THE GUEST SELF-CARE MINDER
By Camille Maurine
==========================
Intro from Jennifer Louden:
I met Camille via her powerful book, Meditation Secrets for Women
click here to buy now
and then when she attended a coaching day I helped lead. She's full
of wisdom, humility, and grace, and I love her guidance of
discovering a personal, female, body-centered style of meditation.
And for guys, try Camille's husband's book, Whole Body Meditation.
"Your Real Body"
By Camille Maurine
Mmm...the languid lushness of summer. Relaxing, lazin' about,
regenerating deeply. Giving myself time just to be, to do nothing,
to sink into my luscious inner roots. Ah...With each breath I drink in
the pleasure of simply existing, my body soaking up nourishment from
this marvelous natural world...Yes, I'm having a love affair with life.
Sound familiar? Hallelujah! You've found the secret of health and
joy.
Or does such luxurious rest and sensuality seem like foreign
territory, unrealistic, or even taboo? If so, you're not alone. Our
culture is moving at a breathless pace. And for women, caretakers of
the world, sensuous time for the self is often the last thing we
feel we can have. What, are you crazy? Who has time to rest? Won't
the world fall apart if I let go? What will people think? Won't I
get arrested if I give in to pleasure? Won't my brain turn to mush?
And my body, ugh, let's not talk about that!
Being at home in your body is your feminine birthright and strength.
Yet many of us have inherited alienating or shameful attitudes
toward our bodies and pleasure, so it behooves us to approach the
subject gently. Let's look at some of the issues we face.
I am continually amazed at how many tasks women juggle in a day ˆ
attending to loved ones, working hard, managing a household,
tracking a million details at once. A woman's nervous system is a
highly tuned instrument, sensitive to her environment, picking up
emotional undercurrents in family and friends. Naturally responsive,
giving, and compassionate, she tends to override her own needs to
take care of others' ˆ that is, until she drops from exhaustion. But
hey, somebody's got to do it! Isn't that my job? While this is part
of our feminine generosity, we can forget to be generous to
ourselves.
Other-oriented attention can become a habit; the brain gets into a
groove of self-forgetting, giving away our power to outer events. We
notice everything that's wrong, every little imperfection. Taking a
different path, turning loving attention toward the self, can be
difficult because it goes against our cultural conditioning. But in
so doing, we tap into our core, the place of connection to the
richness and fecundity of life. This is a palpable, bodily sensed
reality. The trick is learning to perceive and value that reality.
Body-based meditation is a powerful form of self-care and
revelation, and can lead you back home to yourself. The space of
meditation allows us to drop down into a state of rest deeper than
sleep, and a sense of pleasure that puts us into rapport with the
larger body of Nature. Our senses dilate and open to receive from
the benevolent forces of life. We realize our intimate, sensual
relationship with the primal movement of creation. I call this state
deep pleasure, and it is profoundly healing.
Thirty years of working with women, myself included, has taught me
that deep pleasure is not an indulgence but a necessity, and now
more than ever. When we meet ourselves with loving attention, the
places in us that are thirsty and parched become moist and return to
healthy flow. For women, having this inner moisture is essential.
Our bodies need it as an antidote to the dryness of aging and the
depletion of burnout. Our hearts need it to be healed. Through
sensuality and flow we connect with the source within, the roots of
our true power.
To claim this body reality, we must confront our cultural biases and
assumptions. Because power in the world is still defined by male
values – ignoring body rhythms, emotions, the need for rest and
other vulnerabilities – women have learned to play by those rules.
Being successful in business is especially challenging, pressured by
those attitudes and behaviors. Yes, we can do it like the guys; we
certainly have the wits and capability. But men and women alike are
paying a tremendous price. Is it any wonder that the use of
antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs is so widespread? For women,
the sacrifice is profound: being divorced from our feminine roots.
In the prevailing atmosphere, "body" is one more thing to manage, an
object to be manipulated, a machine to be controlled. Thus cut off
>from body wisdom, cut off from deep pleasure, we are cut off from
our inner core. Valiantly we flounder, roots dangling high and dry.
