April 3, 2019

The Wandering Eyes impact Stability

April 3, 2019

These past five months, my body,heart, mind and energy have undergone profound changes through and along my journey of becoming a Hatha Yoga Teacher, an intent set many years back and buried and forgotten under endless passionate ideas.

What I have learned and still learning cannot be summed up nor even condensed into a brief sharing.

This morning soaked in a new space that I will be using for the coming months, I pause to question:

“How did I land here? Who am I right here right now? What could have been otherwise?”

The answer whooshes within, “Your intent played a key role in where you are today”

And I questioned, “Does the intent suffice on it’s own?”

And I heard, “Wherever you ALLOW your EYES to WANDER, that is, your FOCUS, know that this will IMPACT this NOW and MOLD the NEXT. Your STABILITY DANCES with and along your FOCUS.”

In yoga, focus matters, focus is foundational, focus is sacred and focus is grounding. And in yoga focus is on self and then transcending this self, there is no other than this self. As a yogi, one of my grounded shifts has been to witness how stability has a dance of its own with no clear constant yet impacted directly by one’s focus in this NOW. One’s focus calls to stability to adjust to the need of this now through even ASANA (posture) and every speck of BREATH.

Hear my whispers

Whatever one INTENDS to do, what matters most is one’s FOCUS. Most of us LOSE ENERGY TACKLING THINGS that take us OFF-TRACK our set PRIORITIES. Most of us are UNABLE to be fully PRESENT to this NOW. Most of us STRUGGLE to define PRIORITIES and CREATE SPACE for that which MATTERS MOST.

Any MOVE in LIFE is IMPACTED by our FOCUS, that is, where our EYES are allowed to WANDER.

There is no automatic wandering off of our focus, but rather at a deeper unconscious level, there are happenings, there are conversations, there are thoughts, there are beliefs and all these impact our focus.

The more the focus fidgets , the more one struggles to move towards one’s intent.

The reasons for this fidgeting are unknown unless one allows the space to explore same with a facilitator. This is where having an honest open heart grounded coaching conversation can guide one to uncover one’s dance of focus and stability.

THE WANDERING EYES IMPACT STABILITY.

There is no WRONGNESS or RIGHTNESS to WANDERING EYES but if ONES SEEKS MOVE forward, then pausing to ASSESS the GAIN and LOSS in ENERGY and the SWAYS TOWARDS or AWAY from one’s INTENT is CRUCIAL.

Where is your focus right here right now?

What is your intent?

On a scale of 0-10, how align is your focus and intent?

Do these questions usher confusion?

CONFUSION announces QUESTIONING of WHAT we used to DO and BELIEVE.

This is exactly where ONE is CALLED to STAND if ONE SEEKS to SHIFT and TRANSFORM the STATUS QUO.

There is NO CONSTANT to STABILITY to life,

Yet STABILITY is IMPACTED by FOCUS

CHOOSE to focus WISELY

Know that even SEEMINGLY SURFACE BLURRED FOCUS is yet ANOTHER SHADE to FOCUSING

Love from my heart to yours

Image source: Marion Michelle, Unsplash

Megha Venketasamy

April 1, 2019

Relationship, The Cauldron of Awareness

Megha Venketasamy

April 1, 2019

We have crafted and packaged relationships into sell-able commodities. Relationships are not the glamour pictures, happy journeys, adventures, laughter, chic clothes, joyful families, healthy humans and wishful thinking.

Humans often feel disheartened, betrayed, left aside, used and depleted in relating with others and things do not get better in intimate relationships.

We are always relating (that is, in perpetual communication) with one another whether we know it or not. The act of getting involved with someone, that is, choosing to be date someone, to marry someone, to partner with someone or live in with someone or however you choose to name it, comes with it’s share of two diametrically different worlds, different ways of communication, using words, emoting, different weights of the past for both individuals, different areas of interest and needs and the list is endless.

Just because the other has opened up and shared a few things, we easily assume that we know the other and we are many to believe that we can actually read the other’s mind and thoughts and even complete their sentences.

Here is where it gets interesting,

We are many to have committed to fix the other, for unless until the other is fixed, we as a couple (or however you chose to name this relationship) will never truly exist. When the other does not level up to what we expected and needed, we blame, we try to fix and we blame again.

Relationship is the PLACE TO BE. For relationships regardless of their nature and their appellation, they carry the potentials to teach us something about ourselves.

Blaming is the easy way, for blaming is the dance that externalizes and projects our yet-to-be acknowledged needs, desires, wants, discomforts, wounds, pains and trauma unto the other.

Blaming circumstances or people for our discontentment is addictive. We all do it from time to time.

It is easy to fall into this trap and it is also tempting to give in to that way of existing.

“I am miserable because my partner is like this or that, or my partner is unable to meet me on the same grounds. I am scared because my partner hits me.”

Yet blaming does not bring us the JOY or FREEDOM we seek.

For anyone who has been through some challenging instances, we can relate to this.

The blaming gives us temporary relief, even a feeling of power for the other is responsible for what we are going through and how we are feeling.

I am not veiling off from the fact that there are deeply sick humans out there, humans who will go to any extent to hurt others in the most unimaginable ways. But what I am stating here is rather, “where is each individual’s share of responsibility in relationships?”

Owning our experience, owning our share in what has happened, what is happening to us and what is yet to happen to us can STING HARD and BAD.

Most often this ownership comes with this awareness of our sense of unworthiness, not-enoughness and much more.

Blaming keeps us trapped in victim consciousness because we are literally giving our power away to that person or thing. Blaming does not create the space for us to learn something about ourselves.

The power of grounded coaching proves to be purposeful and directed towards oneself.

Transformation manifests only when one owns one’s power in creating one’s life.

Start with Ourselves. Start with focusing the energy and the intent on what we truly seek.

Start with questions

“How do I feel in this situation?

What needs are not being met?

Why do I hurt?

What do I believe about myself?

On a scale of 0-10, how healthy is this situation for me?

What is this relationship teaching me about myself?

Where is my share of responsibility?”

So, what happens when we redirect our energy and reclaim our power with self-responsibility and a commitment to love?

What happens when we choose to focus on who we want to become rather than blaming another for who we are not or what we don't have?

We start making conscious choices, be it that of closing that relationship or shifting our communicating but most importantly, we start looking at whatever is showing up for us.

By so doing, we start this journey of healing and transforming the world through our conscious presence within intentionally loaded choices, lives and actions

Relationship is a work in progress and till the end, we have this opportunity to uncovering about ourselves, to unveiling the unacknowledged and thus to growing and shifting.

“And so she moves with a little more wisdom, a heart that is more open to love, and with a mind that welcomes deep healing.”- Yung Pueblo

Love from my heart to yours

Megha Venketasamy

Image source: Nine Kopfer, Unsplash

Megha Venketasamy

March 20, 2019

Now is the Time

Megha Venketasamy

March 20, 2019

Now is the time to re-negociate Our Beigness as Women

Centuries of wounding has numbed our senses
Domination, separation, distortions,
Blindness, greed, Jealousy, Hatred
Name Calling, Name Erasing, Name Mis-using, Name Telling

For far too long, women have been taught and told that their worthiness is conditional and dependable on the roles that they play, on the emotions that they exhibit, on the solutions that they bring forth, on their service to this world, on how they choose to live their life.

Now is the time to question oneself
"Where is the wound?
What is seeking to be acknowledged?
What is my need?
To whom do I belong?
How do I heal?
How can I create space for healing to own it's rightful place?
How can I bring forth my life force and allow my creative flow to flow?
How can I contribute to my rooting as a woman?
What are the callings within?”

Now is the time for re-claiming, calling back whatever defines us as women
Now is the time to acknowledge individual and collective pains, wounds, traumas, stories and agreements.
Now is the time for face all that which that holds us back as women

Now is the time to ask these vital questions
“What does it mean to be a woman?
What do I believe about being a woman?
Who gave me those beliefs?”

Now is the time to cast and hold safe spaces for women so that they may show up to and for their selves, their stories, their journeys, their wounds, their trauma and their bodies.
Now is the time for acknowledgement, for the roots of any transformative and transmuting process rest in acknowledgement

Slowing down, Pausing, Acknowledging, Owning, Holding and Embracing
Are the needs of this Now

Now is the time to hold the mirror of life
Look within
Embrace the death of that which dis-serves us
That which causes suffering
That which is not the Truth

Now is the time to ask
What is the Truth?
The Ultimate Truth
What is it?

Now is the time to prepare the grounds for this descend
Am I taking time?
Am I honoring myself?
Am I forgiving myself?
Am I practicing radical self acceptance?

Now is the time to question
Where am I?
What is my seed of intent?
What do I wish to be unveiled to me?

Now is the time to hold oneself
What aspects of me need shedding?
What aspects of me long for growth?
What aspects of kicking to be freed?
What aspects of me are roaring to be held and acknowledged?
What aspects of me need love, intimacy, hearing, listening, a good cry and a good laugh?
What aspects of me need to illuminated, magnified, pulled open?
What aspects of you need to surface from the dark alleys of your subconscious and let free?

