Workshops, Healing, Celebration

11th Annual Women's Belly and Womb Conference

March 20th, 2010

Celebrating the Awesome Power of Our Rich and Diverse Womanhood Journeys

Sirius Conference Center, Shutesbury, Ma

Registration for the 11th Women's Belly and Womb Day is now open. See Classes and Schedule for details.

Since April 1999 the Women’s Belly and Womb Conference continues to be a revolutionary gathering of women healing themselves around core issues facing us culturally.  It is a FULL day of transformation requiring stamina and willingness. You will touch many deep places within and experience the spectrum of grief and joyful empowerment.  The renewed love, honoring and celebration of our life-giving wombs and feeling-knowing bellies is crucial to our freedom; freedom from disease, depression, oppression and suppression.  Let’s continue to be in our power and honor our true nature.  Say yes to life with me, and to loving ourselves fully!! 

ALisa Starkweather

 Do any of these things apply to you?  If you are a woman, than you have a belly and womb story.  It is a radical idea to pay tribute to our journey concerning our lives.  There is not another Belly and Womb Day on the entire planet like this one!  Let's stay healthy and honor ourselves.  Note: Women without wombs are so welcome here.  Your story is important.

• Are you able to love your body, your belly, your self, your womanhood with unequivocal acceptance? Do you carry shame about your body? Do you have a cultural base that honors your beauty and your size? Have you ever suffered from an eating disorder? Can you allow yourself to age?

• Are you disease free in your colon, liver, pancreas, small intestine, spleen, stomach, sexual organs (including sexual diseases and viruses)? Do you still have a uterus? Have you had any major surgery for childbirth or for your health that involves your belly and or womb? What is your mother's herstory with her body? Do you suffer from PMS or hormonal imbalances?

• What is your herstory with fertility? Are you able to bear children? Are you resolved with your birth stories (i.e. C-sections, stillbirths, traumatic births, adoptions)? Are you resolved in your decisions to terminate a pregnancy? Did you ever have an opportunity to grieve your loss or release your guilt? Did you have support for the choices, the losses, and the destiny of your path as a woman? How do you feel about yourself as a mother? How do you feel about yourself as being childless?

• Have you suffered sexual, emotional or physical abuse in your life? Are you able to deal with how you may abuse yourself by your internal dialogue or your actions? Do you feel empowered to thrive and shed another layer of pain? Are you depressed in your gut?

• Do you honor your gut feelings and intuition? Do you get indigestion, stomach upsets or sluggish digestion? Where does fear live in your body? Where does power live in your body? If you got in touch with the power you hold deep in your belly how could it be used as a catalyst for truth, action and empowerment for good in your life?

• What happened when you first began to bleed as a young woman? Was your period or moontime celebrated? How do you honor your rites of passage now with your daughters, your Menopause years, and your monthly cycles? Do you participate in women's circles, rituals or ceremonies intentionally honoring the Goddess in every woman? Do you want to?

• Do you maintain any spiritual practices that cultivate energy in your belly for longevity and well being? Our chi, or life force, generates from our hara below the belly button. Do you know how to gather universal energy, store it and renew it? Do you breathe well? How much ecstasy do you allow yourself? 

• How are your relationships with other women? Do you trust them or compete with them? Do you feel superior, inferior or equal to them? Do you want healing that happens in the context of what we have endured together in this culture? Have you done any Shadow Work to find out where you might be projecting parts of your self onto others? Do you want find meaningful ways to connect right now? 

• Do you have a yes or a no inside your belly that aches to be spoken? Do you have a love for life on earth that demands you to know what you know and to voice your opinions? Do you need more energy to act from? Have you let sound out of the silent places inside? Is it time for you to come out, to come up, to be seen? 

These are some of the many complex issues and questions that the Women’s Belly and Womb Conference seeks to address.  Any woman can find something of importance for her own healing and growth.

As you can see the Belly and Womb Conference has a wide “birth” of reasons why it is important for us as women to gather and as women we have a distinct journey with our belly and womb. When we detest, reject, or disown it we cut ourselves off from the very source that could feed us, nourish us and empower us to live more meaningful lives. It is a time for all women of all ages to meet one another eye to eye, heart to heart and belly to belly. It has been said that this mere day, this precious time together, has permanently changed lives for the better in meaningful ways that matter to us on a day to day basis. Please consider joining us for this eventful community day. If you are unable to come, please hold us in prayer. We are showing up in our power as women in multitude of ways, especially now. Blessed Be.