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Spotlight On — Out of Hiding: Finding My Voice and
Taking Back My Life
 Cathy Carmody's first book is edging its way into your life!
Cathy Carmody, a Certified WEL-Systems Catalyst and CODE Model Coach™ in
Halifax, Nova Scotia, didn't just talk about it - she did it. In a moment of
clarity followed by months of courage and determination, she began to take the
pieces of her life and put them together in ways that allowed her to find new
meaning in her own creativity and potential. Not one to sit back and enjoy the
perks of being a 'senior', Cathy's constantly looking for opportunities to reinvent
herself. Her journey of discovery is not just for her own growth and evolution
but unfolds in ways that enrich all those glorious moments she spends in the
presence of other women, helping them to reclaim what they've lost or to discover
parts of themselves they've never met before. No matter how you slice it, Cathy's
clear and passionate writing brings a powerful message of encouragement to those
who have yet to step into the full potential of who they can become in their
lives.
Filled with compassion for herself and others, through Out of Hiding Cathy
shares her deep belief in the ability of each of us to break away from our cultural
conditioning and to continually become 'more'. With great clarity and an open
heart, she shares her own journey of discovering 'voice' and coming out from
hiding in the bushes of life for many years. While Cathy lived and worked for
the first half of her life in large organizations as a senior manager and executive,
now in the second half of her life, she has evolved a new and differing way of
experiencing her world.
Nestled into an extensive Foreword by Louise LeBrun, we discover more about Cathy:
"For far too many women, voice appears to have disappeared. And yet, in
bearing witness to the cornucopia of diseases that we have come to consider
'normal' or 'expected',
either because of our gender or our age, it is clear that the voices of women
have gone underground. Although without sound, our voices have not been without
vibration – and these vibrations are morphing and reshaping the very tissue
of our bodies. As we lock down and hold inside ourselves the sounds that
we are either unable or unwilling to make out loud, the power they carry
presses up against the cells of our being – unwilling
to be stopped or ignored. Our bodies then become the physical expression
of all the secrets that we keep."
In Cathy's book, she makes it very clear that it is time to bring external
sound to these internal truths so that they may move out of our bodies and
into the larger context of our lives. Recognizing that she once lived her
life silencing the truth of her own sound and only mimicking the sound of
others, Cathy speaks from the wisdom of experience as she shares her journey
of discovery with you, inviting and cajoling for you to find your truth…your path… your
courage to engage in a richer, fuller, larger life! In this way, not only
are we changed, but we become highly contagious. The very days through which
we move now carry the potential for much greater change, with much greater
potency ."
To find out more about Cathy, you can visit her website at: www.CathyCarmody.com. There you'll find information about buying her book, upcoming personal appearances and book signings, as well as information on Cathy's coaching practice and programs for personal evolution. You can reach Cathy directly at Cathy@CathyCarmody.com.
Today's Thought
"The choices we make throughout our lives
also play a part in altering
the fundamental nature of our brain."
Richard Restak, M.D.
Coming Attractions!
We are pleased to offer you the following seminars, workshops and
programs. Each one designed to provide thought-provoking and life altering
experiences for your on-going personal and professional development.
WEL-Systems Experiences: October to January
Connecting with Confidence
…creating productive relationships |
Oct 4 |
Resourcefulness in Action
WEL-Systems Coaching Practicum |
Oct 22 -
30 |
Igniting the Self
WEL-Systems:NLP Practitioner Certification |
Oct 24 -
30 |
Awakening Body, Mind and Spirit
a WELness Experience |
Nov 5 - 6
Saint John, NB |
Creativity for Living
a weekend journey into your creative potential |
Nov 18 - 20 |
Your Self Directed Career
…creating work that works for you |
Nov 23 |
From Survival to Thrival
…creating, flourishing, growing - with Less Stress, More Life |
Nov 29 |
Creativity for Life
evoking creativity and clarity from within |
Dec 3 - 4 |
Catalyst for Change
WEL-Systems Catalyst Certification |
Jan
16 - 28 |
The listing above only shows the first scheduled date for Ottawa Ontario. For
more details and the complete program schedule, see
www.WEL-Systems.com/schedule.htm
Quick Updates
Getting Creative
We've been noticing that a lot of Fire is moving around the Institute these
days: we're feeling restless, agitated , edgy and anticipatory. And we know
that those kinds of rumblings typically precede a period of increased creativity.
