Saturday 11 April 2009

Sacred Moon, Sacred River: Celebrating my 5th year of living healthily


I was waiting in a domestic departure lounge for a delayed flight three nights ago when I saw a big discount in the local Periplus booth. Being a book aficionado, I had to go there and browse. That was when I found a very important book to me as a woman, and as a person: ‘Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdoms’ by Christiane Northrup, M.D. A New York Times Bestseller, and upon reading it randomly since two days ago, I have no doubts about its bestseller status.

The book is about – among others – how women’s bodies try to tell women what’s the best for them, that illness comes to tell the women what’s wrong with their lifestyle … and how the health of women is link to the health of the Earth. Completes with a great guidance of the seven chakras and how our problems with a particular chakra is likely to result in a health problem in particular organs. Very… new age. Very pagan… very me. In many ways, the book resonates well with an older post of mine about the joy of menstrual cycle, our sacred monthly rites.




It is very very good, and I recommend it to any women (and men!) who want to know the sacred aspects of female body, supported with sound scientific findings or personal observations. But this post is not only about the book. Although I give the book 5 stars plus, I will have to refer you to Amazon.com for detailed reviews. The general rating is 4 stars, but as I said, I give this book 5 stars plus.

Anyway, the reason of this post is to come back to an epiphany I had almost two months ago. Back then in early March, I realised that I just entered the 5th year of my healthy living style… commencing on 9 March 2004, when I had my uterine fibroid surgery. And I want to write this post to celebrate that.

My 5 years of living healthily was the result of my intention to be happy; derived from the lessons I learned from the presence of fibroids in my uterus from early 2000 to March 2004…The inner willpower to totally accepting who I truly am and be immensely happy with myself was the result of so much physical and emotional pains, to the point that I knew I didn’t want to live like that. That I was, and am, entitled for a much better life.

And believe me, once we set our course, our intentions for a truly happy life, contended with our inner being, listening to our bodies’ wisdoms, in harmony with the surroundings… we will be happy. We are happy, for we are in love with our closest friend: ourselves, and our bodies.

And once we (particularly us women) are happy with ourselves… totally accepting our feminine side, including our menstrual cycle – sacred moons and sacred rivers – and menopauses, our lives will realign themselves… and the Earth Mother is also healed. We are her daughters. If we are happy, she is happy too. And in turn, we also double our effort to please her, to rejuvenate her. To let her breathe and live the way she deserves.

To quote the amazing Christiane Northrup from her last page of Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom:

Commit to living your dreams – one day at a time. This is the process that is required to create vibrant health in our families, our communities, and our planet. May you go forth now, to take a nap, to embrace a child, to feel the sun on your face, or to eat a good meal slowly, knowing deep within you that the next step for healing and living joyfully is already there, waiting for you to listen to it, waiting to be born into the world – through you, dear woman.

Is it not worth doing, then?

Pic 1: gorgeous 'Goddess of the Night' by FaeryAzarelle from Deviantart.com
Pic 2: Cover to 'Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom' from Barnes and Nobles

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