Can't Forget Spirituality

While we tend to focus on maintaining ourselves on a more physical level, hence, the inception of The Good Health Goddess, an equally important component is our spirituality. Some of you may define this as religion, but I like to think of it as our inherent relationship with ourselves, each other, and the world. And as I have been awakened to my feminine self, and continue on this journey, I am always coming across interesting articles or books that are of interest and/or importance to ALL women, regardless of spirituality (or lack of).

So this month I am combining a book review with spirituality. A Woman's Book of Life; The Biology, Psychology, and Spirituality of the Feminine Life Cycle by Joan Borysenko, Ph.D. is a must read for every woman. It is one of the few books written that relates how biology, psychology, and spirituality affect women at every life cycle. After the introduction, Borysenko divides the book into 12 chapters based on a woman's life cycle, 12 7-year periods, three in each quadrant of life- childhood and adolescence, young adulthood and, midlife and the elder years.

She specifically focuses on a feminine way of growth, as she herself points out, "...development of men, however, is a rich and detailed field that needs little recapitulation here since it is the subject of volumes of work extending over many centuries". The corresponding book of women's lives is nowhere near as studied, although with the advent of this book in 1996, we have seen this field of study expand greatly.

Now, I do not agree with everything she says (namely on her position of women that stay home with children verses being working moms). What stays with me most about this book is the scientific explanation of why women are the way we are. It is quite illuminating and life changing to understand that it is our biology that drives our psychology and spirituality.

Every woman should read this, and as quoted by Christine Northrup, M.D., and author of Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom (also a must read!): "...book is so compelling, uplifting, and scientifically provacative that I could not put it down. It will change the way we think about ourselves as women and is destined to become a classic."