Ten ways to embrace your goddess self
by Vicki Howie
I remember how much I used to hate the word “goddess.” It seemed so pretentious and over-the-top – and anachronistic. How could I be a goddess? I wasn’t a deity, but just a plain, old modern-day gal.
I can’t even pin point when the shift happened, but I do know one day I just felt okay with the term. In fact, I really liked it. It suddenly felt true on some deep internal level. Maybe my shift was the result of a lot of inner work, or just a by-product of aging and accepting my true feminine essence. Or maybe it was due to something else altogether that I can’t even identify. I’m not sure.
But the truth is, we are living in an age where we are realizing that we are all made of energy and consciousness; that we are all God. And the female deity is the goddess. So it makes sense that more women are now using the word goddess and identifying with that part of themselves.
If you don’t like it, it may just be a linguistic thing. Check out my suggestions below. If you like them, you are undoubtedly a goddess. Still, feel free to use a different term. Part of being a goddess is knowing you have the right to call yourself whatever you like.
Here Are 10 Ways to Embrace Your Goddess Self
1. Love Yourself
In this day and age it has become totally cliché to say “love yourself,” and there’s a reason, because it really is the starting point for everything. A real goddess fully and unconditionally loves herself as she is. It’s easy to love yourself on the “good” days, but can you support and value yourself on the tough ones?
One really sweet way to create a more loving relationship with yourself is to make up a loving nickname for yourself and use it regularly. It will make your self talk more affectionate.
2. Embrace Your Sensuality (and Be Embodied)
All goddesses understand that the body is meant to be loved and enjoyed. Love your body and all of its curves. Love your feet for taking you places, love your hips for allowing you to dance and give birth, love your eyes for all they can see and perceive. Love your body and live in it fully.
The word “sensuality” is so often misunderstood as only relating to making love. Actually, sensuality means living in all of your senses – smell, taste, see, feel and hear. A goddess loves her physical existence. When she eats a peach, she smells its sweet aroma, feels it soft, fuzzy skin, sees its yellow-pink hues, hears the sound of its juice gently sloshing, and of course, tastes its succulent flavor.
The next time you eat something delicious, open all of your senses and really take the whole experience in.
3. Honor Your Cycles
A goddess works with her cycles, rather than trying to suppress them. Our masculine culture often asks us to put our emotions aside when things need to get done, or to blast through our menstrual days as if we’re training for the Olympics.
A goddess understands that life moves in cycles and she works within them. Honor your feminine cycles, honor the moon cycles (which often flow with your feminine cycles), work with the seasons, and even pay attention to the inhale-exhale of your breath.
Linearity is masculine, whereas circularity is feminine. A goddess knows that everything moves in cycles and eventually comes full circle. Life may, at times, appears linear, but it’s really always moving in cycles – like the seasons repeating over and over as the earth continually moves around the sun.
If you want to get in better touch with the cycles that guide your life. Follow the moon cycles and have a little ritual (perhaps just light a candle) on each new moon and Tripura Sundari moment.
4. Love Your Shadow & Embrace All of Yourself
A goddess realizes that she is a microcosm of the macrocosm. Everything that exists outside of her, exists within her. This means there is nothing she is not. And she doesn’t waste time trying not to be this quality or that quality. Perhaps that is why there are all sorts of different goddesses in mythology, including really tough, like Diana the Hunter or Kali. There is a time for every quality, right? The “scarry” one can make sure the job gets down and the “sweet, generous” gal has a way of making others around her feel stronger. Every single trait serves a purpose and has its moment.
One easy way to embracing your shadow is to think of someone you don’t like and pick the quality about them you dislike the most and ask yourself: When have I ever demonstrated that quality? Or, under what circumstances might I demonstrate that quality?
5. Understand the Power You Have Over Men (and Wield It Well)
A goddess understands that her embodiment of loving, sensual energy can light a man up. She can change his day, week or life. She knows the power she yields and uses it in a positive way. As a goddess, praise the men around you and allow them to serve you in the ways they desire. It will make them stand taller, and feel happier.
6. Know Your Strengths & Flaunt Them
Just as every goddesses knows she is a macrocosm of the Universe, she also knows she has specific strengths she is here to share, so she doesn’t actively have to try to BE everything. This is well demonstrated by the mythological goddesses, since each one of them is known for a particular trait or area of life. For instance, you have Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom and Hera, and Artemis, the Goddess of Wilderness. What kind of goddess are you?
7. Move Your Hips
The hips are the home of your sacral chakra which is related to goddess energy. Moving your hips is a great way to tap into our goddess self. Consider taking a class that gets your hips going like salsa dancing, belly dancing, pole dancing or hula hoop.
8. Know What Turns You On & Do That
A goddess leads a pleasurable and purposeful life. This means she follows her true desires. Whether it means you do the work you love or you buy that silk dress that makes you feel good, you live your life from your true desires.
You’re not afraid to work hard, but you always make that work pleasurable too.
If you’ve spent most of your life doing what you think others want you to do, figuring out your true desires may take time. Be tenacious and patient, and start by looking at what makes you genuinely (not superficially) happy.
9. Take Care of Yourself & Look Your Best
More for herself than for anyone else, a goddess always looks her best. She doesn’t get caught up in what others think she should look like, how she much she should weigh, what color her hair should be or what she should wear – but she DOES always make sure she’s taking care of herself and looking the way she wants to look.
A goddess doesn’t baulk at spending money on herself. She gladly gifts herself a manicure, a facial, a new outfit, or fitness class. She knows she’s worth it. Honor yourself with this kind of attention to self.
10. Be the Love You Want to See in the World
There is a new paradigm building and it is based on the feminine. The internet is a beautiful real-life metaphor for the connection that is happening all over the globe as we literally become one planet. Our boundaries are blurring and our hearts are opening, and women are leading this new way of being.
The Dalai Lama said that the western woman would save the world, and he tends to be right. Statistics now show more women than men opening new small businesses. We are co-creating a new planetary consciousness and way of operating.
As a goddess, you’re being called to step into whatever role you’re here to play that will help spread this new kind of feminine power across the planet.
yogaesoteric
May 19, 2018