As a therapist, I have the opportunity to view life from multiple dimensions.  Sitting with clients I get the opportunity to understand life through my client's experience, but this also reminds me of my unlived life.  For me, my work as a therapist is a journey into self-discovery.  It is painful but quite addictive, it is almost like being in love, it hurts but you do not want to be without it.

My philosophy and religion are Universality and humanity.  I love my clients regardless of their gender or religion.  They come to share with me some very vulnerable aspects of their lives.  Despite their fears, they honour their need for support.

There are many different areas in one's life where we need support.  In the absence of any of these we remain underdeveloped, feeling incomplete and dissatisfied.  Like a plant which has been planted in the wrong type of soil or denied light or water, any of these things will hinder growth.

 In my own therapy, I have been through these developmental stages and growth processes and see this happening with my clients every day.  The journey of life is different for each of us, but the trouble is that we do not want to accept this.  Wishing others to live according to our own values and beliefs, is a lot easier than to have an openness and patience to stay with the disease of our own agendas.  Unconsciously we know that it will lead to our own self-discovery and stitching that split will be painful.  The pain we so desperately try to avoid dealing with, we eventually end up living with for the rest of our lives.  Whatever lives in shadow form as a result of denial, is given more power and eventually it always defeats us.  When we deny our shadow we become it because our soul seeks consciousness: it seeks to know itself.  Our sense of reality is limited because of the darkness created within us by denial.  It is always about others; the finger turned outward makes us the victim.  If we could turn the same finger inward, we could become our own god, limitless, fearless and all powerful.  The person we accuse of causing us pain and being unfair to us is just a trigger, not the cause.  They are triggers for the things we most deeply care about.

 I feel this very strongly as a woman.  All these feminist movements, fighting for women's rights and equality, accusing men and society of being the oppressors are all triggers and even more so, of the finger turned outwards.  Women are known to be repressed and if we dive deep enough into this word repression we would know that it is simply a basic defence mechanism which serves as interruptions to contact.  Repression is loss of awareness of needs, feelings, experiences and memories; a defensive and active shutting down of part of our thinking and feeling.  It is, in fact, that women have lived in a very repressed way for a very long time. 

 If people have lived with repression then whenever there is some freedom, that repressed energy starts uncoiling itself.  Any energy repressed is sooner or later going to take revenge.  Whenever there is an opportunity for the energy to explode, it will explode.  Once the pressure on the lid is removed, then the lid is going to be thrown off by all the repressed vapour inside, and women have lived longest under all types of repression, so they are boiling within.  They talk about equality but they go on doing to men what has been done to them.  Beautiful words but destructive. 

 No creativity can come through you unless you have dealt with your own repression first.  Creativity is the polar opposite of repression.  Creativity means expression.  It is against repression.  To be able to handle your power properly, and not be abusive to yourself and others, it is important to accept yourself, to know what it means to be a woman, respect and honour your sexuality; then there will not be any urge to compete with men.  Men and women are two parts of the same whole, they compliment each other and that is the law of nature.  As long as we continue this game of oppressed and oppressor, there is no end to our suffering. 

 We have to take charge of our inner authority, claim only what is rightfully ours and let go of the greed of being men and women at the same time.  Trying to prove what you are not by doing men's jobs and performing like men is degrading oneself.  It shows your dislike for yourself and if you dislike yourself, then you are your own oppressor.  Men can never oppress you if you truly honour and respect yourself, they will not dare lifting a finger on you.  History tells us how powerful women were when they were connected to their divine nature (spirituality).  Religion all over the world has played a huge role in suppressing women, especially in the western world.   The church has a great deal to do with female suppression.  Religious leaders all over the world know that a woman is capable of producing something much more potent than a baby, and they are greatly threatened by this feminine power.  This power is still within us but we are denying it.

 If women have a vision of creating a harmonious, joyous and beautiful world around them, then first they will have to deal with their feelings of sexuality, anger and hatred and replace them with self love, respect and compassion.  They will have to learn to express what was repressed.  To be aware of their needs, feelings and experiences and honour them.  They will have to transform their energies from their lower to their higher form, from baser metal to gold.  They have to go through their inner alchemy and become alchemists.  Women of today must be aware of the usefulness of this moment (present). 

 It is painful that our past has been so ugly but much can be learned from this failure.  A revolution can happen.  Character should not be imposed anymore, but consciousness should be helped to grow.  And if consciousness is helped to grow, soon all this unfairness, injustice and lawlessness will disappear and an inner discipline will arise.  For that to happen, women of today have to rise above their past thinking, create an atmosphere of self-reflection and nurture themselves to gain inner strength - so that they can enjoy the ecstasy of an equal relationship.                                  

 By:  Meera Sharma

© 2007 Meera Sharma

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