The Womb as Navigator, Executive Advisor, and Source of Feminine Power
Posted: August 19, 2014 Filed under: Body, Female Power, Feminine Power, Feminism, Womb | Tags: Feminism, Memory, Power, Tantric Dance of Feminine Power, Womb, Women's Bodies, Wonder Woman 49 CommentsI love to drop into my womb. I first learned about this practice when I started studying The Tantric Dance of Feminine Power™ over ten years ago. “Drop into your womb” is one of the instructions the teacher gives you before you can dance.
As someone who was used to connecting to my body from the outside-in—usually secondhand through the male gaze—I’d never thought to connect to my body from inside of myself, let alone to my womb of all places.
That very first time I tried to drop into my womb, I ended up in my belly area instead. Since the belly is the part of the female body I would see grow bigger in pregnant women, I figured that was where my womb must be. But when I went home later that night and Googled “womb” just to be sure, I discovered that it was located lower down in my body.
The Womb
Up to this point, I’d spent a lot of my life living in my head, thinking… thinking… thinking my way through life rather than being fully in my body and present to the moment. My body, as far as I was concerned, was for getting me places and attracting the opposite sex. It was also the part of me that my mind couldn’t seem to control no matter how hard it tried. I felt like I was occupying my body but not really connected to it.
My body liked to disobey me. Like in gym class when I was a girl. I so wanted to hit that volleyball over the net whenever it came flying my way. I would try to “think” my arms into gracefully knocking the ball over, but noooooooo! My hands would helplessly flap at the ball, while the rest of me tried to get out of the way because I was afraid of getting hit.
I also was fearful of my body’s natural appetites and impulses. I believed that if I wasn’t constantly regulating my own behavior I might overeat, get knocked up, or end up in other sorts of trouble.
“Think with your head! You can’t trust your body,” one of my male relatives would warn me.
No wonder it took me a while to learn how to drop into my womb and stay there.
Now, when I say that I drop into my womb, I don’t actually physically re-enter my uterus or go sliding around in my fallopian tubes. That would be truly frightening—and probably grotesque and very messy. It’s about focusing my awareness down in my pelvic area instead of letting it stay up in my head.
When I drop into my womb, my awareness—some might call this the mind, consciousness, or spirit—comes down and links up with my body. My head and my body no longer feel like disjointed parts, at odds with one another. They become unified parts of a whole—that whole being me.
I’ve grown to love this way of connecting with my body so much that I’ve started to drop into my womb even when I’m not in dance class.
When my mind and my body are joined up, it is easier for them to work together and communicate with one another. Playing volleyball would be a different experience now if I were to drop into my womb. I’d let my body and its instincts and impulses kick ass, rather than trying to play the sport from just inside my head.
Connecting to my womb space has made a lot of life’s experiences more satisfying. Sex is more pleasurable when my awareness is down around my pelvic area instead of in my brain, where I can’t feel anything. As a performer, I do my best acting when I’m dropped in my womb instead of agonizing about remembering my lines. And believe it or not, I even drop into my womb when I parallel park!
And you know how sometimes you just know things even though you don’t know how you know them? These hits of insight and intuition come through me even stronger when I’m dropped into my womb:
You don’t have writer’s block. The story you want to tell just needs more time to gestate in your body… I know you think you blew that job interview by not pretending to be more excited. That was your body’s way of helping you weed out the wrong opportunity…. Stop trying to figure out what to do next! Stay connected to your body and wait for the answer to come to you.
It’s as if by dropping into my womb, I connect to a flowing fountain of wisdom—my own wisdom. This is not information that comes from books or experts. It is knowledge that comes directly through my feminine body.
So many women are taught to cast aside their own instincts and feelings in favor of the opinions and instructions of external authority figures—male ones, especially—that it can seem wrong to act upon that inner knowing. It also can feel bizarre and frightening. But what if there is no better guide for how to live our lives than our own female bodies?
When we are plugged into our bodies, we become embodied. This transforms us into women with full access to the unique wisdom, abilities, and powers that reside in each of us, waiting to be unleashed.
