Honor Your Inner Goddess Through Energy, Rituals, & More
In our yang-driven world where action and accomplishment reign supreme, it’s easy to neglect our yin-ness, the softer side of us that prefers to be, not do. With so many things begging our attention on a regular basis, it’s easy to get caught up in life’s demands that sometimes we forget to take a moment for ourselves. We forget to take a moment to remember how truly special and sacred our lives are.
As women especially, connecting with our feminine energy on a regular basis is vital to our sense of self, hormonal health, and overall happiness. Ancient Goddess traditions understood and honored the many gifts of the divine feminine, and reclaiming them now can be just the balance us modern goddesses need. Even if you already practice self-care that honors your inner beauty, there can always be room for more reflection and love.
What is Your Inner Goddess?
Each one of us is a reflection of the divine. Though you may not always feel like it, or even realize it, there is a divinity in you. Connecting with the inner goddess in your soul is simply understanding, recognizing that divinity.
Your inner goddess is always there, though occasionally she might not express herself or might be forgotten about. Life’s many distractions can keep her suppressed, so take time as often as possible to evoke and honor her.
How Do I Connect with My Inner Goddess?
Spend time alone in an area conducive to introspection. Understand when your divine feminine hasn’t had the opportunity to shine or has been under too much pressure from outside forces. Hold a ceremony or do something for yourself focused on self-reflection and self-appreciation.
It may be worthwhile to set up space in your home where you can set aside time for rituals related to self-care and reflection. Going out and spending time in nature is also another great place to put you in the right mindset to honor your inner goddess. Anywhere that’s quiet, peaceful, and allows you to go within.
10 Ways to Honor Your Inner Goddess
If you’re ready to reignite your feminine side, here’s how to get started:
1. Guard your being time
Take back your feminine power by booking in some much needed me time to reconnect with your inner self. Whether it’s morning meditation, an afternoon catnap, or watching the sunset, treat this time like any other appointment by not canceling on yourself to do the laundry or more work.
2. Be open to receiving
Receptivity is the essence of feminine energy, enabling us to live in the flow instead of frustration. Next time someone offers you a compliment or support, graciously say, Thank you! And don’t be afraid to ask for help from family, best friends, kids, peers, and professionals. Remember, the more you allow yourself to receive, the more you have to give.
3. Surround yourself with beauty
Turn your personal space into a goddess sanctuary by clearing out clutter and adding things that delight your senses and your spirit. Try beautiful plants and fresh flowers, essential oils, lush fabrics, wind chimes, seashells, crystals, or other gifts from Mother Nature. Adorn your walls with art and pictures that uplift and inspire you. Make every part of your home fit for the divine goddess that you are and that reflects your inner beauty.
4. Nourish your dreams
Just as we conceive and support babies in our wombs, the Goddess approach to manifesting our desires is to nurture them while they are still ideas and daydreams. As we cultivate quiet time to connect with our inner vision and guidance, we take action from a place of joy and trust. In doing so, we birth our dreams into being in divinely inspired ways and divinely perfect time, just as we do our babies.
5. Slow down and relish
Multitasking is not the way of the Goddess, especially when it comes to appreciating life’s simple pleasures. Instead, become fully present and engage all your senses to enjoy daily delights: inhale the scent of your morning coffee and sip it slowly, let a piece of chocolate melt in your mouth, stop power walking, and savor the sights.
6. Love your body
Aphrodite had small breasts, a soft belly, and full hips. Her huntress niece goddess Artemis was lanky and lean. Do you think they apologized for their shapes? Heck no. They owned their bodies’ divinity to express their goddess’ gifts, be they love or tenacity. Embrace your own body as a beautiful, sacred vessel for your spirit to experience itself and treat it with the love and reverence it deserves. Try self-love with this flow sequence based on the goddess Lakshmi, who represents beauty and abundance.
7. Live from your heart
We are naturally feeling beings, but life’s busyness can hinder us from hearing the voice of our hearts – the true source of our happiness. Reconnect by placing your hands on your chest and resting your awareness in this sacred space. Here, the mind’s constant activity will surrender to the heart’s calm clarity, leading you to live in greater faith and deeper love.
