Welcome! I m delighted that you are here and interested in the life-changing process of cultivating your feminine power. It is a remarkable time to be alive as a woman. Women are emerging all over the planet into positions of political, professional, financial and social power. These external measurements of success and influence are essential, and yet we must not neglect the internal psychological and spiritual empowerment that is also vital to us as women. Not only is our internal empowerment imperative for each of us in our personal lives, it is also deeply important for the collective uprising of consciousness and planetary healing that we are all in the midst of. I have created this short guide as a first step to catalyze the process of cultivating your relationship to the feminine and the immeasurable power that is available to you. Through my own voyage on the path of womanhood, I have developed a fourfold framework of support to help other women cultivate a relationship to the feminine and all of her gifts. In the following guide I will outline the four pillars what they are, why they are so essential and how to more fully incorporate each element into your life in practical and do-able ways. You ll want to make sure to read all the way through and complete the brief exercises because each step builds toward the next and you will get some awesome practical tools and insights that will positively shape your life moving forward. Simply reading through this guide, although valuable, is not how you are going to receive the maximum benefit, however. It is through taking the recommended actions and implementing these four pillars into your daily life that will support the cultivation of your feminine power. I am confident that you will enjoy the process and receive great value from the experience. Enjoy! In Service, Emma Derman Teitel, MA Psychotherapist, Coach, Writer & Women s Group Facilitator Conscious Woman s Guide To Cultivating Feminine Power www.emmateitel.com 2016 2
1 CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICE WHAT: Contemplative practice is any activity that supports presence, awareness and selfreflection. From a feminine perspective, it is nonlinear, explorative, and mysterious it allows a break from the perpetual addiction to self-improvement and fixing that so many of us are prisoner to. This means you do not have to force yourself onto the meditation cushion for 30 minutes everyday, unless that is truly supportive to you, rather, feminine contemplative practices encourage listening in each moment and providing yourself with a consistent container everyday in which you can explore a wide variety of ways to connect with yourself. WHY: As women, we must foster our relationship to the inner life if we are to experience the full spectrum of our feminine power. Through the steady cultivation of contemplative practice a woman recognizes that she is not dependent on others to feel loved, valuable or worthy. She can connect to a source larger than herself, from which her empowerment and sovereignty emerges. She feels centered and at home in herself, she has the capacity to cast her gaze, one eye out into the world and one eye into herself. This fosters resilience and personal buoyancy amidst the inevitable ups and downs of life. HOW: Regardless of what activity or outer form contemplative practice takes, setting aside the intentional time each day, even if just for 5 minutes, allows women to connect with their internal lives more fully and to commune with the feminine that lives within them. The most important thing is simply to choose and commit to doing something for yourself everyday that strengthens your connection to your inner life. Most women thrive with variety. Below is a list of 10 options for contemplative practice, please note, there are an infinite number of options, but these are some of the best ways that I have found. 10 Forms of Contemplative Practice: 1. Sitting Meditation 2. Journaling 3. Yoga 4. Prayer 5. Chanting 6. Visualization 7. Reading of spiritual/consciousness texts 8. Breath work 9. Spontaneous dance/movement 10.Conscious creation of art (ie: music or visual arts) Conscious Woman s Guide To Cultivating Feminine Power www.emmateitel.com 2016 3
CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICE Now, it s your turn to take action: Step 1: Choose one of the contemplative practices above or another one of your choosing. Step 2: Circle the one you plan to focus on for the coming week. Whichever you have selected, commit to doing it for at least 5 minutes each day for the next 7 days. Step 3: Decide what time of day you plan to engage with your contemplative practice and pencil it into your calendar, phone or wherever else will guarantee that it happens. Step 4: At the end of the week, you can choose to switch practices or continue for another week with the same form. This is where the rubber meets the road through the daily cultivation of inquiry is where the feminine starts to reveal herself to you. Bonus 2 If you are stuck and don t know where to start, feel free to download a free 5 minute meditation that I recorded just for you and use this to help you meditate with guidance for 5 minutes every day! Conscious Woman s Guide To Cultivating Feminine Power www.emmateitel.com 2016 4
