Ladies, Wake Up YOUR Sleeping Beauty and Stop Exploiting Yourselves

 CLICK HERE FOR AN EASIER ON THE EYES READ.

Ladies, it’s time to wake up YOUR Sleeping Beauty.  There is an unconscious part of us as women that actually engages in our own exploitation.  It is a form of mindlessness that we have absorbed since we were little girls. We take part in the commodification of our bodies and our sexuality with very little awareness, and I’ve reached a point in observing this that I cannot stand by without sharing my perspective MORE FIERCELY than usual. I hope that the words in this post will be your Print Charming– Ok, bad pun– but the idea is that these  words serve to awaken you from your coma, dear Sleeping Beauty.  This is another long post, so get cozy…

We teach people how to treat us by how we treat ourselves.  What we believe about ourselves we broadcast out into the Universe and that signal comes back in the form of the people and circumstances we attract into our lives. From the time we are young girls we get messages from all around us that we MUST change our physical appearance in a variety of ways.  The first place seems to be our weight, and I see little girls as young as 10 already obsessing about it and dieting.   Without questioning why, we just start doing things because everyone else does; like messing around with our eyebrows as a simple example.  Now lest I appear judgmental about what women choose to do as their beauty rituals, let me say this.  I have no objection to WHAT you do so much as I ask WHY do you do what you do?  Do you know?  Have you ever stopped to ask yourself or have you just always done so?   So many women spend crazy amounts of time, money and mental energy on a multitude of appearance changing/enhancing products and services, chasing that “ideal” beauty standard and the perfection of our outsides.  Those products and services can alter your appearance so much that in some cases you just don’t look like you.    I saw a recent report that said women will spend an average of $15,000 in their lifetime on makeup alone! Not to mention all the other services and products.   The list is endless really because the industry keeps finding ways to tell you that you’re so flawed and unattractive and will never find a man unless you invest in the latest way to become perfect. So again, I ask you, have you ever actually stopped to ask yourself why? If your first thoughts are things like, “well, I would look like hell otherwise,” or “I hate my ___” fill in the blank, then I  suggest that you’ve been asleep and manipulated most of your life.  If you are doing these things because you don’t feel good enough, then I invite you to revisit doing them at all.  If you do them consciously and you do them FOR YOURSELF, that’s a different story.

I want to ask you, what are you really saying about yourself and what do you really expect to gain when you promote yourself from the outside?  What is the payoff? When it’s all about what you look like and you keep shape shifting to conform to someone else’s idea of beauty and sexiness,  you live in terror of being seen as you really are.  BUT IT’S NOT YOU FAULT, LADIES.  Your self-esteem and self-worth have been systematically and brutally hijacked from your being, so that you have no choice, from that paralyzed, numb place, to adopt the media-driven ideas of what makes a woman desirable and wanted.  It is from this place that our bodies and our sexuality become commodities.

Now let’s turn to how we exploit our own sexuality. I live in Los Angeles and move through the world and see this obsession with manipulating our appearances and pandering the “come fuck me” mindset.  I see women walking in heels so high that they could literally fall off of them and hurt themselves — in the supermarket!  I hear women’s conversations as an outsider and with friends. There is such a focus on sexiness. And so much of the conversation revolves around men and how to “get” them, and sex seems to be the bait, based on how we are focused on our outsides. I see this bartering happening energetically in an unspoken way between men and women. Yes, women’s bodies have been exploited throughout history, but when WE take part in this desecration, we are basically saying, “this is all I’m worth.  The way I look IS my value. If I’m not fuckable, I’m worthless.”  What we don’t understand is that if you actually held your sexuality at such a high value within you, you would attract a man who would have to step up to a place of integrity within himself in order to be with you.  From that place you wouldn’t attract someone interested in the shiny outsides, or who just wanted to fuck you.  The use-you kind of  fuck, not the really good kind. When we live focused on our bodies and our sexuality as our value, we set ourselves up to be used.

When we think so little of ourselves, our bodies, our sexuality, when we give our souls away to look good and use that looking good to seduce a man, what caliber of man could that possibly be?  We aren’t asking much of that man, so he shows up in the smallest version of himself and the most unworthy version of himself to match the unworthiness we feel about ourselves.  And we complain about HIM, but we are creating that reality. I hope this post will cause an awakening within you that will allow you to see things from a perspective that will honor you, ALL of you. When you do, you will discover your true value, worth and inherent power, which has nothing to do with your appearance.  If every woman in the world took this stance, I believe there would be an amazing caliber of men on this planet.  We want better quality men but we are teaching them to expect so little, so they don’t have to step up and deliver with integrity.    I see the responsibility on both sides of the equation, with both genders, but ladies, the real power is within us to change all this. But are we too busy looking in the mirror to even see our power and all that we are capable of being?

Are you willing to take an honest look at how you may be unconsciously exploiting your body and your sexuality?  I’m asking you to look at YOUR MOTIVES underneath it all; to make what’s been unconscious and robotic, conscious.    We have to stop complaining about being used for sex, when we mindlessly walk around grooming ourselves to promote the message that that’s all we are good for. If you want love AND sex, are you really sending out the right signals?

I’m not saying don’t dress the way you want to or to cover yourself up. I love being a woman and I dress the way I want to express my beauty, but my sexuality is not an advertisement that precedes my entrance into the room. Nor is it the primary form of communication I use.  I am sick and tired– yes angry– at seeing young girls taken advantage of because the world we live in sexualizes them so much that they now joke about rape.   I am sick and tired of seeing young girls unable to say no to advances, because at an early age they, too, fall into this deep slumber and believe that’s what they’re here on Earth for, and that being wanted this way makes them special or validates them.  I’m sick and tired of seeing grown women aging and believing that they have no worth, spending even more of their hard-earned money to try to chase youth and get rid of the wrinkles so they can reclaim their desirability and “value.” Doesn’t this piss you off, too?

