My First Womb Awakening Experience with Jade Bertaud

Letting Go

For years, since I was an adolescent, I held on to parts of me that I believed were broken, parts that I had chalked up as a failure. it came from Past relationship trauma, family trauma, career and life let-downs, loss of friendships, and the painful childhood memories that seemed to live on in my subconscious. i internalized many of those experiences, and those memories plagued my wellbeing and outlook. as a people pleaser, i had difficulty trusting my own thoughts and desires. I struggled with voicing myself in relationships. at times, I felt as though My path had been that of a life vest floating just above the water and yet not having ever touched land, that’s the way I would describe it.

as i collected all of this negative energy, I didn’t realize how disassociated from my womb I would become. I was so unaware of my spiritual center, as most of our energy is focused in the mind. I did not know what it felt like to be fully connected to my body. I had grown to hate my period and had complications from the pill, causing me to shift even less consciousness to my womb. I shamed myself for not feeling “womanly” and for the physical pains I felt from the pill, and the bad experiences at the gyno. the truth was that My body and mind was yearning for healing space. Letting go of trauma requires a safe environment and the freedom to express. I feel like my body waited a long time for that.

Once I came to a place to finally release, I could then begin the true self-work. No matter how many degrees I’ve earned or books I’ve read, nothing, in my opinion, beats honest self-work. It’s the kind of work you have to do that’s very painful and lonely at times. and You’ll know you’re doing it right because those baby steps suddenly become extremely uncomfortable or you begin to feel like you’re starting from the ground up. Many gurus and specialists will tell you that. personally for me, i knew i had to be prepared that my recovery might cause discomfort to others, because we live in a very co-dependent society. In order to heal, I needed to make peace with that first. sometimes finding our happiness means that we have establish boundaries.

Part of my studies as a yogi and yoga practitioner is my self-work and a consistent dose of this is key to my career. I am still in this process of “letting go”, of filtering through the bad, acknowledging it, and growing from the pain. But I’ve had a lot of help along the way. from counseling to 12 steps to my studies in conflict management, i started healing slowly since 2011. and as of lately, One person in particular has been a great deal of comfort to me and she isJade Bertaud, from Womb to Woman.

Today, I am sharing what I learned from Jade’s workshop last month, Womb Awakening Workshop: Embodying Your Feminine Radiance. her workshop helped me to understand my personal strengths as a woman and how to tap into my womb’s energy for guidance. I want to share what I learned from jade in hopes that you will be inspired to become a little more attuned and connected to your womb. I want others to heal and let go, if they so choose.

Where the Body Carries Trauma

As women, we have lived in a historically patriarchal society in which we are under constant scrutiny and pressure to be “appropriate” and “abiding”. We’ve become disassociated from ourselves because we’ve experienced situations that called us to sacrifice our happiness in exchange for security. we’ve people-pleased, we’ve seen our boundaries broken, we’ve strived for perfection to meet another person’s standards, and we’ve survived in this systematic training and conditioning to be “good” and “acceptable”. This is not to say that all men are no good. I am saying that historically, the agenda of our existence as women has been taken from us. our nurturing and loving qualities are often seen as weakness.

we are now living in a time in which we are collectively healing from thousands of years of trauma, from our ancestral traumas and the untold stories of our mothers and grandmothers. As the body stores this negative energy in the body, it manifests itself through our habits and choices and beliefs. the Trauma, the rage, and anger can be held in our womb for generations. but this pain is present in the womb so that you will know your true story. and your womb will hold this grief for you until you are ready to acknowledge it in a safe space. for centuries, women have not had the opportunity to heal and so I encourage you to take this post as a reminder and a tool for you to tap into.

The Womb is Your Compass

The Womb is the center of spiritual peace. In ancient history, the womb is recognized as a shamanic doorway to travel to the spirit world. as women on earth, we are part of the cosmic womb. It is a place in which we are directed and guided. as humans, you can learn to fully trust in your womb, using it as your compass. The voice of the womb is very straight-forward and motherly. “trust your gut” is a common phrase, and this is quite true and useful for us as women. Men also have a womb-like center called the hara. oftentimes, when we come to face a problem or difficult time, we want to either shut down or cut someone or something off. But the womb’s intuition and voice is frequently ignored during these low points. we tend to look outward for our answers rather than inward. the womb will actually tell us what we need and how to proceed, if only we listen.

Embracing Both our Sensual + Loving Qualities

Through this workshop, I learned that it is okay to learn about ourselves and embrace our feminine qualities. jade talked about the notions of the red rive and white river. Our red river is this fiery, strong, sexual, sensual part of our nature. the expression of our red river is often shunned or looked upon as intimidating. we learned how to ask ourselves what kind of space we need to feel our feminine sexuality and how this red river can flow through our lives. it is the ultimate freedom, to be wild and free from conditioning. The white river is the part of us that is soft, pure, and innocent. It is the part of us that will cry and grieve with you, it knows your pain, it is the unconditional love, the purity and restoration. with the white river, I learned that I embrace this side a little more. but I need to be careful with using it so much that I become a people-pleaser or perfectionist.

jade helped us to learn to become aware of both the sensual + loving elements within us. it’s about seeing areas in which we can explore and become more in tune with ourselves.

