Tap Into Your Feminine Rage and Righteousness at the Feral Flow Retreat June 23-25!

Join attendees at Kamp Kodawari at this hidden gem in central Florida for the Feral Flow Retreat June 23-25. Register now, space is limited.

The weekend of June 23-25th you can join Ashley Heintz, (Acupuncturist/DOM), Agathe Daskalides, (Reiki and Breathworker) and Annette Scott (yoga teacher), as we lead a healing retreat that moves into and through layers of rage and healing. Engage in embodied movement practices to crack open the feminine heart. Use breathwork, meditation, journaling, grounding in nature and community to repair and restore. Tell your full truth to you. Be held in community and experience love and care. Live fully and move more authentically through the landscape of your life.

Emotions (energy in motion) carry information and - if you can get to the heart of them - they bend us toward wisdom and love. But some emotions are more difficult to feel than others - both from a personal space and sometimes because we societally shy away from them for a whole host of reasons.

Anger is one of these emotions. In my body at least, anger is so uncomfortable. It is hard and bitter in the mouth. It hurts me to have it. 

And like so many of the other BIG emotions, when we really get into it there’s more nuance, subtlety and complexity than we initially believed possible. Which is why I want you to join me, Agathe and Ashley for a weekend to address and release some anger and specifically feminine rage. 

Both anger and feminine rage are things that anyone can feel. They are not specific to gender. But they are different both in source and in essence. Feminine rage is not simply the female expression of normal anger. Feminine rage is the physiological, ancestral, naked and embodied response to things gone horribly wrong in the world.

Anger itself is a convoluted mix of thought, belief, and lines of tension in the physical body, just like all emotions. General anger is a signal that a boundary has been crossed. Anger always means that something has to be done, something is being called for, that love has been obscured.

Feminine rage is more communal. And it's still personal. And it’s both. This is distinct from anger. Feminine rage can be felt by any one. It is the body mind's response to injustice. Feminine rage is the specific boundary violation of social injustice. It can be both or independently personal and impersonal.

And yet, like other emotions, it is fluid. It is fluent. It speaks some truth. And then it passes. And then it may wave in again. 

We can practice with it with and in mindfulness. Part of mindfulness is starting to comb through the morass of these tangled and convoluted emotions to see how much of what  is true - true now.  

Just like when we work with any other sensations, thoughts, and emotions, the first stages of practice are about recognition and seeing things as they are.  

If and when a boundary has been crossed, the work of anger is to rectify the boundary. The work of the practice is to clarify boundaries. Anger and rage are calls to take some action, to right the balance. 

Feminine rage does not need to be ‘healed’, as in eradicated; it's a healthy sign of life. Feminine rage will persist. It has to. It has to because it literally defines the future. But it must be felt into and honored and listened to - and acted through. Because ultimately, suppression is harmful to everyone.  Suppression is related to hate. And hate, unlike anger, will need a lot of healing. Hate needs the kind of healing that is so hard and complex that it may never happen. 

So I am proposing that we come together before anger turns to rage and rage to hatred that hardens us to the point of being brittle and too easy to break and ignore.  We need to come together so that we can remember that there is a time and a place for my/our collective and personal truths. It’s true that it will almost never be easy or how I want it to be and that I have no business feeling sorry for anybody but rather that it is my work to keep myself present, so that I might actually feel our togetherness - both in my community and in my own body.

We will center ourselves in our body, slow down our words with care, and both feel our crazy heartbeat and yet not be driven to a frenzy by it. We can learn to stay in our body. Things like resilience and tolerance can be improved and built on.  

We can start to understand and work with and through anger and feminine rage. We can come to know what it does in our body and to our heart and mind and then we can also learn some down-regulating, grounding and trauma and stress management skills. We can reclaim our energy from suppression and move toward wholeness and compassion. 

We can step together toward the 3 Phases of Trauma Recovery

• Phase 1: We will build in a shared experience of safety and stability so that you can begin to access and discharge some of the tension. 

• Phase 2: Remembering and Grieving....We will share and care for one another.

• Phase 3: Restoring Relationships. Most primarily with ourselves and then potentially, with the ‘others’. 

Working with anger means feeling all of this, coming to know and coming to see, and feel the feeling that then changes and passes. It will. Emotions are fluid.  And they are fluent.  

Of course this type of presence practice is so hard - it's so hard and scary - because anger is uncomfortable. But it's okay to be angry because anger needs presence, not just healing. Anger and rage bends us toward wisdom and reparation, solidarity and resolve; it's a wild and terrible call that says we have to deal with boundaries and renew relationships. It's a throaty, impassioned urge to settle down and in.

But I would rather have a hard practice and a better life than a ‘feel’ good practice and a hard life. 

- Annette Scott