Breathe
By Nadia Rodríguez Martínez
Since ancient times we learned to gather in circles for different purposes: to dialogue and solve a problem in the family or in the town; to design action strategies, to live together and celebrate, among other things. This way of building community still survives and yields very good results, it is just that nowadays we are not aware of its richness as a tool to build healthy human relationships because we live oversaturated with beliefs such as: Don't trust anyone! People are bastards! Don't let them! and a long list of phrases that speak of how broken our bonds are.
For doctor and activist Jean Shinoda Bolen, women have the potential to transform the world by meeting in circles where the rule is to look at each other horizontally, without competition, without judgment, and to talk about our problems, fears and desires. In this way we can mirror and realize that the same things happen to us, we can support each other and move forward together. Then we can call more women to make circles and better yet, take everything we have learned to our family, school and social environments.
A few years ago I discovered women's circles and met a great teacher: Ana Ramirez, director of Koyouali, who like other "wise witches" in Mexico and around the world has trusted in the power of the circles:
"Shinoda positioned it worldwide, she actually has a chair at the UN that talks about the millionth circle and it's an interesting concept because it tells us about morphic fields where we are changing this collective consciousness that doesn't just stay in the circle, but is changing the dynamics of relationship."
"You learn not to take the mechanisms of patriarchal society such as competition, division, separation and change them for the mechanisms of collaboration, worth, self-care."
The serious problems in this patriarchal society accentuate machismo and have increased violence, mistrust, selfishness, abuse, loneliness, depression, among other evils that deteriorate not only the integrity of women, but also that of men. The circles are trying to disrupt this system:
"It is about changing the dynamics of patriarchal relationship that affect men and women for a post-patriarchal dynamic that as Rita Segato says: it implies removing the concept of territoriality where the woman is a territory to be dominated. It also implies removing the idea that someone owns you, your body."
"...it is necessary to break down a violence that has been introjected and that not only belongs to the woman who carries it, but to a whole generation of women who have been violated in many ways and it is almost like an inheritance".
