Recently, I sat in the hurt and sadness, and actually, despair, of a long time silence.

A wise and courageous man gave some possibilities of how silence may come about for a man.

In his willingness to answer my question …

“Any tips on what may be going on for a man when he does not respond?”

… and this is what he provided:

  • overwhelmed by the issue raised
  • fear or concern of how his response will be received
  • holding in anger
  • really not wanting to face the questions
  • wanting the person talking to just go away
  • embarrassed
  • simply lost for words
  • shame

I felt compelled to add:

  • control
  • guilt

The spiritual element of being human promotes SILENCE as a magical component of peace and coming closer to awareness.

I have certainly experienced this joy… and continue to do so in my morning practise.

So, how can it be that there is a flip side to this human experience that can cut so deeply?

Given there is hurt, I still have work to do on myself. That’s all there is!!

Oh, is the painful silence reflective of my own silence around what is important to me? And the manner I have been going about trying to “get” my former husband to talk, leads me to giving up full of sadness, frustration and despair!!

Writing this, I hear push.

Force.

What if: I was to share the FEELINGS running through me and what NEEDS would be met through him providing communication?

And for me to remember, behind EVERYTHING people do or say, there is a GOOD REASON.

An opportunity for me to practise a new language that brings connection.

https://beyondthebranches.com.au/

 

How do women castrate (that is, emasculate) males?

This can be a very touchy concept for women.

Women could try arguing back to this question and avoid answering it, by bringing focus on what men do to women.

However, for the sake of taking an angle and starting somewhere, here is a list of where women potentially attempt to take a man’s power away from him … depriving him of strength, power or efficiency … in order to weaken.

This was the exploring we dived into in The Art of Loving Men series.

If a woman can find a way to make a man smaller than her, she will.

Let’s face it, men have had the “power over” position. Where in times gone by, women couldn’t vote, they were controlled by what the man wanted, ensured the man was fed every night, etc…

The women’s movement shifted the pendulum totally the opposite direction. Could it be a possible “pay back”?

The following is an attempt to list how women may attain to the “power over” position with men:

– compete against men (I can beat him in an arm wrestle)

– expose their weaknesses (You can write better than that)

– shutting their ideas down (blowing off their ideas or suggestions)

– woman having the last say (interrupting or redirecting)

– rejecting their assistance (I can do that myself)

– cutting them short when they are speaking or ending their sentences for them before they find the words they want to say (taking over)

– knowing more than them

– not needing a man’s help (not needing them for anything important to you)

– comparison either to the “perfect person” or to how, or what, a woman would do

– withholding appreciation, admiration, sex

– refusing to let them impress you

– not trusting them

– disinterested in their passions

– complain about them

– expecting them to act the same as females

– ignore them

– criticise them

– demean their earning abilities

– mothering

– not letting them “earn points” through providing

– impatience

A little background:

Women can push to explain things.

They are generally not happy with just observing behaviour.

So, a woman dives into defining a man’s behaviour… which means the woman may go through the lense of seeing the man as “misbehaving” … which means, in her mind, he does not love her, care about her or respect her!

So when a woman thinks this way, she will try to explain “why” a man does not do these 3 things.

Look out … she will then entangle herself in the web of comparing herself to the “Perfect Person” in order to get his love, care and respect.

Or compare the man to the “Perfect Person”…. so, are women actually seeing men as “misbehaving women”??

Through this mindset, which reaches beyond partnerships of man and woman, also mother and son, teacher and student, etc., women may be constantly seeing there is something wrong with them and being “not good enough”, or they will be putting pressure on the male to respond like a female would! Hence, her treatment of him. This leads to so much disconnection and destruction.

Awareness journal this week was to:

  1. ask a man where I do any of the above to him,
  2. watch myself and other women doing any of these things to males
  3. notice how men respond

I recall witnessing this castration in schools .. even with prep boys. The body language of rounded shoulders, paralysed silence, and smallness were sure tell tales to the effect of this treatment by staff and fellow students!!

Time to change where the pendulum hangs… and embracing “power with”.

*this work comes from The Queens Code and NVC (NonViolent Communication) … and my own exploring of such a topic and it’s effect on how we relate to each other.

BeyondtheBranches, working with young people, and this “women’s weekly” series, brings awareness to a new language where the “behaviour language” shifts into using a language based on FEELINGS and NEEDS .. to build connection with self and others!!

https://beyondthebranches.com.au/

The BEAR Cards are an essential part of my teaching day. They enable create a gentle place of identifying feelings without words needing to be found (initially). These cards have assisted many students, primary and secondary, in many classrooms including PE, breakdown the myth that we need to not share what is really going on inside us. And that it is really lonely when we are sitting in those uncomfortable feelings. Nobody would understand, so no point sharing!

These cards have been used in circle time and if there is defiant or unusual behaviour present.

One October morning in 2019, I was teaching in a Year 1/2 class of a Victorian country school, where a girl, quiet in nature, was looking upset.

I offered her the pack of BEAR Cards. She was invited to pick out the ones that reflected what was alive in her, in that moment.

This is what she shared …

“This card is “CURIOUS” because what have I done to deserve this treatment?

This card is “SAD” because I feel like my brother doesn’t want me anymore.

This card is “HURT”. I want to run away so no one can blame me anymore.

This card is “FRIGHTENED” because of all the punishments my mum and dad have.

This card is “WORRIED”. I cannot have fun because I am worried I will do something wrong and get punished.

This card is “DOUBT”. I start to think I have done something wrong, even when I haven’t.

This card is “AFRAID”. I don’t want to be seen because I feel really sad. All this sadness makes me tired.”

https://innovativeresources.org/resources/card-sets/bears-cards/

Funnily enough, this girl bounced off into the rest of her day. Just like that!!

It seemed enough, that in that moment she was heard. That was it!!!