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MARCH / APRIL 2021
MINDFUL SOUL CENTER bi-monthly magazine
PINK IS THE NEW BLACK DEJA DREWIT'S SELF-CARE CORNER
GRL PWR WHAT IS THAT?
ART ACTIVIST BARBIE
FIGHTING FOR YOUR LIFE
JUST BE MEDITATION
GODDESS A R T & A S A N A BABY O' BABY
GUNAS FOR GAIA
NOT THAT BABY FOOD FOR YOUR WELLBEING
CONTENTS March/April 2021 | Volume 2, Issue 2
SPINNING THE GODDESS A spider was a goddess or a goddess was a horse? A look at goddess pose and how it can transform into a spider or be a horse.
O' BABY BABY! NO, NOT THAT ONE! Helen Sanchez addresses the proverbial elephant in the room with a look at how women's careers are impacted by the very fact that women have the 'ability' to have babies.
SELF-CARE CORNER WITH DEJA Artist Deja Osbourne of Dejadrewit shares her monthly picks from her empowering card decks. Get inspired!
AGED & OTHER GODDESSES In this piece we look at goddesses from around the world, including aged goddesses! Part one of an ongoing series.
GUNAS FOR GAIA
GRL PWR WOMEN FIGHTING FOR THEIR LIVES
Christine Boyd Miller walks us through the interplay of the Gunas, a Sanskrit term that describe the 3 attributes that emerge from the matter principle (Prakriti.)
Why should any of this be happening in the first place - women are fighting for their lives.
ART ACTIVIST BARBIE
INCREASE YOUR WELLBEING
This Barbie isn't just boobs and a body that can't support itself. No! Art activist Barbie makes her own statements in this piece on women and art.
Feed your body and your mind when you learn about foods to increase your psychological well being.
JANELLE MONAE’S VAGINA TROUSERS
WHY WOMEN SHOULD NOT... A look back at an old publication. 6
Embracing womenhood and vaginas, singer Janelle Monae let's it all hand out.
MASTHEAD, EDITOR'S LETTER, AND CONTENTS INSPIRATION & CONTEMPLATION
4, 5, 6, 7
15, 27, 35, 37, 41, 49, 58, 77, 82
MEDITATION: JUST BE
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MSC RECOMMENDS
POETRY: UNSATISFIED
46
WHAT IS THAT?
FUNDRAISING: FOR DOGS
12
a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox FEATURES CONTRIBUTORS 07
56-57
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FEATURES CONTRIBUTORS Christine Boyd Miller, PhD Christine is a California mountain mama transplanted from the East coast. In The Yoga Diaries
she explores the obstacles & challenges she
faces as she learns new yoga poses, explores new ideas and attempts to maintain benefits
a &
regular joys
practice.
too!
When
Needless
she's
not
to
say
writing
that
or
she
spends her time frolicking in the redwoods with her son,
The Yoga Diaries
shares
practicing
yoga,
the she
hula hooping,
cooking, and helping her husband tend to their garden and bees.
Visit her website: https://happyhippyhoops.com
Deja Osbourne Deja is an artist, an oracle deck creator and owner of DejaDrewit. Born in Russia and raised in NY, she now lives in California. As a young girl, Deja experienced bullying and as a result developed social anxiety. Drawing was her escape. As she healed she knew that she wanted to inspire and help people through her art but wasn't quite sure how. From 2005 until 2013, she worked as a graphic artist and designer in the fashion industry.
Deja's Self-Care Corner
She left to raise a new baby and discovered a way to use her art to help others
and
started
to
create
oracle
decks.
Check
out
her
Self-Care
Corner.
Visit her website: https://dejadrewit.com
Helen Sanchez Helen Sanchez is the founder of Tanagui LLC, a career consultancy that helps women over 40 find valuable meaningful work. She is a graduate of the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC). With over forty years of experience working in recruiting, she continues her studies at the College of New Jersey with a double major in Women and Gender Studies and African American Studies. She received the Alice Paul Award
Peering into the 'isms'
for Activism and is a member of the Honor Society in Women & Gender Studies.
Visit her website: https://tanagui.com
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Six deaths every hour: The report of the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability notes that around the world, every hour, six women are killed by men they know. Femicide, or the killing of women because they are women, is underpinned by patriarchal ideologies that define how women should comport themselves. This ideology, grounded in the belief that men own women and that women need to be controlled, is also at the heart of gender inequities. SOURCE: theconversation.com Remembering everyday violence against women and girls on Dec. 6 an article by Yasmin Jiwani published in theconversation
According to the results of the National Survey of Adolescents, 8% of the sample (n=4,023) reported having been victims of sexual assault. 74% of these sexual assault victims indicated that they had been assaulted by someone they knew well, 32% were friends, 21% were family members, 23% were strangers. Nearly 31% of these sexual assaults occurred in the victim’s home or in the victim’s neighborhood (24%), another 15% occurred at the victim’s school. SOURCE: SAFEBAE.ORG Kilpatrick, D.G., Saunders, B.E., and Smith, D.W. (2003). Youth Victimization: Prevalence and Implications. Washington, D.C.: National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice
Every year thousands of women in Pakistan face some form of violence, ranging from acid attacks, to sexual assault, to kidnapping, rape or murder, often in the name of honour. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent watchdog, stated in its annual report of 2019 that “despite legislation enacted to protect and promote women’s rights in recent years, violence against women has escalated. SOURCE: reuters Reuters information published in Dawn.com's article Child bride to elite police, the film focusing on women pioneers
Even though child marriage is declining globally, there are still 12 million girls married in childhood each year, and the global number of women alive today who were married before 18 is estimated at 650 million. SOURCE: https://www.letgirlsdream.org/ 18
Femicide or feminicide
The intentional killing of women or girls because they are female.
