Raising awareness is absolutely one of the best aspects of social media, be it twitter, instagram, facebook, etal.
Having spent half my life helping people discover what interferes with their success, and then doing something about it, I can strongly say that insight and awareness simply aren’t sufficient for real change.
Awareness that there is a problem is a necessary butinsufficient quality for real change
Hyped up social media awareness can sometimes actually overshadow the opportunities for creating a real change.
How can this be? Well, mostly because there are people who will use the excitement and drama to misdirect and amplify the issue without bringing real healing tools to the gathering. The democrats will blame the republicans, the republicans will blame the feminists… the (fill in the blank group) will assert their superiority over the other (fill in the blank group)…
….and instead of a deep, powerful conversation happening about misogyny and how women are being sexually harassed and the extent of demeaning actions towards women …
….and the underlying forces that create this acceptable behavior by society (the reasons are not due to one simple fact or group) it becomes an opportunity for propaganda about how a specific group has it all right, while another has it all wrong.
An aha experience of insight or awareness can lead to a quantum shift in consciousness or a healing crisis. With either of these, real change can happen.
There is some simplicity.
Rape is an aggressive, violent action that uses sex as a weapon.
Women’s bodies do not call out to be raped.
Glorifying rape; talking about women as objects rather than human; Showing images of women being brutalized and objectified – all of these actions create women as second class non-humans that are then set up to be raped, harassed, demeaned and overpowered.
Society glorifying the music industry and movie industry for their part in this creates the space for all women to be brutalized, sexually harassed, overpowered, and dispossessed of their innate humanity.
This isn’t a puritanical religious issue, this isn’t a conservative/liberal issue, this is a power issue mostly brought about by the groups in power. The ones that keep telling you they are there to protect you, and they are on women’s sides…old and new.
Breasts are sexualized and objectified separately from their human function; used in naked-girl magazines, disney cartoons, and by feminists as much as the religious groups.
Until it is seen as a natural, normal thing to breastfeed children in public and not have it be gross (because it has been overshadowed by the sexual aspect of breasts), women’s breasts will be seen as tantalizing and power objects by men and women alike.
#yesallwomen is a great idea, raising the consciousness of what women have to endure as girls, and young women and old women.
But many of the groups who have joined in the cause to get a piece of the action are the perpetrators that keep that trauma going for women.
Power is the issue.
Until women have a handle on how to be powerful in ways that don’t include the preconceived notion of these groups that are simply using women and their issues for their own political and power gain, real change is not going to happen. (And just a hint, it isn’t the power to walk around naked…it’s the power to be seen as powerful in their innate femininity).
If you want to help all women, stop glorifying the sexualization of children, the brutalization of women, stop passively going along with the cool game of overpowering women in ALL ways..how?
Stop buying those songs, speak out against them. Stop watching those movies, stop feeding the industries that keep women down, including, when applicable, feminists that say they are out to help women while putting down their own gender to create their own power structure.
Mothers raise boys and girls. Mothers teach their girls to take care and be authentic, and yes to be careful to not get raped…mothers need to raise boys to care for girls in a way that doesn’t put the onus on the girl to maintain her goodness. Fathers raise boys and girls. Fathers need to deal with the importance of teaching masculinity, without teaching that rape is okay, or that it is the girl’s responsibility to not get raped.
I am asking you to think, to be mindful in your anger, attitude, and righteousness in how you join into this discussion. Because for those of us who have been one of the #yesallwomen who have had to deal with rape, sexual harassment, work related and personally, it’s a painful, shame-filled wound, so the discussion, the raising of awareness needs to be real, helpful, and not harmful.
Elevate the conversation. Go further, find a way to work with that group you despise, let your real, true love and desire for healing be your guide, because then you will be having the kind of conversation that will result in the elevation of consciousness…and in that shift all women will be enlightened. #yesallwomen, and yesallmen; yes to all humans working together in love and light, bg
There are a variety of ways in which energy can get blocked. It can be a blockage in cognition through rigid limiting belief systems, it can be a blockage within the body through muscle and breath holding over time, it can be a blockage in your chakras or energy field through a disconnection from spirit OR it can be a combination of all three.
In order to release the blockage humans require intention, insight, gratitude, and forgiveness.
It is an active process. It can be begun with voice and communication but breath and at least one other sense must be employed (sound, smell, color, healing touch/acupuncture, or taste (food, nutrition).
Over the next few blogs I will share with you steps to heal yourself and release your internal blockages. Additionally, I will offer ways to heal your relationships applying these specific techniques and the information available in the Me to WE book (see the link below for the book and other blogs on this site.)
To get a fuller picture of how sound heals you may want to review this blog, or get the iBOOK developed by me with several friends through the TALON CLAW HEALING CIRCLE…this is downloadable to iphone and ipod.
Remember, to release energy blockages, you need
intention, I want to heal or uplevel my consciousness.
insight, I am projecting from a habit reaction pattern of reacting.
gratitude, This conflict is a gift to assist me in righting an inner misbelief or loss of faith.
and forgiveness, I forgive myself for how I disowned my needs; I forgive you for the injury caused knowingly or unknowingly.
How these steps direct you is through the focused energy of your personal sensory guidance system and your heart led healing rather than psych (mind) or cognitive/behavioral led healing alone.
Spirit must be engaged and in the lead in order for a transcendence through thought-based, limiting beliefs.
This allows for real negotiation, movement into the WE style of partnering/ relating, (feb 2013 blog, i ching Tai (peace) guiding Me to WE) and the elevation of consciousness: transcending third dimensional interactions of right/wrong, good/bad, persecutor/victim, blame.