Because without Fire , there is no creativity! So it is clearly time to create
...
Creativity for Living - Nov 18, 19 & 20
This is an invitation and an opportunity for those of you who are feeling out
of sorts, agitated in a non-specific kind of way, restless about life to spend
a few hours exploring your inner artist; to claim a space in your busy life
to explore a way that you can turn all that churning energy inside of you into
incredible art. No previous experience in either WEL-Systems or painting is
needed. All you have to do is bring your enthusiasm and your Fire and experience
a process that is guaranteed to produce startling results. Whether you're an
artistic novice or a trained artist, you'll be amazed at the discoveries you'll
make through the Creativity for Living process. Join Gwen
McCauley for a Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday afternoon of fun and exploration
...and perhaps create a number of Christmas gifts for friends and family. We
supply all materials including paints, brushes, paper, etc. Visit www.TidePoolResources.com/poster/CreativityLiving11.htm for
more information or call Gwen at 613-254-7218.
Creativity for Life - December 3 & 4
This is an opportunity for people who have already experienced the joys of one
of the Institute's program intensives and who have discovered just how much
they enjoy pressing the edges of their awareness. Working with The CODE Model™,
we dive deep quickly and remain deep for an entire weekend, calling on your
Fire and other energies to explore and expand who you are as life's artist.
Using painting as a metaphor for the process of living life alive and awake,
you can anticipate all sorts of self discoveries... and produce a large number
of quality paintings in a remarkably short timeframe. For more information
visit www.PortalsPassages.com/poster/CreativityLife12.htm or
call Gwen at 613-254-7218)
WEL-Systems Change Agent Certification Series
If you missed out on the recent Change Agent certification
series, take heart. Two of the optional modules have been scheduled
for November. So if you are seeking a change in how you experience
either your career or the amount of stress in your life, an opportunity awaits. And
if you are responsible for helping others deal with change, you'll be amazed
at how much difference these workshops can make in your life.
To register or for more information, call Gwen at 613-254-7218.
Online Open Forum - Sekhmet Rising
If you're drawn to the article below (Sekhmet Rising: The
Restlessness of Women's Genius), you are invited to engage
and be part of an ongoing conversation on the web/email. This
is your opportunity to move beyond being the passive reader and step into
engaging - expressing your experiences, your ideas - and allowing the energy
that is Sekhmet to find voice inside you.
For information on this email discussion list and
to join, see: lists.topica.com/lists/SekhmetRising/prefs/info.html
Thought Waves
Sekhmet Rising:
The Restlessness of Women's Genius
by Louise LeBrun
In a quiet moment - nestled somewhere between phone calls, emails, family feuds and general, all'round distractions from my own inner landscape - I found myself wandering through an e-zine website. There I found articles on a variety of topics in areas of interest to women. As I browsed, something hovered just outside my awareness, not quite a distraction but more like a whispering in my mind. And then it occurred to me: the articles getting significantly more hits than the others (240 on one vs. 12 on another) were clustered around four topics:
- Digestive disorders
- Food/ fat/eating/size/weight control/management
- Depression
- Menopause
Hmmmmm... I wondered... what's this all about? What's the message here? What is it that these 'obsessions' are trying to tell us by screaming at us through our own bodies? Each of these things has in common the sense of doing battle with or being betrayed by our own bodies. My musings continued to lead me down a path of enquiry: Are these really different and unique things or are these different expressions of the same thing? How else might I consider these if I were to see them as aspects of the same thing? What do all of these have in common? What is the underlying thread that pulls them all together?
And finally, the last thing that came to mind: what if the genius that my body carries (as offensive a notion as we have been taught to consider that to be!) was presenting me with messages rather than problems? Messages or invitations to be entertained and considered, rather than problems or challenges to be wrestled to the ground, beaten into submission and overcome? What if these were not afflictions but were instead unavoidable markers along the path of my own evolution, letting me know what's working and what's not? How else might I need to consider myself, my world and my resourcefulness in moving through that world?
