Healing sisterhood, feminine cycles, and the remembering of who we are
There’s something ancient in the way women gather.
Something we forgot, and are slowly remembering.
A way of holding, of listening, of seeing each other not as rivals, but as reflections.
For too long, we’ve been taught to compete, to compare, to distrust other women.
But when we come together in safety and truth, we become medicine for each other.
My journey with women
My own path of reconnecting with women has not been easy.
In the beginning, it felt lonely.
I longed for sisterhood, but didn’t quite know how to open to it.
My relationship with the feminine, within myself and with others, was something I had to slowly reclaim.
In 2019, I did the Women’s Circle Facilitator Training with the School of Shakti in Amsterdam.
It was just after I found out I was pregnant and that news became a powerful portal.
Because motherhood, more than anything, became a deep initiation into womanhood.
Motherhood as a mirror
Having a daughter brought everything closer.
She reflects the parts of myself I need to meet, hold, and heal more clearly than any adult ever could.
She challenges me to grow, softens me into love, and continues to teach me about my own feminine essence.
Since becoming a mother, my longing for supportive female community has only grown.
Not just friends, but a village.
Women I can cry with, celebrate with, and be real with.
I’ve sought out this kind of connection in both personal circles and through trainings.
Trainings that deepened my feminine path
In 2022, I joined the Yoni Journey with Chris van der Weiden from Unveiling Intimacy to heal the relationship with my post-partum body and in 2024, I completed the one-year training Voluit Vrouw Zijn with Janneke Robers.
Each of these experiences brought me home to parts of myself I had forgotten.
To my body, my emotions, my rhythm.
They taught me not only how to hold space for others, but how to truly hold space for myself.
Living in tune with my cycle
One of the most transformative practices for me has been tracking my menstrual cycle.
What once felt like a monthly inconvenience, now feels like a sacred rhythm I am learning to honour.
I’ve learned to mark my cycle on my calendar,
to clear space around my bleed and the days leading up to it,
to soften my schedule, nourish my body with what it needs,
and honour the different emotional landscapes that move through me.
The more I attune to these changes, the more my cycle becomes a compass not a burden.
Of course, there are still moments of frustration.
When a beautiful festival falls on the first day of my bleed, for example.
Not ideal.. of course.. But even that carries a teaching.
There is beauty in surrendering to what is, and joy in truly taking care of myself.
This is what I believe
I believe that when women gather with care and intention, healing happens,
not just individually, but collectively.
That remembering our connection to each other, to the earth, to our bodies, is the way home.
I believe that our blood is not shameful, but wise.
That our cycles carry deep intelligence.
That our wounds with the feminine, with our mothers, our sisters, ourselves, can be healed.
And I believe that when we stop competing and start standing together,
we become powerful beyond measure.
Pictures: Maja Elders