Your heart knowing is Always communicating to you about what you need and who you are through your personal sensory guidance system of senses. Listen to your sense reactions, your instincts, your intuition.
Learn to interpret your feelings so that you can see what is your projection and what is universal… focus on intention, insight, gratitude, and forgiveness as an integrated system, informed by your sensory system (which includes intuition) and you will live in a different world. This is a quantum shift in consciousness led by your heart spirit connection. In each interaction, perception, and action the world can be created anew. Find your way home. Namaste, in love and light, bg
You can find out more at http://www.bethgineris.com. The steps above are outlined in Beth’s upcoming book, 6 steps to transcending conflict and elevating consciousness, due out in 2014. You may participate in seminars to learn these techniques through her website. This book is the HOW TO companion book to Turning Me to WE: The Art of Partnering with Mindfulness(2013).
Discover where you are in the Temperament and the MAAPS section. You can discover how you see the world, and whether you have an attachment that is creating problems in your relationships. MAAPS will help you to discern your insecurities and understand how and what underlies how you developed your insecurity driver (Money, Achievement, Attachment, Power, Structure).
If you want to change your life, see how you can bring mindfulness to your parenting and relationships. One being at a time, you can elevate the way in which you treat one another and elevate the consciousness on the planet so that equality, balance, and freedom BEcome the norm for all. in love and light, bg
The negative effects of the masculinization of femininity. Part 3 of 3.
Dependent, apathetic, disconnected children. Adolescents and young adults are delaying stepping into a fully independent role in society while enjoying many rights at even younger ages.
I perceive the reticence of the millennium generation to avoid entering into responsible roles in society, delaying entering into adulthood through various avenues of remaining dependent on parents and institutions for support, healthcare and living expenses, the malaise, apathy and lack of focus by an increasing many of the youngest generation– I see all of these serious issues as part of the side effects of the course that feminism has taken.
Feminism has created an environment where men aren’t needed in caring for children. The way in which the feminist movement has focused on elevating women has resulted in minimizing, even eradicating the role of men in caring for and raising children; even issues of providing financially for children has fallen to the state, leaving men to be outcast with respect to having responsible behavior toward their children and the mothers of their children. Men have in many cases been only the physical, genetic requirement.
This diminishment of the man’s role and importance in children’s lives has been a result of the style in which feminist policies have been inculcated and disseminated and it has had a devastating effect on children.
Focusing on the importance of being free sexually has unexpectedly resulted in an over sexualization of children – on one hand creating children as sexual beings far earlier than is healthy while keeping them as children with respect to when they need to be responsible. The Disney corporation, now a part of ABC, focuses on portraying young children as far superior in intelligence than their parents, while dramatizing even the animation characters as over-sexualized with large breasts barely fitting into the drawn-on dress that minimally covers the child’s hips. Additionally, presenting strength in these female characters as aggressive while diminishing any reference to femininity, interior strength required to withstand labor and required to be mindful and powerful creators. While on the one hand it is refreshing to see the removal of all the victim/rescuer stories of past days it is problematic that the message moves from victim awaiting rescue to sexualized aggressive (read masculinized) child.
To project women as strong beings at ease with their sensuality, recognizing the power in their fullness would be far more effective in strengthening women’s rights and opportunities. Women need to be able to embrace their sexuality and carry power over their bodies without having to choose to be either a shielded/covered up being or someone who is throwing sex into every equation… it is a matter of elevating the conversation, presenting power through an emancipated woman able to choose how she wants to be seen and represented in the world.
Women’s rights have actually been diminished in this new sexual age, due to the masculinization of femininity through this skewed feminism…see the youtube below for an example.
The culture has disconnected the rights, and responsibilities for/to those rights, so that the adolescence period has gone from five years (13-18) to 13 years (13-26). Rather than offering an opportunity to further develop skills by offering a longer adolescent period, this has resulted in a situation where they are ill-prepared to enter society as high functioning participants. They have become accustomed to having no responsibilities tied to their rights.
Adolescence is a social, cultural construct. It is not a biological stage. In human societies the adolescent remains with the family to learn social roles, expectations, and develop moral concepts, cognitive skills, impulse control, and develop skills/work training.
From a neurological perspective the brain continues to develop and is somewhat plastic through 26 (28). From a psychosocial perspective the development through the Erikson stages is fairly plastic through age 24. So with those two pieces of data – by not tying rights and responsibilities together before 26 – we are essentially sealing the cognitive beliefs and behaviors to have these unlinked from each other, thereby creating a distorted sense of dependence and independence.
The cost of feminism on this Course, delineated in Part 1, and Part 2, is to diminish the importance of teaching, modeling, caring for children and helping them become independent in the proper timeline. It has distorted the importance of gender roles within the context of a family and a social group. Thereby leaving both women and men unsure as to how to relate to one another. (See Turning Me to WE: The Art of Partnering with Mindfulness, Gineris, 2013).
The human species has one of the longest childrearing times. This is partially due to the fact that the human brain is underdeveloped at birth. The style in which humans learn about how to live, grow, partner, and socialize is through modeling from the significant caregivers. Without a representation of healthy interrelating, whole, balanced yin and yang aspects of each gender in the social structure, how can a little human learn to be a multi-dimensionally developed adult? I wonder to what degree this is the reason for such a high level of depression, bipolarity, ADHD, and suicidal thinking among our children — they aren’t given am opportunity to create a true connection to meaning, manage their internal needs with their social expectations, manage their will, understand and develop resilience and personal strength.
You don’t really see suicide in healthy animal populations, until and unless there is human contamination with that species – so it’s something to consider how society may be creating such problems through an imbalanced perspective of femininity.