Now is the time to hear
That regardless of choices
We are being held and supported from within and beyond
Now is the time for women to walk within
Re-Claiming, Re-Conciliating, Re-Membering and Re-Writing our Beingness as Women

Love from my heart to yours

Megha Venketasamy

Megha Venketasamy

February 20, 2019

The Rise of Educated Women

Megha Venketasamy

February 20, 2019

There is River of Women in migration

A nation of Educated Women

Dancing between the manifest and the unmanifest,

Alchemizing the structures of this patriarchal system.

The phrase “Educated Women” does not refer to women who have been schooled, who are schooled and who shall be schooled. Our formal education system is part and parcel of this patriarchal system, schooled women have not been taught, are not being taught and will not be taught this truth “we are all born within an oppressive system and as women, we carry within generational imprints of trauma as well as wisdom and our life is non-negotiable regardless of what we do and become.”

I say this and I stand as a witness for my own self and my years of having been schooled.

Educated Women are those women who at one point have heeded, are heeding and will heed to the beckoning within. Once they give in to their within, there is no turning back. Educated Women are those who feed their selves with the juiciness of their inner nectar, for within dwells centuries of wisdom and knowingness bestowed from generations of unseen, unheard and unfelt grandmothers.

Educated Women are re-negotiating women’s place in this world, their journey is lonesome. There are no accessories to their beigness, their presence shifts space. Educated Women understand that their power was never taken away from them and they have committed knowingly and unknowingly to this painful task of reclaiming the narratives, beliefs and agreements handed over to them.

Educated Women are summoning their inner medicines, they are returning to earth as the eternal womb. Their language oozes a simplicity that most of us struggle to grasp. Educated Women know that no woman’s life is negotiable and there is not a single woman who is not whole.

Educated Women’s colors disturb us, yet we are often lured by these very colors for they remind us of a truth that we all know within.

I pause and I bow down to the educated women today, I witness your rise and you inspire me, you evoke within me this call to beckon to my inner calling. Had it not been for the ripples of your silent waves, I would not be where I stand today!

I pause and I bow down to the schooled women and to those to be-schooled, know that you will face a turning point in your life, the entirety of whatever you have constructed and /or will construct, will crumble down, the choice will be yours. Either you rise to your own wisdom or you keep rebuild yourself from the crumbles of this system that has disserved you for long enough.

I pray for you schooled women and to be-schooled women, for I know within walks your Truth.

I pray for me, for I am part and parcel of this system and every day I witness my stride.

I pray for us, trusting that one day, we shall all rise as Educated Women in respect of all that is and all that will ever

Love from my heart to yours

Image source: Artist Sharon Welch, source: http://www.sharonwelchart.com

Megha Venketasamy

February 12, 2019

“Our emotions is never the “reality”, it is rather a sign of reality, a sign of the life that has been mapped.” – Michael Hall

Megha Venketasamy

February 12, 2019

Our emotions are signs that we have experienced something and out of this experience, we have crafted a frame and/or many frames of references. If we are to crack that which we have crafted from our experience, then know that each emotion is appropriate, for each emotion in truth rises from our thoughts and maps of how we experienced life in a moment in time.

Our emotions are just signals about the difference between what we believe in, expected and what is happening in the outside world. Our emotions are neither wrong or right, good or bad, moral or immoral.

Our emotions tell us a story of what we expected and we believe in and what is actually happening.

So our emotions have their rightful place, they tell us stories often unknown to us, stories of shame, guilt, not enough, blame.

If we are feeling fear – know that there are some fear thoughts creating it.

If we are feeling anger, know that there are some thoughts of anger generating that emotions but truth be, it is beyond that.

If we step into that game of hating, rejecting, judging our emotions, we are in truth denying ourselves of uncovering things that are seeking to be acknowledged – these could be beliefs, narratives, stories, memories, experiences and much more.

Consciously repressing our emotions, we are merely playing with our own self, unaware that our human body is far too intelligent. This body will register it all, remember it all and sooner or later, there will be an outbreak of sickness.

When we block our way to registering what we feel, how we feel and face our emotions, we are also killing our passion, love, joy, fun , playfulness and openness.

No emotions are bad but if they stay for long lurking within and emerging unpredictably, then I will highly suggest that we give ourselves time, space and patience to explore.

Here to some questions that you can use as you pause this week onwards, I invite you to think of a current or past situation (which is still very much present in your life) that still triggers emotions that you struggle to release, let go of or delete.

1. What do you feel about this situation? (by giving a name to your feeling, you are in truth facing your emotion)

2. Have you ever felt like this before

3. What does it to you that you are feeling this emotion?

4. How do you experience this emotion?

5. What is it like to feel this emotion in your body?

6. Where do you feel this emotion?

7. What intentions drive this emotion? (There are always intentions under operations, intentions that we are unaware of. It can be that you are unconsciously trying to protect yourself- those of us who do inner critics sessions have witnessed that which has shown up)

8. What thoughts are in the back of your mind when you are having this emotion? (The thoughts , self-talks – they support, create, fuel and nurture that emotion- so we invite you to pause and listen to your self-talks)

9. How does this emotion affect your sense of self? (Your sense of self is knowing that what you feel belong to you, this is your and your experience and your mapping of life. But for most of us in our winging to control it all, we throw it all on others)

These questions are purposeful but at times, they work best when in conversation with a facilitator, someone who will stand by as you explore the matrix of your existence.

I will love to hear from you, your experience and most importantly, “what have these questions triggered for you?”

Love from my heart to yours

Megha Venketasamy

Image source: Melanie Wassere,Unsplash

Megha Venketasamy

February 8, 2019

The Flock of Goddesses and the Feminine

Megha Venketasamy

February 8, 2019

I witness the rise of the words Goddess, the Feminine

These are current trendy words

Full famed in glory

I DEEPLY WONDER ABOUT OUR INTENT AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE ENERGETIC

PRESENCE OF THIS INCLUSIVE PART OF EVERY BEING ON EARTH

These days I pause to question to narratives, the beliefs, the meanings and identifications of the words “Goddess and Feminine” by and through this world

I know little

Yet there is this depth to me that oozes and whispers

Life has been my teacher for years

As long as I remember, I have been soaking in my reflectiveness

The day, I consciously committed to connect to my essence

That day onwards, this life within has been leading

I am not yet there fully

I do not always understand it all

I do not always listen to my self

MY VOICE, MY INTUITIVENESS, MY GODDESS WITHIN, MY FEMININE

CALL IT WHATEVER YOU FEEL LIKE, THE TERMS ARE ENDLESS

But what I know is that

I AM NOT DISSOCIATE FROM THIS ENERGY

IT WAS NEVER TAKEN AWAY FROM ME

BUT I WAS VEILED FROM MY TRUTH

I know little

BUT I KNOW THAT ANY ACT OF EXTERNAL ADORATION SERVES LITTLE

IF I DO NOT OUTPOUR SAME UNTO ME

This energy that some are calling Goddess or Feminine Power

Is ever present in every human being

There is no need to clothes or accessories to grant access to HER

There is absolute no need to any external practices to lead to HER

She is the One who leads

WHEN SHE BECKONS

SHE IS THE ONE TO LEAD WITHIN

SHE INCLUDES IT ALL

THE COMFORT AND THE DISCOMFORT

THE LIGHT AND THE DARK

This is where many of us are failing

This is not just Kali rising

This is way beyond

This is our rising

And for our rising to rise

There is no need for external interference

No teacher can be our intermediate

FOR THIS IS A DANCE OF

THE MANIFEST AND THE UNMANIFEST

THE SEER AND SEEN

This is ESSENCE of that INCLUSIVENESS, DESTRUCTIVE, NURTURING, BIRTHING, DECAYING, DEADENING, RELEASING, SURRENDERING, MATING, EROTIC, PULSATING, VIBRANT, PUNGENT, ALIVE, DEATH , BIRTH, words will not suffice to say it all.

While I witness ADORATION of GODDESSES

I pause and smile

I query and question

“CAN I ADORN AND ADORE MY OWN SELF WITHOUT

QUESTIONING AND DOUBTING MY WORTHINESS REGARDLESS OF ALL?”

My fellow sisters calling themselves goddesses

I pause and I bow in veneration

I whisper a prayer

MAY WE AWAKEN TO OUR ESSENCE

For calling oneself a Goddess will not suffice,

This is not a game of calling or faking till we make it

This is walk of the fierce humble one

To be stripped off,

Ripped apart

Bleed till death

THERE IS NO ONE ON EARTH WHO CAN DEFINE AND BRIDGE OUR CONNECTION WITH THE ONE WE CALL GODDESS OR FEMININE OR INTUITIVENESS

This walk is within

I witness how people call her Goddess, feminine

Whatever whoever she is

I know that I am not dissociate from her

Every since I committed to go deeper within

To own my narratives, stories, beliefs

But most importantly to reclaim it all

To remember and re-member my wholeness

THE GODDESS WITHIN TEACHES ME THIS

“FOR EVERY EXTERNAL ADORNMENT, LET IT BE FUELED BY AND THROUGH GROUNDED INTERNAL ACTS OF REMEMBERING, BEIGNESS, PRESENCE, INCLUSIVENESS, HONORING

IT IS ME WITHIN AND WITHOUT

I SEEK NO OFFERINGS FROM YOU

REMEMEBER

I AM THE ONE TO GIVE

I AM THE ONE WHO CAN SNATCH IT ALL WITHIN SECONDS

REMEMBER

YOU WILL NEVER FIND ME WITHOUT IF YOU CANNOT SEE, HEAR AND FEEL ME WITHIN”

May we awaken to question the intent, the beliefs, the meanings, the narratives, the identifications, the references, the connections, the links when we utter the words “Goddess and Feminine”

Much love from my heart to yours

Megha Venketasamy

Megha Venketasamy

February 6, 2019

Women, Your sickness is of a different kind!

