Darling,

Women’s health is just one of the topics that we delve into, in The School of Womanly Arts Mastery Program.
We don’t just delve, we reconsecrate, reassemble and generally completely overhaul a woman’s relationship to her body.
And this past weekend, as I was delivering this glorious reconsecration, I was up to my arse in the statistics that pertain to women’s health, right now:

• 1 in 4 women will experience depression
• 2 in 10 women will get breast cancer
• Heart disease causes 1 in 3 women’s deaths each year, killing one woman a minute
• 1 in 5 women struggle with an eating disorder

And I am deeply in love with this group of over 300 women who are currently in Mastery.
And deeply deeply beyond in love with the thousands and thousands of women who have graduated from my classes and read my books, over these past 16 years.
And every cell in my body galvanized in a huge NO. NO.
Not my Sisters. Never again. No.
I do not want to lose another Sister to these afflictions, some of which are absolutely preventable.

And here I am, standing in the question that has dominated my life for the past 50 years.
I am a searcher, a seeker. An awakener.
I have been asking myself over and over — I want to know with every fiber of my being — what is it going to take?
What is it going to take to make the personal political for women?
What is it going to take for a woman to awaken to her extreme value? Her irrevocable preciousness? Her importance? Her divinity? What is it going to take to change a woman’s mind about her significance?

With this incredible incubator called The School of Womanly Arts, I have learned one thing for sure:
It’s not anger.

We have been playing that tune since Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton fought for oh so many decades, to win our right to vote.
Women have been fighting for almost 200 years.
Fighting for equal pay. Fighting to own property. Fighting for equal opportunity. Fighting for education. Fighting breast cancer. Fighting the international epidemic of abuse.
And I have noticed something.
Anger has failed to ignite and galvanize women.
Which initially, made me angry.
Because I wanted to fix it NOW.
But I have found out that there is something so much more powerful than anger.
So much more creative, so much more infectious, so much more potent.
So very much more powerful. 

Remembering. Sisterhood.
Remembering.
Sisterhood.
Remembering in its fullness. Not just to recall, or retain the memory. But to return to an original shape or form after being deformed or altered.

Women have not returned to their original shape or form in 5,000 years.
It’s been so long, we have forgotten our true nature.
We have no recollection of our true power.
Our true magnificence, the breathtaking privilege of what it means to be a woman. We have no idea. We have no idea that we are capable. Worthy. Powerful beyond measure.

We keep measuring ourselves against men, and failing miserably.
Which pisses us off even more, both at ourselves, and each other.

Anger does not heal.
Anger does not create community.
Anger doesn’t solve inertia — sisterhood does.

Remembering Sisterhood.
What do I mean by remembering sisterhood?
For the past 5,000 years, women have been used to relating through mutual victimization.
I am talking about remembering long past patriarchy, way before victimhood, and turning on and tuning in to a time when women were revered and celebrated, where we acknowledged ourselves and were acknowledged by our communities as the creatrixes of life itself.

Where is this treasure trove of recognition buried?
How can we begin to excavate, and then, to harvest?
A woman can locate herself most profoundly in the depth of community.
Not alone.
Alone she is worse than fragile. Her delicate thread of connection can snap in a moment, throwing her whole system off balance, affecting her physical and mental health. Her healthy connection to herself and her power happens most profoundly when she is a gorgeous thread in a tapestry of sisterhood.
My brilliance lives, reflected back to me, in the eyes of my sisters. When I stand for another woman’s greatness, I ground myself securely and even more deeply in my own. (Click to tweet!)
When I am in a community of turned-on, tuned-in women, I am not just the source for everything and everyone in my life, but I am sourced and fueled by my tribe.

The consequence? Mental health. Physical health. A body fueled by nitric oxide, which is the antidote to stress. The cortisol that is released by stress wreaks havoc on the body. It can create inflammation, which can lead to stress-induced illnesses, such as heart disease, cancer, depression and eating disorders. And all that cortisol is ameliorated by nothing more and nothing less than turning on to sisterhood. And when my sisters are afflicted with life-threatening disease, it is sisterhood that gets them through it.

In the comments below, describe what has led you to connect with a deep sense of your own value, and how that connection impacts your health.
And please share how your health and well-being has been impacted by this incredible sisterhood.
If you have not yet encountered the Sister Goddess community, please share what you want from the experience of tribe.

In so much love and pleasure,

photo: lizlinder.com