As women, we often wrestle with a lot of self-doubt. How can I possibly manage building a start-up while I still run and operate a business and have a family? My first response is, ‘But men do it all the time. If they can do it, so can I!’ But how can I do it in a balanced, healthy way? Men often neglect their health and families for work.
I have to accept the fact that Moondays will continue to consume my time and my psyche. It’s a juggling act between that, my family and my business of 28 years, The Fossil Cartel. My teenagers are getting older very quickly it seems. I want to be as present as I can and cherish our time together before they fly the coop. How do I stay balanced among the competing loves of my life? They each require my time and attention. This is one of the reasons I chose the word FLOW for 2018.
I know from my metaphysical studies that in order to maximize the law of attraction, one must “let go,” “be open to receive” and at the same time take steps towards the desired outcome. But in our masculinized society, we are expected to push ultra-hard and sacrifice enormously to achieve, skewing an ideal balanced lifestyle. “You’re not doing enough, and you are not enough,” is the insipid self-talk of this paradigm. Excessive toiling and sacrificing often leads to illness, depression and regret. Luckily, we are learning that feminine principles such as allowing, being, receiving, stillness and mindfulness are necessary to create maximum flow and a more fulfilling life. We are learning to embrace these principles and incorporate them into our lives. Take for example the mushrooming popularity of yoga and meditation in the past 20 years.
I learned the lesson of contraction (pushing) and expansion (allowing) years ago. In my 20’s, I had been living on the road with my psychic boyfriend, Mark. We did beadwork for a living and sold it in stores and at fairs and flea markets. We lived hand-to-mouth and never knew where our next dollar was coming from. One particularly meager time, Mark and I noticed how contracted we felt as fear and worry took over. We decided to try and let that all go and enjoy our time at this particular flea market, to trust that “the Universe provides,” Mark’s favorite mantra. We began to relax and accept our situation. Sure enough, within a few minutes, people began buying our jewelry! We wound up doing very well that day and noticed the correlation between how we were originally feeling and our altered perspective. This principle of expansion (letting go) and contraction (pushing,) is eloquently discussed in the book The Attraction Distraction by Sonia Miller. It is also expanded upon in The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist, who teaches us that money is in a constant state of flow, coming in and going out. She advises us to relax into being aware of this, to be constantly reminded that it always comes back in. This principle is the same magnetic dynamic of the moon to the oceans, the ebb and flow. The earth is in constant flux between the two. As we become more in tune with our womanhood being inherently aligned with the moon, it will be easier to be mindful of this occurrence and how it plays out in our lives.
As a woman who wants to honor and celebrate her womanhood and encourage others to do the same, I am embracing my life and my businesses mindful of this dynamic. It’s not easy. Reading Kaya Singer’s book, Wiser and Wilder, A Soulful Path for Visionary Women Entrepreneur was helpful. In it she discusses how women are often held back from taking action in their businesses because of cultural conditioning. Not taking action is indicative of too much yin or the pull side of the ‘push/pull’. And on the flip side of that is women who push too hard because we were taught growing up that if we want to be equal to men (at least in business), we need to dress and act like them and work even harder! Luckily, we are finally learning to embrace and use our feminine strengths to our benefit in balancing out the ‘push/pull’ seesaw. It is a constant challenge of taking steps versus letting go and allowing.
Initially, sitting down to write this post, I got sidetracked putting interior design pics onto my Moondays’ Pinterest boards. Dreaming and visualizing the brick and mortar Red Tent is so fun. Any work I do is not worth it to me unless it is: (a) fun, and (b) beneficial to humankind, myself and my family. I believe the key to successfully balancing the ‘push/pull’ experienced daily is to operate from the foundation that my primary intention is that of service and fun. It’s a matter of coming from the higher self as opposed to the ego.
Speaking of ego… next blog post will be about the experience of leading a circle.
I have to accept the fact that Moondays will continue to consume my time and my psyche. It’s a juggling act between that, my family and my business of 28 years, The Fossil Cartel. My teenagers are getting older very quickly it seems. I want to be as present as I can and cherish our time together before they fly the coop. How do I stay balanced among the competing loves of my life? They each require my time and attention. This is one of the reasons I chose the word FLOW for 2018.
I know from my metaphysical studies that in order to maximize the law of attraction, one must “let go,” “be open to receive” and at the same time take steps towards the desired outcome. But in our masculinized society, we are expected to push ultra-hard and sacrifice enormously to achieve, skewing an ideal balanced lifestyle. “You’re not doing enough, and you are not enough,” is the insipid self-talk of this paradigm. Excessive toiling and sacrificing often leads to illness, depression and regret. Luckily, we are learning that feminine principles such as allowing, being, receiving, stillness and mindfulness are necessary to create maximum flow and a more fulfilling life. We are learning to embrace these principles and incorporate them into our lives. Take for example the mushrooming popularity of yoga and meditation in the past 20 years.
I learned the lesson of contraction (pushing) and expansion (allowing) years ago. In my 20’s, I had been living on the road with my psychic boyfriend, Mark. We did beadwork for a living and sold it in stores and at fairs and flea markets. We lived hand-to-mouth and never knew where our next dollar was coming from. One particularly meager time, Mark and I noticed how contracted we felt as fear and worry took over. We decided to try and let that all go and enjoy our time at this particular flea market, to trust that “the Universe provides,” Mark’s favorite mantra. We began to relax and accept our situation. Sure enough, within a few minutes, people began buying our jewelry! We wound up doing very well that day and noticed the correlation between how we were originally feeling and our altered perspective. This principle of expansion (letting go) and contraction (pushing,) is eloquently discussed in the book The Attraction Distraction by Sonia Miller. It is also expanded upon in The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist, who teaches us that money is in a constant state of flow, coming in and going out. She advises us to relax into being aware of this, to be constantly reminded that it always comes back in. This principle is the same magnetic dynamic of the moon to the oceans, the ebb and flow. The earth is in constant flux between the two. As we become more in tune with our womanhood being inherently aligned with the moon, it will be easier to be mindful of this occurrence and how it plays out in our lives.
As a woman who wants to honor and celebrate her womanhood and encourage others to do the same, I am embracing my life and my businesses mindful of this dynamic. It’s not easy. Reading Kaya Singer’s book, Wiser and Wilder, A Soulful Path for Visionary Women Entrepreneur was helpful. In it she discusses how women are often held back from taking action in their businesses because of cultural conditioning. Not taking action is indicative of too much yin or the pull side of the ‘push/pull’. And on the flip side of that is women who push too hard because we were taught growing up that if we want to be equal to men (at least in business), we need to dress and act like them and work even harder! Luckily, we are finally learning to embrace and use our feminine strengths to our benefit in balancing out the ‘push/pull’ seesaw. It is a constant challenge of taking steps versus letting go and allowing.
Initially, sitting down to write this post, I got sidetracked putting interior design pics onto my Moondays’ Pinterest boards. Dreaming and visualizing the brick and mortar Red Tent is so fun. Any work I do is not worth it to me unless it is: (a) fun, and (b) beneficial to humankind, myself and my family. I believe the key to successfully balancing the ‘push/pull’ experienced daily is to operate from the foundation that my primary intention is that of service and fun. It’s a matter of coming from the higher self as opposed to the ego.
Speaking of ego… next blog post will be about the experience of leading a circle.
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