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K HI A E
F
Y L H O G MARCH'S MESSAGE
We
don’t
about
We
do
it
notice but,
out
how
we
loud
we
do
it
and,
speak all
we
the
do
MY S E
time.
always
ourselves
it
silently in our minds when we look in the mirror. Pay attention to how you speak about
yourself.
yourself? Choose
Are to
Are
you
you
judging
compliment
criticizing
yourself?
yourself
and
speak highly of yourself. If you made a
mistake, give yourself credit for trying. Start speaking to yourself the way you would speak to someone you love.
LF
.I S P
Cards and messages by DejaDrewit 32
APRIL'S MESSAGE
I SURRENDER We cannot control everything. In fact, there is very little we can control. Learning to surrender and detach is not easy but, it is powerful. When things don’t seem to go the way we want, sometimes the best thing we can do is just let go and surrender. Take the day off, meditate, go do something fun. Allow the Universe to help you. Sometimes we just need time off before we get clarity. We are not meant to constantly do do do and work work work. Our bodies are designed to have periods of rest when we are open to receive information or help from others.
Deja creates cards to inspire and help women overcome their daily obstacles and fears.
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gratitude shmatitude: Don't just think it do it
Women's Circles & Book Clubs GET THE GROUP DISCOUNT
email: hello@themindfulsoulcenter.com
This practical guide demands that you don’t merely think about gratitude but do it too. Chapters are divided into two parts; think and do. The ‘think it’ part includes stories and sometimes facts for contemplation and the ‘do it’ part at the end of each chapter includes actionable steps to take and explore gratitude.
A truly helpful guide! This book has really helpful suggestions to follow to make our lives a bit better. And we all need that now! Customer reviews on Amazon 4.8 out of 5 stars: 9 global ratings
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BUY ON AMAZON HTTPS://AMZN.TO/2M9ZWAM Gratitude Shmatitude is a great book for Women's Circles, Book Clubs and other groups. If you're interested in purchasing 10 or more copies, shipped to one address your group can receive a $3.00 discount on each book. That's a $30 dollar savings on the book. For the group discount send an email to hello@themindfulsoulcenter.com
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O BABY BABY.... NOT THAT BABY Written by Helen Sanchez
A young woman who is building her professional career and knocking-it-out-of-the-park day after day still has one hurdle to overcome that is both irrelevant to her professionally and unacceptable personally, and it is hers alone. Scrutiny and bias exist simply because she can become a mother.Statistics from a 2018 Equality and Human Rights Commission S report
show
that
women
are
judged
and
evaluated
based
on
their
potential
role
as
mothers. The report shows that:
36% of private-sector employers agree that it is acceptable to ask women about plans to have children in the future during the recruitment process 59% of employers agree that a woman should have to disclose whether she is pregnant 46% of employers agree that it is reasonable to ask women if they have young children 44% agree that women should work for an organization for at least a year before deciding to start a family One-third believe that women who become pregnant and new mothers in work are generally less interested in career progression as compared to other employees
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VISIT: https://themindfulsoulcenter.co m/shop/
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GUNAS FOR GAIA written by Christine Boyd Miller, PhD
In yoga philosophy, the gunas are constantly fluctuating energies existent throughout the universe and therefore in each of us. These energies flow through all of nature and are inherent to our very state of being, influencing our reactions to everything and everyone around us. There are three constantly intertwining and changing components of the Gunas: tamas (inert), rajas (active), and sattva (harmony). These three parts work together confluently and drift back and forth, together and apart. How we react to any stimuli or experience depends on which energy force is more profound at that moment.
Tamas is the heavy, thick, grounded energy within us. It is a slow vibration. We react to stimuli with stillness, lethargy, and depression on the darker side of the spectrum. On the lighter side, tamas is where we find stability, deep reflection, and rest. In nature, the tamas would be organic matter decomposing as it settles back into the Earth, resting and slowly nourishing the soil to prepare it for new life. Tamas is the soft lullaby of the moon.
Rajas is the frenetic, passionate, fiery energy we carry. It moves at a fast vibration. This is the energy that feeds anxiety, agitation, multitasking, and overexertion. It also feeds motivation, enthusiasm, creativity, and movement. An example of rajas in nature would be the inertia of seeds germinating and springing forth from the soil, reaching for the bright morning sun.
Sattva is the calm, conscious space that balances the tamas and rajas. It is the space where we find truth and harmony in ourselves. Sattva is where our slow and fast energies meet in complement to each other. We need this balance in ourselves the same way the Earth needs the slow decomposing matter to nourish the soil so that very soil can bring forth new life, which will again become the soil. Sattva is the sun and the moon dancing in tandem, shrinking the winter days and stretching them out in the summertime, meeting reliably at equinox again and again. 53
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Dhumavati
Lithograph of an aged goddess c. 1875–80, India, Calcutta A Mahavidya, Dhumavati is one from a group of ten Tantric goddesses of Hinduism. Portrayed as an aged woman of profound wisdom her long hair frames her face, and the all-seeing third eye is prominent on her forehead. She represents the fearsome aspect of Devi, the Supreme Goddess, she holds and can reveal the ultimate knowledge of the universe which is beyond the illusory realms of the material world. She is associated with the crows shown here with her and funerary grounds.
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