The Lotus Project: The Art of Being a Woman

By Lyn Hicks

The Lotus Project: The Art of Being a Woman paints a beautiful collage of our modern femininity and the power of women. It offers a new way to look at our roles as women in our community, at home, and in the workplace. Inspiring the use of our creativity and artistry as we move through the tasks of life, understanding our bodies, and flowing from ancient women's traditions; author Lyn Hicks shows us how to use simple, and often spontaneous, practices for a healthier, happier, and greener life. Requesting that we connect with our bodies in a more intimate way, Hicks guides us through honoring our emotional nature rather than being run by it.

This book awakens and encourages you to become mindful of your intuition and the vast source of wisdom and direction awaiting your discovery.

With her heartfelt and personal story of evolution as a mother, provider, and educator, she shares the highs and lows of her journey so that all may learn from it. And then she takes you one step further and shares her tools of dance, celebration, yoga, breath-work, intentional collaboration, and more, thus creating a stronger feminine community so all women may blossom forth with their individual beauty.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Difference Press
• Release date: Mar 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9781936984145

Book preview

Dedication

I dedicate this book to all those who have shared knowledge that has helped me to learn about myself. I have had so many teachers in the school of life, from old wisdom to enemies who taught me great lessons in self-awareness. I especially thank the women—teachers, friends, and mentors in the great chain of women—who have been so instrumental in my journey. I give honor to those courageous women who came before me in my ancestral line and around the world, and to all those who share their knowledge with us in the hopes that we may brighten our light!

Table of Contents

Dedication

Foreword

Chapter One

An Awakening of Feminine Spirit!

The Circle of Women

The Art of Honoring

Chapter Two

Nourish Yourself Wisely

Eating for Energy

Hidden Nutrition

Chapter Three:

Your Sacred Space

Imagine the Effects

Your Home Environment

The Emotional Effects of Your Sacred Space

Chapter Four:

Gems of Wisdom

Chapter Five:

Artistic Environmentalism

Chapter Six:

Garden Goddess Wisdom

My Nature Story

Nature Lessons

Sexual Energy

Chapter Seven:

Modern-Day Shamanism

Chapter Eight:

Release and Rejuvenate

Chapter Nine:

Energy Management

Your Energy Field

Other Forms of Nourishment

Personality Types

Chapter Ten:

Harmonious Relationships

Tantra Roots

Different Ways of Operating

Chapter Eleven:

Sacred Femininity

Self-Care

Women’s Leadership

Empathic Awareness

Feeling Others

A Feminine Community

Chapter Twelve:

Modern Femininity

The Red Tent

Youth-Building Playfulness

Universal Energy

Chapter Thirteen:

Alluring Beauty

Feminine Community

Self-Love

Joyful Movement

The Lotus Bloom

PART TWO

Practices in Vitality

The Breath of Passion

The Practice

Conscious Eating

The Practice

Dancing with Your Spirit

The Practice

Three Dances

Chakra Clearing

The Practice

Releasing Exercise

The Practice

The Goddess Glow (Movements for Health, Beauty and Grace)

The Practice

CONCLUSION

Recommended Resources

Local Resources

Authors

Suggested Reading

Online Resources

Foreword

To Be a Garden Goddess!

I loved when my friend Donna gave me that sign for my birthday! It rang so deep for me! To honor my femininity as a sacred gift, a wonder. We are all goddesses, princesses, lovely queens! A smile creeps in when we just picture such an image.

When we were young we wanted to be Cinderella, transformed into beauty from our everyday lives and honored in all our femininity. Cleopatra, Venus, Aphrodite and Isis also come to mind—beautiful, brilliant women capable of doing all and ruling wisely with joy and power.

We don’t have many recent role models of this; they are either powerful, masculine-looking women or extremely sensual, sexual women. There are, however, many strong and beautiful women in the old societies who represent the feminine power that inspires us to accept femininity as a gift, to view beauty as a power, and to embrace our feeling nature.

Vibrationally we don't know how it feels to be full of ourselves in both beauty and power. Vibration is movement. It’s an emotional feeling; emotion is energy in motion. It is not thinking or words but a vibration, an emotional state. Vibing in ease, beauty and grace, joyfully, effortlessly, smiling and pleasurably alive—this is how feminine power moves.

She is safe, she is open and playful; she achieves things with pleasure at a melodic, rhythmic pace. She is happy and enjoys her work in life. Beautiful and sophisticated in her power and magnificence, she tends and befriends the world. She is a warrior and a beauty, soft and strong, much like Mother Nature—a creator and collaborator with all! This is Shakti power in the East. It is magnetizing and beautiful. It is the state women should be operating in and we are not.

The world has given us many messages contrary to this thinking. Beauty has become an outward quality that is created by manipulative and unnatural procedures. Women in power often appear or act masculine, joining the world of competition and survival of the fittest. The I am better than you/smarter than you/prettier than you mindset creates cliques, judgment and antagonism in our feminine culture.

