Expansion, contraction, expansion…

You will never guess where I am-

I’m cringing as I write this…

I’m…

..on…

..the…

BEACH!

That is right. I am on vacation.

And right now, my whole being is fully resisting sharing this information with you. Why? Because I just announced the details of my digital Ecstatic Birth Training Sessions. There is much work to be done. Shouldn’t I be taking this a whole lot more seriously? I mean, last time I launched a program, I barely left my computer’s side and ran myself totally ragged getting ready. Shouldn’t I be doing that again?

Though it is hard to admit out loud, I am consciously choosing another way. Last round I nearly burnt myself out and I had to course correct to consciously create an ecstatic experience for me birthing my business. This time, I’m proud to say, I started on the same route, but recognized it pretty early on and gathered support from the get go…  Just like at birth, support makes a huge difference.

As Ina May Gaskin, the “mother of modern midwifery”, shares in the Ecstatic Birth Training Sessions, “90% of what you need is to have somebody with you who is comfortable in the energy of birth and who is kind and sweet and not scared.”  It is waaay better, with support, I admit. But still when it came to sending this email, I thought maybe I just shouldn’t mention the vacation and instead pretend that I am diligently working at my desk.

I’m outing myself because despite all our “no pain no gain” cultural conditioning, Ecstatic Birth is all about the opposite. It is about shattering that conditioning. Birth doesn’t have to be a horrible, painful, traumatic event. It can be fun, joyous, sexy, and even pleasurable. But our cultural conditioning is sooo strong that every time we move against it, everything around us will try to reaffirm it and bring us back in line– friends and acquaintances, even ourselves- like me now- not wanting to share my vacation status. Guess what? I’m not going to let that stop me!

I’m choosing pleasure rather than “no pain no gain” here, and my teacher, Regena Thomashauer (who btw teaches all about Pleasure in The Ecstatic Birth Training Sessions), would be proud.

But there is a deeper level I’d also like to share…

During a birth, a woman experiences waves of intensity, commonly called contractions, more pleasurably known as rushes. These periods of intensity rock the body and are followed by a delicious calmness and silence allowing the birthing woman to deeply relax before the next wave swells. It is during this relaxation that a woman’s body opens, expands, making room for the baby to come through.

The rhythm of birth is expansion, contraction, expansion, contraction …

The rhythm of orgasm is the same…

The rhythm of life is the same…

This is not a coincidence. (A few of our teachers will touch on this.)

They go together and when you know that and can consciously use that knowledge- you can really use those spaces between the contractions to expand even further than you could before. Rather than tightening up, bracing yourself for the next one, enduring, and pushing through, our teachers will open you up to a whole other way. And there IS another way- where you surrender into a trance, commune with your body, connect to its wisdom, move with its messages, and ride the waves of expansion, contraction, expansion right through to baby bliss.

You see my being on the beach right now… in addition to being a whole lot of delicious fun for me and my family, is a very conscious, incredibly bold step that I am taking to support the expansion of myself as a leader of Ecstatic Birth, the expansion of my business, and the birth of my digital program.

Will you join me in flipping our cultural conception of birth?

Will you join me in exploring the inherent connections between our body, our sexuality, our stance on life, and childbirth?

Purchase the Ecstatic Birth Training Sessions here!