Women have long been punished for being too emotional. Our natural reaction to any form of abuse was not tolerated in civilised society. Being too outspoken, or pointing out that which is doing harm, disrupted the modus operandi of the western world.

The false belief that the uterus and ovaries were the seat of female ‘mental illness’ began to infiltrate the medical world in the 1800’s. By 1843 a woman who was deemed too emotional or “hysterical” would be taken to the surgeon for an oophorectomy (removal of the ovaries) and by 1880 this surgery developed into a full hysterectomy. If that didn’t work you would be condemned to a lunatic asylum and may even find yourself having a frontal lobotomy. Quite a price to pay for simply being a natural woman.

“Hysteria” was only dropped as a medical diagnosis by the mid-20th century, and only formally removed from the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) in 1980. Oh but the harm they managed to achieve in one century was pretty impressive. Many of us carry three to four generations of this barbaric imprint.

In the 1950’s they came up with a non-surgical way to control women’s hormonal expressions – The contraceptive pill. In 1957 the first contraceptive pill was tested on 221 underprivileged women in Puerto Rico, for a year. The only effect documented was how effective the Pill was at preventing pregnancies. They chose not to document any side effects that may have occurred. This trial was enough to get the FDA’s approval and in 1960 the first contraceptive pill was launched in the USA and the UK. Women grasped at the chance to prevent pregnancies. And apart from the strokes, thrombosis and even deaths, as well as the many other side effects, women lost their cycles.

A pill bleed is not a period. There is no ovulation or menstruation on the contraceptive pill. Women were unable to physically or hormonally repair, revitalise or release. And as we all know hormones and emotions go hand in hand. The Pill conveniently has had the pretty big side effect of keeping women emotionally subdued for over 60 years. It suppresses our perception, it suppresses our libido, it suppresses our boundaries and it suppresses our vitality.

We literally substituted hysterectomies with the contraceptive pill – both having the same effect – keeping women in line.

Yes the Pill stops you from conceiving, but it also stops you from feeling what’s working for you and what isn’t. For the last two decades I have been fascinated by the unfolding that happens when my clients come off the Pill. So often they leave their relationships, their jobs, move countries, move house or some kind of dramatic change as they begin to feel themselves again; or even feel themselves for the first time in their lives.

The Pill keeps us in stagnancy and the release that happens when it is no longer controlling our wombs and our minds is beautiful! But for many there needs to be a  strongly supported repair process.

A healthy cycle gives us the ability to breath the world through us each month. We have the opportunity to constantly take in, learn, embody, refine and release; deepening our relationship to our world. The menstrual cycle is the wisdom cycle for women. 

Gynecology was created around 1840 in Europe. This is when women were first birthing in hospitals. They went through multiple layers of birth trauma including being made to lie on their backs, forceps use, being tied to the bed, enemas, multiple vaginal exams, no food or drink, drugged, episiotomies without anaesthetic, all of this without any form of consent. Women are carrying generations of birth trauma to the point that most consider natural birth a traumatic event: a heartbreaking concept. Thankfully today women are starting to realise that they can have an empowered birth and that it’s possible to even enjoy it!

Miscarriage is a subject so rarely spoken about in our civilised society, even though today 50% of pregnancies lead to miscarriage. Once upon a time we would honour this release with ritual, and support the mother in healing from the loss both physically and emotionally. With the creation of the D&C (Dilation and Curettage procedure), women are now expected to pop into the gynae and have their wombs pried open and scraped, after the deeply emotional impact of learning that the foetus has passed away. There is very rarely any need for this medical intervention, which in itself adds more trauma to the womb instead of helping the woman release and heal. There are many women who wait and want to miscarry naturally, but this release appears to be getting harder and harder as our wombs have lost the memory of how to fully release. By really honouring the fear and trauma that we hold around releasing, we can gently heal this imprint and find the path once again to let go naturally.

And as for orgasm. Well when women’s bodies have been used and abused for so long (at least 500 years), this is going to radically impact our relationship to our sexuality, to feeling safe, to being able to trust and to our ability to surrender and release.

For far too long women’s bodies only served two purposes, to satisfy mens cravings and to make babies. This has led us to walking through the world in a state of continuous bracing. We brace when expectation is felt and we brace before penetration. And yes much has changed today. In many countries and cultures men are no longer allowed to own women. In fact the powerful awakening happening amongst men is simply exquisite. More and more men are seeing and revering the gifts of the feminine. They are healing their patriarchal wounds and holding women in the greatest honour and safety. We can’t thank you enough for this work!

But where in society today is it safe to be a woman? Where is our sexuality safe? Where is it safe to fully surrender as a woman? Even if we are in a good relationship, women so often have such high levels of responsibilities holding everything together. Women usually take care of the kids, the home, work and husband’s to the point that the idea of surrendering is simply foreign. How exactly are women supposed to achieve the release of orgasm easily? And since most men have not been encouraged to understand that women don’t experience pleasure the same way they do… well that doesn’t help either.

Learning to deeply release again is one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves. And releasing through the womb and the yoni are two of the most powerful ways to heal this story.

We access the energy of release through raw emotional expression, through speaking our truth, through movement, through yoni egg work, through sound, through self pleasure, through art, through belly dance,  through letting loose in nature,  and through really beautifully held love making.

Can you find your voice? Can you ask for what you want? Can you express what you need to? Can you let your body move with waves of life-force energy? Can you let your womb release so deeply that you shed the binds of hundreds of years of abuse? Can you find the joy of your expression, deep, unadulterated beauty that fills your womb and your heart with ecstasy? It’s time!