With respect to humans, across societies women predominantly care for children; in some societies they do physical work as well as household work, depending on the need in that region and the level of financial need.
So, diminishing the importance of that feminine role, and handing it off to state agencies: day care, schools, and programs limits and truncates the positive aspects of a women’s skills in this regard.
Studies show that the brains of women actually are wired to tend and befriendin times of strife…yet feminists are trying to eradicate that aspect of a woman’s role –trying to create yang brains instead of yin ones…
(See figure to the left) Women experience tend and befriend response rather than Fight and flight, moderated through oxytocin and other hormones. Secreted at times of bonding, nurturing, breast-feeding and relationships. Taylor SE et al. Psych Review 2000;107(3):411-29
Those who want to control a society go to the child generation to actually program in what is seen as valuable, acceptable, and imprint the belief systems required for the society. This has to be enacted before the development of moral thinking which begins to solidify around 9 years old…although there is evidence that moral thinking begins earlier than that, and that concentrated, practiced mindful meditation can strongly influence the development of altruism and empathy.
Hatred of a specific group has to be taught to a child. Self-confidence, management of will and power, are all taught. Through efficient parenting children develop from dependent, to independent, to interdependent; without it a child or adolescent can become stuck in an earlier stage of development and simply not reach his or her full potential as an adult in interactive and cognitive skills.
Due to the plasticity of the brain through 24-26 (or 28) year old, enculturation is clarified in the young adult years, making schools, and learning institutions opportunities for mind expanding or mind-contracting growth. Depending on what is happening in those learning institutions. If feminists say that to be a healthy woman you must have specific political beliefs and specific roles than feminism is diminishing the rights and opportunities of women.
Here is an example of how the feminist movement has lost site of its vision.
I have been observing a sharp shift in focus in the universities’ presentation of fact versus beliefs in fields that are represented by women’s studies, philosophy, and sociology. What I am observing is that universities have increasingly become factories to promote propaganda of various ideologies by either stating things are truth, that are simply belief systems, or setting up ‘studies’ to promote these ‘truths’. Additionally the activities of critical thinking, and interactive investigation through dialogue are less supported and in fact discouraged.
There is a movie out called God’s not Dead (April 2014) which documents the inner attack of religion and the attack of specifically christian-faith groups on college and university campuses across America…resulting in over twenty legal civil rights court cases wherein the religious groups and students personal rights were harmed… this underscores my observation that specific prevailing beliefs are being offered as truth in the universities across america...resulting in the universities being propaganda promoters rather than communities of higher learning and free discourse. Although the movie is a dramatization of these events, the style in which those of faith are attacked in general under the guise of intellectuality is ubiquitous.
This course of feminism, the masculinization of femininity, has resulted in a breakdown in the importance of teaching children, and caring for them. This role has thus been taken away from the home and has begun to be placed in government agencies, day care systems, and schools. We don’t efficiently care for them as a society, we are expecting dependence, and we don’t provide the environment that allows for independence and the evolution of consciousness.
To create a new more comprehensive feminist movement yin aspects of femininity need to be honored.
All women’s choices for healthy roles in the society need to be valued.
Attack of women to reduce their power or control them needs to be disavowed.
Transcending the spaces where yin and yang interact to incorporate both in an equal way would result in setting right the current imbalance, offering a true path toward valuing the feminine.
This would result in an elevation of consciousness and the incorporation into leadership, and society, the qualities of compassion, collaboration and unity, all feminine, yin aspects of personality. Many of the answers to the current global dilemmas can be found through a rebalancing of these feminine, yin qualities into feminism. The power of the feminine is best when it is balanced yin and yang, and that which is at the core feminine in nature provides grace, strength, and power to the solutions therein.
Each reader can create change now, by simply resetting his or her internal balance of yin and yang. When you transcend the duality of aggression or victim, you elevate consciousness to include balanced yin and yang. Balanced interaction begets more balance, the shift up is natural and moves instantaneously, it is quantum in nature. Your energy can effect change . Be the change you wish to see in the world. Namaste, in love and light, bg
Discover where you are in the Temperament and the MAAPS section. You can see how you see the world, and whether you have an attachment that is creating problems in your relationships. MAAPS will help you to discern your insecurities and understand how and what underlies how you developed your insecurity driver (Money, Achievement, Attachment, Power, Structure).
If you want to change your life, see how you can bring mindfulness to your parenting and relationships. One being at a time you can elevate the way in which you treat one another and elevate the consciousness on the planet so that equality, balance, and freedom BEcome the norm for all. in love and light, bg
You have mirror neurons in your brain that help you connect and feel empathy, uplevelling consciousness blog, 5.15.14. These help you develop connections, feel connected, attached in the Bowlby-an sense (Attachment, John Bowlby, Basic Books, 1969) and belong to society. This is a basic driving force in human development.
But how you develop your connections, how you discern what to do and how to do it is through modeling, through observing your environment so IF your environment is chaotic and skewed you will develop a skew in how you connect, what you perceive as normal, and what you attach to with respect to your group connections, beliefs and values (Bowlby, Holmes, Gineris).
This is how basic marketing, propaganda, and brain-washing work; especially when the information and presentation is intentionally meant to control thinking and actions. The range of manipulation goes from benign to harmful.
With this in mind, the word attachment has two vastly different meanings depending on the context.
Attachment in bonding can free you, assist you in developing a stronger sense of esteem and resilience or strength
Attachment to ideology can numb you and skew your thinking patterns or actions so that you have limited freedom and control.
