Well-Fed Woman

Today I had the pleasure of meeting and spending the morning with Rachel Cole and 16 other women in her Well-Fed Woman Retreatshop.

PINThe Retreatshop website says this:

“What are you TRULY hungry for? Do you know?

Perhaps you are hungry to express your creativity? Maybe you are hungry for the courage to follow a calling? Or to turn down the volume on your inner critic? Or to know you are enough? Maybe you’re simply hungry for carbs or, more generally, to feel at peace with food? Perhaps your hunger is for a job that pays you what you’re worth? Or it may well be for intimacy the satisfies your body, mind, and spirit?

…

For me, the word hunger has several meanings. In general, however, food hungers are simply doorways into the disconnection so many women have with their deeper hungers in life – in their careers, relationships, creativity, self-care, and spirituality.“

So really think about it for a minute. Do you know what you’re hungry for?  Do you remember the last time you asked yourself that question?  What does it mean to you to be a “Well-Fed Woman”?  I’m finding over the last couple of years that I’m turning in circles around and around the same few core desires.  I acknowledge them, start thinking about how to interact with them, and then get caught up in life and forget about them…just to find that a few months later they’re back knocking on my door asking me where I’ve been.  Or there are too many of them and I only have the time or energy to focus on one or two at a time and the rest get swept under the rug.  And I wonder why I feel overwhelmed and unsatisfied sometimes…I cannot be the best wife or photographer, friend or business woman, sister or daughter when I am not the best me.  When I am satisfied, and only then, do I have enough of myself to give to everyone else.  Today, for me, was not a wake up call, as much as a gentle push in the direction I was already going.  And a reminder that it’s okay to be hungry.  To want things.  To need things.  To feel things to the core of me.

I can not say enough good things about Rachel.  Her calm and present demeanor, honesty, and genuine spirit are entrancing.  She made her own story so relatable, and provided a safe space to us to be ourselves.  And really, who doesn’t want to feel safe being herself?  I’m thankful for this day and the reminder that it is imperative to take care of yourself first (just like on an airplane you secure the oxygen mask on yourself before assisting others).  And also that the tiniest changes can make life more joyful.

Now please excuse me. I need to take a shower and there is singing to be done in there.

[Photo Credit: Nicole Rejwan]