Overextended and undersupported, we are lost. We may not even know
that we're lost. Usually, though, we have a vague uneasiness, a
sense that something is missing. We are somehow "beside ourselves,"
maybe even depressed, or filled with despair. We don't know where to
turn.
All of us have been hypnotized to some degree, our bodies colonized
by collective values and expectations. It takes courage to face this
and break free of the trance, and we each need help. Resources such
as Jennifer's books, and mine, provide practices to support your
feminine essence and sovereignty. You can wrest power back from
external sources, draw it back into yourself, back into your body.
Even one conscious breath can bring you home. With each inhalation,
drink in the breath like a secret elixir, the substance of health,
creativity, and joy. Breathe into your heart, soften and melt.
Imagine your whole body flooded with light, sense how energy streams
through you everywhere. Celebrate this as the way life is expressing
itself through you. Recognize these impressions as your essential
nature, part of the divine nature of the universe. This is your real
body, not the one in the mirror.
Your real body is the rich world of internal sensation and movement,
the streaming currents of life force flowing through you. Your real
body is not based on how you look and if you compete with the
impossible ideals flouted in magazines and on TV. Your real body
comes from being in touch inside and honoring your emotional truth,
not from being a lean machine. Your real body is the warmth of
hugging someone special, or the sweetness of holding a baby in your
arms. Your real body is the awe of gazing at a sunset, or merging
with the vastness of the night sky. Your real body is the tender
touch of compassion toward yourself, no matter what's going on. Your
real body is the body of love.
CAMILLE MAURINE is the author of MEDITATION SECRETS FOR WOMEN:
Discovering Your Passion, Pleasure, and Inner Peace, written with
her husband, Dr. Lorin Roche. For more information and to contact Camille, visit her website:
http://www.camillemaurine.com.
~=*=~=*=~=*=~=*=~=*=~=*=~=*=~=*=~=*=~
© 2006-2014 Camille Maurine Contact Me
By Camille Maurine
==========================
Intro from Jennifer Louden:
I met Camille via her powerful book, Meditation Secrets for Women
click here to buy now
and then when she attended a coaching day I helped lead. She's full
of wisdom, humility, and grace, and I love her guidance of
discovering a personal, female, body-centered style of meditation.
And for guys, try Camille's husband's book, Whole Body Meditation.
"Your Real Body"
By Camille Maurine
Mmm...the languid lushness of summer. Relaxing, lazin' about,
regenerating deeply. Giving myself time just to be, to do nothing,
to sink into my luscious inner roots. Ah...With each breath I drink in
the pleasure of simply existing, my body soaking up nourishment from
this marvelous natural world...Yes, I'm having a love affair with life.
Sound familiar? Hallelujah! You've found the secret of health and
joy.
Or does such luxurious rest and sensuality seem like foreign
territory, unrealistic, or even taboo? If so, you're not alone. Our
culture is moving at a breathless pace. And for women, caretakers of
the world, sensuous time for the self is often the last thing we
feel we can have. What, are you crazy? Who has time to rest? Won't
the world fall apart if I let go? What will people think? Won't I
get arrested if I give in to pleasure? Won't my brain turn to mush?
And my body, ugh, let's not talk about that!
Being at home in your body is your feminine birthright and strength.
Yet many of us have inherited alienating or shameful attitudes
toward our bodies and pleasure, so it behooves us to approach the
subject gently. Let's look at some of the issues we face.
I am continually amazed at how many tasks women juggle in a day ˆ
attending to loved ones, working hard, managing a household,
tracking a million details at once. A woman's nervous system is a
highly tuned instrument, sensitive to her environment, picking up
emotional undercurrents in family and friends. Naturally responsive,
giving, and compassionate, she tends to override her own needs to
take care of others' ˆ that is, until she drops from exhaustion. But
hey, somebody's got to do it! Isn't that my job? While this is part
of our feminine generosity, we can forget to be generous to
ourselves.
