The autonomy that becomes more available to people through meditation is especially helpful for women in a world where they are constantly being told how to look, how to act, how to walk, and how to simply be overall.
Every aspect of a woman’s behavior and appearance is on the table and up for public debate. And if a woman isn’t careful she may become Stockholm syndromed, feeling bonded to or reliant on those who keeps her captive and confined by society’s oppression. She then becomes the card carrying member of the patriarchy.
Hollywood And Sexual Assault
The plethora of sexual harassment accounts surfacing Hollywood exemplify this perfectly. Harvey Weinstein — now famously known for praying on young women in the entertainment industry —considered these actresses fair game given their dependence on him to facilitate their careers.
This often occurs because women are traditionally conditioned to look at the man, any man, as the final authority. It starts in their upbringing and household, and continues unabated as they move through life.
While some women may do everything from seeing a therapist to having an Ayahuasca ceremony in an effort to find their truth — their inner voice — none of it will work until they’re able to rewrite the narratives they’ve been fed their entire lives.
For a woman to gain self agency, to make that journey toward sovereignty, where she’s willing to cut ties to narratives that don’t serve her, meditation is vital.
Why Meditation Is The Key
For women to be in their full power — to slay the patriarchy — they must first slay all the noise and narratives that have been keeping them at an arm’s length of who they truly are.
Meditation is the place where negative narratives, such as ‘you’re not good enough, you’re not smart enough, you’re not beautiful enough etc,’ once told to you by a person or a situation, are reconsidered and evaluated from a new perspective. In the space created internally in meditation, your ability to differentiate between your true identity and the one thrust upon you by the external world grows stronger.
Meditation is the place where you begin to realize that even though your thoughts are arising constantly, they are not necessarily the sum total of who you are. In meditation, there is a deeper wisdom that can be accessed within you, but not by traditional means, also known as conceptual thinking.
There are other ways to experience the your ‘self’ than by simply talking about it. Talking about it may only scratch the surface of getting to the root of all the fears and negative stories that hinder your ability to access inner peace and joy. Anyone who meditates regularly knows that meditation is a deeply physical experience that quiets the noise and allows you to hear and feel your true inner voice.
I believe that self agency is born in the still depths of the morning when individuals are able to be still themselves and connect with Source — infinite intelligence. When you hit the sweet spot of meditation there are no words needed to convey the sensation, the state of just being.
We all deserve to live in this state. And for oppression to be lifted, it’s necessary that we go there.