Your sexuality is a gift and a force.   Explore it, get to know and understand it, and do not allow it to be pillaged or to take part in the ways of our world that promote you as a valueless shell for someone to use and never know YOU; your heart, your soul, your real face.   When you come from a place of honoring your sexuality, it can feed you in ways that you cannot imagine because we live in a sexually shallow society.    One which, by the way, still fears the true depth, intensity and hunger of female sexuality.  When you live in integrity with this part of you, you will attract a higher caliber of man, one who values your sexuality as well, one who has great respect and integrity within himself and for himself, and one with whom you can have mind-blowing otherworldly sex.  So ladies, stop complaining about the man. Part of my inspiration to write this piece was hearing so many women complaining about them.

Know this, too. It’s a lonelier place when you live this way, in the sense that until all women live this way, it will take a while for the world of men to understand the old rules no longer apply, but you will TRULY feel better about yourself and from a place of deep self-love you will know a new kind of joy. I learned this personally the hard way, but it is the absolute truth.

This deep slumber that we are in also keeps women from bonding with each other.  When you are living this superficial life chasing the perfect body and working the best seduction tools,  when a beautiful woman walks into the room, you go into comparison. competition, insecurity and bitchiness.  You look her over and try to pick her apart in order to elevate yourself because your yardstick for value is your appearance.   When you are living in integrity with your body/sexuality,  when a beautiful woman walks into the room, you can admire her.  You want to know her.  You are drawn to her.  You recognize her as your sister.

As I wrap this up, (because clearly I could go on and on and on :)) let me leave you with some questions to ponder.  What if you could wake up naked lying alone or next to your man/lover/partner, no makeup, hair however it chooses to be, and feel so comfortable in your skin?  What if being that way was the most sensuous feeling?  What if you threw away your scale and just didn’t give a fuck? What if you stopped trying to change your appearance via whatever tools you use, no longer spending money and time obsessing about them?   What if you chose nurturing and beautifying rituals instead of appearance altering ones? Why do you do what you do?  Is it because everyone else does?  Is it because you feel unattractive?  Do you use your sexuality to “get” attention and men?  What do you really feel about your value and your worth as a person?  As a woman?  Are you doing all those self-modifications and still alone, if getting that man is what drives you? Are you part of the Victorias Sheepret parade, following the herd?  (okay, that was a weird one, I admit, but you get my point.)

If you have a daughter or wish to one day, would you want her to think so little of herself that she would follow this life path?

Enough said?  This is a lot, and I hope my words will open some doors to exploration that will lead you more fully into the depth and fullness of who you really are.    Think of this post as the kiss that woke up Sleeping Beauty…yes,that would be you. But this is no fairy tale, it’s your life.

Men reading this, I hope you will take the time to reflect on what value you place on women unconsciously, and share this post with the women you know. Try to put yourself in our shoes — The high-heeled ones that are hard to walk in, and see if you can find a place where you can show up differently in how you relate with women.

If all of this begs the question how do you get out of this maze and live authentically, I am teaching a two-hour interactive webinar with live Q&A at the end.   Click on the link for details about the webinar, HOW TO LOVE THE BODY YOU LIVE IN, with real tools to achieve liberation from this prison.   And please, if this moved you, touched you, stirred you, please share it…And take the time to reflect on the questions I’ve posed here.

I am DEEPLY committed to each one of you and taking a stand for all that you can be and helping to liberate you from all of the boxes we live in, so that you can just shine your bright, authentic beauty and radiance into this world which so needs who YOU are.

And finally, I would love to have you join my e-mail list.  There’s an opt-in box on the bottom of this page, just below you. And visit my website for more to inspire you…

Much love and  A BIG WAKE UP KISS!

Gina

The Gift of Betrayal

No one can betray you, unless you are betraying yourself. This is a simple but true statement. Everyone at some time in their life will know this devastating experience. It seems an inevitability of life’s teachings. It comes with the territory when we are living out of alignment with our truth. This living out of alignment with who we really, this self-betrayal, sets the groundwork for being betrayed by others.

There is a voice inside us all that whispers, speaks, and sometimes yells when those more subtle aspects of her voice are ignored. It guides us our entire life in an effort to keep us true to ourselves. Some people are aware of this voice and listen to it regularly. Some people hear the voice occasionally, especially when there are life’s challenges, and heed its advice. Some people are unaware the voice is there, and never listen or hear it. These folks have the most tragic and difficult lives and are most likely to become victims of betrayal. But it happens to all of us, even those of us who are in sync with that voice, because even with self-examination, we often neglect certain aspects of our lives and the light of awareness fails to illuminate those dark corners.

But it’s difficult to listen all the time, and so we miss the subtle cues, make choices that do not honor us, lie to ourselves about friends, lovers, jobs, and one day we get slammed. HARD.   Someone betrays you in the outside world. But it’s been happening in your inner world or it couldn’t happen at all. When we are willing to deceive ourselves, many will follow suit to do the same to you. In fact, you could say an energetic queue starts to form, and pretty soon you feel powerless in your own life because the betrayals keep on coming.

I believe that in our lives the questions, not the answers, lead us to our wisdom. No matter what we go through, we have to ask the question: How did this happen? Why did I create this situation? What do I need to learn from it? And more questions generally unfold as you start to answer those. What should happen is that you begin to see where the rubber hits the road. Where who you want to be and who you’re pretending to be don’t match up, and therein lies the rub.

Now you must choose, between the authentic you and the one you’ve been carrying around with you and showing everyone. Most people find it would be too challenging to let people know that they don’t want to live the way they’ve been living any longer. It could mean ending marriages, relationships, careers, where we live, financial arrangements. And even though those very structures are the external cause of your discontent, you choose to keep living the lies, and keep perpetuating the self-betrayal. Somehow we convince ourselves it’s easier than blowing up not just your world, but the lives of the others involved with you.