Understanding the positive effects of attachment in bonding is really important to use the mirror neurons and modeling to create a higher level of consciousness. Bowlby’s work references that attachment is necessary for individualization and interdependence. You move from a dependent relationship to independence to the capacity for interdependence in relationship. (see more also in Turning No to On: The art of Partnering with Mindfulness, Gineris, 2013). This cannot be accomplished without attachment. There is actually a psychiatric behavioral problem called reactive attachment disorder, an excellent 2013 blog re: new DSM 5 criteria for RAD, specifically because being attached is the first step in evolving into an independent whole being able to make connections with others. Attachment in bonding occurs in the first few years of life and if the opportunity is missed, distorted, interrupted, neglectful or traumatic then the capacity for the child to develop a healthy attachment is dramatically affected (negatively). This is similar to imprinting with ducks, there is a time period within the human brain to incorporate this experience of connection and bonding – when it is missed the child may not be able to efficiently develop empathy, and the capacity for connection.
Understanding the negative aspects of attachment in an entirely different context. Being attached to an idea or a specific way in which something should look leads a person down a path of inflexibility, and a lack of a capacity to paradigm shift and collaborate; the person is unable to have an interdependent relationship. The person is actually driven to create this picture and therefore misses the opportunities in relationship and life. Here attachment refers to a perception attachment, attachment in perception or paradigm- an attachment to things looking a certain way or an ideology– rather than the concept of attachment to a significant other in bonding.
Attachment to an idea or perception is something that is cognitive in nature and can be undone. It requires insight. It requires mindfulness and the capacity to paradigm shift. When you look at the picture to the left you may see a duck – or a bunny. What you see has something to do with your attachment to what a duck or bunny look like. If you are strongly attached to one paradigm you may not be able to see the other. This is a tangible example of how attachment to an idea can create conflict, battles, where the conflict doesn’t exist. Both images are there, depending on your orientation. Most arguments are about perception, orientation, and beliefs that are connected to context. Once you can see the other side and see both sides then you can see your attachment and then choose to remain attached or find a middle space in the interaction. (Gineris, 2013)
In parenting the more you can develop a strong resilient healthful attachment with your child the better your child’s ability to create powerful, positive relationships throughout his or her life. For more on how to do that check out the books at the end of this blog.
In relationship the more you can see though your identified attachment to things looking a specific way – which drives you to react habitually in relationships rather than to respond in real time in a mindful way- to mindfully interacting, the better and more fulfilling your relationships can and will be.
When talking about attachment, clarify the context. Strengthen bonding through trustworthy responsiveness to your child. Respond in the moment with an open, mindful mind and loving heart, and your relationships will broaden and strengthen. in love and light, bg
Bowlby, John. Attachment. Basic Books Inc, Publishers: New York, 1969.
Gineris, Beth, Turning No to ON: The Art of Parenting with Mindfulness. Createspace: Charleston, NC, 2011.
Gineris, Beth, Turning Me to WE: The Art of Partnering with Mindfulness. Createspace: Charleston, NC, 2013.
Holmes, Jeremy, Attachment, Intimacy, Autonomy. Jason Aronson, Inc: Northvale, New Jersey, 1996.
(Gesell, Ames, and Ilg – any of their books on child development.)
Discover where you are in the Temperament and the MAAPS section. You can see how you see the world, and whether you have an attachment that is creating problems in our relationships. MAAPS will help you to discern your insecurities and understand how and what underlies how you developed your insecurity driver (Money, Achievement, Attachment,Power, Structure). in love and light, bg
I perceive men and women to be two aspects to a whole; that masculine and feminine (yang and yin) energy create a wholeness within each being, and together for partnering. As with many species the masculine and feminine aspects of the whole are different due to what roles each take within the milieu of the species, and this also varies for each human. So that men and women, each, are comprised of masculine and feminine aspects, for Jung that is like anima and animus within each man and woman, or from the Taoist and Confucian traditions yang and yin.
Feminism would have been better to focus on the concept of equity. So that if a woman was built such that she could carry a gun and fight in a war she could/would have the opportunity to do so..and be paid equally, and if a woman chose to care for her children enter and leave the workforce, her choices, would be supported and honored by the feminist movement.
Women (and Men) supporting all women’s choices increasing the opportunities that were available to women would have been a more fruitful role of the feminist movement.
Instead the leaders and proponents of feminism created a hierarchy of what was acceptable and honored by feminists. What feminism did was demoralize and put down women who chose to do work that the feminist movement was working against, while uplifting the kind of work that was seen as important (an example of this was the attacks on mrs Romney and mrs bush in the media, and by feminists in general, or at least the complete ignoring of how these women were demoralized by the media– ie: treating mrs Romney like she had no value in her opinion because she had ‘never worked’ because ‘all she did was run the household, and raise four or five children on her own, while her husband was working outside the home’).
This lack of outrage, when women who were choosing to take roles that were not supported by feminist theory were attacked, is a form of control. It is a yang style of controlling the message of what being a strong woman is as well as educating the younger generation of women to direct them into specific action, or be left alone without the support of the group (feminists).
This style of control is yang in nature. And the activities supported by the feminist movement values Yang energy and yang roles (aggressive, and pushing up and out energy) over Yin energy and yin roles (caregiving, creative from within, concretizing and supporting energy). Yang is masculine. Yin is feminine. For balance both are required. Focus on one over another results in imbalance.
This is the masculinization of femininity through feminism -> feminists putting down traditional roles and defining what roles were valuable… Focussing on developing yang aspects of femininity over the yin aspects — therefore making yang more valuable than yin. This has negatively affected the whole balance of the species and society.
I see this most starkly with reference to parenting and to a lesser extent on the arguments for abortion at any time for any reason.
