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Making Time for Truth

Making Time for Truth

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Lucia Horan is offering a Moon Lodge retreat beginning on Mother’s day at the beautiful Lumeria Maui.

The times that we are navigating are asking us to find our way through together. We are learning that, with unity, we can come together and be seen. The Women’s March on January 21, 2017 brought voices from around the world together, becoming a global stand for human rights. We see the power of coming together to march, to raise our voices as one—a resounding demand to be seen, to be heard.

There is also a place that as women, we have lost touch with. It’s an inner place; a place of guidance, the place where our truth lives. We are out in the world, shaking things up, getting things done, taking care of business. We wonder then, why it feels hard to sit still, to listen to our own wisdom. I recently interviewed Glennon Doyle Melton, and when I asked her where to start when we feel lost and confused, she said to start with 10 minutes. “If (a woman) has 10 minutes a day she has all the spirituality she needs to know what to do. She can sit quietly and practice listening to the still small voice inside her that will tell her what to do—and then trust it.” She also says it’s important to take the pressure off by giving yourself permission to not act on it. “Tell yourself you don’t have to do anything about it now, but don’t pretend it’s not true.”

I’ve experienced the power of taking time everyday to listen to my own voice. As a daily practice, it’s illuminating, even in small doses. There is an ancient tradition that combines the listening and the gathering that is known as the Moon Lodge. The modern moon lodge has become a place to connect women, to celebrate sisterhood, and to honor the divine feminine.

Lucia Horan, a global retreat leader and teacher of 5Rhythms and Buddha-Dharma, describes the divine feminine:

The divine feminine is born with the power to transform. She appears in many forms; meaning there is a sacred nature to all faces that our life take as women. However, many women do not see the many faces of their existence as sacred. Instead they have an image of what beauty is based upon what is fed to us by the media.

It is a great challenge to see beyond the societal conditioning. From this expanded view rests the perspective that beauty comes from the inside. It is something that is felt rather than seen. In order to feel that, one must learn practices that bring qualities of sacredness, acceptance and appreciation to the body, just as we are. Through this process we begin to cultivate a relationship to ourselves that fosters well-being.

Through her workshops, Horan sees the need for a sacred space for women to come together so they can share the experiences of their lives in a safe way. She recognizes that there is the opportunity to begin to heal old wounds when this space is held by women for each other. She says, “If one is willing to show up to the truth, then it is possible to shift what has disempowered us in the past into what empowers us in the present.”

Horan brings the element of release and purification into the experience through her artful teaching of the 5Rhythms dance. She also incorporates seated meditation, and describes the benefit of that combination: “The method of the 5Rhythms is a practice of externalization, which releases stress out of the mind and body. In doing so, a tremendous amount is released and activated in the nervous system. Seated mediation allows for the nervous system to be reset as we integrate what has moved. The Buddha taught that meditation should be practiced standing, sitting, laying down and in all bodily functions. By practicing both moving and sitting meditation, there is the opportunity to explore mindfulness within the full spectrum on life.”

By creating the space, whether it is taking ten minutes in your day to be still; or taking five days out of your year to immerse yourself in your truth, you can empower yourself to go back into the world more fully. When you are renewed, inspired, and heard, your path will become clear. Horan talks of the daily routine of self-care rituals as a way to carry an energy out into the world that is transformative for ourselves, and for those we encounter.

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