My yoga and meditation classes, and my client base, are 95% women. I wanted to write this for awakening women, particularly those who struggle with deep feelings of compassion triggered by earth events. I don’t intend to exclude men, though, because the Divine feminine rests in the male form, too. So if you are a man reading this, please read on.

Does awakening to my true nature mean I will stop caring about the suffering in the world? Why do I care so deeply? Why does animal abuse make me so sad? These are the questions I get asked on an almost daily basis. Does being awake mean I will stop caring? No. Being a woman means to feel deeply, and to move through life from the heart and with intuition. This is natural to the female form, we are wired this way, and it’s a good thing.

Through the process of awakening as a woman, there is the opportunity to embrace the deep emotions we feel, without indulging in them. Yes, there is sorrow in watching our children suffer, and yes, watching the earth crumble before us is heartbreaking. But this pain is born of love, and when it is surrendered to, it is taken back through the heart, and held in the spiritual womb. Embraced with all-encompassing love, it can be offered up to the cosmic field of pure potential. What is left over, after the alchemy of diffusing the love-pain, is joy.

There is a subtle joy in the process of creation that, as women, we have access to in our bodies. As the pain is integrated into the heart it folds into the spiritual womb of creation, and is held there in unconditional love. From this space of true safety, the inner womb awakens also, and becomes a resting place for the Divine feminine. The mystical and the physical become united within the female body. Her body is the temple where conception happens, opening a gateway that she may use to see beyond form, into the greater field of creation.

As the Divine feminine emerges, she becomes a source of true strength and power, pure compassion and wisdom. She knows that there is no separation between form and formlessness. And her natural response to a suffering child is to embrace it in love. She shows us that all life is teeming with the fullness of her being. Life is constantly being reclaimed and reborn within the spiritual womb of the Divine feminine. This is the place where the formless and the form meet and mingle, creating harmony between cosmic forces and earthly impulses.

The instinct of the woman’s body to love creation doesn’t stop when an awakening happens. But what does happen is that this response will occur beyond time. The response to love happens in the present moment, the suffering child in front of her receives her full attention. If that natural impulse is taken into the mind, and viewed through time, it can seem like an endless stream of suffering that will never end, and it will overwhelm her. The trick is not getting lost in the mind stream; the way is to stay in the present moment with the deep feelings that arise, and surrender the pain into the heart. This is the key to transcending the temptation to indulge in deep emotions or use them to feed a personal agenda.

This being recognized, next time you notice yourself filled with sorrow or pain, take it as an opportunity to awaken the feminine heart.

• Notice where the pain is arising in your body and feel it, say yes to it. Going toward the pain will dissolve the fear that surrounds it, and allow you to enter the spiritual heart.

• Imagine the womb of unconditional love is holding this pain with you; let the pain become infused with love. Be tender with it.

• Allow the love to pull you back into unconditional love, and rest there, breathing deeply.

• Stay there for as long as you need to, and with each wave of pain that comes (just like contractions) continue to say yes to it, holding it in more and more love.

• If you notice yourself moving into a mental time-driven concept, return to the present moment. Stay with what is right in front of you, here and now.

• Open your eyes and gaze outside at nature, look at the sky, the trees, or the grass. Find the love you feel in your heart buzzing in nature, and hold your gaze there for as long as you are comfortably able to do so.