The Imperfect Instagram Video That Led Me to a Profound Experience
Two weeks before the end of my stay in the Algarve, I saw a video on Instagram and I liked how imperfect it looked. A woman was speaking without the perfect angle, without the perfect lighting, with no make up on, without the perfect pitch in the first 4 seconds so it looked authentic to me and made me want to read the caption.
Knowing what it takes to record videos, I know that many forms of imperfections are a sign of sincerity because it means you’ve felt your message within your heart in a moment you hadn’t planned to go online.
When inspiration comes, do not wait for too long.
Publish the message the exact way the universe sent it to you.
The woman was offering to join a Circle of Women to talk about our femininity or more precisely about how we approach our periods. As I used to participate in a similar kind of circle with a Moon Mother in France and was remembering all the benefits I received from it, I subscribed and went!
I joined Galya’s Women Circle after a Night Under the Stars
The day before, I spent it pet-sitting two dogs, and one of them ate my sock. As I didn’t know what to do, I gave him the other one.
At midnight when the family came back from Lisbon, I was given a new pair of socks with a sorry but amused look and I jumped in my Super Kangoo Van and I started to drive towards a forest where I had planned to spend the night in my cosy camping nest. I chose that car because it has big windows so I just had to look up and could admire the most beautiful stars in a clear sky throughout the trees.
The workshop was starting on a Sunday morning and I arrived in a weird internal state because as the sun rose at dawn, I woke up and had a nice time watching the trees but then, I fell back to sleep and barely woke up when it was time to go so I arrived at the meeting point completely lost and unawake and in a mood that is quite unusual. When I said hi to the teacher, I felt like I could not reciprocate her warm and welcoming smile and behaved like a wounded deer in the spotlight and I wondered: « what’s going on with me this morning? ».
Finding Safety Among Women in the Algarve
Before diving into the Women Circle Experience, I want to talk about Safety and how hard it can still be these days to feel safe around women. I always generously pinch men whenever they deserve it, but the truth is that women are still very heavily participating in what’s going wrong in the world of relationships.
After several years of Lone Wolfing Life, I took a leap of faith when I tried to share a house with 4 other women in hope to find some friendships, shared experiences and supportive energies. But instead, I ended up in front of a playground that you could call particularly good to observe a large display of toxic patterns – and people sinking into them with no awareness and no will to improve themselves at all. When I joined this circle, I realized that having endured this surroundings for several months, it was starting to reach me within and destabilize me.
No matter how much awareness you have about human behavior, toxicity will always start weakening you at some point, so you must walk away and leave everything behind. As often as you need to. Read that again.
From Fears to Safety – When you’ve been under pressure for too long
After 4 months, I had truly reached the limit of what I could bear with humans and I was profoundly disappointed of this experience so when, I arrived in Galya’s Circle of Women, I was restless and low-key traumatized…
When the event started, I observed my body and nervous system and realized that beyond my control, I was full of fears.
As I had been harassed about so many details of the daily life over the previous months,
when I met this new group of women, my internal system started to hyper actively scan the potential threats
and I noticed it was questioning the environment in a loop:
Who’s gonna hate me?
Who’s gonna reproach me who I am?
Who’s gonna try to dim my light?
Who’s gonna make me pay for expressing myself?
Who’s gonna start a power game using stupid things
because they can’t compete on what truly matters?
This is what’s happening to all of us when we live in toxic environments. We become chronically tired because our nervous system is constantly scanning for the threats or trying to calculate how to avoid more discomfort.
But, there, next to the river, I finally felt like those 6 women were in a completely different mindset and that there would be nothing to protect myself from. They were aware of themselves and seeking healthy and empowering connections with each other and what a relief…
The teacher named Galya was from Israël and I enjoyed her quoting some words in Hebrew many times. It reminded me of a student I was teaching French to who was often comparing French to Hebrew during our classes. Galya, said that in Hebrew, some words were embodying the full meaning of life and holding the deepest gifts of philosophy. She made it sound poetic and it made me feel curious about Hebrew…
How We Relate to Our Blood
The weirdest story came to my mind when she started to talk about our blood and said something you would never expect someone to say: « our menstrual blood smells very good and it’s even super sweet ». Full stop. What?! Does it? I had never thought about that!
But then, I remembered a strange and disturbing moment that’s happened to me once. By accident, I ended up smelling an old tissue impregnated with menstrual blood and I had a shock. I smelled it again. And I couldn’t believe it! It smelled exactly like something we love to eat in France, which left me wondering: « how is it possible that this smells exactly the same as this typical French appetizer? ».
