Part three

Myths: artwork and an exercise

Today I’m posting some more of the drawings I’ve been making these last 4-5 weeks and an exercise from Elizabeth Lesser’s book: Cassandra speaks. It has to do with finding one’s voice to speak with honesty and clarity, which requires women first to become aware of how and when they have been silenced both in obvious and more subtle ways. Lesser writes that it takes courage to express one’s anger and truth in a clear voice “because there’s a long line of scorned and punished women behind us, put there in the stories to remind us about what happens to the angry woman…… It’s a slow inner journey for most women to move from repressed bitterness into clearly articulated anger— not mean and weaponized anger, but the “powerful and beautiful” kind that Soraya Chemaly ** writes about. It’s one of the most important inner journeys I have made. I believe that for those of us who finally live in times and places where women can risk being clear and authentically ourselves, it is both a privilege and a priority to speak our truths. Cassandra was punished for speaking clearly. Women around the world still are.”

**A short relevant TED talk by Soraya  Chemaly  (with Greek subtitles) at: https://www.ted.com/talks/soraya_chemaly_the_power_of_women_s_anger#t-690018

Summarily, the instructions for this exercise are:

Breathe in deeply and exhale with a deep sigh several times. Then close your eyes and think about a) a situation in your life, in the past or currently, when you silenced your voice, or when you were silenced by others, at home, at work, in school, in the world more broadly. Let yourself feel the emotions. Then take a pen and paper and answer these questions:

Why did you not speak your truth? Why did you not stand for what you knew, or wanted or what you knew others needed? What happened because of your reluctance to speak?

Centre yourself again with breathing and think of b) a situation when you took a risk to clearly tell your truth. Picture it and feel the emotions. This time answer these questions:

What happened when you owned your truth and spoke clearly about it? What was the price? What was the reward?

Finally, take some deep breaths, close your eyes and think about c) what you aren’t saying today at work, at home, at school, or in any other social context? Some questions you could answer could be:

Would it be wise or kind to be clear, to be forthright, to be courageous? What might the consequences be if you do and if you don’t?