As a young girl living in the Philippines, I used to stand in the middle of my bedroom, stretch my arms wide, and turn around and around in place. I so badly wanted to transform into Wonder Woman—or, at the very least, her younger sister.
I thought I wanted to be a superhero, like Superman or Batman, when really what I longed for was to experience my own power.
Every time I drop into my womb, I am Wonder Woman. I become my own kind of wonder woman.
Stories From the Belly 
I have to admit, this is a great, informative story. I enjoyed reading it!!
Thank you, Mihran! I’m glad you enjoyed reading this.
My Pleasure Diahann, you have such dynamic and energetic posts. Thank you for sharing it!
I love that-dynamic and energetic- thank you for that reflection, Mihran!
Watching the Wonder Woman clip, I’m reminded of Indigenous American Changing Woman and her spinning transformations.
Thanks for this post. Hits so closely to the work I’m doing with the story of Vasilissa and her doll in her pocket. The apron pocket would be right in the middle- not on the side like we usually think of now. Its a metaphor for dropping into our intuition and letting that guide us.
Was speaking with a client today that was talking about feeling the need to keep up her walls around her ex when they’re parenting their children. The energy that it took is draining her. We worked with helping her see that she doesn’t have to maintain perpetual defenses, but can instead develop her intuition and trust that- trust herself- to know what to do when she needs to do it to be safe.
I am not familiar with the Vaslissa story but it sounds like very much a similar wisdom is encoded in her story. I will have to look into the Indigineous woman as well!
It really fascinates me how trusting the self is so often a key but we are taught not to go with that instinct first. I know that feeling of flying without an outer established net and how scary it can be. Your client is obviously lucky to have you.
The Vasilissa story is covered in Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ “Women Who Run With Wolves”. I’m writing a workbook to go with it that gets women to do exactly what you write about here- take the knowledge from their heads into their bodies.
Carolyn Myss also cites the story in her book “Sacred Contracts”.
Its an initiatory tale about getting in touch with our intuition. If we’re blocked from our bodies, we’re also blocked from our intuition, so the body work is really integral to opening that up.
WWRWW is the first book I read about the female body- at the time I had no idea what Estes was really talking about but it felt so right. I am familiar w/ Myss but only through her Anatomy of the Spirit, which is excellent too.
I definitely look to patriarchy and traditional religions that promote the divide between the head/mind and the (gross body) as partially responsible for why so many people are blocked in their bodies.
I’d love to know when you publish your workbook. It sounds like a great companion.
That’s a really interesting, paradigm shifting concept. Yeah, it’s so important to get out of your head — at least some of the time. The womb is a very interesting place to go. I’ll have to think about that more. And try it.
Georgia, I’d be curious to hear if you do and what your insights might be if you ever felt like sharing!
I just realized that by asking you for some “prep prose” that’s an indicator I am still inclined to stay in my head, right?
Lol. Not at all, Stephanie! I would want prep prose on how to do it too! 🙂
I love the image of you spinning around in your bathroom. You are your own kind of wonder woman! 🙂 I agree, the womb is a special place of power.
Thank you, Cat! It was fun to re-remember the feeling of being a girl and wanting the magic to happen. I hope life is wonderful in your neck of the world. 🙂
I hope all is well in your neck of the world too 🙂
Truly excellent post, Diahann. It really is difficult for many of us to get past that mind-body disconnect. This passage from your post definitely resonated with me: Up to this point, I’d spent a lot of my life living in my head, thinking… thinking… thinking my way through life rather than being fully in my body and present to the moment.” As a person whose mind is never quiet, I find this approach of “dropping into the womb” fascinating.
Thank you, Miranda! I’m glad it resonated.
This is a topic that felt a bit risky to talk about, which seems strange to say- and now that I just said it, this makes me think, why should it feel risky?
Btw- I can definitely relate to having a very active mind. This particular muppet YouTube video makes me giggle. I’ve gotten better about not letting my spinning mental wheels get the better of me – but not always.
