Removing the shackles.

I believe that we all have access to a power within us that has for many of us been buried deep under layers of cultural conditioning, situations that we have been through in our lives that have held us back, and perhaps times where we haven't felt safe to truly be ourselves. Maybe it even goes deeper back to our ancestors or previous lifetimes. Some might even say that we have had to hide our magic and our power until a time when it was safe to share it with the world.

I like to see what is going on within the body through a more spiritual lens and often I feel that imbalances within our hormones and our cycles can sometimes be linked to many of these reasons that we might not be able to fully express this power, both individually and collectively too.

This isn't the case for everyone of course and there are always a multitude of possible physical, spiritual, emotional causes for all imbalances within the body, but I have noticed for some people, as well as myself, our hormone imbalances are like a window to show us how we can return to our centre and allow more of this power within us to rise.

Working with the body physically by looking after our hormone health and taking into account the spiritual aspects too can be one way to support all parts of ourselves and bring about greater balance. I feel that when we work with physically balancing our hormones as well as energetic work then we are supporting our body to be able to hold this power and to remember our magic.

I know that for many years I didn't feel my self, knew that there was more to life than I was experiencing and perhaps more to me too, I felt like something was missing. Throughout that time I had an ongoing struggle with heavy and painful periods, going on and off the contraceptive pill and the coil but never feeling quite right.

I noticed that when I chose to listen to my body and try to heal my hormonal imbalance physically through diet and lifestyle, it was also very much linked with a feeling of slowly removing all the shackles that were tying me down, holding me back and preventing me from being my true self.

And with the women I have worked with over the years this is often the case. Quite often we wont even get to the practical hormone balancing, but symptoms of hormone balance will improve as a result of slowing down, taking time and removing those things that are holding people back from being their true selves. In addition though, by making the more practical lifestyle changes to support hormones and health, women will feel they have the energy to begin changing their lives and taking their power back.

I definitely feel that beginning to work on balancing my hormones naturally was that small step I needed to realise that my life was very out of balance. All of that time I had known that there was more to life but I had felt that my current life had a hold on me and there was no way to do anything different.

Starting to connect back to my cycle and being able to remove my coil I know gave me back just enough of my power to leave my job and then my husband, both situations where I had felt unhappy and had not been able to see my way out. Looking back now I realise that working in a patriarchal institution, being in an abusive relationship and having my cycles suppressed were all linked, they were all ways that had disconnected me from my life force energy and feminine power. But I also understand that this was as much to do with me as the world around me. I needed to take that first step by choosing to reclaim my power and that step is often the hardest when you feel like the life has been sucked out of you.

Because we have lived in a world that has been dominated by an unhealthy balance of masculine and feminine for a while and it like it is embedded in the structure of our society-it is in our institutions and it is certainly in the way we treat health, especially womens health. So many things that we do that we may think are 'normal' within society are actually an expression of this, food, lifestyle, lighting, a world so disconnected from the rhythms and cycles of life. And through all of these things women's power is being suppressed both individually and collectively.

But It is there waiting for us to remove some of these shackles, to give it a little bit of space and rise up within us, and through us to be brought back into our relationships, back into our institutions, back into the way we see health, and into the world.

I had so many years feeling I just had no life force left in me but all the while she was there waiting to rise, She had just become so held down by all these shackles that I couldn't hear her calling to me....until I really began to listen. As soon as I began to listen she showed me everything that I needed to break free and allow her to rise.

And I knew that this wasn't just happening within me this is a reflection of the rising of the feminine in the world around us, a remembering of what we have controlled and tied down and forgotten for all these years. But it's time now to take off these shackles and to let her rise, and we can all start with ourselves.

That first step although the simplest it often the hardest and it is making that commitment to yourself, to listen, choosing yourself, and knowing that you do have everything you need within you, that you are worthy of taking this step and that you are so so needed.

My biggest lessons too always though is that the result is more about what it is that you find through listening, through making space for yourself, and that your body is not letting you down whatever you may be experiencing.

I don't feel this is always about fixing or curing anything, my body still speaks to me with various 'symptoms' . Healing is remembering that you are already whole regardless. Sometimes I feel that out bodies can hold the map to that, and it's whispers can be our guide ❤️

Through my hormone imbalance my body was showing me where I was out of balance, it was asking me to remove these things that were controlling me or rather asking me to stop letting myself be controlled by things outside of myself.... But we are all different. And we all have different stories to share. What might your body be asking of you?

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Elena Mary, Body Soul Alignment