subject: 7 Joys of Spiritual Birthing by:Dominique Saloisky [print this page] A good friend of mine once said "we birth how we live". In preparing for birth then it may be wise to have a good awareness of "how we live"!
The 7Words system is the best means I have come across of raising our awareness of how we function. In its thorough journey through all 7 states of being it covers all bases. A good place to arrive at before by birth is Yes since surrender is always (and in all ways) going to help for a Loving and easier passage. The 7 Words offers a point of inquiry, helping us to get clear about where we are in the scheme of things.
We have put together a Training for Birth Educators and Doulas which is organised around the 7Words, since we had over 20 years of experience working in this field and had gathered tools and ideas, but lacked a structure to organise this learning. My journey with the 7Words to date led to a feeling that it is a truly holistic system and engages every part of me. It shows up my strengths and my weaknesses, my clarity and passion and my foggy areas. It is my belief that what I am foggy about in life I will most likely be foggy about in my birthing. Similarly knowing my strengths helps me to access my resources. In preparing women for birth, the 7Words has proved to offer a way through the hugeness that birth is. This process doesn't seek to control the picture or form of birth, it offers no value judgement on "how birth should be" but it is my intention to raise consciousness about birth in all her guises, finding joy and love in the miracle of conception and birth.
The 7Words offers a way through the choices, preferences, hopes and baggage that gets in the way of us actualising our vision of birth. With 'No' we get clear about the choices we make, taking care of what is truthful to us, in 'Hello' we get to communicate and exchange with the world around us and baby, with 'Thanks' we get to appreciate and value the journey and those who support us, taking us into the heart; in 'Goodbye' we get to wake up to what is real in us, making time to resolve those bits of us which stop us from moving on to this new part of our life; in 'Please' we get clear about our vision of birth, and with the help of cooperation and prayer we make this intention come to form; in 'Sorry' we have to take responsibility for that which gets in the way of realising our vision, the baggage that hampers our freedom, and in 'Yes' we drop into the freedom of love, of surrender, giving up control and that place where we know that "all is well" however that may show itself.
Taking our trainee teachers on this 7 weekend journey was one of the most profound journeys I have been on and confirmed for me that 7 Words can be applied to anything, since it is a system that knows no limits; such is the potential and depth of application. Indeed it can be used in a very practical way or be as profoundly spiritual as one would choose. Birth also works with "all of us" in our human state and beyond, challenging our beliefs, fears, hopes and dreams. It touches on the density of being (from the physical challenge of can a pin sized cervix really open to accommodate a baby's head) to the lightness of being where we experience one of life's miracles and mysteries.
For the "control freak" culture that we often inhabit in the west it offers us a tangible structure to work through the layers, releasing limiting ideas of the mind, allowing a fineness and gentle flow into a greater sense of being. Because it does not have any interest in judgement it brings forth an easy curiosity which facilitates profound change and transformation (all helpful for the journey towards birth). I am passionate about the depth of this system and see it as a very real tool of its time, easily applicable, though at times deeply challenging, but always offering rather than pushing. Birth needs to be brought to the light, for she has suffered under the fog of fear and control, so it is our intention to do just that, bring her to the light with the helpful guidance of the 7Words, setting her free to be there in all her myriad of ways, bringing forth new life, celebrating the miracle within.
