The Power of Women in Community
Photo by Levi Guzman @homeschool
Creating Community
“A circle of women may just be the most powerful force known to humanity. If you have one, embrace it. If you need one, seek it. If you find one, for the love of all that is good and holy, dive in. Hold on. Love it up. Get Naked. Let them see you. Let them hold you. Let your reluctant tears fall. Let yourself rise fierce and love gentle. You will be changed. The very fabric of your being will be altered by this, if you allow it. Please, please allow it.”
- Jeanette LeBlanc
Have you felt like you are done?
It’s common for women in our thirties and forties to be just..done. Done with the grind and the hustle of being everything to everyone. Done with the roles or the jobs or the identities that are so far from who we truly are and how we want to show up in the world.
So we have two choices:
We double down on trying so hard to live up to the expectations and boundaries we’ve learned about, and “should” ourselves forward.
We stop. We pause. We find community. We step into what’s next, into the unknown, with heads high and hands held by one another.
The process of creating community is an elegantly simple concept: gather people who want the same things out of life.
But for women, we find a million and one reasons why we shouldn’t/don’t deserve to/don’t have the time to engage in community with one another.
Here’s what community offers, when we are ready to embrace it:
The chance to see ourselves in the eyes of other women
A complete sense of being held, cherished, and accepted
Power
Improved access to our sacred feminine and spirituality
That’s why we gather. That’s why we travel together. That’s why we meet - and have met for years - at the rivers, at the washing basins, in basements, in living rooms, on the mountains, on the beaches. We meet while we work to hold the world together.
Only now, we are often expected to continue to do the work of holding the world together without the chance to be in circle with one another.
Creating Belonging and Acceptance
Consider the last time you tried something completely new to you, something that caused you to step outside your comfort zone and put yourself in a situation with a capital U UNKNOWN.
What did you believe about yourself before jumping in?
What doubts did you have? What were you uncertain about?
Who did you look to for guidance or safety?
Here’s the secret: we can create belonging in unfamiliar spaces.
Truly!
When a group of women chooses to dive into the wild and unfamiliar, we earn the opportunity to hold one another, show up for one another, and challenge one another to shed layer after layer of expectation to get back to the root of who we are.
International and wilderness journeys are the perfect place to build this wild, safe space. When we travel, we step into the unfamiliar. When we are welcomed by our host communities - groups that have been carefully selected to cultivate a global community - we are no longer there to be something other than present.
We learn to radically accept the truth of who we’ve been, who we’ve become, and who we’ve harmed (whether that may be ourselves or other communities).
Only then can we move forward to create a life, community, and global sisterhood that’s aligned with who we all want to be for one another.
Creating Connection and Shared Responsibility
One of the most impactful things we can do to create global change is to be conscious of ourselves as global citizens.
When we think about creating change on a global scale, it’s easy to feel defeated before we begin.
But when we flip that narrative, believing that our individual choices can support a responsible global community, we begin to see the tools at hand that will create a larger impact.
Travel companies who partner with social impact organizations know this to their core (and at Lotus Sojourns, this is the essence of our travel planning!). How we spend our travel dollars is how we vote for equity in the world.
Travel is the space to pull it all together.
“Otherness” begins to dissipate.
We find our empathy.
We open our hearts and minds to the experience of being together.
We see the shared pieces of one another’s lives and see our own view of ourselves, the world, and the people in it closer to the truth of a shared human experience.
At Lotus Sojourns, we invite you to participate in the global slumber party for our souls in four different ways.
Book Sojourn: Now open for July-December registration, we meet twice monthly to share space for discovery, growth, and passion with books as our vehicle for travel. Register now.
Soul of Travel Podcast: Honoring the people and organizations who make a positive impact in travel. Listen here.
International Sojourns: Community exploration will be a place to expand our hearts and minds, connect with one another and ourselves, and experience a deep feminine spiritual journey. View more Information.
Lotus CommuniTees: Purchase clothing for a cause with our fair trade partnership tees, where proceeds from each shirt are funneled back into the hands of responsible global partners doing good in the world. Buy clothing for a cause.
Not certain where you see yourself joining the community? Reach out to schedule a discovery call with me.
Enjoy your journey,
Christine