The first woman who turned me on to finding out more about my body and it’s buried wisdom was Dr. Christiane Northrup, author of the best-selling book Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom.
It was back in the summer of 2006 the wisdom of my body began to reveal itself to me specifically through the secret messages of my menstrual cycle. I began investigating how my period pain fit into the larger intelligence of by body. That’s when the healing process began for me and hundreds of women who I have shared my Moon Goddess work with.
As I began to appreciate the menstrual cycle as part of my own inner guidance system, I learned how to use that inner wisdom to optimize my energy at work and in my relationships; and through yoga and meditation I began to balance my mental, emotional and physical states to honour times of rest and times of play and times of work equally. So I place a check mark beside encoded wisdom of my menstrual cycle as: Revealed. But I’m not finished!
My detective work continues because infertility, chronic pain during sex, fibroids, irregular and missing periods, ovarian cysts and abnormal ovulation, breast pain and breast cancer are all issues of the female body which women continue struggling with, in big numbers. Which is why I’m sharing this with you: “The Anatomy of Women’s Wisdom” where Dr. Northrup reveals the energy dysfunction and encoded wisdom of all our lady parts: uterus, ovaries, breasts, vagina, vulva, bladder and more.
Table: The Anatomy of Women’s Wisdom by Dr. Christiane Northrup
| Body Organ or Process | Encoded Wisdom | Energy Dysfunction | Physical Manifestation |
| Menstrual cycle | Cyclic intuitive wisdom and emotional recycling and processing | Refusal to embrace both difficult and pleasant emotions: the dark and the lightNot allowing shadow side to be seen and worked throughBelief that menstrual cycle is bad or shameful | Lack of periodsHeavy periodsIrregular periodsPainful periods PMS
|
| Uterus | Creative centre in relationship to self | Bondage of the emotions of othersUnable to birth most creative self | Fibroids |
| Ovaries | Creative drives in outer worldAssertiveness in outer worldExcessive, insufficient, or imbalanced drive toward financial, creative or relationship goals | Addiction to external authority or approvalDisbelief in creative ability | Ovulation abnormalitiesOvarian cystsOvarian cancerEndometriosis
|
| Breasts | Emotional expression and partnership | Inability to name, feel, express, and resolve emotionsInability to participate in balanced partnershipsImbalance between intimacy with self (time alone) and with others | Breast cysts, painBreast cancerLung problemsShoulder problems |
| Pregnancy | Capacity to conceive an idea or a life with another, hold it, nurture it, and allow it to be and live independently | Insufficient energy to create and maintain a new lifeInability to trust the process of giving birthAmbivalence about effects of pregnancy and child care on work life, body image, and personal needsHanging on the grief and loss | InfertilityMiscarriageDysfunctional labour |
| Cervix/ Vagina/ Vulva | Discretion about intimacyAbility to create healthy boundaries | Poorly defined boundaries in relationshipSexual or other relationships (e.g., work) that detract from well-beingGuilt or shame about sexual pleasure or sexuality | HerpesWartsChronic vulvar pain (vulvodynia)Vaginal infections Abnormal Pap smears Cervical cancer |
| Urinary tract, Bladder | Capacity to feel emotions fully and discharge completely | Being chronically “pissed off” at life in generalStagnated flow of emotions in relationshipsDependency in relationshipsInability to release outmoded thought Inability to go with the flow | Chronic urinary tract infectionsInterstitial cystitis |
| Menopause | Passage into the wisdom yearsCapacity to be open to constant intuitive knowingReseeding the community | Unfinished business from past that is unaddressedFear of aging processFear of owning one’s powerLiving from the dictates of societal expectations instead of one’s soul | Incapacitating hot flashesMelancholiaDepressionPalpitations Anxiety Forgetfulness Heart disease Loss of libido |
excerpted from Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom; pg 100 – 102
If you had an ‘aha’ moment while reading about your body’s hidden secrets we would love to know about it! Please leave a comment and share your magic with us…
Zahra Haji is a modern day Goddess – really! She’s also a certified Yoga Teacher specializing in Women’s Health and the Director and Founder of Yoga Goddess. Through yoga, meditation and educating women about their cycles and bodies Yoga Goddess reconnects women to their own innate wisdom and sensual, feminine beauty. Our practices are all designed to awaken, uplift and inspire the goddess within, giving students greater peace and passion – and that gorgeous yoga glow!.
I’m 20 years old and have had an ovarian cyst that just keeps coming back. I’ve taken supplements, done visualizations, talked to it to try to release it, but I felt like I was missing something. I’ve also had irregular periods for forever. But reading the “Energy dysfunction” was an eye opener on behalf of both my female issues. They are prominent parts of my personality. My only question, now is what exactly do I do now?
I still have yet to browse the website more thoroughly, but wondering about the ways I can now address these issues specifically.
Hello goddess Alyssa – thank you SO much for being so boldly honest. The energy dysfunctions you’re referring to related to your ovaries and your menstrual cycles are very common amongst women in our culture because we’ve been trained out of our feminine energy and adopted a lot of the masculine ways of relating to the world. The problem is when you don’t know how to soften and yield to your feminine side you become overly rigid in your approach to life and this shows up as dysfunction in your body, and specifically with your female body parts. I’m currently offering Whole Woman-Body Nurturing discovery sessions to women who email us with questions about their feminine body or female spirit. I would love to offer you one since it sounds to me like you’d really benefit! Make sure you join our mailing list too and you’ll get a trio of meditation videos!