This is what I see when I see a woman: a bundle of desires.
Even if she doesn’t think so, even if she doesn’t know so, even if she is in a place of lost.
Beneath the surface of her cultural cooperation beats a wild free heart filled with longing.
The only way to truly know her is to step with her inside the heart of what she wants, and say yes with her.
When I stand in front of the Mastery Classroom, day one, session one, and take a moment to take it all in, this is what I see: A room exploding with dreams.
Some of those dreams are full-trunked trees with limbs left to grow.
Some are tiny slim green shoots where you can’t quite yet tell what kind of plant it’s going to be. And some are bright bursting seeds, ready to buckle their shells and bloom into something.
The atmosphere in that room is as hot, moist, and boggy as a greenhouse in the winter. The smell of growth is everywhere. Helpless growth. Inevitable growth. Like wild vines in a jungle. It just cannot be stopped.
We all feel it.
And that is when every woman in the room starts to exhale.
For those of you joining me for Mastery this Spring, you’ll feel it first-hand this weekend.
Let me explain.
Attracted by the fragrance, we all come to the table of Desire in our own way. Sometimes with appetite flush and ravenous.
Or barely hungry, eating like a bird.
Starved with no table manners.
Suspicious, stealthy.
Distracted.
Nervous.
Fucking lusty and overjoyed.
A woman’s longing can show up in so many different ways.
Sometimes tiny, sometimes huge, and very often as a case of unrest that feels less like an idea and more like a nudge. There might be a hazy soft pull that bypasses the head and lives in the body. You may not know what you want, only that you want. That is the feminine. And it COUNTS. We’re just told it doesn’t.
Women have been told that whatever we want is wrong. Our hunger is wrong, our desires are unimportant, our longings are turned off.
Problem: Desires and dreams have feelings.
When we devalue them in any way, when we persistently ignore them, when we feel overwhelmed and drop them off the curb, they dry up and shrivel.
Leaving us with a strange sense of discomfort.
Our soul limps along, trying its best to shine. But the longer we sidestep our deepest longings (whether we know them or not), that strange sense of discomfort ultimately turns to downright paralysis.
But every single woman has the ingredients of sacred greatness. I know this like I know my own soul.
I have seen this come to fruition six days to Sunday, ten thousand times a minute. Check it out. Here are the ingredients:
1. A passion, a tug, an itch for something big, or something small, something that will upset hardwon homeostasis.
2. No idea how to make it real.
3. A deep suspicion you might not have what it takes.
4. A fear that upsetting the apple cart will lead to lots of spilt apples and nothing more.
And here are the things you do not need:
1. An impressive degree
2. Society’s idea of beauty
3. Experience
4. Lots of cash
5. Extreme talent
Discomfort is so very often viewed as a reason to stop exploring a longing.
Fear has upended so many visionaries-to-be.
Not knowing how to make it happen has cost the world so many women’s dreams.
And it’s only because we have no context and no experience for how to power up. The culture has spent the last 5,000 years disconnecting us from desire. Our work is to reconnect. To tend our longing. To learn again how to nurture our want.
The women in the Mastery classroom exhale because, together, they discover they’re not alone in not knowing what their biggest dreams for themselves are, they’re not alone in their fear of not figuring it out, they’re not alone in feeling flat or uninspired or, conversely, madly hungry for something. The women in the Mastery classroom exhale because they understand it’s not their fault. The women exhale because they realize what they long for can be learned. You reading this now on the bus or in your office or in bed, and whether I see you in my classroom or not, you can exhale too.
Those desires of yours don’t just have feelings. They have needs.
And what they need is consistent turn-on. Turn-on is fertilizer, mulch, sunshine, and moisture for a desire. It’s the jungle to the seed.
The womb to the embryo.
It’s where each of us gets to bring our inner sacred radiance to bear in the matter of how we choose to live our lives.
This is where we have absofuckinglutely no nada and nil training or encouragement as women.
And it’s that thing I was describing earlier, as I look into the Mastery room, on that very first day.
Desires start poking their heads out.
Getting all kinda giddy.
Knowing their moment hath doth arrived.
Mastery classroom is a greenhouse … shit’s gonna grow. Don’t matter if it’s a sprout or a redwood. You don’t even need to know what you want to plant. Sometimes it’s just time to give yourself the gift of getting the growing conditions just right. It’s enough — and it’s everything — to be turned on, to live turned-on, and to see what grows from that.
Love,
Regena Thomashauer, aka “Mama Gena”
The School of Womanly Arts
Regena is a feminist icon, a teacher, a speaker, a mother, a best-selling author, and creatrix and CEO of The School of Womanly Arts.
p.s. The Mastery “greenhouse” opens this weekend and there are just a few spots remaining. However clear (or unclear) your dreams for yourself, if you feel a pull, honor it. Call 212-787-2411 X 1 today to learn more or enroll.
MASTERY 2018 STARTS THIS WEEKEND
6 spots remaining! — Is one yours?
The School of Womanly Arts Mastery Program — Regena’s signature, internationally-renowned work — begins in under two weeks, and registration is nearly full. Mastery was created over 20 years ago, to be a road map for women to get unstuck, turned on, and thriving inside a deeply supportive community. It is an immersive, experiential course unlike anything else in the world, with a combination of live intensives in New York City with Regena — Mama Gena herself — and ongoing support structures in-between. Women come from around the globe to join the movement and change their lives. Are you thinking of joining them?
You can book an exploratory call with our team (Stacy, Lilly, or Lauren are ready for you) to ask questions and see if 2018 feels like your year for Mastery.