Megha Venketasamy

February 6, 2019

“A woman who is starved for her real soul-life may look “cleaned up and combed” on the outside, but on the inside she is filled with dozens of pleading hands and mouths”.

- Clarissa Este Pinkola

To women who write to me , whispering that “I am sick”

KNOW that YOU are NOT SICK.

WE do NOT DENY that YOU are SUFFERING. WE ACKNOWLEDGE the PHYSICAL , MENTAL, EMOTIONAL and PSYCHIC PAINS that YOU ARE going THROUGH

Your SICKNESS is of a DIFFERENT KIND. You have DRIED YOURSELF up from YEARS of NOT LISTENING to YOURSELF. Your INTERNAL RIVER is POLLUTED with taints that are UNNATURAL to YOU.

YOU are NOT to be BLAMED for YOU are BORN in a WORLD that

MOCKS your CURIOSITY calling it SPOOKY

YOU are NOT to be BLAMED for YOU are BORN in a WORLD that

RIDICULES your INTUITIVENESS calling it MENTAL

YOU are NOT to be BLAMED for YOU are BORN in a WORLD that

INVESTS in SHUNNING YOU from your TRUTH

YOU are NOT to be BLAMED for YOU are BORN in a WORLD that

NORMALIZES VIOLENCE for you.

YOU are NOT SICK. YOU are at a TURNING POINT where YOU can either

GO HOME TO YOURSELF or let this WORLD NIBBLE over whatever is left of YOU.

YOU are NOT SICK. Within CRY A DOZENS

OF HUNGRY MOUTHS AND HANDS, WAITING for you to TEND TO YOUR SELF.

YOU are NOT SICK. YOU are on the PATH that many WOMEN BEFORE THREADED ON,

When the WISE ONE within BECKONS

A PATH OPENS

A PATH that will ASK of YOU TO

TEND to your INNER FIELDS

UPROOT the WEEDS

OPEN the GATES of your INNER WATERS

FLOOD the RIVERS

WASH AWAY the poisonous TAINTS

NURTURE your fertile SOILS

KNOW that there is not a single SICKNESS that your BODY TEMPLE cannot CURE.

The CHOICE is YOURS, either YOU WALK home TO YOURSELF or YOU can consciously LET this WORLD NIBBLE over whatever is left of YOU

KNOW that there is NO RUNNING OUTWARDS this while,

THE PATH IS INWARDS

THE DESCEND IS WITHIN

THERE IS A RIVER OF WOMEN WAITING FOR YOU WITHIN

May You chose

To reclaim

Your stories,

Your beliefs

Your agreements

Your bleeding

Your Body

Your Psyche

Love from my heart to yours

Megha Venketasamy

Image source:Jairo Alzate,Unsplash

Megha Venketasamy

January 18, 2019

Becoming Conscious Recipient

Megha Venketasamy

January 18, 2019

We live in a world with mainstream spirituality fashion. As much I as own the essence of these words, I also see beyond it. We follow trends and “bless this situation” is a phrase often used in a way to stop you from engaging emotionally with that which has happened.

As a facilitator and fellow , I am witness to how this phrase “Bless this situation”, in truth suffocates the flow of opening for humans who are involved in any type of situations, especially conflicting ones. When we ask of ourselves or of others to bless this situation (though the intention could well be grounded), without pausing to ask what is “showing up” through this situation, we are in truth denying ourselves and others from receiving vital information for growth.

Then we better not be surprised that such situations repeat and in the facilitation works, we will coin this “patterns” or “dance of the shadows”, such terms are endless.

Next time, you are rushing to utter this phrase, pause and ask yourself,

“Is this the one “fix-it” way to move over it quick? Am I denying myself of my humanness from feeling whatever it is churning and brewing within? Do I actually believe in this phrase or am I just following a trend? What if I chose to look at myself for once, what difference will it make to myself? What if I chose to listen to the pain for once, what can I learn?”

Know that there is no quick fix-it, even if we chose to utter this phrase, “bless this situation”, sooner or later, life will kick hard enough till we pause to look at ourselves and at that which is seeking to be acknowledged, heard, seen, felt and embraced.

This compassionate life keeps kicking until we move to from victimship to creatorship.

I believe the way to bless any situation, especially conflicting ones, is to pause and own one’s stance within and ask these questions:

What is showing for me in this situation?

What is this feeling that I am experiencing?

Where do I feel?

What is happening?

What symbols do I attach to what which has happened and still happening?

What parts of me have been brought up to light, parts that I was not aware of?

What emotions are emerging?

What are the triggers?

What are the self-talks going on?

Can I gift myself space to find the strength to walk my way through this phase?

What need is seeking to fulfilled?

How can I best support myself in supporting this need?

We BLESS any situation when we BECOME a CONSCIOUS RECIPIENT to whatever this situation has REVEALED, UNCOVERED and GIFTED us whether we are COMFORTABLE with it or NOT.

BECOMING a CONSCIOUS RECIPIENT asks of us to GIVE ourselves PERMISSION and SAFE SPACE to WALK THROUGH that which is EMERGING. And WE ARE ALWAYS RECEIVING WHETHER WE ARE AWARE OF IT OR NOT.

When RECEPTIVENESS moves to a CONSCIOUS level, then it BROADENS our VISION and GROWTH becomes an INEVITABLE outcome. It automatically MOVES us FROM a space of HURTING to a space of BECOMING AWARE. In no way, I am condoning that which has happened, we are humans and at times, things happen and we hurt.

As we open up to receive information about ourselves, then it is no more about what others have done to us or an issue of trusting others but rather it becomes an ongoing pacing within where we learn to trust what is showing up for us, to us through us.

Let’s no more to bless any situation believing it will just mend itself, more than ever we are being called to pause and ask ourselves what shadow part of us is emerging and how do we learn to hold space for this shadow without shunning away.

May we become aware of such trends.

May we choose consciously for ourselves

May we choose a step closer to our awareness

Whatever be our choice, may we be bold enough to question our choices

May we grow be become conscious recipient to life that constantly pour through us.

Love from my heart to yours

Megha Venketasamy

Image source:Vinicius Amano, Unsplash

Megha Venketasamy

January 7, 2019

New Year Resolutions, they do not work!

Megha Venketasamy

January 7, 2019

Happy, Joyous, Blessed and Blissful 2019!
May your all needs be met and may all your heartful desires come true.

It is a time of the year when we start thinking of and about setting New Year Resolutions with the intention to create a better life for us.

New Year Resolutions do not work for most of us, for they come from a space of "there is something wrong about me, there is this not-enoughness about me, so let me fix me."

Our state matters most, when we seek from a state of undeserving, not-enough and scarcity, chances that we struggle are high. When we seek from that state of believing that "I must be fixed", then chances that we are unable to embrace the gifts of life are high.

That said, by all means, let's have goals and objectives, set intentions but while we are out there, know that we are perfect, we are enough the way we are.

We may not be at ease with how our life has been on roll for years, so pause and know that we did our best even if at times doing our best meant hurting ourselves with that which no more served us.

For most of us, embracing this truth that "we are good enough, we are deserving and we are perfect" is to be the one grounded focus for this year onwards. For truth be, we can only receive as much as we believe in our worth.

The game that we play in our outside world, in terms of "behaviors, actions, activities, gestures, relationships, cultural roles, rituals, ceremonies and much more" whisper about the game that we play in our inside world in terms of "thinking, valuing, imaging, feelings, emotions, appreciating and much more. This is the dance of within without and we are always creating our experiences to receive and give, whether we believe in it or not and whether we are aware of it or not.

I write these words and I am present to the transformation that manifested in my life the day that I started embracing my worthiness, my deservingness and my enoughness. It is an ongoing walk and I keep walking every day.

This embrace at times asks of guidance, support and help from facilitators and close ones.

May each one of us allow ourselves space to reach out for support and help this year for we deserve it beyond all.

While we set our goals and intentions, may we give our selves space and time to become clear on "why" we want whatever it is. The bigger the "why", the easier the "how" show up.

Whatever it is that you have on your list, please pause ask your these questions:

Why do I want "whatever it is"?
What need am I trying to nurture through "whatever it is"?
What difference will it make to my life?
Why is this "whatever it is" important to me and for me?

My deepest prayers for each one of us

"May we know that we are enough and perfect the way we are. May we create and evolve from that state of perfection.May we open up to receive as much as we give, for abundance dances in balance. May we be and May 2019 be a year of transformation and love."