We are victims in so many ways, often of each other. It is not easy to embrace our femininity, to love being female in this world where masculine power rules. Yet a shift is coming about. Women are gathering and wondering how to thrive in a different way, not sure what it is but knowing that owning their femininity is part of the journey. Feeling less than has taken its toll. Embracing our emotional way of being, our intuitive nature, equal in power to the thinking way of men, I am part of the movement that brings back this feminine way! I want to embody the sacredness of women.

We need to create a new structure for women (and the world at large) where there is a stronger feminine community that supports this graceful and powerful way. We are good communicators, flexible at accepting situations and open to ways of improvement. We are great students, ready to seek collaborative solutions, developing the ability to move through life feeling its depths—not controlled by our emotions but using our power to harness the energy of those emotions and direct it into a path of talent that fulfills us.

We have these great qualities that are not being developed and used in the ways that would bring more joy and ease into our lives. Our vibrational life energy is on a deep feeling level. It is not strategic thinking or logic that rules us. We move opposite the way men move, complementary to their process, equal in value but very different in our approach and what we offer the world.

I offer this book to help you see the shift in thinking that occurs when our emotional nature is in power within us. To make choices based on feeling, not relying on logic or efficiency. The shift is in honoring yourself and the things around you, expanding into a deeper feeling of why and how you move, heart-driven. When we make choices that come from that space, they are empowering and loving, there is energy behind them, and they have the support of the universe because they are for the good of all.

A woman moves in an emotional way, considering much more than just her own wellness. Everyday choices can become yoga practices, processes of nurturing and loving. That is how I want to live—as an artist of creative living, acting purposefully with an awakened heart, gracefully moving in joy and helping the world. Not fighting or competing to survive, or rushing about in an anxious state.

Our emotions are powerful energy! Used wisely they offer a different power than the mind. Moving with emotion is the gift of femininity, nurturing so that all may thrive in a more connected world. A more relaxed way of creating! This is the deeper meaning of the green movement, which is so connected to the feminine way: knowing that nurturing all toward wellness and harmony is the gift of femininity. It should not be a struggle. We can make it a pleasure by adding a woman’s touch!!!!

Chapter One

An Awakening of Feminine Spirit!

Each of us is a Lotus Project. We land in this world, surrounded by the water of our family ponds, drawing power from the sun of youthful energy, nourished by the rich mud of our experiences. We are raised in our home environments, developing all kinds of habits, attachments and patterns as we explore life, only to find as we grow that we have been programmed away from ourselves.

The moment we realize that we have been doing what we think is expected of us and that our bright light is not being fed, we can begin to rise from the muck and mire, to shoot up our stems and start again the journey towards flowering into the wonderful beings we were meant to be. We can uncover our essence and purpose, our gifts and talents that somehow never made it out into the world.

As children we jumped to so many naïve conclusions, closing off parts of ourselves for protection from some comment or situation. Now we can see the bright hidden gem within us and begin to cultivate and share it. All human beings go through this journey, seeking the true self by peeling away the onion-like layers that have grown tightly around it. As women we must uncover our hidden depths by nourishing ourselves on many levels.

With this book, I share my story to encourage you to bring vitality, wellness and magic back into your life by reconsidering the ways you live. I want you to be open to the wellness and healing offered by the nurturing aspect of the modern green movement. Not only to save the Earth but to embrace your deeper nature as a creator, to connect with your brilliance so you can overflow into the world.

Women are the flowers of humanity and we provide its fruits. When we naturally nourish ourselves on all levels, we will positively impact our families, our communities and the Earth. A great awakening is occurring that has to do with women, the feminine principle and the essence of our feminine energy that will harmonize our global community. We need to tap into ourselves more deeply so we can understand what it is we all need in this next cycle of the journey. Seeking true nourishment and nurturing begins with ourselves and continues as a recurring theme through all areas of our lives.

The Circle of Women

There has been a women’s movement growing my whole life! Each stage of it seems to get deeper and deeper, allowing women the freedom of enjoying life to the fullest on their terms. It has not come without much work and courage! I like being a woman; our process is transforming so wonderfully at this time. We are learning to understand our bodies, our creativity that comes from sexual energy, our true beauty within and without. I support the women’s movement and the honoring of our feminine essence—creative, inspiring, flexible and changing like nature. We are the gems and founts of human creation, nurturing it as the Earth nurtures all life.

Over time, great wisdom about our sexual energy, our magnetism, our creative energy, and our allure has been lost and we view sexual energy only as the power to attract a man and attach to him. This is such small thinking; it is no wonder we find ourselves worn out, dissatisfied and yearning.

But we are awakening, learning to use this creative energy in all our undertakings! It is the energy of life. Nature, the great creator, uses this energy in all ways. We too need to learn to use this for all our endeavors, not only for men. Learning about the many aspects of our sexual, creative energy is an essential life lesson for our time on Earth. We need to strengthen the feminine culture to overcome our society’s misunderstanding, misuse, and abuse of this positive power.

Our current thinking on sex, sexual energy, and seduction has degraded women and our power to manifest. Like nature, the great creator, women also use sexual energy to design and bring forth life—not only children but all our creations. It awakens our individuality, our hearts, our truths, our focus and our connection to others. It is a deeper understanding women need to own and activate within themselves to balance the world that so needs our