The Silencing of Women

This is a subject that is near and dear to my heart. The silencing of women has gone on for thousands of years. It is the theme of a talk I will be giving later on this year. My mission is to help women understand their fear of public speaking and how to overcome that fear through awareness, compassion, and self-trust. This will be shared in additional writings in this safe space.

I spent part of the afternoon yesterday getting in touch with the times I have had my voice silenced by men. The more I thought about it, the more that was revealed to me from my memories. With each memory came a forgiving of the person and also myself. It seems odd that these instances of having my voice silenced by someone who loved me had so little outward effect on me. I know I was hurt at the time of each instance, but did I stuff those feelings so deeply and so quickly, that I didn’t have time to realize what had been done? Or was it just that deep within my psyche were the memories from past lives and my maternal ancestors that made me more accepting of what had been done to me?

Are women conditioned to accept the silencing of their voice, of their ability to express how they are feeling in the moment they are feeling it? Have thousands of years of silencing through pain, suffering and death affected us more than we realize? That the fear we feel is real and does silence us when confronted with a situation where we must speak out.

Being aware that the fear is real and the reasons why it is in our solar plexus, the seat of  personality, ego, identity, personal freedom, self-confidence, feelings of helplessness, insecurity and victim mentality, exposes the fear through our awareness of it. Once we are aware of why it is inside of us, we can begin to overcome and conquer this inherent fear of public speaking.

Knowledge is power. When we return to the times in our lives when we have been silenced by men or have silenced our own voice, by remembering we can begin the healing we need. Yes, it’s painful. Yes, it’s difficult. We can empower us and empower other women also. We can forgive and move on to freely expressing our innermost thoughts and emotions.