent me down a whole different spiraling path of despair. If my knee cap dislocating wasn’t to blame, then what was? I was so focused on my mobile patella that I didn’t see there was a deeper issue involved. Something which was going to take a lot more work than just strengthening one muscle. I needed to retrain my brain and muscles to not only keep my kneecap in place, but to not hyperextend.

Over the past year I have been contemplating the multi-dimensional issues around my knee. What is it that keeps me from moving forward with love, grace and ease? In yoga this week, the intention was Mindfulness. The teacher talked about being mindful of our journey. Which got me thinking about my knee. If the esoteric belief is that the left side represents the Feminine and the knee represents forward movement, what was I not being mindful of moving forward in the Feminine? A friend recently gave me her take on my knee. “Maybe it’s about being present.” Being present. Being mindful. Being present to every step on my journey. Being mindful that it’s about the journey (feminine), much more so than the destination (masculine). So maybe it’s not so much about completing a walk, but about taking each step as it comes. And for me, especially lately, it has been hard to be present. I am often looking into the past or wondering about the future. Whereas really, all we have is right now. And right now I need to take one step at a time. Not worry about how my knee used to be, or how I am going to get through a whole walk, but just focus and be mindful of the step that I am in.

I wish you presence and mindfulness in your journey. With gratitude.
0 Comments

    Archives

    June 2023
    February 2023
    March 2021
    March 2017
    April 2016
    March 2016
    July 2014
    January 2014
    July 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012

    Categories

    All
    Alignment
    Anxiety
    App
    Appreciation
    Autumn
    Back Pain
    Balancing Act Therapies
    Beliefs
    Blog
    Bowen Technique
    Bowen Therapy
    Bowtech
    Breakdown
    Caregiving
    Catastrophising
    Challenges
    Chronic Pain
    Coffs Harbour
    Complementary Therapy
    Connection
    Dementia
    Diary
    Dislocation
    Driftwood
    Effective
    End Of Life
    Energy
    Facilitate
    Feminine
    Fog
    Frog
    Gentle
    Gratitude
    Grief
    Growth
    Head Space
    Healing
    Holistic
    Home
    Homesick
    Integrity
    Intuition
    Journey
    Knees
    Liminal
    Masculine
    Mayim Bialik
    Mental Health
    Mindfulness
    Moving Forward
    Myth
    Natural Therapy
    Nature
    New England
    Ocean Oracle
    Parasympathetic Nervous System
    Process
    Protection
    Rain
    Relocating
    Rosa Rugusa
    Seasons
    Stroke
    Susan Marte
    Sympathetic Nervous System
    Tears
    Threshold
    Tom Bowen
    Transition
    Trust
    Turtle
    Walking
    Well Being
    Wellness
    Whole Body Therapy
    Wholistic

    RSS Feed

because life is a balancing act