The issue of parenting, childrearing and leading through caregiving and passage of culture to children through childrearing is a most powerful and positive role that had been generally embraced by women. Today’s feminists, and the feminists of the nineties through the millennium, have so aligned with the power potential through the yang aspects of power that they have essentially discarded this role. Some say this is in the effort to get women to be taken seriously in the workforce; others more privately report they remember their mothers were not taken seriously or did not have the freedom and power of their gender counterparts and so these women have simply dissected that role from their repertoire of roles.
If, the Feminist focus was on equally representing the value of parenting, running the home- which is like a CEO of a company- even the vast work involved in the running of the many charities that women who are not working outside the home participate in and develop, then it would have increased the value in childbearing, and the recognition that childrearing imparts the beliefs and values of society —
This is the reason that in countries where women are truly repressed, through control of their bodies, highly limited freedom, and the lack of education, the women are unable to effect a positive role in the upbringing of the children and so unable to create a shift away from the demoralization of women in those countries. In America where women have much more freedom, access to education, and greater choice in how they choose to partner, work and live…and thus the ability to create change as part of a group, (which feminism could have offered to women), we have diminished the importance of education, childrearing, charity work, community work and many yin aspects of negotiation, collaboration, compassion, and finding ways to not compete but to strengthen through collaborative work – valuing all parts of the whole not just the winner/ yang aspect.
Feminism has let whole generations down in the out of control focus on yang energy and the masculinization of the feminine.
The focus on individuality- increasing a women’s ‘power’ to have the same ‘rights’ as a man to be free to do whatever she wants, has left no one to help to create the fabric of community which is often the feminine yin role. And it has most negatively affected yin capacities in the social network… Education childrearing, compassion, collaboration.
Competition, power-over in a hierarchical fashion– ever moving upward – all yang aspects are the stronger focus– and many of the civil rights issues of today (not of the sixties for black Americans) are about being accomplished primarily through the very actions that the victimized group is saying shouldn’t be done… This is not transcending the problem to actually uplevel. That was the beauty of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi, they transcended the anger and the hatred to connect at the human level. They did not attack the perpetrators, but really acted in the way they were requesting of others to act toward their cause.
This is what feminism could do but not what feminism has done. That’s why I call feminism the masculinization of femininity.
Here is an example of feminism in action, young women ostracizing, dismissing, and labeling – saying on one hand that everyone is welcome, and that tolerance of all was paramount, but their specific actions were to be exclusive and not even allow a young woman to speak, based on a label.
Transcending the problem incorporating yin and yang elements to balance would have resulted in an elevation of consciousness wherein women are not discriminated against nor are children or men. To see how children are being harmed by this course of focus by the feminist movement read part 3 of this series. in love and light, bg
Humans are softwired for sociability, attachment, affection, companionship, there is a drive to belong…through mirror neurons in the human brain. This is how humans learn how to relate to one another.
It appears that this is also something observed or understood to be part of the dolphin, dog, elephant, and primate brains too. If you ever watched, Chimpanzee by Disney (2012) you observed this phenomenon in action as you followed Oscar’s development in his chimpanzee community. In this film there were outside group’s attacks that landed Oscar an orphan…none of the other females would take him in…finally he started to follow around the alpha male who ultimately took him under his care and showed him how to live in the society…the act of the highest member of the group caretaking over the lowest status member of the group was unheard and unseen in previous observations of chimpanzees over the last forty years.
This change in behavior gives me a sense of possibility for consciousness elevation for the human species. If humans can respond to stress without aggression toward each other, without in-group and out-group fighting, the planet and the species that populate it might have a chance.
This is a big IF, so far with our big brains we have just figured out how to manipulate others rather than actually uplevel…but there have been a few who understood the importance of turning the other cheek, rising above, seeing self in other…the larger than life main characters in some of the spiritual stories like Buddha, Sri Krishna, and Jesus…and there have been human leaders, male, Sitting Bull, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Mandela, the Dalai Lama and female, Eva Peron, Augn San Suu Kyi, Malala Yousafzai, Betty Williams, and Mother Theresa.
Today I watched the 9/11 memorial museum opening speeches, and what struck me was the focus from the speakers on how we are all connected and how it was that idea that drove the many heroic actions that saved many lives on the tragic day o f september 11, 2001. That message is the kind of message that rights and resets a course that is spinning off. It could positively affect the population of the world. In order to rise above aggression, connection and collaboration are required. It is necessary for the attacked to discern a way to respond that does not escalate a situation. This is active not passive.
There is a quote that states, you cannot simultaneously prepare for war and peace at the same time. This relates to the mindset required for each as being very different.
How to respond to attack is the most important aspect in a fight. When the parties are in sync with each other and connected, the attackee need not be defensive but rather work to discern the underlying cause of the attack and seek to right that issue. Thereby the fight can be deflected, deflated and redefined.
When the parties are not in sync with each other how the attackee responds is of the utmost importance. This requires a mindful, multidimensional response. It is in this arena that governments get stymied, they must defend while working toward peace…which is a difficult process. Still it is important to remember those mirror neurons, to remember that humans are all of the same species and it is the cultural differences which separate humans from each other creating in-groups and out-groups. Drilling down to discern where and how the groups are related is the key, to focus on connection and reset relationships from this space.
If the focus of the government was to teach mindful meditation, to focus on increasing critical thinking, to encourage debate of the difficult issues without hatefulness, to support spiritual practices especially those that are inclusive, to align with the underdog without divisively turning against the overdog…then a real shift in temperament and consciousness would follow. There would be an eruption of empathy, connection, kindness, and collaboration.
The following video sets up a way of seeing the human species as all connected to one another and humans intimately connected to other species and the natural planet. It allows for a conversation to raise the consciousness of the planet.