Nothing of greatness that we will ever do in our lives is easy. The harder it is, usually the greatest personal reward

Then you become a victim, “look what’s happened to me!”He/She betrayed me, I was robbed, I didn’t know. I never saw this coming.”  But blindness is only a perception, a choice we make because we are afraid to face the deeper wound that triggers the betrayals.     Somewhere deep inside your soul, you ALWAYS know that there is something amiss. We CHOOSE to turn a blind eye, but that is not the same as blindness.

So what can we learn when we suffer betrayal in any form? Many people, upon suffering a large betrayal, go into a form of shock, shutdown, or the alternative, throw themselves into distraction. The first response is natural, as it is a form of trauma. The second response is a form of avoidance. The most dangerous thing that we can do after suffering the awakening and transformational energy of betrayal, because it really will transform your life if you allow it, is to run away from it. I wrote a blog post a while ago called “The next time pain knocks on your door, invite him or her in for a cup of tea.” (see post archives)  This would be an opportune moment to do just that.

Betrayal rips at the core of your being. The pain can be so intense that the last thing you want to do is to sit with it and face it. Yet unless you do so, you run the risk of having that queue I spoke of formerly knocking on your front door. What you can’t be with, won’t let you be.

So the challenge becomes to face and feel all the feelings that are emerging from this experience. Any challenging experience should be dealt with in the same way, but because of the intensity of a betrayal, it is more likely to lead to deep healing If we can truly be with our pain.

I truly believe that in our deepest darkness, there is the potential for us to achieve a connection to our brightest light. There is a gift in betrayal, as crazy as that may sound. In every painful experience of our lives, there is always a gift.
I recently had the insight that our emotional lives, and the emotion that we experience as human beings is a gift that when followed with commitment, integrity, and courage will lead us into our own spiritual wisdom.
The trick for most of us however, is to not run away from the pain. When something hurts, the last thing we want to do is to stay with it. We become avoidant in many forms, including distraction, work, other relationships, sex, drugs, you name it. But that is keeping us from being present with the pain and the emotion that it is triggering in us.  When you encounter this place in your life, as strange as this might sound,  it would serve you well in transforming and healing to create a mini pain vacation, and hang out with your pain. Stay present with it moment by moment, allow it to pervade your very soul, your heart, your mind. Let it speak to you, and heal you of what you are holding on to that led you to this experience to begin with. If you can do that, rather than taking years to never deal with something because you continue to run away from it, therefore never heal or evolve beyond it, but if you can stay with it, even if it lasts a few months, what you will discover on the other side is a gift.
One of  the many gifts of betrayal is vulnerability. When we are vulnerable, in general, it makes us feel unsafe. But there is a kind of vulnerability that comes from being stripped of everything that you thought was true about who you are and being left naked. But this nakedness has a pureness to it because it shows you who you truly are without subterfuge, delusions, other people’s projections of who you should be, your own perception of yourself that is not in alignment with who you are, and you’re left with, quite simply, who you really are. Your truth. And at the core of the betrayal itself is the idea that something you thought was true, isn’t. Something you believed was real, isn’t. So like sheep shorn of its skin, you are shorn of the lies and deceptions that you have been living in your own life, left naked and exposed. But there is a cleansing also that has occurred. A forceful purification, often violent in its emotional impact. All the poisons in your life in the form of lies, self-deception, wrong choices in careers, people, ideas, are forcibly removed from you. This is why you feel vulnerable, confused, and not sure of what is truth.   We are so used to labeling what we feel as good or bad, negative or positive, yet if we could learn to embrace the full spectrum of our human emotions without judgment, we would learn, grow, evolve,  and ultimately love in the way that we are capable of much more easily and readily and in the way that we are truly meant to.

This energy of betrayal seems rampant right now.  If it has touched your life, use it as a gift to transform and heal yourself.  Allow it to shine a light on all the dark corners within you that you are judging, ashamed of or afraid to see.  Denial that these feelings, wounds and places exist within us will not make you happy and that same denial will sabotage your life over and over and over again until you find the courage to examine them all.  They end up in your subconscious mind, which is a dangerous place.  I liken it to the chauffeur in a limo.  You’re in the back seat, with the privacy glass up, and your subconscious is driving you to a destination that you are unaware of until you get out of the car.

Be patient with yourself and be present with the pain.  And let the journey last as long as it needs to.  Do not place time limits on your healing.  And LOVE YOURSELF every moment.  Reach out to your friends, get support, but most of all, be true to your heart.  Stand naked with your truth.  It may hurt at first, but eventually you will know that there is no other possible way to live in integrity with yourself.  It’s the betrayal of that integrity by YOU FIRST, that opens the door for others to betray you as well.  Make sure that door is never opened.   We all have wounds and issues in life.  It’s part of being human.  Work on your self.  Examine your life, stay present and true, and when betrayal or any other pain touches you, you will be more prepared to allow it to transform you and take you to an even higher octave of your true, beautiful, radiant self.

With love & blessings,

Gina

AN INVITATION TO EXPLORE MY NATURAL BEAUTY TELECLASS IN FEBRUARY

HONORING THE TEMPLE:

 

TIPS, TOOLS AND TENETS FOR BEAUTY AS A LIFE PATH

A 2-hour Interactive Teleclass with Gina Cloud

DID YOU KNOW THAT APPEARANCE AND BODY IMAGE ARE THE NO. 1 SHAME TRIGGERS FOR WOMEN?
DID YOU KNOW THAT WOMEN SPEND MOST OF THEIR EXPENDABLE INCOME ON THE “BEAUTY” INDUSTRY, BUT IN REALITY IT’S THE “CHASING YOUTH” INDUSTRY?