2 MOVEMENT WHAT: Movement is any activity or practice that allows flow into a woman s body. This could come in the form of vigorous physical exertion or much more subtle energetic shifts. Movement allows a woman to transition from states of being stuck and stale, inhibited and prohibited, into having the capacity to ride the waves of all life experience. Movement is a powerful gateway that creates the opportunity for a woman to face the full spectrum of her bliss, terror, courage, power and everything in between. Movement can be one of a woman s greatest allies when there is honesty, compassion and consciousness involved. WHY: The wisdom of movement for women has become distorted in most cultures. Exercise has become a perverted Holy Grail for many women, encouraging us to strive for a specific ideal of physical beauty to assure a sense of worthiness where the roots of unworthiness run deep. To discover movement not as self-punishment, but instead as true self-expression, unencumbered by perfectionism and motivated by freedom, intuition, and spontaneity, is to find the movement of the vibrant feminine. Authentic, unadulterated movement supports women to feel themselves again. Places of fear and frozenness that live in the body have the opportunity to melt; insight and creativity can flourish. The movement that genuinely nourishes a woman and returns her to the home of her body will vary from woman to woman. The intention is to cultivate a relationship to movement where the underlying motivation is one of self-love and curiosity as opposed to self-hatred and punishment. HOW: I recommend to women who are committed to cultivating their feminine power to choose one form of movement to engage with each day. This is not a recommendation to get aggressive with yourself, but rather an invitation to prioritize the movement of energy every day, even if that is through a few deep breaths. Below is a list of 10 options for ways to move. Please note, there are an infinite number of options, but these are some of the best ways that I have found. Please take into account your age, life stage, health, energy levels and personal needs when considering a new movement practice. Conscious Woman s Guide To Cultivating Feminine Power www.emmateitel.com 2016 5
MOVEMENT 10 Forms of Movement: 1. Walking 2. Hiking 3. Breathing 4. Dancing 5. Shaking 6. Yoga 7. Cleaning 8. Running 9. Stretching 10.Swimming Now, it s your turn to take action: Step 1: Just as you did with contemplative practice, circle 1-3 forms of movement (or add in your own) that you already feel connected 2 to in your life or that you long to incorporate into your daily, weekly, monthly rhythms. Step 2: Step 3: Pull out your calendar or phone and start penciling in when and where you will include this gift to yourself in the coming week. Pay attention to how you feel physically, emotionally and spiritually after you engage with different forms of movement. Conscious Woman s Guide To Cultivating Feminine Power www.emmateitel.com 2016 6
3 NATURE WHAT: Natural landscapes are the great holding ground of humanity. Regardless of whether a woman lives in an urban, suburban, or rural environment, the planet earth is the foundation upon which we all live. Nature can be understood as the physical world and everything that exists within it that is not made by people such as plants, rivers, stars, animals, mountains, etc. WHY: Nature offers women the opportunity to experience belonging and inalterable love. Spending time in nature and prioritizing one s relationship to the earth can yield tremendous healing, empowerment, and insight. There is a vitality and wisdom in the natural cycles of the earth that beautifully mirror a woman s internal psychological and spiritual landscape. By cultivating our taproot to nature, we start to develop a more trusting and holistic relationship with the cycles of birth, growth, death and rebirth that are consistently emerging and turning in our everyday lives as women. HOW: I recommend that women include something in their lives to support their connection to nature at least once a week, if not more. For many women, particularly those that live in urban environments where it takes a little more effort to connect with nature, Saturday and Sunday can often be great days to get in the habit of planning something nature-based. Below is a diverse list to get your creative juices flowing. Conscious Woman s Guide To Cultivating Feminine Power www.emmateitel.com 2016 7
NATURE 10 Ways to Connect with Nature: 1. Visit a local park, botanical museum or arboretum 2. Plant a garden at your house or join a local community garden cooperative 3. Sit outdoors nearby one of nature s elements such as water, trees, grass or rocks 4. Visit your local farmer s market and pick out some vegetables and flowers to take home 5. Watch the sunrise or the sunset 6. Go to someplace where you can sit and listen to birds singing 7. Plan a multi-day or multi-week trip to one of your favorite landscapes such as the beach, the mountains or the rainforest 8. Purchase house plants or revive your connection with your current house plants 9. Take a walk outdoors and consciously focus on the quality and tone of the season around you 10.Listen to relaxing music with nature sounds such as ocean waves or chirping birds Now, it s your turn to take action: 2 Step 1: Circle the most appealing way to connect with nature from the list above, or add in your own preferred way. Step 2: Once again, pull out that calendar and start carving out pockets during which you can drop into the reservoir of the natural world and all that she has to offer you. Instead of just looking at the week ahead, allow yourself to plan for the whole month ahead, finding 3-4 pockets of space for nature time. Step 3: During your time connecting with nature and afterwards, take note of how the experience has impacted you physically, emotionally and spiritually. Conscious Woman s Guide To Cultivating Feminine Power www.emmateitel.com 2016 8
