By Arielle Giordano
Beholding the bond of love within oneself creates an opportunity express more love with others and availability to share and give from the heart to family and friends.
Today, women live a more vibrant and different lifestyle than they did 40 or 50 years ago. They are CEOs, successful top executives, business entrepreneurs, writers, dancers, painters, and artists, just to name a few careers. However, while on the surface level the world of opportunities has changed, the true essence of a woman remains the same. “Womaness” is love, softness, openness, creativity, and nurturing from the heart space. A woman nourishes the world around her in many ways, through partnerships, relationships, career, motherhood, and her life responsibilities.
A woman gives love and nurturing naturally when she is expressing her real “womaness”—her true feminine essence.
A woman in her natural state of being beautifully offers her heart as she gives to others. She takes care of her loved ones just as the lioness takes care of, protects, and nurtures her cubs. Sometimes, however, in the process of nurturing others she forgets about herself. As a young girl, I gained firsthand experience of this watching my mother grieve my father’s death and still put her four young children first. Then my mother passed away at a young age from cancer.
When a woman needs self-love, nurture, expression, and care and doesn’t receive these things, difficulties can arise and project onto relationships, people, cohorts, work, career, and so forth.
I personally have experienced this as well, when the world around me seemed to be caving in in one way or another. In these situations, I know it is time for me to practice self-love, nurture, and care. I also know that it is time for me to be creative and express myself through the arts.
Creative expression is one way to fulfill and nurture ourselves. A woman can move and have fun with creativity through dancing, painting and coloring, molding clay, making magazine collages, writing, and journaling, to name just a few ways. Creativity not only inspires more creativity and ideas, but it can also nurture self-love, fulfillment, expression, emotional release, freedom, conscious awareness, aliveness, and being in the moment.
Intimacy of being means really being “within your own self.” Going deep within, being quiet within. Be in your heart and just let yourself be with you. Going deep within also allows you to be fully present in your body, mind, and heart. Thoughts, feelings, ideas, and physical sensations may arise, but just be with all of them in the moment. Intimate time with yourself can include listening to music, talking a walk or a bath, doing what you enjoy, or engaging in your favorite things with and by yourself. You are giving time for you to be with you in whatever form that has significance and meaning to YOU!
Love your natural beauty on both the inside and the outside. Nurture the natural beauty that is unique to you, for every woman has her own natural beauty.
Discovering and uncovering the natural beauty within is the first step to acknowledgement of self—and with acknowledgement comes acceptance. A woman needs to accept herself exactly the way she is in body, mind, soul, and spirit, and she can love herself through admiration of all of her positive attributes.
Admire all the wonderful qualities you possess on the outside and inside of you. Celebrate the beauty and love on your face. Celebrate your body with all the curves or thinness. Enjoy having these natural beautiful qualities and ways of being. Dance in your natural beauty of loveliness, grace, and charm as you share and inspire others to dance!
Behold the loveliness and beauty of being a woman!
Write down all of the ways that you will create, become intimate and quiet, and love and nurture YOU this week! Discover new nurturing ways to share and give love to family and friends. Celebrate all that makes you YOU!
Arielle Giordano, Masters of Arts, Masters of Education, is a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher, facilitator, and published author. She enjoys sharing her gifts and talents with an authentic style rich in grace in dance, psychology, philosophy and the expressive arts. Arielle is a Lead Faculty Area Chairperson and Faculty Member for College of Humanities at the University of Phoenix. She inspires students with her profound knowledge of Humanities, Art, Psychology, and Philosophy. She is a published author of two books and magazine articles. In 2013, she published the Psychology, A Journey, 4th ed. Study Guide. In 2011, she wrote the Barlow Abnormal Psychology 3rd ed. Instructor’s Manual, 2009, Psychology, A Journey 3rd ed. Study Guide, published by Nelson Education. Arielle offers seminars and workshops on expressive dance, celebrating creativity, reducing stress, and emotional release. Arielle has been a guest speaker on radio and television, featured in newspapers and magazines across the United States and Canada. Visit dancingfromtheinsideout.com or email agbeautifuldance@gmail.com or call 813-545-7173.