How do YOU define beauty?
What makes you FEEL beautiful?
What if you could learn to be your most beautiful, radiant self, spend significantly less money, and get back the time you spend running around to all of those appointments?
How much money are you spending, weekly, monthly, annually in the pursuit of beauty?
Are you getting the results you desire?
Would you like to learn to age gracefully and forget about the false concept of anti-aging?
Are you willing to TRULY discover that beauty is not skin deep, but soul deep and spirit fed?
Would you like to be freed from the prison of believing that you are only beautiful if you meet society’s impossible standards?

Honoring The Temple is a teleclass in which beauty is explored not as a product or a quick fix, but as a way of life.  READ MORE

ARE YOU SETTLING IN YOUR LIFE, EVEN ON THE SMALL STUFF?

There’s a tenet which says, “The way you do anything is the way you do everything.”  I was reflecting on the notion of where am I settling in my life and it occurred to me that if I settle even on the small things, well, that contributes to my settling on the big ones. I’ll share a recent example.

My dad gave me a cool case for my iPhone 4s for Christmas, but when it arrived, it wasn’t the one that I had asked for, nor was it the one that he ordered.  In other words, a glitch at the Apple store.  Rather than the red one, they sent me an orange one.  Now orange is one of my very favorite colors, but I wanted the red one.  I thought, maybe I would just keep it, no big deal.  But this voice inside me said loudly and clearly, “But you really liked the red one.  Why don’t you exchange it.”  Makes sense, but then I realized it would take EFFORT to make that exchange happen.  I called the Apple Store to see if they had a red one and they said they did, but when I made the EFFORT to drive to the Apple Store to exchange it, it was a different style and not the one I wanted.  So once again, I could have chosen a different one from the stock they had in the store, but I was really feeling how much I wanted what I wanted and didn’t want to settle.  And it became like a mantra in my head, “don’t settle for less than what you truly want.”  At this point it wasn’t about the case, but about living true to myself, as if this experience was a spiritual teaching in and of itself.  (And it was!)  So ultimately they refunded the money in the form of a gift card, and I then went home and made the further EFFORT to reorder it from the online store, and then I had to wait for it to arrive.

So what’s the theme here, really, is it getting what we TRULY want?  On the material level, yes, but it’s the journey that it represents through the EFFORT and some waiting that is the wisdom.  Most of us would rather settle for instant gratification, or to take whatever lands in our lap, even after we have made some EFFORT to get what we truly want.  But when you silence the voice of clarity within you, you begin to live a life of mediocrity, and you will settle all over the place.  In the job you choose to take, the relationship you choose to be in, what you wear, eat and think.  Because it’s true, the way you do anything is the way you do everything.

So why do we do this?  I’m finding that the questions are more important than the answers in life, and the questions will lead you on a journey of self-discovery.  Every time we say, “it’s too much trouble (AKA EFFORT!), I’ll just…” we are setting up a life that is less than what we truly envision for ourselves.  Over time, all that settling morphs into an entirely different life than the one we set out to acquire initially. Every time we say it’s okay when it’s not, we are in the process of changing the frequency of our ENTIRE life.

Now, I”m not talking about compromise here.  All relationships are give and take, and sometimes we need to compromise with another, but I”m inviting you not to compromise with YOURSELF.  Hold out for what you want.  You are worth it.  As I move through my own life, these subtle moments become epiphanies.  No, it’s not about me wanting the red one and not the orange case.  It’s about having what I truly want and being  willing to make the EFFORT to get it. It’s about staying on course with my vision for myself, for my life.  There’s an honesty and integrity in that.  Settling is a form of self-betrayal.  If you’ll betray yourself, you’ll allow others to do it, too.  It’s all connected.

So look at how you do things in your life.  I’m only exploring the aspect of settling in this post, and using a seemingly irrelevant situation as the example, but you can look at other aspects of your life.  For instance,  are you aggressive or passive about how you take action in your life?  Are you conservative or a risk-taker?  Are you a leader of a follower?  Do you like coffee or tea (Okay that was a joke)?   If you start to ask these questions and to examine all the little moments in your life and how you do them, you’ll discover a pattern that is consistent  throughout.  Know thyself.  The relationship you have with yourself is the most important one you’ll ever have.  I mean, you can’t get a divorce from yourself, or move away from yourself,  or ignore yourself.  So you’re stuck with you.  Be the YOU that’s true.  You’re worth the EFFORT.  So don’t settle for less!

Love & Blessings,

Gina

P,S. check out the archive posts and please share them on your social media and with anyone you feel would enjoy them!

DANGEROUS BEAUTY: What You Need to Know About Your Toxic Cosmetics

Are we dying to be beautiful? Many of us might say that metaphorically, but here, I’m asking the question quite literally, and the answer is a resounding yes.

Much of my work is about providing information for us to make empowered choices as women, and within that, the idea of actually HAVING ACCESS to the information that will allow us to do this. Some of you are already aware that the multi-billion dollar beauty industry preys on the insecurities of women and the feeling that many have that they just aren’t pretty enough or young enough. What many of you may not know is just how potentially lethal many of those products are. The cosmetics industry is pretty much unregulated, and many of the common ingredients found in those various products we all use, are HIGHLY toxic. You might ask how can this be? They couldn’t sell items that are dangerous or toxic, that’s illegal. Wrong again. And don’t believe me. Remember, I invite you to explore for yourself whatever I put before you. It’s how I’ve learned so much about these things I know, is through questions and explorations and not taking things at face value, no matter the source.

