by Licia Berry, copyright 2012 (article first published in Your Health Magazine, January 2013)
“Women have the ability to show the world the way to a holistic vision of peace, safety, fairness and wholeness.”
2012 was quite a year. With the election, women’s issues were explosive and pertinent, gaining the attention of mainstream media and women all over the country.
It is a good thing that women were voicing their opinion. Women are natural visionaries, able to access a larger logic through our innate inclination to value the input of our brain’s right hemisphere. The right brain accesses the “Big Picture”, the grand perspective of our life. In a left brain dominant culture, we can lose those visions of the “big map” as our neural pathways change to support the way we are taught to think. New neural pathways are created with new experience and thought, and those neural pathways are strengthened and grow the more we reinforce those thoughts and experiences. It makes sense that if we want the world to change in positive ways, we need to think in different ways that will lead us to a different path. As Albert Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” We must have a different vision, a new vision.
[Tweet “Women have the ability to show the world the way to a holistic vision of peace, safety, fairness and wholeness.”] In my 25 years of professional experience with women, I have experienced the extraordinary power of women who trust their inner vision of a better world. Recently, I enjoyed the great honor of having Nobel Laureate Jody Williams attend my Whole Brain Collage workshop at the Peace Jam Southeast Conference at FSU. She had a vision of a world without land mines, a world safe for children to walk and play in the fields, safe for the women to gather water. This passionate, powerful woman came from humble origins, never went to college, and had every obstacle thrown at her in her attempts to ban land mines worldwide, including being raped at gunpoint. Jody did not let that stop her; her trust in the rightness of her vision held her throughout her trials and made her push through any doubt. She successfully banned landmines due to her tireless effort and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997; the world is a better place due to her caring vision.
This New Year, 2013, promises to be one of great change; change always comes with a degree of unrest, and sometimes transformation can be resisted because we are uncertain. But if we have a vision, we can gain courage and will, and the trust required to keep our eyes on the prize. Here are a few simple ways to access your right brain and find your personal vision for 2013:
- Join a Women’s Circle – It is scientifically noted that women in community with other women are healthier and happier, as well as providing a place for support and reflection of our special nature.
- Be Creative – Arts of any kind are a language of the right brain in partnership with the left brain. Paint, dance, make music, write poetry, speak eloquently of your vision.
- Meditate – Quiet time to reflect and cultivate our relationship with the inner landscape is essential to finding our wisdom and gaining the peace to trust it.
Women take care of the world, but who takes care of the women? We are important because of our connective nature; we must make the choice to honor our ability to hold a higher vision. We must take time for ourselves to nurture the inner life that nourishes others. Let 2013 be the year that we decide to trust the big picture that women are showing us, and with their light, to lead the way.
2013 Creative Vision Quest Tele-Circle!
A TeleCircle for Visionary Women! This women’s tele-circle meets for 8 weekly calls to support creative visioning and self-leadership. 8 weekly teleclasses with art journaling, ritual, and archetype prompts to vision your new year and get it off to a loving, raucus start. Creative assignments sent by email before and after each call; live calls will be recorded and sent to participants (so, no worries if you miss one-but you won’t want to miss any of these luscious calls.)
Join Licia, a veteran Vision Questor, for a unique, hands-on experience for women in which you build your vision for 2013. In 8 telecalls, you will discover meaning and magic in your life through creative activities that reveal your True Self.
A delicious journey inward that spirals outward and inward again.
Starts February 10 on the Lunar New Year (the year of the Snake!) More info and sign up here!
Licia Berry is an author, educator, speaker and creative artist who facilities Whole Brain Communication Retreats, Women’s Circles, Women’s Leadership, and Creative Insight workshops internationally through her company, Illumined Arts. Passionate about women’s issues, Licia is hosting and organizing the Tallahassee One Billion Rising/V-Day Dance on Feb. 14th with several organizations in town that care about women, as well as an entire weekend of creative arts workshops February 15-17.