The empathic civilization
Since these mirror neurons are in you and your peers, your children, and your enemies, you can begin today to reset how you are responding to difficult situations. This matters to those who matter to you and for those with whom you have influence. Just do it. Practice mindfulness, meditation, and verbal aikido, (11.28.12 blog). Be willing to discover what is underneath the defensiveness, anger and attack. Look for a way to connect and practice peace-building to reset normal, reset your level of consciousness and elevate the consciousness of your community. May you find peace in your lifetime Namaste, Shalom, in love and light, bg
You can find out more in Turning NO to ON: The Art of Parenting with Mindfulness, (Gineris 2011); Turning ME to WE: The Art of Partnering with Mindfulness, (Gineris 2013).
and discover where you are in the MAAPS section. This will help you to manage your insecurities and understand how and why you developed your insecurity driver (Money, Achievement, Attachment,Power, Structure). in love and light, bg
The feminist movement in the millennium and the masculinization of femininity. This is Part 1 in a series of 3.
In my early education I was taught to question accepted belief systems, as a way of clarifying the underlying paradigms and developing mindfulness. As the years have passed since my your, our world has changed. I notice that there is still a lot of questioning of traditional beliefs but I have noticed that alternative beliefs or beliefs identified as progressive are not as questioned among my peers. Perhaps it’s because it feels like it’s proven to my peers; additionally, there is this energy that finally these non-traditional ideas are now taking hold, so there is no need to question them…but I think it’s a good thing to evaluate what you believe from the inside out, and see if what is being created is actually a better situation or needs more fine-tuning.
I often find I am standing in the center of a controversial subject, which is to say that I see points of view from both sides; I experience my conclusion to these controversies is not fully in alignment to either side…so I find myself alone, a lot, outside of either group….
Just because something is popular, doesn’t make it right…and sometimes the thing that is right: sound and just, isn’t popular.
Belief systems are set in the center of the social milieu…what sociologists call location in time. As an example, in the fifties in America drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes while pregnant was completely acceptable…today there are prohibitions not only legally and socially but also medically for doing such, because it has been determined that alcohol and cigarettes have deleterious effects on the developing baby in a woman’s womb.
So the idea of feminism has been applied to various social issues. My concept of feminism seems to be different from how the word is interpreted by various groups. From my perspective the idea of feminism is inclusive of elevating the opportunities and rights of women…not exchanging rights or limiting rights, or diminishing women who choose more traditional roles. Feminists should on the face of their actions support women, all women. They should actually stand up for each other and not create a divisive set of good women and bad women groups. Feminism should entail a broad set of beliefs that are inclusive of the roles women choose, should provide support to women figures that have attained a positive power role in society and should focus on increasing opportunity for women. At the least feminism should not be a way to deride women who are participating in traditional roles or who have chosen to be conservative versus liberal…this action alone is hypocritical and deflates the positive aspects of the feminist social movement.
These individuals have each overcome tremendous adversity and attained a position of influence and clarity in their specific fields. And yet, rather than being supported or defended by the feminist movement leaders, their treatment is either ignored or the feminist leaders are complicit in deriding the women. I understand this is sociological group behavior, ostracize behavior seen unacceptable by the ruling group leaders…and it is not popular today to be conservative, it is not popular today to go against the current progressive belief systems and it is not popular today to be in any way affiliated with the finance community…but the fact that the feminist movement is choosing which roles are acceptable and which roles are not is simply another way to control women and limit their choices which is the opposite of the goal of feminism. It is a real war on women, driven by women.
Feminism has unfortunately taken a bifurcated, and skewed course over its reign, since the late 1800s. I perceive that indeed some actions supported and advocated under feminist ideas are actually limiting women’s rights and opportunities, while others are increasing women’s freedom and equality in the American society.
By analyzing the course of feminism with a neutral perspective, unencumbered by the propaganda of the feminist movement, I have come to a few vastly different conclusions than the current progressive belief systems taught in university.
I perceive Feminism of the sixties as a paradigm of increasing the opportunities for women to participate in sexual relationships without the threat of having to deal with pregnancy or child-rearing. This is directly related to the development of the birth control pill. Women wanted the freedom they observed in their gender counterparts…This is one of the main driving forces behind feminism and ‘civil rights’ of women and is the issue that is behind women’s rights in areas where women’s sexuality are severely controlled by the society in which they live. This is a far more pressing issue in countries other than America… ie: where women are ritually circumcised to reduce the degree of sexual pleasure they experience in sex — this is to control women. This aspect of feminism is akin to women’s voting rights of the suffragist movement. Both of these aspects of feminism have greatly increased women’s rights as human being and their equality to their gender counterparts in society. I perceive to be of great importance.
Another important issue of feminism is to recognize the importance of equal pay for equal work, this was first in play in the forties and then returned in the eighties and nineties when women began to identify the glass ceiling in corporate America. It was at this time that the power suit came into play. It brought with it a shift away from creating more choice for women and extending opportunity to choosing which kind of behavior was favored by the feminist movement. This was the beginning of an accepted persecution of women whom they felt didn’t support this focus. This resulted in a fracturing of the feminist movement.
Pushing Yang (active, competitive, masculine energy) over Yin (feminine energy, inner creation, collaboration), the movement attacked women directly for their personal free choice of how to work, marry, and participate in society. Value was placed on ‘doing man’s work, in the corporate and political world. Working at home, caring for children, and traditional roles were devalued.
Women are in general paid less than men how much less depends a little of whether you are comparing apples to oranges. The amount less for similar work is now around 5% less – so an amazing good score for the efforts of feminists in this arena. But at what cost has this been achieved? The means of achieving it has created other unintended consequences (see more in part 2, and part 3 of this series).