The Environmental Working Group has a database called Skin Deep, and they are devoted to education of the consumer about cosmetics. Here is a link to an article called Myths on Cosmetic Safety. Please read this. It will open your eyes, and if you still choose to use products that are dangerous for your health, at least you will be doing so consciously. I am constantly angered by lack of full disclosure in many industries. Lack of FULL disclosure means I can’t make and INFORMED choice, and when I can’t do so, that means someone else is controlling my life, so please, so whatever you do from a place of knowledge. It truly is power. I know some of you will click on this link and think the article is too long, or you’ll read it later. For those who think the former, it’s YOUR LIFE AND YOUR HEALTH at stake. As one of the big culprits in toxic cosmetics says, “You’re worth it,” so take the time to read! Please! I’m getting preachy because many of you have no idea how dangerous this pursuit of beauty is. Here are a few facts from their article:

“Myth – The government prohibits dangerous chemicals in personal care products, and companies wouldn’t risk using them.
Fact – Cosmetics companies may use any ingredient or raw material, except for color additives and a few prohibited substances, without government review or approval (FDA 2005, FDA 2000).

• More than 500 products sold in the U.S. contain ingredients banned in cosmetics in Japan, Canada or the European Union (EWG 2007b).
• Nearly 100 products contain ingredients considered unsafe by the International Fragrance Association (EWG 2007c).
• A wide range of nanomaterials whose safety is in question may be common in personal care products (EWG 2006).
• 22% of all personal care products may be contaminated with the cancer-causing impurity 1,4-dioxane, including many children’s products (EWG 2007d, CDC 2009).
• 60% of sunscreens contain the potential hormone disruptor oxybenzone that readily penetrates the skin and contaminates the bodies of 97% of Americans (EWG 2010, Calafat et al 2008).
• 61% of tested lipstick brands contain residues of lead (CSC 2007).”

Let’s take just that last one, that 61% of tested lipstick brands contain residues of lead. LEAD!!! Ladies, if it’s on your lips, you’re eating it all day long, ingesting lead into your system. Lead has been acknowledged for years as a toxic substance. Remember that there used to be lead based paints, and kids would eat the paint chips and end up with lead poisoning. This is from Wikipedi’s info on lead poisoning. Pay particular attention to the very last sentence:

“Humans have been mining and using this heavy metal for thousands of years, poisoning themselves in the process. Although lead poisoning is one of the oldest known work and environmental hazards, the modern understanding of the small amount of lead necessary to cause harm did not come about until the latter half of the 20th century. No safe threshold for lead exposure has been discovered—that is, there is no known amount of lead that is too small to cause the body harm.”

That’s my emphasis in bold and underlined.

Now back to the Skin Deep database that found 61% of tested lipstick brands contain residues of lead, and tying that into the fact that there is no known amount of lead that is too small to cause the body harm, WTF are we doing???? Ladies, we are poisoning ourselves, slowly but surely. You’ll literally eat pounds of lead over the course of your lifetime.

From the time we wake up, starting with toothpaste, our skincare products we wash our faces with, the creams we put on after, the makeup we use as we get ready each day, the soaps we wash our bodies with, the hand creams, ALL OF IT, is adding up to a pretty heavy toxic load cumulatively over the course of our lives as women, in the eternal and now potentially life threatening pursuit of beauty. We must start asking ourselves is this epidemic pursuit of beauty worth dying for. I firmly believe that many of the cancers and hormone issues women experience are in part caused by our lifelong use of these dangerous chemicals in our cosmetics. We live in a toxic world outside of us, and have little control of that external environment. So what we choose to put on our skin, which in Ayurveda is considered the other mouth of our bodies, is within our power to control. What you put in your mouth will be filtered through your digestive process, but what goes on your skin, goes straight into your bloodstream. In essence it’s like mainlining toxic chemicals.

Oh, one more thing we ladies do that’s a huge contributor to our level of toxicity: manicures and pedicures. and how about hair dyes that go right into our scalps, and those oh so popular Brazilian blowouts? How dare we consider going gray? That would be shameful to own our wisdom. Men look great gray. Guess what, so do women. I’ve seen several recently that were stunning, and one woman who I could no take my eyes off of with waist length salt and pepper, but mostly gray hair, with a 30-something face. I approached her and told her how stunning she was an how much I loved her hair. She told me she had never colored it in her life. Talk about REALY beauty. She was stunning! I want to do that.

I did an interview with Stacy Malkan who wrote a book called “Not Just A Pretty Face” about the dangers we are facing due to an unregulated cosmetic industry. The Skin Deep Database of the Environmental Working Group has painstakingly, over many years now created a database of cosmetics that includes all of the product categories I just ran through, and rates them for toxicity. It also has a list of ingredients and their dangers to our health, so that as you move forward in your purchases, hopefully you’ll read the labels more carefully, and with the knowledge to empower you about these substances and their harm to you, you’ll make a different, healthier, safer choice for yourself and your family.

What should you do? Some of you will say, so what, and that’s fine. Some of you will want to make changes. Go to the Skin Deep database and look up the products you use. If they’re not there, submit them. It’s how the database works. They are striving to be the most comprehensive database of cosmetic safety and it’s a collaboration with consumers of the products. See how your products rate, and if you’re mortified, and I can pretty much guarantee you that you will be at least once as you investigate, look for others that are safer and begin to replace your regimen of products with healthier choices.

Now some of you will think, “well, I only use organic products so I know they’re safe.” Think again. That’s one of the myths the above article explores. There can be as much as 10% of non organic ingredients in a product labeled organic, and that 10% can contain some pretty awful stuff. So even we organic fanatics need to check our products in the database.

Aside from changing the products you use, the number one way to avoid this dangerous beauty scenario, is to do the inner work on yourself as a woman that will allow you to live as W.O.M.A.N., knowing that beauty is an inside job, and that yours is already spectacular. Is is easy? No. But I’ve lived this way my whole life. It’s tempting to see that there are “shortcuts”, but those only lead to pretense and the relentless pursuit of an external beauty that is media created. I prefer the road less traveled. Remember, my definition of beauty is that Beauty is not skin deep. It’s soul deep, and spirit fed. Find your truth and be radiant….and that doesn’t cost a dime, and it won’t cost you your health.

