I just read this article and thought it was worth adding a picture and passing on! We ladies are told to stick with the women and there are good reasons why!
Gathering with Women Friends
Can Make Us Healthier and Happier
By Rev. Laurie Sue Brockway
Good friends help us express our true selves and find our path in life. They hold up a mirror that shows us who we truly are … and they encourage us to be more than we think we can be!
A landmark UCLA study of female friendships confirmed the healing power of women’s friendships.”Female Responses To Stress: Tend and Befriend, Not Fight or Flight,” published in Psychological Review a few years ago, said gathering with friends in a nurturing way lowers the stress and strain of daily life. Rather that the typical “fight or flight” response believed to be triggered in people under stress, the study suggested women have a more expansive repertoire of behaviors. We release brain chemicals that urge us to gather with other women, as well as tend children (or others). The more time spent with friends, the more oxytocin is released — not just counter-acting stress but inspiring a sense of calm and well-being.
This bears out my belief that when women find a safe harbor in friendship with others, it also helps us connect to the power of our feminine spirit in a profound and deeply life enhancing way.
In the nineties, when I was the editor-in-chief of a national magazine, I invited a group of gal friends who worked in media together for a night of spirituality and girl talk. They were each fascinating, spiritual woman with high-powered careers. It felt very natural to call the evening “A Gathering of Goddesses.” Everyone loved the idea, because it made us connect immediately with the idea that we are Goddesses – beautiful, smart, powerful, able to effect change in our world. We so enjoyed each other’s companionship and support that first night; we decided to turn it into a monthly event. For over two years, we gathered every month to schmooze and share our stories, ending each meeting with a sacred circle in which we each took turns lighting a candle, articulating our dreams and goals and saying a prayer. We would bear witness to one another’s most pressing goals in life, and we would share the vision that all these dreams would come true. Indeed, many of them did.
Because we were journalists, radio personalities, performers, TV spokespeople and authors, I nick-named the group “Media Goddesses.” It was in the course of facilitating these gatherings that I discovered my new calling as an interfaith minister, and I stepped onto a professional path of helping facilitate women’s spiritual development. Having the chance to gather with other women in a loving and mutually supportive way changed all of our lives. We grew and empowered each other to grow more—13 years later, there is still and invisible bond than connects the women who were part of that group.
Having a special group of goddesses in human form in my life made all the difference on my life journey. My media goddess sisters were spiritual cheerleaders, continually reminding me of who I am. I truly believe that our connection to one another helped us all do our part to bring healing to the world.
One of the reasons I love The Three Tomatoes so much is that it provides a gathering point for women. If there is any time in history that women, and our world, can benefit from gathering, it is now. Whether sharing a meal and some girl talk, a night out, or coming together on line or in person to pray for peace, life will change in leaps and bounds the first day you call a bunch of friends together for “a gathering of goddesses.”