Haha! I always loved the Muppet Show, and that video is perfectly hilarious and hilariously perfect. I can so relate to that spinning wheel!
I think most of us feel a certain amount of risk when we talk about something personal (and really, what’s more personal to us than our wombs?) I’m glad you chose to share this. Your posts give us the courage to examine and share aspects of our lives we might otherwise hide from others and ourselves. I feel like your blog is a safe place, one of comfort and acceptance, and that’s really a spectacular thing.
Miranda, it makes me very happy to hear that you feel that way about my blog. Thank you, I’m going to really take that in.
Okay so will my womb have tea and scones at the ready if I should decide to drop in on it? 😉 Simply marvelous Post and do you have some prose to read that help one get in the proper state to achieve this “visit?” Ps. I so wish you had been on my volleyball team. I was so lonely being the only uncoordinated one.
Thank you, Stephanie! I don’t have any prose on it. I was actually thinking of including some simple instructions for how I might do it but was worried that it would dilute the whole thing. I do know there are classes in So Cal where dropping into the womb is taught. If you and I had been on the volleyball team together, I think I would have been too busy laughing and having fun w/ you to care that I couldn’t hit the ball to save my life. And if it had actually landed on my head, you probably would have had me laughing.
Very well written, “kicking in” a lot of food for thought in my wondering head or actually in both of them – have seen so many of us men who haven’t been able to use both head at the same time aka multitask – seen so many cases where it went wrong trying – I belived that women could multitask aka think with their head and their pussy at the same time – maybe they can’t, maybe they do the thinking with their womb – brilliant – those of us men who don’t think only with one head, I always thought it was trained reflexes added our inherited female intuitions – coz we have no womb – women are amazing architecture, the only problem is that they not always know it – mostly It takes women just so long to list ten bad things about themselves as it takes men to name ten good things about ourselves – namely, no time… 😀 😀
Very interesting awarenesses, Drake! And I’m intrigued by your own way of processing, as well. And so true, for a lot of women it’s a lot easier to name and admit to what they consider their “bad” attributes instead of embracing and naming their good ones. I think it’s cuz society conditions us that it’s bragging or being too full of ourselves while making it more than acceptable in men.
I am very pragmatically minded and don’t believe it helps to close our eyes but see our own mistakes – the same way it neither helps take on gender “mistake” – it’s so easy to give society the blame when something isn’t perfect – sometimes too easy – but we must not close our eyes to the fact that our society in a way is to blame – men are mutually different, women are different from each other – so why the heck should men and women not be different – we all have strengths and weaknesses, it applies in my eyes to recognize or realize this and act upon it – but we mustn’t allow ourselves to be forced upon stereotypes or roles – but it is a difficult exercise – it won’t be solved by neither “women confirms the man in that he is brilliant”, “women act like men or men act like women” or “we just change roles” – we must all recognize that we are all different but equally – no one is better or more bad from the point being a man or a woman – to be a man or woman is not a quality in itself – we have to use synergistic effect, a trendy term nowadays – maybe it’s just a small chip we all missing… 😀 😀
Agreed that it’s so important to remember we are individuals w/ our own nuances, Drake- and not succumb to stereotype or roles for ourselves of expect that of others. Something much more authentic is required!
Very intriguing, Diahann. And helpful. I practice dropping my energy down into my gut, but after reading your insightful piece, I tried dropping into the womb. A similar but different experience, and I would say deeper, fuller, more potent and based on joy–for me anyway. I am so grateful for your guidance and will be cultivating womb wisdom along with you :). xoxo
Sirena, I love that you dropped in! And I definitely relate to the feelings and sensations you describe. I am still in wonder at this amazing space that exists within but that no one speaks of in these ways. As someone who hasn’t had children I would have never thought to even connect to my womb. Now we can call ourselves womb sisters! xoxo
Amazing post. This past winter I did a yoga practice that involved a similar paradigm shift – the idea was to shift consciousness to the pelvis, as if the pelvis was the center of your self, to see from the perspective of the pelvis. I remember sitting on the bus and just kind of nudging my consciousness down, trying to float it down, without pushing, just a gentle shift of perspective. Fascinating practice. Golly gee, I gotta check out your dance thing and see if they have it here in my city… 🙂
Katalina, I loved imagining you on the bus dropping into your pelvis! And also, what you said about learning to see w/ the pelvis. LOVE. Yoga must’ve definitely transformed too when practiced w/ the pelvis as the center, I would imagine. If you do pick up The Dance let me know!