Gina Cloud’s Segment of The Ricki Lake Show

Many of you asked me how you could see my appearance on The Ricki Lake Show, as you had missed it live.  I finally have access to the footage.  Click Here To Watch.

By the way, you won’t be able to view this on an iPhone or iPad for some reason I don’t understand.

Love & Blessings,

Gina

CAN YOU STAY PRESENT WHEN THINGS ARE UNPLEASANT?

I’m quite certain that each and every one of us has had at least one day in our lives where we say either to ourselves or out loud, “Life sucks!!”  And these days, we may be saying or thinking it more often than ever before.  Truth is, life never sucks, but our perceptions about life can make this our truth of the moment, rather than THE truth.  I think of THE truth as things we all know without questioning how we know them, like how everyone knows what love is, even though it’s never something that needs to be explained.  It’s something we KNOW in our bones.  So THE truth is that life’s journey for each of us individually and collectively is meant to take us exactly where we need to be in any given moment.  But it’s so damned hard to remember that, when you’ve lost your job, or find out you have cancer, or lose a loved one, or feel depressed a lot.  In those life circumstances, we are prone to feel that life sucks.  I wrote a post a few weeks back about inviting pain in for a cup of tea when next it knocks on your door.  In essence, it’s about embracing life’s challenges, changes, and yes, pain, as an old friend, rather than running away.

So often, when we have that life-sucks mentality, we have lost hope.  We feel powerless, victimized by circumstance and people around us.  But THE truth is that it is a perception, not reality.  It feels unpleasant.  And the challenge becomes, can you stay present when things are unpleasant?  When we stay present, we tend to move more quickly through the “bad” stuff.  It’s that old adage of “the only way out is through.”

If you were going to walk across a bed of hot coals (and use that as an analogy for whatever life-sucks issue is knocking at your door), you know it’s hot, you know it’s going to be difficult, but if you are present and decide, I’m just going to walk as quickly as I can and get to the other side where the ground is cool, most of us can do this.  If, however, you decide to panic when you feel the first surge of heat on the soles of your feet, and you stop because it hurts, you will get burned.  Probably fall off the path (each hot coal) that you are destined to follow because you don’t believe you can cross it as it is now, it’s just to uncomfortable, too unpleasant.  And you’ll stand there frozen with fear, thinking there’s no way you can do it.  But again, that’s perception, and projection.

If you can stay present when things are unpleasant, you will find inspiration in the form of your own soul urging you on.  Yes, you can. ” It’s difficult, but I can do this.  I want to overcome this and there’s no way around it.”   You stay the course, you overcome the noise inside your mind that says it’s too hot and you can’t do it.  You stay present through the unpleasantness and you grow.  You traverse that difficult path which is uncomfortable, painful, fraught with uncertainty and you discover treasures inside yourself that perhaps you didn’t know you possessed.  Or you rediscover ones you thought you’d lost.    Every time we stay present with our perceived adversity, we expand into more of who we really are.  Every time we encounter unpleasantness in our lives and want to escape through food, sex, talking, shopping, video games, choose to stay present instead.  Is it confronting?  Hell yes!  But to confront simply means to face something.  To look it squarely in the metaphorical eyes, to assess it and find a way to overcome it.  Unpleasantness is just another word for change.  It rarely feels good while it’s happening but you know it’s for the best.  Stay present and moment by moment, have an internal dialogue that is supportive, encouraging, one that says you can transcend this and then trust, surrender and do it.  And surround yourself with people who will do the same for you, as external support.

There are so many moments in life that we find uncomfortable or unpleasant, but our perception of them as such is a huge factor in how we navigate them.  Choose to perceive them as challenges, as opportunities for growth and you will be empowered by them rather than becoming a victim of the situations that create them.  Flow with, not against what is.  The current may be very strong, scary and uncertain, and you may be carried farther than you may have wanted to go, but in your surrender, in being present, there will be no struggle, and maybe, just maybe, where you find yourself, though you did not envision it, will be EXACTLY where you need to be.

Love and Blessings,

Gina

Sisterhood – Getting High Off Of Our Connections With Other Women

The other day I was working out at my gym just doing my usual cardio routine when I was fortunate enough to have an accidental connection with a woman who got onto the elliptical next to me. She had accidentally clunked one of the rollers off of the groove and was trying to figure out what happened and in a collective problem solving moment, we figured out what was wrong.  She said thank you, and we started to chat. First it was politics, then the awful new decor at the gym.  And then, as almost any conversation I am  having with a stranger goes, it turned to just life. We opened up to each other about spiritual things, political beliefs, challenged childhoods and how they affect your life, and we just began to have this very animated, connected, instantaneous bond. We literally talked for an hour.    When we both got off of the equipment and were lying on the floor doing some abdominals, she looked at me and said, “God you can get high off of people!” And I smiled, because this made me realize how much I do love connecting with other human beings, but then I said to her,  “You know. this is really a woman thing.”    I said I had lots of men friends that I have great conversations with, but this kind of bonding, sisterhood, truly exposed kind of connection only happens between women, women who are willing to share and to open to each other.

I realized when she said that we can get high off people, that I did feel very alive in that moment from the connection we had forged over the past hour of bonding while working out.  We had also been talking about how devoid of female energy our world is and how it’s becoming more and more masculine in its pace, energy, frequency and ideas.  So of course that’s venturing into my very favorite topic, which just made us even more animated in our dialogue .  I love it when I can engage with another woman or women on the topic of why the world needs women to be women, not men.  It inspires me to talk about it and inspires the women I’m talking to.  That’s when we get high off each other!  When women find an inspiring topic, something that we feel passionate about and we share it with other women, especially with the intention to be of service, we can truly heal each other I believe, and change the world!  When we ban together for a cause, women are UNSTOPPABLE!