Society and location in time have a lot to do with the original pay discrepancy and how things have changed today. A change started in the forties, the fifties created a lull in that change, but as part of the sixties movement this began to change. The nineties addressed this through a changing focus on gender roles. It has been shifting to a more equal compensation in the last ten years.
In the fifties, a man worked to support a family (children and a wife) and women worked to support one. This was partly due to the culture of the fifties that women worked in the home and men worked outside the home. So the employer tended to pay accordingly. As women became more highly educated and interested in working outside the home the shift in the marketplace represented that societal shift.
Several issues plagued the movement toward equal pay: specifically biological limits of childbearing (women are limited in the range for safely getting pregnant while men can conceive over twice the number of years), childrearing (although daycare and equality for men to stay at home and raise the children came into action in the nineties, for the most part this role fell to women).
So men stayed in the workforce and at that company while women left to have children, get married, and tended to leave to follow their partners. Additionally, from a sociological perspective men were mentored to move into the areas of business which were on the fast track to moving up the corporate ladder, marketing, sales while women were mentored into human service which dead ended at middle management or areas away from the ladder; this appears to have a connection to the issues of having the freedom to child bear and child rear and still be in the workplace.
Okay so fast forward to now: due to the no contest divorce effects, (IHM march 13, 2014 blog) and other factors, more women are having to support children without the help of men and so that fifties concept no longer applies.
Additionally, women no longer wait to have babies in a committed/married/partnered relationship. There a number of circumstances where women are not supported by the other parent indeed sometimes the other contributor is the federal or state government through Medicaid and other funding, including women who choose to parent via IVF as single parents.
So equal pay is a more appropriate response to the societal change and is a good place for feminism to focus on when supporting the rights of women.
When you do a statistical analysis that really takes into account these issues, time in the workforce, and job choice, the difference between genders is less than 5% for pay for similar jobs, according to new studies out this year.
In this arena feminism has done a great job to move forward the importance of equalizing the attitude toward women in the workforce and their value there.
But I propose the course of doing this by the feminist movement resulted in the masculinization of femininity which has had an unintended consequence of creating a harmful imbalance in society resulting in separating ‘good feminist women’ from ‘bad feminist women’ based on the roles they chose to play in society AND creating a serious breakdown of the psychosocial development of generations of children. To see how read part 2, and part 3 of this series. offered in love and light bg
This is a reblog of ..your internal MAAPS of relationship… Money, Achievement, Attachment, Power and Structure the security drivers that focus you in relationship and either create connection or limit how you can connect and partner. If you have this book in your library and have enjoyed it, found it useful, and want others to know about it – please go to amazon.com and write a lovely review for it – so that others can see how great it is. It turns out that your good reviews (4 and 5 stars) move the book up the ladder so that it will show up more quickly in searches and more people can get help from this comprehensive relationship resource book. Thank you friends! in love and light bg…and those followers who haven’t gotten the book yet, check out the link at the end of the article.
To have a powerful, positive, and mutually satisfying relationship you need to decipher the code to your map. Turning ME to WE: The Art of Partnering with Mindfulness (Gineris 2013)offers insight into how your create your inner map in relationship, what kind of relationship feels secure to you, and what drives that security.
Relationships are complex. We use a map to partner. This map is designed from these intersecting coordinates
Your temperament,
Your social group connections,
The prevailing Cultural beliefs of Your location in time,
And, your security drivers from your psychosocial childhood development: What I call MAAPS
The key to navigating relationship is to discover what drives YOU to partner, what a good partner LOOKS like to your heart, mind, and body blueprint. And when…
Sound waves, ocean waves, and seismic waves are all called mechanical energy waves. These have the ability to move through matter. Vibration and sound have the power to heal.
Sound is a powerful healer.
Consider the effect certain songs have on you. The effect of a song is not only related to your psychological connection to it in the development of your life, but also to the tone and harmony of it, and how it relates to your internal energetic systems. Classical music and the Beatles have the ability to create a sense of balance, this is directly related to the healing power of sound.
All the senses have a healing effect. Sight, Taste, smells (scent), Touch and Sound are all powerful avenues to balance your physical body. Each of these senses offers an avenue to connect Spirit, Mind, and Body.
Taste: In Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine, specific flavors positively align your body based on which elements are out of balance. Bitter for Fire (Red): Heart/small Intestine channel (think discernment and a lack of joy or out of balance mania); Sweet for Earth (yellow-orange): Spleen/stomach channel disharmonies (think worry, pensiveness, depression); Pungent or Bland for Metal (white): Lung/large Intestine disharmonies ( think OCD, grief, lack of breath, difficulty with holding on or letting go; difficulty in choosing due to not knowing authentic self); Salty for Water (black): kidney/Bladder disharmonies ( think fear, phobias, stuck due to inability to choose best action due to fear, staying in harmful situation, deep insecurity due to life/death trauma); Sour for Wood (green): liver/gall bladder disharmonies (think anger, shame, rage, inability to forgive, hyper-vigilance). These tastes help to bring into balance the interactive five element systems. You can find more here: http://www.yogitimes.com/article/five-chinese-elements-cleanse-release-clarify/
Sight/Color: There are many ways you can use color to help in healing. You may use colors in reference to food, as above. There are specific mantras and chakra connections for specific colors. See more here: https://instinctivehealthmedicine.com/2013/06/22/life-lessons-in-relationships-energy-and-color/ . Additionally focus on positive images, make an effort to dismiss and release negative images. There are studies that show that humans (and other highly developed mammals, elephants, dogs, dolphins and whales, and chimpanzees, gorillas, and monkeys) have mirror neurons. These mirror neurons are in our brains and affect how we choose to be in the world; what we see affects our perceptions at an integral level. So the more you can see positive, interactive, high level consciousness behavior the more you will actualize this kind of civilization. More about this in future posts.