Moving into the pelvis is something I do for myself (and teach my clients to do) when I need a safe container. I see it as a mother cradling the core of the body- that loving enclosure that provides such soft protection. In my work with Vasilissa, I found that the Wild Woman– and her intuitive power and wisdom–lives in my hips. I wrote about it if you want to check it out. http://www.ritesopassage.com/the-deeper-marriage-blog/the-wild-woman-within
I will. thank you!
Oh, Diahann, I so loved this post. You always make me discover new things about my body. Before reading your post, I never thought of my womb as a source of power.
I particularly like this advice you gave: Stop trying to figure out what to do next! Stay connected to your body and wait for the answer to come to you.
It’s all about trust and listening to our intuitive womb.Thanks for sharing. 🙂
I’m so glad, Carol! And it really so much about cultivating that self-trust and inner listening, which so often feels to me like living without a net– hey, isn’t that called flying? Maybe a super hero power, after all. 🙂
Interesting. I do not know how to drop into my womb, but I know how to be quiet and listen to my heart.
Timi, your comment makes me remember that beautiful quote, “think with your heart and feel with your head.”
❤ excellent and interesting post, as usually… thanx, young lady! 🙂
Thank you, Melanie!
Hi, great penning job, as usual.
I haven’t done Tantric dance, but in Yoga, we are told to concentrate sequentially on ascending points of the body, all of them in the centre/core of the body. One of the spots is the pelvic area,
so I guess all sciences do converge in terms of content and logic.
Thank you! Is that kundalini yoga that you are referring to? I’ve done some yoga but none that apply that, which sounds profound and I’d imagine fascinating for the energies that get activated in the body. (T. Dance is also called Yoga of Shakti even though it is a different modality of movement:))
Love it. I really need to do this. I love all the different areas the dropping in has impacted. You would really take to the Alexander Technique if you’re not familiar. Can Google.
Xxx
D.
Than you, Diana! I took Alexander once years ago when I was so not connected to my body- I remember thinking- I think absolutely nothing just happened this entire time– haha little did I know how little I knew.
Is that a regular practice for you? It’s highly recommended for performers.
No, I wish. I took a few lessons way back when I came out to CA. It was amazing. I never knew I never knew how to…lie down. To REST. It felt so amazing I burst out laughing for the joy of it. I’ve always kinda held myself up in bed. LOL I know. Retard. My instructor pointed out that in the swing dance I had picked up so happily, I wasn’t swiveling and turning with my whole body but just the bottom half. You brought this to mind. It’s amazing how mindless and mindful we can be in our own skin.
I love that observation, Diana ” It’s amazing how mindless and mindful we can be in our own skin.”
Thank you for this. It’s the time of year when I need grounding. I always think of that –when I remember to think of it–in terms of breath. This week, I’ll try to focus on the womb and see where it takes me. I think that will change the experience.
Awesome, Jenn. Happy womb dropping. 🙂
i love this. thank you! 🙂 aleya
🙂
Now I get it, I really do! Our instincts and our emotions, along with the way we get our pleasures all come radiating out of our ‘wombs.’ I like to be alive and cheerful, enjoying and savoring life. I just didn’t know some of this is because I am in touch with my inner womanhood and womb. I particularly loved your ending, Diahann! Wonder Woman becomes ourselves!
Thank you. and Yes 🙂 It really is amazing how potent a space is the womb and how much power we hold there. A different kind of super heroine for sure.