In that moment, I was reminded of the ancient Egyptian goddess, Sekhmet. In those long-ago times, in the twisting sands and scorching heat of that most mystical of places, the presence of Sekhmet flooded the awareness of Egypt and her people. With the body of a woman and the head of a lioness, there continues to exist to this day controversy about who she was, what she stood for and the meaning of her undeniable, potent presence.
For some, Sekhmet came to be associated with notions of destruction; of power
gone awry, drunk with its own potential, for its own sake. And yet there persists
amongst the writings that describe the force of Her presence, references to
Her as the most ancient of the deities in the Egyptian pantheon. Regarded as
the Source goddess - that which seeded all other gods and goddesses - Sekhmet
represents the simultaneous presence of good and evil; creation and destruction;
the ability and willingness to nurture and protect life, and the ability and
willingness to take it away. Hers was a presence that came to be associated
with the 'still point', that silent, open moment of motionless engaging...
watchful, awake, alive and without fear...just prior to the choosing and the
will to take action as required. Her power allowed for and evoked both the
Crucible and the Spear, flowing as expressions along the continuum of a single
force – undivided and without conflict. Authentic… whole… aligned… and complete
in Her ability to choose with power and intent.
The woman's body that was Sekhmet carried the potential for creation - for birth and new life. The head of the lioness that was Sekhmet carried the portent of destruction – of danger and death reflected in the steady and piercing gaze of the hunter that she is. All that is soft, loving and nurturing, and all that is dark and dangerous, rolled into one being. She is all that and much more - and so are we.
Through time, women with power - and powerful women - have often been depicted
as demonstrating themselves to be unable to wield that power; devoid of the
mastery required to choose with intelligence and the wisdom to exercise that
power with mindfulness and force. Many are the stories that depict powerful
women as evil, dangerous and harmful to creation. So completely have we mindlessly
succumbed to this notion that around the world, women have held the keys to
the dungeons of our own demise. Women themselves have learned to teach other
women that their Fire – the powerful force that moves through their own bodies, screams NO and is unwilling to comply and capitulate – is dangerous to all, including themselves and should, at all costs, be kept hidden and unexpressed or silenced completely. Worse yet, we have taught each other to hide ourselves in shame when we feel that Fire move, learning instead to lie and betray ourselves and each other rather than claim the unknown territory of its expression. For some of us, we have come to question our right to feel at all.
And yet, it is well known that when lions hunt, as much as the males bellow and roar, it is the females who come together to capture and take down the kill. Their skill and precision is what allows the species to survive. It causes me to ponder: where would we find ourselves if women were to reclaim the Fire that moves inside them; engage with each other to encourage this reclamation and move as one force to shape the world in which we live? Perhaps the time has come for us all - men and women - to reconsider what has been in order to discover what we might all become.
Over the years, in the work that I've done with women individually or in small
group processes, I have often been struck by the restlessness of these women.
Hidden in the conversations about relationships, children, work, parents, etc.
is an underlying restlessness... an agitation... like a single, emerging thread
twisting through the tapestry that is their lives... rising to the surface to
remind them that something is missing or is calling to them, then diving deeper
into the fabric of their lives, hidden and waiting for them in those dark,
unvisited places inside themselves, just under the veneer of their acceptable
lives. This relentless restlessness keeps pressing them to pay attention to
that molten, swelling Fire that flows with great force deep in the body, well
below the surface of their behaviours in the world. But before they can get
to it, there are two discoveries that must be moved through. These are consistent,
regardless of age, economics, religious or cultural bias:
- Women are terrified of the depth of their own rage! After decades and
generations of swallowing hard and holding back - years of saying 'yes' when
we want to say 'no'; years of doing what someone else wants because it's
just easier that way;' years of not asking for what we want, surrendering
what we care about, taking less than our share, being still so as not to
disturb anyone else, curbing our exuberance so that we blend into the flat-lines
around us; years of not trusting ourselves, lying to keep the peace, covering
our eyes so as not to see what is in front of our face......after years of
swallowing back, holding in, hunkering down.....it would make perfect sense
that the Fire in our bodies would have gone into lock-down in some way. Better
to kill ourselves slowly than to risk killing someone else, we tell ourselves......
