An Antidote for These Patriarchal Times
Since the start of this year and all the chaos the patriarchy is causing, I am comforted by knowing what grounds and inspires me. A powerful antidote to the patriarchy is to nourish the Feminine.
What does that mean for a ‘sensitive’?
I have known I was sensitive since I was very young. It did not have a name, but I felt different. I felt more isolated, more removed from the norm; I couldn’t relate to people’s desire for money and power. I wasn’t jazzed by material things like most people. Poetry, color, beauty, and animals are what nourished me. I was fortunate to have grown up in India, a container of beauty and life itself for a sensitive, but the Feminine was not nourished there either — not in women. But it was palpable in the cultural energy, a paradox that left me lonely inside with a sense of what it was without an actual imprint in my psyche. The Feminine is hard to access when she is not modeled for us, or imprinted by parents, or normalized by culture.
We are all on our own right now, uncovering, discovering, and connecting to The Feminine part of ourselves in our own unique way. We feel connected and inspired when we feel it in each other as well. We can even feel this in our physical body – our breathing patterns change and we feel more settled and safe around people who are aligned with the Feminine Principle.
This is what needs fanning — the glowing ember of Self that is deep inside, which glows for the most part, inconsistently, muffled by the voices of the ‘norm’ which are disconnected and out of touch with what is authentic and real. This ember needs to be set ablaze.
When I feel the need for solace (derived from the root, “Solari,” meaning ‘to console’) in these times or anytime, I reach inside for what feels like ‘me’; the ‘me’ that has always shown up when the going gets rough, that is often hard to access, but is always courageously there in times of loss, separation, stress, or fear. Even if I can access this for a fleeting moment, it gives me the will to live again and to put one foot in front of the other.
Remember this part of you that is still here after all you have suffered, experienced, endured. This part of you is your true nature. If you can contact it, you can access the medicine that lives inside of you. Sometimes it requires you to be quiet, to be in nature, to be still, to enter the eye of the storm, or to breathe. It is the part that contains the ‘codes’ for your life’s path; the ‘why’ of being here. This is the most loyal part of you. It knows you by heart and it is your very faithful friend. It came in with you and will take you out. It is the authentic YOU.
Now more than ever, it is time to connect to this. This is the Feminine. She is calling you inside, to live her out into the world. She has powerful medicine that heals, restores, comforts, and also consoles. She is where our true connections with each other lie.
Remember this today and maybe for a few minutes, tap into Her and feel what ‘me’ feels like for you.
I’ll be doing the same.
©Feb2018Kalpana (Rose) M. Kumar M.D., CEO and Medical Director, The Ommani Center for Integrative Medicine, Pewaukee, WI. www.ommanicenter.com Author of 2nd Edition – Becoming Real: Reclaiming Your Health in Midlife 2014, Medial Press. Dr. Kumar is happy to accept new patients; call 262.695.5311 to schedule an appointment.