We even had discussion at one point in our mutual disgust at “how things are,” (read my post about the way things are!) and she expressed her feeling of “What can I do?  It’s hard to make a difference.”  There was such inspiration going back and forth between each other.  I truly believe there were endorphins being generated in our exchange, which is why she made the comment about getting high off of people.

All it takes is being open and willing and real and authentic.   All it takes is putting down your phone and looking into the eyes of a fellow woman, smiling and saying hello.  All it takes is a genuine caring connection with another human being. It is effortless. But we as women do this in a way that men don’t. And we do it with each other in such a beautiful way.  I live in Los Angeles and there a lot of fake “I love you people, let’s get together, ” seeming caring, that is just superficial. I’m not talking about any of that, and we all know the difference. This woman and I had genuine connection that we both availed ourselves of, shared with each other and because of this, we inspired each other, and literally got high off of connecting.

As women, we are such communal creatures. But this world that we live in, this ultra masculine frequency, energy, and pace, does not allow us to remember this, to experience this, to explore it, without being extremely conscious of the fact that it is nowhere to be found and if we want to experience it, we must generate it ourselves.  How? Just the way it happens organically, speaking to a woman that is next to you. Not sizing her up for her appearance or her attire or comparing yourself to her, but opening to the genuine sisterhood that is all around us, available to us, if we would only open ourselves to it.  It is truly easy to start a conversation about almost anything. And one thing does lead to another with us women. And quickly. LOL If I see a woman who is sad, or looks like they’ve had a bad day. I might compliment her on something, or I might honestly say something like, “Has your day been that bad?” It opens up a genuine door of compassion and connection that we can choose to step through with each other, and if nothing else, you’ve simply done a kindness by acknowledging that woman.  And ladies, we all know that acknowledgment is something we just don’t get enough of in our lives.

We are powerful, beauty-filled forces of feminine nature, and when we ban together to share ANYTHING, we open the door to EVERYTHING.  Talk to as many women in your day as you can.  Smile at those you can’t speak to, and offer your heart to your sisters through your words and smiles.  I have made so many wonderful women friends just by living my life this way.  We are all yearning to feel the feminine all around us, enfolding us, embracing us, sustaining us.  We long for it because it’s been almost completely removed from our world.  But where two or three, or more women gather in their feminine energy, there is an exponential increase in that energy in our world.  One by one, joining hands and hearts with our sisters, we can heal this planet.  This, I believe with all my heart.

So try it.  See where it leads you.  And take the time DAILY to tune into your feminine self.  Without constant access to this part of yourself, your life will be joyless, stressful and empty eventually. Women can’t live in a masculine world devoid of the feminine.   And if you need reminders, read my book.  It’s a quick read, but it will inspire you in your feminine essence.

For those of you in Los Angeles, I am starting a dance class focused on my acronym. W.O.M.A.N.  It will be a 5-week series, 2 hours a week, both lecture and dance so that you can experience the W.ild, O.pen, M.agical A.uthentically-empowered N.ectar you are.  Please contact me if you’re interested and I will put you on the mailing list for the class!  You’ll meet amazing women and unearth the Goddess lying within. We are exquisite!

Love and Blessings,

Gina Cloud

JOY: THE KEY TO WEIGHT LOSS

Diets don’t work.  They don’t work because being overweight is not the problem.  Being overweight is a SYMPTOM of the problem.  The real problem is lack of happiness, discontent with our lives,  a lack of connection to our true selves; and in a nutshell, living a joyless life.

Here in the West, we treat symptoms.  We have a drug or a diet for every symptom, but few cures for the cause of the symptoms.  When we are willing to look deeper, to find what is causing these symptoms in ANY health issue, and then to treat the CAUSE, this is when true healing can take place.  Without pulling up the root, the weeds, like symptoms, simply reappear over and over and over, weakening the life force of the plant.  The extra weight on your body is a weed, not the root.   And even when we use natural alternatives, unless they are intended to uproot the cause, there can be no cure.

Our obsession with weight loss in this country is an epidemic.  We have weight loss pills, diets up the wazoo, new diet innovations from people; like the blood type diet,  Atkins, Paleo, and the list goes on and on and on and on and on.  I’ve noticed lately, too, that talk shows seem to be turning into weight loss shows.  Lose weight fast, is the common theme, and everyone with a few extra pounds is all over it.  Let me try this one, let me try that one.  For those of you who have tried any of these, have they worked for you?  I’m willing to gamble 100% that they haven’t.  You may have lost some weight while on them, but did it come back?  Of course it did.  Health, of which your weight is a part, is about lifestyle, commitment, discipline, and SELF LOVE.  This is where the lack of joy comes into play.

I was recently a guest on the Ricki Lake Show on the topic of body image and self-esteem.  There was a woman on the show who had lost a lot of weight (about 150 pounds!), but found herself unable to stop feeling like a fat person.  She said she was still identifying with being overweight.  We spoke a bit backstage and I asked her if she had dealt with the underlying cause of the weight, the root, which had been sexual abuse, and she said that she hadn’t.  So while she managed to get the weight off (through bypass surgery), the root of the body weight, the sexual abuse, was still unhealed.  The goal she thought would make her happy, didn’t.

So what are you carrying around as emotional weight that has literally become body weight?  And how long have you been carrying it?  Weeks, months, years, your whole life?  Joy is our birthright.  Look at children at play.  They know joy.  Listen to the sound of their laughter.  It’s pure, unadulterated joy and elevates anyone around to hear it.  Where in your life did your joy start to diminish?  Can you find it now, or is it a distant memory?  Is it a memory at all?

When you are willing to examine your life, all its pieces and parts, the people in it, your work life, home life, your sexuality, your relationship to your body, and to take off the rose-colored glasses, then you can begin to heal the joylessness that you inhabit, perhaps without awareness.  Perhaps these words are making you realize that you’ve had no relationship to joy for as long as you can remember, and maybe they will stir a longing in you to find out why.  Where in your life did you become unplugged, literally?

