The Importance of Connection
Just over a week ago I had the privilege of bringing together 19 brave and beautiful women to honor the Summer Solstice in retreat. These women chose to step away from their lives and connect deeply to themselves and to each other. They held space for one another with loving reverence, poured on the kindness and compassion, and engulfed each other with respect.
It was a truly magical experience filled with movement, breath, deep rest, intentionality, sharing, laughter, tears, hugs, and joy.
I am reminded of the importance of connection.
Connection reminds us that we are not alone.
Connection reminds us of our shared humanity.
This experience emphasized how crucial and powerful it is to consciously connect with other women. Heart-to-heart, soul-to -soul, truth-to-truth. Raw, real, authentic, and vulnerable connections.
Children, partners, jobs, and endless responsibilities keep us moving and grooving in life but too many of us remain in a state of isolation and loneliness. The village is gone and we have to consciously choose to take steps to create it ourselves.
It is so easy to fall into the trap of feeling like we are alone in our struggles and equally alone in our joys. The potency of coming together in a safe space where we can be exactly who we are is immeasurable. When the barriers of our shared humanity make themselves known, we are seen, and we have the opportunity to soothe our weary souls.
There is something miraculous that happens when we get into our bodies and connect with our hearts to each other.
Choosing to take the space to connect with ourselves in intimate ways and showing up with others from that integrated and embodied place is empowering. When we drop the pretenses of how we should be or do or act…our systems have the opportunity to reorganize and heal in new ways.
Retreat and other platforms of authentic connection are moments to drop in, to feel our wholeness, our brokenness, and our aliveness.
We can then choose to engage our lives integrating all of those pieces - shaping who we are at our core and dropping us right into that space of self-love. This is where we take up residence with our most genuine and truthful selves – real, raw, messy, beautiful, wholly embodied, and full of exactly who we are.
When we are in authentic connection we feel seen, we feel nourished, and we feel alive. The shame of our humanness lifts and we have the opportunity to gain the resource and capacity to step even further out into the world empowered and upright.
When we open ourselves up in a group and see that no one is running away and we feel how much closer we are as a result...that's where the healing happens.
When we are able to have those deeper level conversations and connections and are fully present for the whole gamut of emotions….that’s when the healing happens.
When we share our hearts, our tears, our challenges and tribulations, raw laughter and unabashed joy....that is when the healing happens.
May we create change on the planet beginning with nurturing our connection to ourselves and allowing that to ripple out towards each other.
May we continuously step towards connection, shedding our perceived barriers, and opening up to each other with authenticity and vulnerability.
May we continuously create moments of connection with others to remember our web of interconnection and shared humanity.
We are all in this together.