Love from my heart to yours

Megha Venketasamy

Megha Venketasamy

December 27, 2018

Winding 2018, Hear My Whispers

Megha Venketasamy

December 27, 2018

Yesterday marked a closure, right here right now I am soaked in that which is emerging. I have completed 14 months as apprentice along 6 women under The She Stands Tall Project, founded and led by Rekha Kurup.

I am now called a Shakti Moon Women Circle Facilitator but my presence does not hold onto this appellation, for “that which” showed up during these 14 months have taught me and are teaching me, the path is inward and this dance asks of a balance within without.

My space is flooding with gratitude, words, whispers, sounds, musings, movements and stillness.
“All that is” is ever present.

2018 was an unlikely year; a year of losing it all; a year of emergence, a year of emerging shadows and a year of union with my beloved. A year with agonizing moments of doubts, confusions and ungroundedness. A year of showing up vulnerably.

My passion, my vision and my calling to journey with women have led me where I stand today.
My focus, beliefs and values on the work that I am called to do is more than ever grounded in roaring that “leadership skills will not take women further”, for none of these move women in spaces safe enough for them for show up to and for their selves, their stories, their journeys, their wounds , their trauma and their bodies.

The more women own, reclaim and story their experiences as Truth, the more we will move the structural dynamics of this world and this is how transformation will happen. This is the work that each one of us is being called to do individually and collectively
Reclaiming our self-relating for this is the beginning to reclaiming the collective reclaiming of relating.

My words may not make sense to many but know that this is the simplest I can whisper.

I am the Eternal Alchemist and I say this with the weight it ripples for I know the depth of my descend, things have not always been easy but I am here and I am choosing to swirl my story to you.

In coming weeks, Nyame Dua will be revealing a whole new journey of sessions, circles, facilitations, conversations, creative works, body works and hosting facilitators.

My work is grounded in midwifing myself, individuals as well as collective’s journeys. I bring my journey, my resonance, my experiences along with the different modalities that I have experienced and that I am trained into.

I pause to acknowledge my beigness for being present in this moment. Know that as you read those words, I will be standing by your side, whispering “all that is”.

What has changed for you in 2018? What has shifted?
What was released? What did you embrace?

I am pausing to acknowledge Rekha Kurup, the phenomenal grounds works that she is leading in India, Mauritius, US and beyond. I invite each one of you to reach out to her, to connect with her works @ shestandstallproject@gmail.com.

I pause to celebrate myself. I pause to honor this life within my life. May my act of honoring remind you to honor yourself, for this is your prayer for being here.

It humbles to leave you with the words that were roared loud yesterday during my initiatic graduation. You are many to have been part of this journey, you are many to write, to pause, to question and to query.

May these words whisper beyond my knowingness to each one of you.

Love from my heart to yours

Meghanaiyegee Venketasamy

Graduation Rhymes and Rhythmes, Wednesday 26 December 2018

“I ground myself in honor of this land, of the woman who has birthed me, of the women and men whose lives were invested in rising my island to where it is today.
These words roar my story, my journey within as an apprentice of life, Great Mother, Goddesses and She Stands Tall, Rekha and the sisters.

I am one of those who sleep within the darkness of the womb.

14 months of death, shedding, uncovering, co-creating, birthing, love, pain, hate ,openings and deepening.
This has been a journey of descend.

While I thought that I had made it through, little did I know that I would be taught to swallow my tongue, my words, my voice my title, my structures, my skills, my everything, my vision, my goals, my so-called purpose
I have lost it all.

But on this journey, running away from my own presence was no more a choice.
Sisters on this journey held the mirror strong and tall for me

Today, I stand here naked, for none of “what, who, why, where, when, and how” I was last year, is here

There is no other way to whisper my journey to me, to you and to us, than you witnessing “me witnessing me”

I invite you to witness me
Witness my voice, my roar, my glow, my steps, my voice, my moves, my grooves, my hair
Witness “all that is” through me as I witness “all that is” through each one of you

I am the eternal alchemist but I am also beyond. I am this and I am also nothingness.
I am teaching myself to remember and re-member to embrace “my nothingness”.
I still brew and my churnings are wavier than before – for I am the container but I am also the cauldron of life, the life that grows, deepens, dies and rebirths within me.

Within my stillness “all that is” whispers, leads, guides, nurtures and ushers me onto the next step.

Within this stillness, I am reminded of my union with my beloved,
I started off this apprentice journey with this ingrained belief that danger is omnipresent
Right here right now, I have been gifted to experience love to a depth that I was not aware of I could carry within.
I am wide open and this is newness, this is uneasiness , this is an unlikely gift. This is the gift of love bestowed upon me, for to support this world, Great Mother whispered “My child for this, you will be taught love through ways and sways until you get smitten and using that love to live will be the only choice to your life.”

It is not always an easy share to carry and I am not always grateful but I am walking there

For this is the walk of a woman who is paving her way home with Great Mother besides her.
This is the summon of the entirety of my journey as a facilitator, that of ongoingly learning to hold space for myself, my light and my darkness
My shine and my shadow, My bright and my gloom

For I exist within both, for this is how I will journey with the world now onwards, as the shadows emerge, we will re-member every unacknowledged part of our self. And as the re-membering happens, we will become the alchemist that we were born to.
And for the alchemist to strive and survive, love is the only food for her soul

Intensity is my name and my life has been in reclaiming this intensity that I am.
I am Meghanaiyegee, the goddess of thunder, the rainmaker, the wicked laughter, the orgasmic presence, the sacred bleeding, the juicy hips, the wise one, the whisperer
I am the one who whispers to you
I stand in my entirety, uneasiness, newness, I am committed to stand tall
I swirl acknowledging my wholesomeness, my amazing beigness
See me, hear me, feel me for I see,hear and feel you
I am a gift to this world and I chose to ongoing gift my voice, my steps, my sways, my strides, my light, my shadows, my entirety to this world.”

Megha Venketasamy

December 10, 2018

The dance of “within without”

Megha Venketasamy

December 10, 2018

For every outward movement, there is an equal inward movement.
For every outward growth there is a correlated deepening of our roots.
For every outward focus there is an inward focus
For every within, there is a without.

This is the dance of life, the mating of our external and internal world
ushering us further ahead.

For every step that we have able our self this year, it was supported by a correlated deepening of our roots. Yet most of us live and will live life unaware of that which has deepened, that which has shifted and that which has served its purpose and that which is waiting to be harvested.

Where do you stand right now? What do you see? Who do you see? What do you feel? What do you hear?
Maybe you do not like that which you see, feel and hear but can you allow yourself this space to just be and not blind off.
How has this year been so far?
How has growth been? What did you learn? What did you harvest? Do you know that none other than you can harvest your ripeness? Do you know that you are the one to drink your juiciness?

What did you explore? If not, then what is you holding back? Who is holding you back? What are the beliefs, fears, stories and narratives?

Know that any act of holding-back hold hinders growth from happening and is often mirroired back as pains in forms and shapes.

What if for once, your year’s debrief, is less about what others saw of you but more about what, why, where, when and how you experienced! What if for once, you hold yourself in such a way that this is just about you and less of what this world sees of you!

For any growth that has happened, unseen, unheard, unfelt by this external world, are you aware of the correlated inward growth? What has been alchemized to allow you to grow outwardly? What beliefs have shifted? What stories have been reclaimed? Do you stand in a space of stillness or is it still sore and paining?

These questions carry their weight and I am inviting you, me and us, to create space this week and beyond, to dive and walk our self through this simple process of seeing, hearing, feeling and acknowledging oneself.

I invite you, me and us to move through a simple exercise known as the “Dance of “Within Without” Flow Exercise.

Feel free to share this exercise with friends, close ones and colleagues and I will love to hear from you if you have given it a try.

The Dance of “Within Without” Flow Exercise

Step1: Take an A4 size paper, divide it into two equals by drawing a line, label one half “INWARD” and the other half “OUTWARD”.

The dividing line symbolically represent your upward fertile soil, the cracking space where the “INWARD” starts manifesting in the “OUTWARD”. Just above the line, the half labelled “OUTWARD”, this is the space where the young sprouts show up, life shows with the potential to growth and harvest. The half labelled “INWARD” is your cauldron of churning and brewing.

Step 2: Start with one outward movement at a time, what was it? I may call it growth, change, transformation, shift.

Maybe it was a new job, welcoming a lover in your life, a trip, saying “yes” to an opportunity.

Draw it upward, whatever shape, color, you feel it is and carried.

Support this step by bringing forth all the questions that were asked in the beginning of this write up.

Step 3: What has shifted to enable me to move outwards. What in the inner deepening of this outward movement.
Take your time, this is no exercise to rush through

Step 4: Harvesting – what is awaiting for you to harvest? What lesson, what piece of wisdom, what acknowledgement? What celebration? Friends? Network? Emergence of shadow self?

Step 5: Planting of new seeds. Only when you have consumed your ripeness, then the seeds shall emerge.
Nurture yourself with your own wisdom, teach yourself with that which has emerged. Whisper to yourself and do not rush.
Let this process last as you long as you are yet to reach that of inner contentment within. Once you reach that state, then ask yourself, “what do I plant now? Where do I want to be next? What is next for me now?”