You may or may not know it, but you can Google « saucisson » to see how it looks. And this is something we always eat with wine and cheese in France and people are truly crazy about it!
And it’s made of dried blood from the pork. And yet, we are still repelled by our blood as women, and most people are even scared of blood and would faint at the simple sight of it. So again, how far have we come to lose sight of who we truly are?
Teachers like Galya are very precious in our world because they are messengers who remind us of who we were before we were conditioned by society. Walking alongside her will add layers of depths to your life and it will make you feel more grounded and empowered as a woman.
Animals & Experimenting the Wild
There was a very special guest on the land. A gorgeous dog, a breed between a Patou and a husky. He was so steady and I could see immediately, from knowing dogs well as a pet-sitter, that he was a happy dog because he wasn’t needy. He was protecting us, checking on us, but also completely at peace and autonomous. He wasn’t begging for attention which is a good sign of a dog feeling safe. A dog who is properly nurtured in his deep needs is just like that, living his life in full confidence. He loves you while fully loving himself.
Then Galya told us about an interesting initiation she went through in Israël with shamans. She went to spend 4 days and 4 nights in the mountains, near the forest, with nothing, but literally nothing and she had to stay within a small circle. No food, no water, no light, no nothing. And she told us about how she encountered a wolf in the darkness of the night and how she saved her own life out of pure instincts. I won’t say more about this extraordinary story because I want you to hear it from her, when you meet her in Aljezur where she’s active now.
Please check Galya’s Instagram and Website, I want you to go there and support her. Her work deserves to be elevated and supported by all women so she can find the strength to give and receive. She is very wise and embodies a beautiful femininity and I believe she’s the kind of woman who can reach a lot of hearts and change them for ever.
Website: https://moon-wisdom.com
Her Instagram Account – Galya Moon Wisdom
Galya and the Altar we Co-Created
She taught us so much and wanted to be so generous with her teaching that the day lasted much longer than expected. A girl from London had messaged her boyfriend to tell him we were running late. When she went to the wifi zone to check on him, he made her leave the event while it wasn’t finished yet. Don’t you think he could have waited for 30 more minutes in the car? It made me angry and saddened me to see this and I wish she had set a boundary instead of coming back to us to say goodbye and pick up her staff feeling embarrassed.
I pray for the day when men will be able to detach « their need for control » from how they view relationships with women. In that case, a free spirited man would have felt proud of himself for being patient and selfless and letting his loved one enjoy her event til the last minute, instead of feeling empowered by removing the end of it from her to show he had a bit of control over her life. What a silly source of dopamine but how common…
The Women’s Revolution Begins with Feeling Safe Together
The biggest Women Revolution will be based on changing
how women relate to other women
It’s not only about how women relate to men and vice versa that must change. It’s also very much about how women see each other. How many women these days do not see any value in other women and put zero effort and no genuine energy into establishing nourishing friendships with them? Imagine women putting as much energy into their female friendships and supporting them as they put in chasing men – and envision for a minute how quickly the world would transform under that united power.
I ended up the Circle with this dream to see women
truly interested in each other, saying it and acting on it
After the workshop, I felt a moment of complete exhaustion after receiving so much so I crashed on a beach in Odexeice – I felt like my nervous system was finally relaxing and I felt a deep reconnection to the Earth
Then I regained some strength with some grilled sardines with sea salt and watched this unforgettable sunset thinking that in spite of everything, I had had a very special week-end and I felt grateful
I met Galya again a few weeks later for her Solstice Ceremony and I was amazed by her talent to connect a big group of people in a festival to receive the energy of the sun in their heart, I truly felt it in a special way and I thought she deserved a much bigger audience.
I envisioned her on a stage in the deserts facing thousands of people and transmitting them how to reconnect with the highest powers of the universe through nature. Just by writing it, I think this dream is already a bit real. It will come to her, because this is what she came here to do as I felt that many hearts can accept her guidance.
If you want to join events in the Algarve in the area of Aljezur,
check this network :
LOCALISTA to order healthy products
For Local Events
Just for Fun!
We were supposed to craft a mini bag at the end of our day together but I could absolutely NOT do it – I made the holes in the leather but I could never weave the thread into them, it was literally blocked and it started to give me anxiety.
I felt like an elephant trying to do embroidery so I gave it up and kept the remains as a good travel memory!
Some women do this so naturally and end up with something perfect in no time while I was just feeling unable to do it.
Sewing, is like some other skills I’ve always seen women master so well while I would mess it up in no time:
– sewing,
– being good at cleaning and feeling proud of it,
– making men feel good about themselves while they are being horrible.
So yes, all of those skills, I cannot do, but luckily, there are plenty of ways to be a woman.