So if you are struggling with your weight, be it pounds, or a heavy heart/mind, seek to restore the joy in your life.  When you do, those pounds will come off, the heaviness in your heart/mind will lift and you will find the childlike laughter that is STILL within you.  It is never lost.

If you’re asking, but HOW do I do this, Gina?  Makes sense, but how?  The answer is the road less traveled.  The road that takes you directly into your healing, but probably more slowly than you want to go.  Pills don’t work,  whether natural or allopathic pharmaceuticals.  They are bandaids on deep, gaping wounds that left uncared for, will fester and become infected.  What have you been treating this way in your life?  You already know the answer.

So back to how.  My dad used to say, “where there’s a will, there’s a way.”  And it’ true.  Most people need help in this process, at least until they can find the courage and commitment to stay the course.  This is a big part of the work I do, mostly with women, is to help you heal so you can lose the weight, both physically and symbolically.  Get support, in some form.  Books tend to open the mind to ideas, but rarely give you the motivation to actually take the action required for the journey.  You can start by making a list of all the things/activities that have made you feel joyful in your life.  Go back as far as you can into your memories to make a thorough list.  Once you have the list, make a commitment to begin doing some of those things again.  This will bring more joy back into your present, but the past still requires healing.  For those of you who could find nothing to put on the list of things/activities that have brought you joy in your life, you are just more shut down from your heart and your joy, but I assure you, it’s there.

I love the work that I do and  love helping people reconnect with their true selves, with the joy that is your birthright.  If you’d like to work with me, it would be my honor to assist you.  You can contact me and see what I do at www.ginacology.com.    Some people feel they can’t afford help, but how much have you already spent on the useless products or diets trying to mask the symptom of extra weight?  I find that people who are really ready to surrender to this journey find me to work with them.  I’m tough, but loving in my approach and my goal for women is to help you live a life of natural beauty, born from the inside out.  When you accomplish this, your body finds its natural weight, because you are in true alignment with your own life, and because of this, your life becomes joyful.

If working with someone doesn’t feel right to you, then find a way. All you have to do is commit to a life of joy and all the tools you need will literally appear.  But you have to TRULY commit.  Do it.  You are absolutely worth it.

Please free to contact me with questions, suggestions, comments.  The link above (or on the sidebar) will get you to me.

Love who you are.  You are truly magnificent.  And remember that beauty is not skin deep.  It’s soul deep and spirit fed. Live this way and joy will be your constant companion.

Love & blessings,

Gina

The Next Time Pain Knocks On Your Door, Invite Him or Her in For Tea

I found myself recently reflecting on the idea that most of us tend to avoid emotional pain when it shows up in our lives, and as human beings, that’s quite often in the course of our lives.  Avoidance is generally not a good idea when it comes to our inner world.  These reflections came through me while I was interviewing the last guest on my show, Judith Barr, a therapist, about the roots and origins of violence, and as we unwound things over the hour, I had the realization that almost, if not all, of what we suffer in our lives long-term is due to our desire NOT to feel pain.  As I write this, know that I’m speaking only of emotional pain, not physical.  That’s a whole other post.

So I got to thinking about emotional pain in my life and realized that at some point along the way, years ago, I decided not to run away from the hurt when it showed up, and I literally made the choice to view pain as an old friend, as someone with a message for me, even a gift.  And rather than run away from him (feel free to choose whatever gender you’d like to personify pain as!), I wanted to embrace him, to see what would happen if I stepped fully into my fear of how awful it feels and how it would destroy me if I let myself full on make love to pain.

What I discovered then all those years ago and continue to experience is that when I allow myself to just go straight into the hurt, make a beeline into pain’s embrace and let him hold me until I finish sobbing, or yelling, that sooner than later, I move out of his arms and back into the light of my own life.  But I let myself be held there, in the hurt, in the feelings that put it all there; the past, the present, even the fear of the possible future, that all that holding on to avoid is unnecessary.  You see pain is an old friend, and wants to help you, not hurt you.

This path of surrendering to what you are feeling, the good, the bad, the ugly, the painful, is a courageous and not easy path, but it is simple and highly effective.  When my heart hurts (that’s usually where the pain stems from is our aching hearts), I literally will make time and space and a pot of tea for my dear friend pain to feel welcome.  I put on music that takes me into my sadness, or madness, or whatever the case may be, and I go there, ALL THE WAY, and I don’t come out until I’m purged and feel freed.

Stop and think about this for a minute.  When we avoid our feelings and stuff them, either in our mouths with food, or drugs or alcohol or sex, or extreme adventures, we are avoiding.  Just because we are avoiding the pain doesn’t mean it’s not there.  It is, very much so, and as you drive it underground, it gets stronger, as it’s trying to get your attention for a reason.  Then as you avoid over the years, it becomes this heavy burden you are carrying around, year after year, and you’re still in pain.   It seeps into your consciousness now and again, more and more as you try to pretend its non-existence, burying it deeper and deeper into the fabric of your subconscious, and slowly but surely it extinguishes your joy.  It gets heavier and heavier as time goes by, putting literal weight on your body, your heart and your mind, when in reality, if you’d just been with him when he first showed up, it would be healed.  Is it intense?  Hell yeah.  Is it worth it?  More than I can ever convey with words.

So try it.  The next time you find yourself hurting to the core, heart aching, filled with Pain.  Invite him (or her) in, and have a cup of tea together.  It will change your life, your perspective and your sense of what you are capable of dealing with.  Most of all, you’ll have made a dear friend of an old enemy, and that, pure and simple, is healing.

And here’s the link to the latest episode of my show: http://contacttalkradio.net/CTR/ginacloud091312.mp3

Love & blessings,

Gina