But why would you invest of your self and your time in such an exercise?

Know that groundedness is present when one is consciously deeply rooted in one’s roots. And as we move grounded in our roots, we start tapping into this knowingness that balance carries is in truth a dynamic flow, ever shifting and changing as nature. It is up to us to reach within for our equilibrium and this is an ongoing process. Know that to be deeply rooted in our roots, this asks of us to acknowledge, the unseen, the unheard, unfelt and unembraced within us. Know that sprouting happens only when the roots have grounded themselves deep within our fertile soul.

For every outward movement, there is an equal inward movement.
For every outward growth there is a correlated deepening of our roots.
For every outward focus there is an inward focus
For every within, there is a without.

This is the dance of life, the mating of our external and internal world ushering us further.

Be kind and gentle towards yourself, it has been a shifting year. The intensity will no more ease way forward.

Love from my heart to yours

Megha Venketasamy

Image source: Jeremy Bishoo, Unsplash

Megha Venketasamy

December 6, 2018

For every expansion there is an equal contraction

Megha Venketasamy

December 6, 2018

The law of gravity says “for every expansion there is an equal contraction”.
For every beam of light there is a beam of dark that balances the equation. For every up, there is a down. For every act of opening, not matter how tiny or wide it is, there is a close off.

For every stepping into the light, there shall be an equal emergence of the Shadow-Self.

I have spent the past year opening in ways that I have not even dreamt of. My confessions:with each act of opening, I have had closed off my butterfly wings and with moments of hibernating and hiding.

“Any act of opening whether through writing, through a new business venture, intimate sharing with family or opening to a new love – chances are you will experience the closing of your wings. You may have to hide. Feeling will emerge, hidden feelings. Crawling fear will come knocking on you. This is a visceral phase.”

Hide.Slow down. Rest. Sleep. Cry. Eat properly. Exercise. Meditate. Pray. And Cry. Salt Baths. Yoga. Art Therapy. And Cry Harder. Nature. And Cry Harder Louder.
But come what may, Stay Open!!

I have had an intense year with three massive trips, Bangalore in April, Joburg (my soul land) in June and I volunteered for the Parliament of World Religions in November and amidst this, I have opened my heart to love to a depth that was unknown to my self.

12th November, I returned home with a badly congested chest. Last week, while flowing through that which has emerged, I thought that it was just the end and I had figured it out. But right here right now, I am contemplating how “for every stepping into the light, there shall be an equal emergence of the Shadow-Self. I have closed off for weeks, using every possible tools that I know to support myself with the grounded intent to shift.”

When the Shadow -Self emerges, most facilitators will say “face the shadow”.

I whisper,

“face the Shadow but stay open. It is easier to close off but stay open. Stay open in fears, stay open in anger, stay open in sadness, stay open in confusion, stay open in lost. Staying open will ask of you to be more than just present to your feelings, emotions, fears and shadow. Staying open is about allowing oneself to move to that space of knowingness that one’s safety is present in all spaces and circumstances especially when one’s heart is wide open.”

I know it feels torturous. I know it is hard.

But know that danger-reversed is “omnipresent safety of one’s heart.”
This in itself is an act of reclaiming self-love, for self-love is nothing but an act of consciously choosing to stay open with the knowingness that sacredness and safety is omnipresent.

I know we are many out there who are choosing to stay open. I also know we are many struggling to stay open when closing-off runs in our veins.

Stay open and know that this “Staying Open” will shift and deepen your discernment and teach you when to dive deeper and when to leave.

I know this is no easy walk but I know we are many to choose to walk along this path. I choose to believe by so doing, we are in truth playing a key role in shifting the system that we live in. Generations to come will be Receivers of this love that we will leave behind.

To you who are choosing to stay open, to you who are struggling to find your way through, to you who believe you are doomed, to you who pain, to you who love, to you who are you.

I see you. I hear you. I feel you.
I am deeply humbled by your path.

Love from my heart to yours.

Megha Venketasamy

Image source:Vinicius Amano, Unsplash

Megha Venketasamy

November 30, 2018

As I churn so I alchemize

Megha Venketasamy

November 30, 2018

Today, I celebrate men, women and myself for closing the first twelve months of pacing with Whispers of Faith.

I have spent the last twelve months explaining the symbolism of black and gold in Whispers of Faith

“As I churn so I alchemize”

My naivety thought she has understood it all until two weeks ago, a wave of massive churning and brewing dragged me deeper and I am gently emerging now. To be honest, I am in a limbo; I have no clue of the next. And I am choosing to be vulnerably open and honest about it, for I believe if one person allows her/his self to be seen, heard, felt, this will ripple across oceans and lands and we will be many to rise to our vulnerable space.

Hear the whispers of that which has emerged for me.

My Shadow-Self decided that it was going to her moment of glory. I was dragged, shaken, stripped off and broke open. I kicked hard, projected on my closest one, tried everything to hang on and to control that which I was feeling. Truth be, I had lost feet and this happened within days. While I was wiggling, my chest was heavily congested and I decided not to go for medications for I deeply believed and still do, that this situation was beyond medications.

While I say this, I do not advice anyone to do same unless you have a sense of your body and you know your own limit to withstand that which churns and brews within.

This stride stopped until listening was the only balm.

“As I churn so I alchemize”

My Shadow-Self brought to surface that which has led the entirety of my life until now and this was deeply intertwined with my lungs gasping for air.

“Danger is Omnipresent”

The surfacing of this core belief, had me stepped back to review my entire life, how I have moved cautiously, how I have played small despite all. The fact that I am still alive, that I somehow managed to move ahead in life, is a miracle.

I feel and I believe that I am no less than a Miracle. I say this from a deep space of kindness for myself and while I say this I know we are endless out there with lurking shadows awaiting to be heard, seen, embraced and acknowledged.

To the external world, I am a confident woman, someone who is not afraid to take stands and voice, but my own shadows whispered a story of “fears, self-judgments and a belief of danger being omnipresent”.

My chest is breathing freely right now as I walk my way to reclaiming this core belief that has emerged. I do not see the next and right here right now, I believe that "Courage is the Willingness not to Know".

Can you allow your self such courage?
Being willing not to know, yet knowing that the way through is through one's shadows.

What is the path?

Carl Jung devoted his time and researched on the “Shadow Self”. We all carry repressed ideas, instincts, impulses, weaknesses, desires, perversions and embarrassing fears within- these form part of the unconscious mind and is referred to as Shadow Self. This archetype is often described as the darker side of the psyche, representing wildness, chaos and the unknown. Carl Jung believed that these latent dispositions are present in all of us, in many instances forming a strong source of creative energy.

All we deny in ourselves—whatever we perceive as inferior, evil, or unacceptable—become part of the shadow. Anything incompatible with our chosen conscious attitude about ourselves relegates to this dark side.

The personal shadow is the disowned self. This shadow self represents the parts of us we no longer claim to be our own, including inherent positive qualities. These unexamined or disowned parts of our personality don’t go anywhere. Although we deny them in our attempt to cast them out, we don’t get rid of them.

We repress them; they are part of our unconscious. Think of the unconscious as everything we are not conscious of.

We can’t eliminate the shadow. It stays with us as our dark partner. Trouble arises when we fail to see it. For then, to be sure, it is standing right behind us.

What Happens When You Repress Your Shadow

What happens to all the parts of ourselves we sweep out of view?

Whatever qualities we deny in ourselves, we see in others.

In psychology, this is called projection. We project onto others anything we bury within us.

I am way simplifying everything but it carries a depth like none and this sharing will unfortunately not suffice to womb it all.

Where does one start? What if you were to uncover that part of your unacknowledged self?

Sharing one of my exercises

Watch One’s Emotional Reactions

We tend to project our disowned parts onto other people.

One of the best ways to identify our shadow is to pay attention to our emotional reactions toward other people.

People in our environment might be aggressive, arrogant, inconsiderate, or impatient, but if we don’t have those same qualities within us, we won’t have a strong reaction to their behavior.

If we’re paying close attention, we can train ourselves to notice our shadow when we witness strong negative emotional responses to others.

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”- Carl Jung

Whatever bothers you in another is likely a disowned part within yourself.

Get to know that part, accept it, make it a part of you, and next time, it may not evoke a strong emotional charge when you observe it in another.

Focus on what and who evokes an emotional charge in you. It doesn’t matter what the emotion is; it’s a clue you are denying something within you.

And at times, the mirror might be for you to look into, come what may, pause and ask yourself where does this emotion lead you to?

What is it whispering to you? What is seeking to be acknowledged?

And most importantly reach out for support, seek facilitators, professionals and friends who will hold space for you as you go through whatever it is.

My deepest wish of “Shadowing” goes to you, me and us.