8. Connect with divine energy
Instantly connect with Goddess energy by spending time with Mother Earth. Walk barefoot on the grass and lie on the ground. Release all your cares to her for healing and transmutation. Allow her to hold you in her loving embrace and fill you with maternal love. Doing this regularly will help you become a strong and grounded goddess in your own world.
9. Honor your boundaries
Forget trying to please everyone and love yourself enough to say no to draining demands. Bless and release toxic relationships and patterns while keeping the lessons and growth. Stand firm in the power of an authentic no. A goddess isn’t a superwoman who does it all, but a happy woman who does only what she wants and values.
10. Infuse your life with ritual
Goddess traditions, like those in this practice, are full of ritual because they bring deeper meaning and sacredness to any act. Invite extra blessings into your daily activities by turning them into mini ceremonies. A great place to start is your existing sadhana (daily spiritual practice), by perhaps creating a meditation altar where you can light a candle, burn incense, play music, and offer flowers.
While effort and achievement will always have their place in the world, balancing them with sacred feminine practices will bring us much greater flow and fulfillment. As we learn to be as much as we do, the inner Goddess and God meet in divine union, creating perfect yin-yang harmony within and without. Now that is something worth striving for. For more insight on how to honor your inner goddess and empower yourself on a daily basis, check out Gaia’s incredible content on yoga and meditation. Gaia offers a wide range of classes for every ability level and body type, in addition to content on lifestyle, healthy eating, and spiritual growth.
About the Author
Ridding Your Negative Personal Narratives With Lord Shiva
Lord Shiva is a well-known and worshipped Hindu deity. He is one of the Holy Trinity (the Trimurti), which consists of Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu, and Lord Shiva. What each represents in our familiar terms are brand new beginnings (Brahma), the middle of everything in existence (Vishnu), and the endings (Shiva). When Shiva, as the Lord of Dissolution, gives us the endings, he also provides the space for Brahma to instill a bright new beginning. It is from the void of nothingness, or space, left after something comes to an end, that Brahma responds by bringing the start of something new.
Shiva, Lord of Dissolution
Shiva, The Auspicious One, is also known as Mahadeva or The Great God. He is worshipped as the Supreme Being in Shaivism, a major institution within Hinduism. I like to explain the concept of endings giving way to brighter new beginnings with the metaphor of a bookshelf filled with storybooks that represent our own considerations about ourselves.
Imagine you have a large bookshelf in your mind. The bookshelf is jam-packed with books whose titles represent your own self-judgments or concepts of yourself. One thing to mention is that we are constantly in judgment of ourselves. We are usually in judgment of something and judgments can be good or bad. For instance, we might see a book entitled ‘I am a great Mother,’ or ‘I am a giving person.’
Conversely, we have the debilitating narratives. ‘I am unworthy’ or ‘I am not flexible enough’ as some of the titles we’re experiencing. But the debilitating narratives are simply opportunities to grow or bring Shiva into our lives.
Shiva comes along as the Lord of Dissolution; he shows us where we are hindering our growth with certain stories or ways of being. For instance, when you decide you are fed up with thinking of yourself as unworthy, or not good enough, Shiva gives you the willpower to dissolve that story. The ‘I am unworthy’ book gets removed from the shelf and thrown to the wayside.
What is left behind is an open space, an open space ready and willing to house a new book with a new title. Brahma steps in and gives us the capacity to formulate a new storybook title that feels brighter and shinier as a new beginning, or judgment of self. For example, we switch from the ‘I am unworthy’ mantra to ‘I am good enough.’ In this way, Shiva and Brahma give us the ability to challenge our belief system and change it for self-betterment.
Shiva, Lord of Dance
A common depiction of Shiva is one of a dancing four-armed deity. In this form, Shiva is known as Nataraja, or the Lord of Dance. He is seen dancing in a halo of fire which represents samsara, or ‘flowing around.’ In his upper right hand, Shiva holds a hand drum said to have drummed the first drum beats to help create everything, paired with the sound of “Om.”
His upper left hand holds a flame said to have the ability to destroy on behalf of transformative new beginnings. His bottom lower right hand holds abhayamudra, a gesture used to convey fearlessness. His bottom left hand mimics the lifted position of his left leg. This symbolizes a respite soul’s find from the earthly troubles on a path towards soul liberation. His lifted left leg is a journey towards this elevated consciousness. Finally, the snake he wears around his waist is the creative energy that exists in our psychic body.
