The Wise Woman Within

The Wise Woman Within starts from the premise that we have lost our connection with the wisdom of our ancestors, with the knowledge held in our bodies with the rhythms and cycles of the natural world.  This is disastrous for women, men, organisations and the planet.  We are fragmented by the roles we carry, stressed by the pace of life and too busy fire-fighting to consider the purpose and meaning of what we are doing.  In the long term this can result in burn out, depression and other illness, and violence or anti-social behaviour.

The Wise Woman Within explores how we can reclaim what are essentially feminine sources of wisdom:

• by making space for the Child we carry within us
• by understanding the lessons from our parents and grandparents
• by learning emotional housekeeping
• by trusting the ‘gut feel’ of the body
• by spending slow restorative time in Nature
• by tuning into natural rhythms and cycles
• by building confidence and authority to voice what we know is important
• by insisting on time for reflective silence and solitude
• by applying these principles in a work context
• by sharing tears, laughter and fun in celebration with other women.

All of this is supported by theory and references and illustrated by examples and case studies drawn from personal and working life.  This is a book  to enjoy at a number of levels – it is beautifully written, offers accessible practical exercises throughout and leads the reader on a journey to regain wholeness and put spiritual meaning/a sense of the sacred back into life.

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Chapter 1.  Building Bridges between Worlds

This chapter describes how it might have been to live in the golden age of ancient civilisations where women were revered and occupied a central place in the community.  It shows how later cultures broke with this tradition, losing the direct connection with a spiritual source.  We  suffer today from the polarisation that resulted.  It indicates that we are still at some level connected to the earth and to the sacred feminine which we understood as children.  How do we bridge these divides as adults and strengthen that connection whilst still continuing to live and work in the modern world, an approach that is vital to the future of the planet.

Chapter 2.  Through the Eyes of a Child

This chapter explores the idea of “going back” to childhood when we still felt connected to the earth and held it sacred. As children we are in touch with our own inner wisdom, a wisdom beyond our years.  Where does this innate wisdom come from?  It seems possible that we hold both wisdom and memory at a cellular level.

Socialisation brings a struggle between the desire to stay connected to our inner wisdom and the need to conform to a reality that threatens that link.  Tuning in to imagination is one way to nurture our inner Child and keep in touch with the spontaneity of childhood.

Chapter 3.  Emotional Housekeeping

Emotions are closely associated with feelings or body sensations.  This becomes less obvious as we grow up and are taught to suppress these spontaneous physical reactions.  This chapter maps our emotional territory that has its roots in childhood.

Chapter 4. Developing Personal Power

We need to understand our emotional life and the consequences of repressing or venting feelings inappropriately.  This is the first stage of learning to be emotionally competent in the interests of our own health and relationships at home and at work.  This learning is applied to the working context with illustrations of a whole team using a range of methods to achieve emotional competence in challenging situations.

Chapter 5.  Our Parents Ourselves

Parents tend to socialise us away from natural cycles if they follow the mainstream thrust of society in the western world.  Here we spiral back to the domain of early memories to see how they impact on our adult life.

Chapter 6. Breaking the Mould

This chapter examines some stereotypical behaviour patterns in women and men.  It goes on to explore how our responses to these behaviours can sometimes be traced back to our own early relationship with a mother or father figure.  The example of a senior woman manager illustrates an approach to dealing with this kind of situation in a work context.

Chapter 7.  Body Knowing

The body holds memories of our experience at a cellular level.  It also connects us to the rhythms of the universe and is a route to discovering the ancient knowledge of our ancestors.  In this chapter we examine successive layers of body knowing, learning to tune into the body through the senses and to read its messages.  In addition we explore how to change old habits in favour of healing, nurturing and celebrating our bodies.

Chapter 8.  The Magic of Menstruation

The widespread loss of a rite of passage between childhood and womanhood has brought a corresponding devaluation of menstruation and its associated wisdom as well as a loss of connection between menstrual and lunar cycles.  This chapter seeks to rework this link and bring an experience that has become undiscussable into the public domain and reframe it positively.  An additional challenge involves allowing this new learning to inform working habits.

Chapter 9. Wisdom, Spirituality and Menopause

Just as the onset of menstruation marks the transition from childhood to womanhood, so the menopausal years are a preparation for the time of the wise woman.  Prevailing attitudes to older people in general and to menopausal women in particular seem to deny women’s wisdom just as it comes into its prime.  Here we discover the rich potential of some common menopausal “symptoms”.

Chapter 10.  Our Place in the Natural World

How can we relate more directly to the natural world even if we live in the town?  Modern living is largely urban, and technology allows us to lose awareness of natural cycles, which nevertheless affect us.  We depend upon the natural world for our physical existence as well as for our emotional or spiritual well-being.  Nature, in turn, needs human beings to take better care of the planet.  Here we explore realistic ways of connecting to the earth and integrating a respect for Nature into contemporary lifestyles and ways of doing business.

Chapter 11.  The Silence of Women

This chapter addresses the ways in which women are silenced, as well as the ways in which they choose to be silent.  It examines different kinds of silence in which women may be deferring to men, hiding behind facades or listening to their own inner voice.

The chapter emphasises the vital importance of allowing space for reflection in organisations that are driven by unmanageable pressures.  It goes on to explore ways of knowing that are cultivated in silence by nurturing and listening to the body and attending to dreams and natural cycles.

Chapter 12.  Making a Song & Dance

This chapter looks at how using voice and movement can reverse old conditioning to “sit still and keep quiet”, connect us to what we really want to say and give us power of expression.  It goes on to summarise the key principles involved in using the transformative energy of the spiritual dimension to heal the splits in our personal lives and in the work environment.

What is the shape of women’s wisdom?  How can we embody it in our lives?  As we move into the years of the wise woman, we lose some of our former attachment to acceptability and gain a new freedom to speak our truth without apology.  The energy of these years begins to come full circle and meet the spontaneity of the child.  But where the child sings and dances spontaneously, the wise woman does so with intent.

In each chapter the reader is invited to identify her own responses to the material presented, and to follow practical exercises to apply the ideas to her own life.