May our shadows rise to teach us the dance of our own ecstasy

May our shadows whisper so we may re-member the entirety of who we are

There no light without dark

There is no projective without receptive

As we churn so we alchemize

To many more years of whispers within without

Love from my heart to yours

Megha Venketasamy

October 17, 2018

Daughters of Patriarchy

Megha Venketasamy

October 17, 2018

It is often said that Athena, the Goddess of War, The Patroness of the City, had no mother and she was born out of Zeus alone. Athena leaped from Zeus's head, fully grown, armed, and armored, and she would spend her entire life proving that she was worth being called Zeus’ daughter. Athena’s mother Metis, one of the Titans, a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, would hardly ever be mentioned through centuries of human history.

This account is not conflicting for the ancient Greeks believed that children were descendants of the fathers, while mothers did not contribute to the creation of their children.

This account is intertwined with the patriarchal system that we live in, a system where daughters are called, named and labelled as their “father’s daughter”.

This account tells my own story and that of many daughters of this world.

I was raised as my father’s daughter. Every moment of glory, every act of bravoure and every tiniest demonstration of wittiness were and are still being imprinted with my father’s name. From the beginning I have been referred to as “his daughter”. I have spent years proving that I was worth being called “HIS DAUGHTER”. My mother’s presence within my presence has been shadowed and despite my sense of self, I never questioned.

This récit ripples across the globe across culture, traditions, faces, names, colors and races.

Post one month to the 2nd Biennial Conference of She Stands Tall in Mauritius, I am gently emerging from my caving, pausing to soak within my words and I hold space for this truth:

I am just one of the daughters of a system whose mother has been denied of the acknowledgement that her daughter’s cells are made up of her, that her daughter’s beigness is imprinted with her beigness, that her daughter’s intuitive and cognitive intelligence descents from her legacy.

Patriarchy survives by placing authority and legitimacy of belongingness and lineage upon fathers. Most Women of our patriarchal system are ignorant of their matrilineal. Most Women of our patriarchal system operate as Athena from their head, we thrive and we strive to be proud objects and subjects of and for our fathers. Most Women of our patriarchal system have hardly any sense of identification with their mothers except from self-sacrificing, emotional care taking, over giving and submissiveness.

Most women from our patriarchal system invest and will invest in becoming unlike their self-sacrificing and over-giving mothers. I have spent years thriving to be something unlike “HER”. I have spent years running away from my body disconnects and my rhythms. And I know aware that we are endless on the same stride.

Weeks back I caught myself through my descend :

“Where is mother within me? How come I find no references of her within my system? When did this alienation happen? How did it happen? How has she lived this imposed disconnect for years? How painful and hurtful it is to be overturned from your legitimate place of the Wisdom Keeper, Magic Whisperer and Soul Healer in your daughter’s life?”

The act of being referred to as our “Fathers’ Daughters”, by default relegate our mothers to less of importance in our life. Many of you may not concur with my words, yet we live in a system that has rendered women to less of human, our references for beigness and success are attached to our fathers, while our mothers are symbolism of sacrifice, giving and caring.

I am slowly growing into awareness of the wisdom that women from my lineage and beyond carry within. A wisdom that we daughters of patriarchy have been denied of. This denial is connected to the disconnects that our mothers are born of and from.

I have committed to go home to my mother, I still have no sense of how to live with this unacknowledged, un-embraced and untouched part of my self. I feel and I believe I am now walking home to my sacredness, readying myself for the 2020 Biennial Conference on the Lands of my ancestors surrounded and led by the Nayar.

Love from my heart to yours

Megha Venketasamy

Image source: http://annieandaunt.blogspot.com

Megha Venketasamy

August 13, 2018

A Woman’s Body - A Contested Terrain

Megha Venketasamy

August 13, 2018

What is beauty? Do I look beautiful? What can I do to look like her? What do they think of my looks? These are some of the questions that I believe have plagued the minds of most of us as teenagers, young and aging women on countless occasions.

Winding down through the intensity of last Saturday’s women's circle as we swirled through “beauty and beautiful”.

“Mirror Mirror on the wall, tell me what is beautiful? Who is beautiful?

Am I beautiful? What is about me that makes me beautiful?”

None of us, women present could specifically defined “beauty and beautiful” but still it was and it is easy to name, call, shame and point “unbeauty, unbeautiful”.

The notion of beauty , beautiful and attractiveness is synonymous with one’s body image; how we view ourselves and how we think other people think of us in terms of looks or appearance. As a society, I believe we have undermined, if not looked down patriarchy’s role in influencing body image. Patriarchy strives to exercise control by defining what beauty is, controlling the mobility of women, exerting violence and constructing social norms that impact on women’s lived experiences.

“The female body is a cultural artefact defined and redefined over time in response to broad cultural and historical transformations. Historically, the body has taken on a tubular and slender form in eras in which the female mind has become more politically, economically and socially independent. One need only reflect upon the popular image of the 1920s flapper and the 1970s fashion models to observe the validity of such an assertion” – Hesse-Biber, Howling, Leavy and Lovejoy (2004).

Women’s bodies are not neutral entities, there are so many external factors that act upon them and eventually dictate the way of life of women. A woman’s body has come to be recognized as a contested terrain in contemporary societies, where battles for control are. The war on women’s bodies ranges from acts of extreme violence to bills targeting ‘indecent dressing’ to attacks on women wearing mini-skirts. Along with being bombarded by messages about their bodies on a daily basis, women live in fear of violence and this is a strategy to control women’s ability to think, feel, move freely and act independently. The new age spiritual wave that focuses on internal beauty while shaming physical adornment carries the same patriarchal imprints.

The struggle for independence and liberation for women has not been easy, especially due to the external forces acting on the female body. Society has always used direct and indirect levers to control women’s bodies in one way or the other. So even the greater equality of opportunity for women in recent times has resulted in a cultural demand for women to be thin – political, economic and social gains have coincided with increasing pressure to lose weight. A woman who climbs the corporate ladder is stereotypically expected to look a certain way so even ‘liberated’ women still end up having to conform to a certain ideal. Someone has to have some kind of control over it.

As the stories emerge and the narratives roar, it pains to face that that which we have believed to be unbeauty and unbeautiful about our selves and others, were nothing than just imposed social constructs. There is no such constant as beauty and beautiful and there can never be a defined spectrum to beauty and beautiful. Most of us are drowning deep, gasping to reach that beauty, as defined by the system that we live in. I stay present to this awareness daily, embracing one part at a time, one disconnect of mine.

To women who will read me, your relationship with your body, your sex, sexuality and intimacy did not messed up overnight, there are beliefs, agreements and values poisoning your inner fertile soil.

To men who will read me, I pause and I wonder where are you in all this? What has been imposed? What is it that makes you feel beautiful? How bad do you pain?

This reclamation can be a really uncomfortable edge for most of us, as we are forced out of old ways of thinking about and seeing ourselves, and into the unknown territories of new, richer potentials of being.

Love from my heart to yours

Megha

Megha Venketasamy

August 1, 2018

What if our privileges could birth inclusiveness?

Megha Venketasamy

August 1, 2018

"My name is Meghanaiyegee Venketasamy born and raised in a family of tamil speakers. This ancestral inheritance privileges me over others. I am tagged “colored woman” and this tag privileges me over other women. I have been to school, to university and have been part of international fellowships – this parcours privileges me over other women. I am part of local,regional and international networks and this belongingness privileges me over other women."

I have privileges, some born with and others I have acquired. You have privileges, we have privileges, some born with and others acquired.

Privilege is defined here as a special advantage, immunity, permission, right, or benefit granted to or enjoyed by an individual, class, or caste. We all have privileges, be it financial resources, acquired knowledge, linguistics inheritance, community belongingness.

Privilege is when we think something is not a problem, because it is not a problem to us personally.

My conversation will discomfort and this is my grounded intent.

People of my community will rather have me speak to them than having to listen to a woman unlike me. The pieces of stamped paper that I hold grant me access to stages and by default, men and women will rather honor me than some other woman they tag as “disqualified by default”. My skin color, my hair and my name give me access to spaces in this world, where I am embraced and welcomed. And I am also aware of spaces and instances where I have been asked to and I will be asked to dim my self for my difference is not welcomed.

This pattern is ever present. Most of us are either not aware of this pattern or we are purposefully choosing to act blind. I see amazing women and men leading campaigns and teaching but when I pause to look at their team, at the structure of their work and at the language in use, it is strikingly disturbing to note the lack of inclusiveness in terms of colors, words, stories, men and women.

My legitimacy as a woman facilitating and leading other women is often questioned and this is linked to the coloredness of my skin. Nonetheless I am lucky to be colored for my black sisters’ paths are no easy sway compared to mine. The ever present supremacy of one category of humans over another is a dis-ease spread across the globe. And if feminism is about including then we as feminists can no more afford to play such a disconnected game. Ignoring this dis-ease does not make space for healing.

It is painful and hurtful to question our self whether despite our grounded good intentions, we have not been including. I am on that path and every day I allow myself to become present to how I can include voices, ripples, rhythms, rhymes, stories, wisdom, knowledge and words of women and men from different instances and spaces through the works that I do.

Are you aware that you have privileges?
What are your privileges?
How can you tap into your privileges to create space for inclusiveness?
How can you use your privileges to catapult this world to the next level of awareness, consciousness and connectedness?