4 WOMEN S COMMUNITY WHAT: Women s community is created when women come together with a shared intention and/or for a collective desire or experience. It can take many forms, regardless of the shape it takes, consciousness is the most key component if the women s community is to foster psychological and spiritual empowerment for all involved. The relationships provide a container for a woman to face both the most glorifying and terrifying aspects of herself. In this exploration, we have the opportunity to stand in as mirrors of The Great Mother for one another. Sometimes this is exquisitely blissful in the form of loving touch, compassion, praise, and celebration. Other times it stings or burns as women call each other out and get fierce about their reflections. Both support the cultivation of female sovereignty as long as conscious, loving intention persists. WHY: In order to liberate ourselves as women, it is imperative that we face both the exquisite light as well as the darkness that lives within our own bodies, minds, and souls. This is perhaps the most terrifying truth for women who have been indoctrinated into a culture that only deifies being happy, pretty, and nice. Turning toward the shadow is not a process to engage with in isolation. Women need the support of others who understand what is occurring and who are willing to step up in mentorship and sisterhood when it becomes too much or a woman finds herself dangling off the cliff of her outermost edge. Sadly, many women experience betrayal, pain, and confusion in their relationships to other women. Female-on-female cruelty, criticism, judgment, and anger originate out of the internalized oppression that women have endured as a result of patriarchal systems and cultures. The cultivation of women s community helps to restore the fabric of our belonging and to re-value ourselves through the process of valuing other women. HOW: For some of us, connecting with other women comes very naturally, whereas for others, it can be quite daunting. I recommend spending some time reflecting on your relationship to the women in your life and also on what it is that you desire from women s community. Once you have some understanding about your personal intention and motivation regarding the cultivation of women s community, it will become much more clear as to which format will best serve your desires. Conscious Woman s Guide To Cultivating Feminine Power www.emmateitel.com 2016 9
WOMEN S COMMUNITY 10 Ways to Cultivate Women s Community: 1. Prioritize and value your individual friendships with the women in your life 2. Seek out a female mentor or guide who embodies the qualities you want to cultivate in your self 3. Develop a relationship with a female therapist, coach or spiritual counsellor 4. Start a women s group or ask to join a pre-existing one 5. Create a mom-and-baby monthly meet-up group to connect with mothers who are at a similar stage to you 6. Participate in a local women s cause or group (ie: breast cancer walk, women in business group, women s yoga class, etc.) 7. Engage in an online women s community that brings people together around a shared mission or goal that is important to you 8. Go on a women s retreat 9. Start a book group focused on reading texts that revolve around the themes of womanhood 10.Create a monthly brunch or dinner group with a small group of women that inspire you with the intention to have meaningful conversation while enjoying the pleasures of food together Now, it s your turn to take action: Step 1: Step 2: Step 3: Step 4: 2 Circle the idea that most appeals to you from the list above, or add in your own favorite idea for how to cultivate women s community. Determine what actions you need to take in order to make this dream a reality ie: sending out an email, making a phone call, getting a referral, doing some research Take those actions, and notice any resistance, fear or uncertainty that might come up in the process. Take action anyway. Notice how you feel physically, emotionally and spiritually after adding more women s community into your life Conscious Woman s Guide To Cultivating Feminine Power www.emmateitel.com 2016 10
Beautiful work! Now, I know that all together this might feel like a lot of work at first, but I promise you, the more consistently and consciously you continue to include contemplative practice, movement, nature and women s community into your life, the deeper and wider your connection to your feminine power will grow. The path of conscious femininity is not for the faint of heart. Your dedication is vital and having the support of other women is crucial on the journey of excavating both the most brilliant and the darkest corners of the inner life. The journey of womanhood is the path of paradox. It will not be easy and it will not always feel good, and yet the inner fruits of feminine initiation are something that can never be taken away once bestowed upon you. Sending my heartfelt support and well wishes to you on your journey. And I look forward to connecting with you more personally in the the near future. In Service, 2 Conscious Woman s Guide To Cultivating Feminine Power www.emmateitel.com 2016 11