Women of Substance
Shakti Tantra Workshop Review
“And your body is the harp of your soul, and it is yours to bring forth sweet music from it or confused sounds.” ― Kahlil Gibran
Women of Substance is the fourth of five levels of the women-only workshops Tantra organisation, Shakti Tantra offers. For me, this level took a different turn ― inwards.
Up until now, each level has felt somewhat outward oriented. That’s not to say there haven’t been moments for reflection, introspection, and contemplation (there has); rather, this was the level where we began to explore ― within a beautiful, safely contained setting ― the deep-rooted mental, emotional, and psychological demons that deny our pleasure and constrict our relationships with ourselves and others.
As far as I’m concerned, just getting this far shows you’re a Woman of Substance. Everything we encountered and experienced during the three-day workshop took us deeper into the unexplored and energetically blocked recesses of our bodies and psyches.
You may wonder what we got up to. As always, my lips are sealed. This isn’t something you could understand from a cool, uninitiated distance. You have to breathe it, feel it, cry it, laugh it. You have to drop the shit, shake it off (which you do at each of the preceding levels). By the time you reach this level, you do wonder what else they could possibly throw at you, what stones are left unturned.
As per usual, they have plenty.
Don’t let me give the impression it was all hard work, though. There was one structure that made me so happy, so grateful to be alive, I cried smiles. Never has my body felt as nourished as it did after experiencing this particular exercise. Never. I sparkled and shimmered, undulated and laughed. Damn it felt good. I’ve long intuited the body harboured many delicious secrets; that it was capable of producing melodies and harmonies so sweet, so skin-tingingly exquisite… but only if you’re open and relaxed enough to consciously receive. And therein lies the challenge ― to believe yourself worthy and deserving of receiving the loving, undivided attention of another (which is what the work at each of the previous levels is all about ― preparation, preparation, preparation).
The other thing about being open to receive, is it spreads its tentacles and doesn’t remain contained in just one area of your life. As I always say to clients, transformation cannot be conveniently compartmentalised ― change changes everything. So, since level three where the nut was finally cracked and I finally understood, experientially, that it takes great strength and courage to be vulnerable and open enough to receive consciously, my mantra today, albeit quiet, is ‘I do deserve’. And in believing I deserve, my life has begun to blossom.
This workshop also further reinforced that the body isn’t something ‘bad’, something to be punished, flagellated. It’s a magnificent, beautiful, sacred manifestation of the divine. It’s worthy of being respected, celebrated, enjoyed. Throughout this process I’ve gradually come to love my body. Little by little, step by step, I’ve fallen in love with her. And I don’t mean that in a trite, clichéd way ― I mean that from depths I never felt before I did this work. Where I once beasted her with arduous exercise regimes, hid her in shame, filled her with junk, I now revel in her beauty, marvel with a heart wide open at her sensuous nuances.
Bring on the fifth and final week-long level in September ― Ecstasy.
(For further information on Shakti Tantra’s work click here to visit their website.)
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