My journey as a woman facilitator through the She Stands Tall Project grounds me through this purpose. As I allow myself to stand tall in my ever changing beigness, I also own responsibility for using my privileges to embrace those who look, sound, speak, see, hear, feel and experience unlike me. This is Power.

In one month, Mauritius will be embracing 28 women from across the globe including Mauritian sisters, for the 2nd Biennial Conference of The She Stands Tall Project, a one of it’s kind conference where the space will witness and birthing of a container holding the likeliness and unlikeliness of each present.

May we move into awareness of our privileges and may this awareness support us
to include us, you and me.

Love from my heart to yours

Megha Venketasamy

PS: for more details on regarding the conference, please write to us on shestandstallproject@gmail.com and megha.venketasamy@gmail.com

Megha Venketasamy

July 24, 2018

Conscious Men...

Megha Venketasamy

July 24, 2018

Saturday 21st July, we held our first « menstruation » circle guiding women through their inner navigation system, as we moved to the closure of our circle, the words emerged and they whispered “Conscious men”. These words stayed with me all through till this morning as my own descend led me to that which I am about to whisper back.

Yes, women, we are many to have a hard time to say, to state, to acknowledge, to honor and to embrace the fact that there are “conscious men” out there. Yes, women, we have been rising from our demeaning states and still walking through our woundedness and most of the time we speak from that state of woundedness. Yes, it is not easy. It still hurts and we have every right to be angry, mad and to be paining.

But this will not change the truth that there are “conscious men” rising and doing their inner works.

Maybe it is time for us to change the way we see, hear, feel, experience and define consciousness and conscious men.

Consciousness has more to do with waking up to owning one’s stories. Consciousness is about owning responsibility for how we feel, why we feel it and what triggers us. Consciousness is being aware of what we put out in the world. Consciousness is grounded in intentions.

There are conscious men rising and we have to acknowledge this truth – “Patriarchy has not done less harm to and unto men. Our men were taught and are still being taught to shut off from their inner navigation system.”

Do NOT think it is easy for me to say this. It is an uneasy stride on my keyboard right here right now. But still, I chose to whisper for I see, hear and feel my fears, my stories, my woundedness and I honor them. I am witness to my struggle through my stride, still I chose to whisper for this is my commitment to consciousness.

We, WOMEN are DESPERATELY TRYING to HEAL our SELVES, so ARE MEN.

Conscious men are not meant to be like conscious women. We were designed, crafted and synergized to complement each other.

Please do not go out in the world expecting to meet men who will complete your sentences like your sisters do; or bring you your favorite food like your sisters do ; or even have the kind of conversation that blows your mind.

I am not saying it is not possible but there is distorted romanticism – built around conscious men – that veils us to this truth that conscious men are like us; they have been torn apart, they have lost it all and they are healing their way through, they are learning to allow their selves to be rewired and this is no easy path.

Conscious men will go and hide at times, like we do. Conscious men will even try hard to have outer dimensional conversations like we do. Conscious men will screw it all at times like we do. Conscious men are not less or better than us, they are merely mirrors of that which women seek.

I say this for everyday, I witness myself going through my cycles and I often pause to acknowledge and honor not just myself but all connected directly and indirectly to and through me, women and men.

As I close off, I must confess that this my SHIFTIEST 2018 lesson so far. I stay open and I am choosing to allow myself to learn from my self, my stories, from your self, your stories, from our selves and our stories.

Love from my heart to yours.

Megha Venketasamy

Megha Venketasamy

July 4, 2018

The intent of bringing women in circles

Megha Venketasamy

July 4, 2018

This World shivers when women gather; This World retaliates when women gather; This World mocks when women gather; This World curses when women gather; This World discomforts at the gathering of women.

Women discomforts at the gathering of women.

What is about women gathering that creates so much fuss?

Any act of bringing people together in a moment in time grounded in intentions, carries the potentials to break through. Such acts serve the path of any individual on his/her way to grow a touch more aware of his/her beliefs, stories, discomforts, patterns and selves. This is what we term as CONSCIOUS AWARENESS. When one BECOMES CONSCIOUSLY AWARE, then one STARTS LIVING CONSCIOUSLY and CONSCIOUS LIVING IS CONNECTED TO CONSCIOUS CHOICES. This act SHATTERS the TENTACLES of our PATRIARCHAL SYSTEM. We FRAME these instances as SHIFTING and TRANSFORMING.

WOMEN WITHIN WOMEN CIRCLES

At the core of bringing women in circles lies the intention of activating the innate connectedness that women have shared from the beginning of time. There is nothing new to women journeying in circles – our great grandmothers did it and ancient communities knew it. The patriarchal system that we live in has invested energy, time and fears in building women against one another – shaming, naming, slutting, belittling – you name it.

Women Circles create safe spaces to allow women to move inwards to see, feel, hear and listen to their stories, beliefs, values, wounds, woundedness, connectedness, disconnectedness, relationships, life and world. Women Circles teach women to embrace both their light and shadow selves.

Women Circles teach women to ask this one vital question “Where is the soul?”

This world shivers when women gather; This world retaliates when women gather; This world mocks when women gather; This world curses when women gather; This world discomforts at the gathering of women.

So Be it!

Women Circles move women in spaces to reclaim their stories and cast spells unto their selves so that they rise to reconciliate with this world. This is the power of circles, this is the power of words, this is the power of consciously crafting and sealing agreements with and within our selves and the external world.

Our world carries undermining, harmful and belittling agreements for and against women, colored people, indigenous people and minority groups.

Women have a key role to play in reclaiming, reconciliation and peace building. Yet this process cannot happen unless women stand within and through their stories and start their inner reclaiming, reconciliation and peace building. The activist that I am, have chosen to invest of my self, my time and my resources in bringing women in circles.

When women come together, the space will by default align itself to make shifts and transformations possible. Intention matters and so does the one who facilitates.

We need structures, strategists, scientists, economists, politicians, healers, mid-wives, artists, creators, rainmakers and peacemakers to shift this world. But we also need women who will vulnerably show up and by so doing hold the mirror for other women to start their inward descend.

More than ever, we need grounded conversations that allow women, men and children to open up to their selves.

I look forward to hearing from you, to reading you and to co-creating in rippling whispers about the "inner descend".

Megha Venketasamy

Certified Women Circle Facilitator, The She Stands Tall Project

Megha Venketasamy

June 18, 2018

Relationship is the place of growth

Megha Venketasamy

June 18, 2018

My sister reminded me of yesterday, 17th June - my mind, heart, my soul and my entirety are elsewhere.

I got religiously married on 17th June 2007. Two months prior to that date, I cried a lot, my being was saying "NO". My insights kept whispering that I was about to "put myself into some thing less". But every one whispered "that's how girls feel-just scared, you will be fine."

I would bond myself to a man who was not and is not bad but his own issues from his past were far beyond his self. And I would end up providing for us in all the sense as long as that relationship lasted.

Three years through this marriage, all the signs and symptoms would speak of wrongness and dis-ease and it would take me nine months, early January 2011 to figure out that I was in an abusive relationship. Ongoing instances of daily abuses ever present in my life at that time. Any form of abuse that does not move to the physical state is hard to detect, I was on that path.

I would brave the tides, believing we could heal our way through. Endless times, I choosed to believe and trust these words “things will be better and I will change” and all through, my instinct would scream “Run away! Go away!” To the external world, we were the happiest couple, warm and welcoming hosts but no one knew what was happening behind closed doors – my fears, my doubts, my archedness, my hopelessness, my tiredness and his demons.

It would take me one year to build my internal muscles and walk my way out of this relationship. In 2012, I paved my way out and I kept quiet all through, I hardly spoke about what I went through and what I was going through for my safely became my priority. I knew before hand that I should not expect support from my family. But much to my dismay, I was nurtured and supported by my siblings like none and I am still.

My mother’s delusions got shattered and she is yet to move on but my love for my self and her, grounded me in my choices and I keep going for I suddenly became my priority.

My ex-husband slashed back and he found the easiest way, he crafted stories about me. Still I kept quiet because my safety became my priority.

I choosed to write about this phase of my life for I am utterly and deeply grateful for what I went through. I do not wish anyone to go through what I went through, yet I will not bargain any part of my path. So hear my whispers now:

1. We attract that which we are at any given moment in time

I was a giver, I had no notion of boundaries and I ended up attracting my perfect match at that moment in time.

It feels almost sadist to say this but this is how this world works, whether we believe in it or not. Our wounds, our past, our inner dis-ease play a huge role in attracting that which carry the potentials to either break us down or break us through.

He needed to be fed and I was willingly willing to feed ongoingly . So I fed him in all the sense for three years until I started waking up gradually.

Waking up, asked of me to look into my own wounds. When I woke up, I would then spend months looking at my own father's wounds and wounds that I had connected to men from the beginning of my childhood.

So this phase of my life taught me and is still teaching me to peep into my self before blaming the world.

2. Sense of Safety

Most of us, women and men grow up in unsafe homes, abuse has become part and parcel of our lives. With normalization of abuse, we end up with a distorted sense of safety, we teach ourselves to navigate through unsafeness. I was there. I grew up in an unsafe home and I ended up in an unsafe space when I got married. I taught myself to navigate through for this is what I saw my mother doing. But it is wrong!