What is a Womb Awakening? How Can It Help Us Move Past Trauma?

Jade says: “Womb awakening is a spiritual, physical and emotional process that supports us in reconnecting with our womb space, and its power and intelligence. The womb awakening process supports in healing trauma for many reasons. For one, it invites us to fully come back into the body. Trauma causes us to unconsciously disassociate as a protection mechanism. As a result, most of us are living with our awareness and our soul not fully rooted in the body. When we’re not fully in the body, we easily feel anxious, numb, depressed, and disconnected, without really knowing why. We may feel disempowered, low self-worth, and generally confused or indecisive about what we truly want. We can also develop health issues as the body's way to bring our attention to these repressed feelings. Once we return to the body and connect to the womb, we can begin to gently address our traumas and wounds in a way that feels safe and empowering. Being rooted in our womb space allows us to feel connected to our strength, our power, and our wisdom, as well as our capacity to heal and to rebirth ourselves and any wounds we or our lineage carry. Womb awakening allows us to reconnect with our sensuality, deep femininity, and our capacity to be in sacred relationship with our bodies, ourselves, our loved ones, and the planet. The feminine has been carrying heavy loads of shame and abuse for centuries. It’s incredibly healing for a woman to re-open to her own sensuality and beauty, and to begin to live in the world from this place of empowerment and radiance. Womb awakening is a process of liberation, and of remembering how to embody our true soul self.”

How Can We Begin to Listen to Our Womb?

jades says: “The simplest way to listen to your womb is to take 5 minutes to connect with yourself every day. It looks like this:

- Take a moment alone in a quiet and safe space
- Place one or both hands on your womb
- Take 4 deep breaths, in through the nose, out through the mouth
- Bring all of your awareness to your womb space beneath your hands, and simply feel into what’s there

You can also follow this process when you have a specific question in mind. Maybe you’re trying to make a decision, or need some extra insight into a situation. The Womb is the radical voice of truth and wisdom within us. She’s the instinctual part of us, and she may speak to you in images, sensations, emotions, flashes, words, memories, or just a deep sense of knowing. You can trust whatever feeling comes first. This is a process that goes beyond the mind and requires that we let go, and learn to trust our feminine (intuitive) self again. A big key of Womb Awakening is learning to trust your body and the voice in your womb above anything external - friends, family, spiritual teachings, etc. She will always have a gift for you, and may often surprise you with how real and direct her knowledge is.”

Jade Bertaud, Womb to Woman

Jade has been studying Womb Awakening and Womb Shamanism for 5 years, and facilitating sessions and workshops for the past 2 years. she has apprenticed and trained under Seren & Azra Bertrand from the Fountain of Life, a modern Grail Mystery School.

“Womb awakening is about women taking charge of reconnecting to their womb space as their source of wisdom, feminine power, and beauty. When a woman is rooted in her womb, she is confident, strong, powerfully intuitive, and radiates her beauty and gifts into the world with ease and grace.” - jade

Thoughts on Jade’s Womb Awakening Workshop

The Workshop was life-changing in the sense that I found myself in a safe container for self-reflection and story-sharing. hearing the experiences of other women was a very healing moment for me. the energy we each brought into the room was transformative. Some of the elements I enjoyed within the workshop were:

- learning about the red river and white river that flows within us
- journaling my thoughts and feelings about trauma
- telling my own story in a non-judgmental setting
- listening to / receiving a message from our womb in the guided meditation
- the experiential portion of the workshop, using movement for healing

Triangle Pose

In continuation of my womb awakening, I’m incorporating my “womb awakening”meditation with some yoga poses to help me fully tap into this energy center and clear any negativities. I’ve started with triangle to work my obliques, lengthening my torso.

Warrior

I love a good warrior in the morning as it really does open my womb and helps me connect to my body’s core. It not only strengthens my core, but really keeps me strong and open to the blessings of that day.

Cow Face Pose with Side Stretch

i love this pose because i can really stretch the hips while also opening up the sides of my body. i like that i get to remain seated and connected to the ground. this pose gets my day going and feels comforting to me.

Connecting With My Womb

since having taken the workshop, I love to do this meditation at night because it relaxes me and puts my restless mind to bed. Any questions or worries I am still facing become muted as I focus on my womb. In my meditation, I’ve grown to really enjoy the messages that come back to me. each day I learn how to listen to my womb and learn to trust myself. It’s a totally new act of self love for me but I have come to appreciate my own intuition.