Other-oriented attention can become a habit; the brain gets into a
groove of self-forgetting, giving away our power to outer events. We
notice everything that's wrong, every little imperfection. Taking a
different path, turning loving attention toward the self, can be
difficult because it goes against our cultural conditioning. But in
so doing, we tap into our core, the place of connection to the
richness and fecundity of life. This is a palpable, bodily sensed
reality. The trick is learning to perceive and value that reality.
Body-based meditation is a powerful form of self-care and
revelation, and can lead you back home to yourself. The space of
meditation allows us to drop down into a state of rest deeper than
sleep, and a sense of pleasure that puts us into rapport with the
larger body of Nature. Our senses dilate and open to receive from
the benevolent forces of life. We realize our intimate, sensual
relationship with the primal movement of creation. I call this state
deep pleasure, and it is profoundly healing.
Thirty years of working with women, myself included, has taught me
that deep pleasure is not an indulgence but a necessity, and now
more than ever. When we meet ourselves with loving attention, the
places in us that are thirsty and parched become moist and return to
healthy flow. For women, having this inner moisture is essential.
Our bodies need it as an antidote to the dryness of aging and the
depletion of burnout. Our hearts need it to be healed. Through
sensuality and flow we connect with the source within, the roots of
our true power.
To claim this body reality, we must confront our cultural biases and
assumptions. Because power in the world is still defined by male
values – ignoring body rhythms, emotions, the need for rest and
other vulnerabilities – women have learned to play by those rules.
Being successful in business is especially challenging, pressured by
those attitudes and behaviors. Yes, we can do it like the guys; we
certainly have the wits and capability. But men and women alike are
paying a tremendous price. Is it any wonder that the use of
antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs is so widespread? For women,
the sacrifice is profound: being divorced from our feminine roots.
In the prevailing atmosphere, "body" is one more thing to manage, an
object to be manipulated, a machine to be controlled. Thus cut off
>from body wisdom, cut off from deep pleasure, we are cut off from
our inner core. Valiantly we flounder, roots dangling high and dry.
Overextended and undersupported, we are lost. We may not even know
that we're lost. Usually, though, we have a vague uneasiness, a
sense that something is missing. We are somehow "beside ourselves,"
maybe even depressed, or filled with despair. We don't know where to
turn.
All of us have been hypnotized to some degree, our bodies colonized
by collective values and expectations. It takes courage to face this
and break free of the trance, and we each need help. Resources such
as Jennifer's books, and mine, provide practices to support your
feminine essence and sovereignty. You can wrest power back from
external sources, draw it back into yourself, back into your body.
Even one conscious breath can bring you home. With each inhalation,
drink in the breath like a secret elixir, the substance of health,
creativity, and joy. Breathe into your heart, soften and melt.
Imagine your whole body flooded with light, sense how energy streams
through you everywhere. Celebrate this as the way life is expressing
itself through you. Recognize these impressions as your essential
nature, part of the divine nature of the universe. This is your real
body, not the one in the mirror.
Your real body is the rich world of internal sensation and movement,
the streaming currents of life force flowing through you. Your real
body is not based on how you look and if you compete with the
impossible ideals flouted in magazines and on TV. Your real body
comes from being in touch inside and honoring your emotional truth,
not from being a lean machine. Your real body is the warmth of
hugging someone special, or the sweetness of holding a baby in your
arms. Your real body is the awe of gazing at a sunset, or merging
with the vastness of the night sky. Your real body is the tender
touch of compassion toward yourself, no matter what's going on. Your
real body is the body of love.
CAMILLE MAURINE is the author of MEDITATION SECRETS FOR WOMEN:
Discovering Your Passion, Pleasure, and Inner Peace, written with
her husband, Dr. Lorin Roche. For more information and to contact Camille, visit her website:
http://www.camillemaurine.com.
~=*=~=*=~=*=~=*=~=*=~=*=~=*=~=*=~=*=~
© 2006-2014 Camille Maurine Contact Me