Safety is safety and there is no disguise or distortedness to sense of safely. Our guts know it, our intuitiveness know it. Run away when it is UNSAFE.

3. No one change except for his/her self

From the beginning of any relationship, if we stay open enough, we are given glimpses, signs and symptoms of what we do not align with with the other person. Still many of us choose the naïve way, we choose to stay. We stay believing that the significant other will change for the sake of this relationship.

No one changes unless he or she has had a shift within and provided this shift has brought awareness to his or her self. While we may choose to stay despite mis-alignment of core beliefs,values and lack of safety, we better not blame the other person when things get heated up.

They showed their true colors from the very beginning but we decided to believe in them changing over time. Change is a personal journey, change comes through awakening. No matter how we feel for others, we have to come to understand that each one of us is to walk his/her path and we cannot save our loves ones, regardless of the depth of our feelings.

4. The gap that we try to fill in when we get into relationships

The entirety of our lives will be spent in relationships with us trying to fulfill a gap that we carry within. What are you trying to ease and feed through relationships?

Are you seeking validation? Fear of abandonment or rejection?

Do you believe that someone else is responsible for your happiness?

Is your feeling of unworthiness making you cling to something without you, even if that thing is toxic?

Do you feel worthy when you serve others in relationship? Is this how you derive your sense of worthiness?

Relationship is the place of growth. Hurt, love, pain, gain, win, loss, warmth, cold, they all play a key role in unleashing our wounds and moving us closer to our truest self.

No relationship is and will ever be devoid of triggers, pains, tears and confusions. But there are some basics; safety and intuitiveness remain at the core. And one’s intuitiveness is the compass, come what may, heed to that inner voice. Our intuitiveness hears, sees and feels it all.

RUN WHEN YOUR INTUITIVENESS ROARS - JUST RUN, A DOOR WILL OPEN.

May your relationships serve the purpose of opening you up and May you allow yourself to heal

Much love and Blessings

Megha Venketasamy

May 7, 2018

That which conspires when we take a step towards our fullest self

Megha Venketasamy

May 7, 2018

My decision to fly to Bangalore whooshed in early March 2018, my entirety was kicking, churning and brewing. I listened. I understood that I had to be India as I neared my birthday. And I listened.

Why do I make this conscious choice to listen to my body?

What difference does it bring to my life to listening to my body?

How does such a choice mold shape life?

What is the impact through and unto the wheel of my life?

Over the years, both my ongoing training as a meta-coach and on women spirituality have taught me and are still teaching me the way to grounding back into my body. The intelligence that my body temple hosts cannot be described but rather lived, experienced and ultimately transcended. I journey with fellows through the same path that I choose to journey with my self.

I have learned and I am still learning how my mind-body-heart-soul-energetic-emotion system works, learns and transforms via the way that we feel, see, hear and experience life through our bodies and how we ended up incorporate meanings into our body.

Our bodies carry the rhythms of the ancient ones, waiting to mold itself unto itself.

There comes a point, when listening is the only choice we have.

I landed in Mauritius on Wednesday 2nd May and since I have been resting, immersing deeper into and through the whispers of my trip. I listened and I am still listening to my mind-body-heart-soul-energetic-emotion system. I am gently emerging from my powerfully shifting and transforming Bangalorian trip. “Whispers of Faith” carried me on it’s wings through and through. My current state, a sweet drunkenness, I swear can dwell right through this drunkenness for weeks and months.

I have much to share, to hum, to celebrate, to honor, to acknowledge, to remember and to re-member. Right now right here, my heart feels like whispering this one truth to you all.

When I felt compelled from within to birth “Whispers of Faith” in September 2017, I never had plans of having “heart conversations” around the whispers. I simply followed through what my entirety was kicking me towards to back then. When I was planning my Bangalore trip, I had no plans of hosting a book sharing session and least to even speak of and about “Whispers of Faith” but Spirit decided otherwise, through my mentor, teacher and Sister Rekha Kurup and I embraced it.

31059514_2210859912275976_1979548098854125568_n (1).jpg

Glimpses of "Whispers of Faith" in Bangalore

And as reflect back on how my life has shifted since 30th November 2017, from drown in my agony of unworthiness to trapped in my fears of unknowingness and my current sweet drunkenness, hear my whispers

“When we take a STEP towards our FULLEST SELF, that “WHICH HAS ALWAYS BEEN” and that “WHICH WILL EVER BE” will CONSPIRE to keep us MOVING. A step that manifests through a project, through words, through lands, through chants, through “it all”; name it, call it and nail it. The BIGGEST TRAP is that of trying to CONTROL THE OUTCOME of it all – the expectations, the return on investments, the ties and the relations. DOUBTS, FEARS, CONFUSIONS, BREAKS, SHAKES, WAKES, LOSS, GAINS, WAITS, STUCK, STILLNESS, LOVE, HATE, SHAME, GUILT, NAME, GAMES, PAINS and BALMS, they will all PLAY AN EQUAL PART of our journey. That “WHICH HAS ALWAYS BEEN” and that “WHICH WILL EVER BE will stand strong through it all through us, by us, for us and with us, whether we believe or not. There is no turning back, there is no going astray, there is no off-track, once you activate the process of moving towards your fullest self.”

As close off my sharing, readying my self for this week with the intention of unwinding the whispers from India, my deepest wishes of love, light and vibes go to you

“May you take a step towards your fullest self. Moving towards our fullest self always ask of us to let go of the generational luggage, we fear for these luggage have ended up becoming part an integral part of our faked truth. May you be reminded that “WHICH HAS ALWAYS BEEN” and that “WHICH WILL EVER BE” will guide, lead, protect, nurture, sustain for you, through you and with you. Take that one step towards your fullest self, through a project, through words, through lands, through chants, through “it all”; name it, call it and nail it.”

“Whispers of Faith” will be whispering on new lands in June 2018, more will be shared in coming weeks. Looking forward to expanding in humility and love.

Blessings. Blessed Be.

May Whispers Be. May Faith Be.

Megha Venketasamy

As we open up to receive information about ourselves, then it is no more about what others have done to us or an issue of trusting others but rather it becomes an ongoing pacing within where we learn to trust what is showing up for us, to us through us.

Graduation Rhymes and Rhythmes, Wednesday 26 December 2018

“Mirror Mirror on the wall, tell me what is beautiful? Who is beautiful?

Am I beautiful? What is about me that makes me beautiful?”

This reclamation can be a really uncomfortable edge for most of us, as we are forced out of old ways of thinking about and seeing ourselves, and into the unknown territories of new, richer potentials of being.

I have privileges, some born with and others I have acquired. You have privileges, we have privileges, some born with and others acquired.

Privilege is when we think something is not a problem, because it is not a problem to us personally.

Are you aware that you have privileges?What are your privileges?How can you tap into your privileges to create space for inclusiveness?How can you use your privileges to catapult this world to the next level of awareness, consciousness and connectedness?

May we move into awareness of our privileges and may this awareness support usto include us, you and me.

But this will not change the truth that there are “conscious men” rising and doing their inner works.

Consciousness has more to do with waking up to owning one’s stories. Consciousness is about owning responsibility for how we feel, why we feel it and what triggers us. Consciousness is being aware of what we put out in the world. Consciousness is grounded in intentions.

Conscious men are not meant to be like conscious women. We were designed, crafted and synergized to complement each other.

Conscious men will go and hide at times, like we do. Conscious men will even try hard to have outer dimensional conversations like we do. Conscious men will screw it all at times like we do. Conscious men are not less or better than us, they are merely mirrors of that which women seek.

As I close off, I must confess that this my SHIFTIEST 2018 lesson so far. I stay open and I am choosing to allow myself to learn from my self, my stories, from your self, your stories, from our selves and our stories.

This World shivers when women gather; This World retaliates when women gather; This World mocks when women gather; This World curses when women gather; This World discomforts at the gathering of women.

Women Circles teach women to ask this one vital question “Where is the soul?”

We need structures, strategists, scientists, economists, politicians, healers, mid-wives, artists, creators, rainmakers and peacemakers to shift this world. But we also need women who will vulnerably show up and by so doing hold the mirror for other women to start their inward descend.

Safety is safety and there is no disguise or distortedness to sense of safely. Our guts know it, our intuitiveness know it. Run away when it is UNSAFE.

Relationship is the place of growth. Hurt, love, pain, gain, win, loss, warmth, cold, they all play a key role in unleashing our wounds and moving us closer to our truest self.

No relationship is and will ever be devoid of triggers, pains, tears and confusions. But there are some basics; safety and intuitiveness remain at the core. And one’s intuitiveness is the compass, come what may, heed to that inner voice. Our intuitiveness hears, sees and feels it all.

RUN WHEN YOUR INTUITIVENESS ROARS - JUST RUN, A DOOR WILL OPEN.

Are you aware that you have privileges?
What are your privileges?
How can you tap into your privileges to create space for inclusiveness?
How can you use your privileges to catapult this world to the next level of awareness, consciousness and connectedness?

May we move into awareness of our privileges and may this awareness support us
to include us, you and me.