- Women have bought the story - you know, the one that says 'be good, be
nice, be loving and understanding, and you'll be taken care of by (fill
in the blank - the husband, the culture, the system, the group, etc.) - only
to discover that it's all bogus! After decades of doing what we never really
wanted to do anyway, we discover that we bought the goods and there's no
delivery. So, not only are we enraged about that - but NOW we have to learn
a whole new skill set in order to be able to function effectively in the
shaping of our own lives.
Fire! The Fire of our rage! The Fire of our despair! Fire moving fast
and furiously! Sensations in the body that are old and familiar,
yet sensations that are now moving in ways that we have no skills to manage
- not because we're stupid but because no one has ever taught us how.
Fire that we've been told: don't go there or you'll hurt someone's feelings...
get hurt... be rejected... be left out. Don't go there because you'll be
unattractive, undesirable, unwanted. And the greatest Fire of them all:
don't go there because when the other women (your primary line of defense
and to be sure, your fallback position) circle the wagon, you'll find yourself
on the outside - unprotected and unsafe. Comply! Go along! Don't make waves
or you make us all look bad! And we already know the brutality with
which the collective will punish its own in order to maintain ‘order’.
And then we wonder why our bodies start screaming at us, yanking and pulling
and tearing at us - unwilling, for one more second, to be silenced by our own
hand. And the restlessness only increases…
Control the Fire! Control your
body! Lock down - curl in - be silent and be still. Disconnect from yourself,
if that is what it takes (depression). Silence the scream of your rage by
occupying the Fire with digestion; distract yourself by directing the
Fire at controlling what has come to be acceptable to be defined by others
- the size and shape of your own body (food/fat/eating/size/weight).
And finally, if over decades of doing so your body is unwilling to be
so managed, let the Fire move - but let it fill you up and consume your
reason and your measured responses to the world around you - and let
it burn only you (menopause).
For an entire generation, the exercise of power and the ability to create has often demanded of women that they choose one force at the expense of the other. And yet, there is a restlessness - inside, where we live - that will not allow us to forget the wholeness of who we are. The energy that is the Sekhmet presence in our lives - always there, always watching, always waiting for us to awaken - is the invitation for us to reclaim our natural, instinctive, innate ability to be both the Crucible and the Spear. Our natural instinctive ability to create family, community and organizational systems that honor and nurture the power of ‘relationship’ and its rewards (the Crucible); as well as our ability to make the tough choices, draw the line in the sand, hold to our intentions and demand what we know is required to make the difference (the Spear). It is not that we desire or prefer to strike; it's that we must be both able and willing to do so. Not only to protect others but for our own wellbeing, clearing the space of body, mind and soul for us to engage a meaningful life.
Get off your knees! Stand up for what we all, instinctively, know to be true of who we already are - powerful, versatile, creative innovators. Just as we are capable of great nurturing, we are also capable of taking apart that which no longer supports and sustains life. The restlessness within your own body is not disease or something wrong...it's something right! It is the invitation to rediscover and embrace the full range of your own potential; to allow yourself to reclaim the territory of those internal landscapes and navigate by the stars of your own inner truth.
Stop apologizing for who you are! No matter your age, the color of your skin, the size of your ass or your bank account - take back who you are and what's meaningful to you in your own world! Don’t wait for someone or something else to declare you free to be yourself. As long as you need permission, you are at the mercy of what you hold more powerful than yourself. As long as you need permission to be equal, you aren’t.
Allow yourself to open your mouth and say what's true for you...what's real for you....and what you hold as meaningful in what sometimes feels like your meaningless existence. Only by allowing the restlessness to be fed - allowing the Fire to move! - will we ever be able to claim the life that we desire. We begin by claiming ourselves. We reach out into our families and communities and organizations, and we become the invitation for change within our collectives of choice. And with the unstoppable, combined forces of Attention and Intention, we come together to build new and larger collectives that are required to change the world.
If you’re ready to play at this level of the game, there are many others just waiting to play with you. You are not alone - and the only way you’ll ever know this is to step into the Fire and let it flow.
You are invited to engage
and be part of an ongoing conversation on the web/email. This
is your opportunity to move beyond being the passive reader and step into
engaging - expressing your experiences, your ideas - and allowing the energy
that is Sekhmet to find voice inside you.
For information on this email discussion list and
to join, see: www.topica.com/lists/SekhmetRising/ and
follow the instructions to join.
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