Women's Discussion Centers On Healing
TUCSON, AZ - -- “There she was at her healing ceremony, beautiful, light, surrounded by love, serenaded by a harpist, two guitars, a flutist, a gong and dozens of voices. The sounds vibrated, brought tears to my eyes and she smiled the whole time.”
Online women’s community Women On the Verge (WOTV) will focus on the topic “Healing: Woman 2 Woman” during the month of February. To launch this month-long discussion, WOTV founder Ana Lewis (quoted above) attended a prayer circle healing ceremony for her beloved yoga instructor. Lewis found there is help and healing to be had within a community of this type, which assembled women’s voices together in prayer and music to provide a giving and healing atmosphere, not just for their guru, but for all participants.
Healing or wellness in the physiological sense requires that body tissues repair and regenerate. In the holistic sense, wellness or health takes into account all aspects of an individual’s needs: psychological, physical, social, mental and environmental.
The effects of social support and community on individuals with regard to their health is regularly studied within standard and alternative medical practices. Sheldon Cohen, PhD, a psychology professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, has written that strong social support helps people cope with stress. Cohen tells WebMD that "people with wider social networks are higher in self-esteem, and they feel they have more control over their lives." This would seem to point to community participation as beneficial to achieving a feeling of wellness, a theory that ties closely to this month’s WOTV discussion topic “Healing: Woman 2 Woman.”
The WOTV online community encourages its member (including a few men) to connect with each other to share and learn. There are blogs, vlogs, photographs, social media and other creative ways to share concerns about business, family, kids, health and world news. WOTV aims to break down the stereotypes of women by being supportive and nurturing of its members and their endeavors. According to Lewis, being a Woman on the Verge means being accepted as yourself.