Smell/scent is a powerful healing tool as well. Consider that the most powerful sense is smell for memory and recognition. Partners often find the scent of their partner to be the most appealing aspect of their connection. Babies know their mother by her scent. The brain connection for your olfactory sense is directly connected to your limbic system which underscores the visceral aspect of this sense. I use Do-terra oils in my practice to cleanse and release unwanted or unneeded negative beliefs held in the auric field. Here are a few suggestions: https://instinctivehealthmedicine.com/2010/03/11/energy-breath-and-balance/ .
Touch/the feeling sensation has been studied for many years. Healing touch is one of the most powerful healing tools. This is related to both the psychological experience of not being alone and the desire for humans to feel connected, (one of the primary softwire drivers in the human brain system, as supported by the importance of mirror neurons and how they drive the development of empathy), and to the physical system of your muscles. Along your skin and within the muscle is a set of nerves they are constantly informing your brain about situations as safe or not and what is happening to the body, so that your brain can take an action. These systems fire when there is discomfort or an injury. They turn off or return to a lower setting when the area that is firing is touched…consider the immediate tendency to touch your finger (knee, hip. shoulder etc) when you bump or hit it. Or how this action calms a child when s/he is injured…indeed that is a perfect example of the healing power of touch. Resetting a system that has ben firing for years is the work involved in the treatment of myofacial trigger points, fibromyalgia and post traumatic stress disorder. Massage, acupuncture, and Reiki all utilize methods to reset the body through touch.
So let’s talk about sound. Sound is a powerful healing tool.
If sound waves are mechanical energy waves that can move through matter, then it clarifies how sound can clear out and heal blockages in your chakras, your physical body, and your emotional and auric fields.
Sound in conjunction with color, scents, and mindful meditation to clarify your thinking work together very efficiently. I have found that the longer a block has been manifesting in your body the more difficult it is to release it. Children respond very quickly to resetting through sound and smell. When you combine tools you have a more efficient and less drastic release, almost as if the negativity simply peels off and is transformed.
There are specific sounds for each chakra:
c,d,e,f,g,a,b are the notes for the seven chakras typically identified. The toning bowls that sound at each of these notes can assist in healing these specific chakras.
In addition, my Kototama teacher, dr. Jeffrey Meyer, taught me that chanting the vowels: eh, ee, ah, O, oo in a repeated fashion with one breath can align the various chakras through aligning the five elements in your visceral and etheric system.
You can listen to a small scale of this chanting here: Healing Sound.
When you are feeling out of balance you can use this technique to center yourself and align your physical and spiritual self. You may notice certain sounds are easier, stronger, or more difficult this gives you an idea of where you may be out of balance. As you develop an understanding of the connection between the sounds and the elements, you may utilize this connection and sound to heal yourself.
Even without this level of awareness you can feel yourself strengthening and balancing by repeating the sequence with your breath until you feel the shift and rebalancing. Listen again to the above link, you may notice the difference in strength and alignment from the first to the third toning in the above audio link.
There are crystal bowls for c#, d#, f#, g# and b#.
There is evidence that new energy centers are developing within our chakra system that correspond with these sharp notes. These can assist you in developing your capacity for breath, the diaphragm chakra (d#) or in opening the thymus or higher heart chakra (f#) which can assist with increased immunity, as well as the Zeal point or Mouth of God chakra at the base of the occiput,( g#), which assists with compassion and telepathy, a deeper connection with spirit and the universe. I have not investigated the evidence about the relationships between these centers and astrology, but this figure offers a sense of the new chakra configuration and sounds. I have been using the e, f#, and g# in my practice and find these sounds to be profoundly healing.
Here is a link to all the newly developing chakras and sounds, crystal singing bowls.
As you are developing your understanding of these bowls, chakras and sounds, you may also want to address blockages in your thinking or beliefs.
Work with the first set of chakras first, root, sacral, and solar plexus as these will help to keep you grounded as you move into higher energetic realms. You can use color to amplify the strength of these chakras. Meditation on the chakra will enhance your clarity about what you need and how well balanced you are.
You may want to work with these blockages by simply using cognitive inversions, reframing the difficulties into gifts and aligning with the power of gratitude, compassion, and forgiveness.
Acupuncture, energy work, therapy, journaling, yoga and breathwork are all helpful in realigning with your true power and integrated self.
Yoga is an excellent source of support, because it utilizes breath attention, and intention in an integrated way to align your spirit, mind and body. Through Yoga you are increasing the amount of light you are pulling into your energetic system. It helps to lengthen your spine so that you can actually hold more light.
Recognize that you have the power to heal within in you simply through accessing your internal sensory guidance system. You are a sensory, spirit being. Develop and exercise your muscle of attention and intention this will strengthen your intuition and you access to health immediately.
Breath, toning and sound, clarification of your intent, all, will create an opportunity for you to elevate your consciousness. Embrace the power to heal within yourself and clear the path to a new level of consciousness in thought and action. in love and light, bg
dr beth gineris, dr laura wolf, (of Wolf Acupuncture), and chris wolf will be together at Mama’s Minerals in Albuquerque, NM to demonstrate and offer Sound Healing in real time come out and join us for an amazing day of Healing, Saturday May 10, 2014, 10-3 Mama’s Minerals Alternative Fair Info. We have developed an ibook download that you can use at your convenience and we will be demonstrating its power there. Discover the amazing power you have within to heal yourself, in love and light, bg
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