A Soulful Way to Communicate
The wisdom of a women’s circle
One warm Friday afternoon a few summer’s back, my moon sister Chantelle and I were driving 3 hours north to the beautiful Kripalu retreat center in Western Massachusetts. We were embarking on a weekend adventure from New York City to this divine sanctuary for a women’s only, two day, retreat.
It was hosted by two spiritual teachers whose online community we were a part of, at the time. The group was based on moon cycles, astrology, and female empowerment.
Chantelle and I had met a year earlier (instant soul connection) as we began co-leading moon circles together for this group.
Before we arrived at the retreat center, we were already giddy. Two girlfriends catching up on life, sharing dreams, mistakes, stories, and laughter while listening to music. The anticipated long drive felt like just a half hour.
We knew it was going to be a magical weekend ahead.
And it was.
We spent the next two days with 50+ women, almost all strangers.
Our conclusions were similar on our ride home:
How do we practice this meaningful communication in our day to day lives?
Our minds were blown that we were able to be incredibly vulnerable, honest, and trusting with a bunch of women we had never met before. While admitting that we often struggle to communicate the same way with our own family, friends, and loved ones back home.
We racked our heart and realized it was the circle guidelines that created the incredibly trusting environment and soulful communication style.
The intentional space created during the retreat used 4 traditional women circle guidelines:
· Speak from the first person, your own experiences
· Actively listen, without judgement
· Keep the information shared confidential
· Participate in what feels right, no pressure if you do not want to do something
It was a glorious weekend filled with love, acceptance, and belonging. Everyone gave each other the benefit of the doubt. Nobody judged anything that was said and we all said a lot of deep, traumatic, painful, sad, hilarious, inspiring, and remarkable stuff. We were able to let our guard down because you never needed to defend yourself. We were all working on our own individual shit collectively and respectfully, with simply kindness.
It was the full embodiment of women supporting women to the highest degree.
Chantelle and I drove back home with few more women from the retreat so they did not need to take the train back. We continued soulfully communicating without skipping a beat, with the same guidelines/vibe from the weekend… listening, connecting, allowing, and accepting.
I thought to myself, the world would be saved if we could all learn to communicate in our “regular” lives like we do in a women’s circle.
For this winter season I will be actively practicing women’s circle guidelines with my own family + friends communication:
Sharing my own experiences and feelings
Listening to others with love and attention, without labeling, judging, and critiquing
Participating in conversations I want to and walking away from the conversations that I do not want to engage in
Seems so damn simple, right? We humans tend to always find a way to complicate things. The beauty is we can choose to do something different at every moment. We can choose from this day forward to communicate soulfully, with love, attention, and acceptance.
Wishing you and yours a “moon circle” kind of holiday season ahead.
In blessedness,
Meg
