Michaela Boehm - The Wild Woman’s Way: Unlock Your Full Potential for Pleasure, Power, and Fulfillment

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An Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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Copyright 2018 by Michaela Boehm

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Enliven Books hardcover edition August 2018

This publication contains the opinions and ideas of its author. It is intended to provide helpful and informative material on the subjects addressed in the publication. It is sold with the understanding that the author and publisher are not engaged in rendering medical, health, or any other kind of personal professional services in the book.

The reader should consult his or her medical, health, or other competent professional before adopting any of the suggestions in this book or drawing inferences from it.

The author and publisher specifically disclaim all responsibility for any liability, loss, or risk, personal or otherwise, which is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents of this book.

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Interior design by Amy Trombat

Jacket design and illustration by Connie Gabbert Design

Author photograph by Mariana Schulze

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Boehm, Michaela, author.

Title: The wild womans way: unlock your full potential for pleasure, power, and fulfillment / Michaela Boehm.

Description: First Enliven Books hardcover edition. | New York: Atria/Enliven Books, 2018.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018010213 (print) | LCCN 2018018569 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501179907 (eBook) | ISBN 9781501179884 (hardback) | ISBN 9781501179891 (paperback)

Subjects: LCSH: Self-actualization (Psychology) | Mind and body. | Tantrism. | Happiness. | WomenPsychology. | BISAC: SELF-HELP / Personal Growth / Happiness. | BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Inspiration & Personal Growth. | FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Love & Romance.

Classification: LCC BF637.S4 (ebook) | LCC BF637.S4 B624 2018 (print) | DDC 155.3/339dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018010213

ISBN 978-1-5011-7988-4

ISBN 978-1-5011-7990-7 (ebook)

For my parents, Sylvia and Ulrich

THIS BOOK IS FIRST AND foremost my passionate love letter to the body: an invitation for each of us to remember the innate wisdom of our bodiesnot our looks, or our various shapes and sizes, but the living, feeling body as a portal to unlocking who we truly are.

Our bodily genius is a premier decision-making tool, a navigation device extraordinaire, an agent of release and healing, a wisdom-carrier of deep insight, and a holder of secrets and mysteries.

This book is a call to come back to our wild, undomesticated original nature, which, combined with an untamed heart, knows what is true for each of us. It is a call to return to the inborn genius that guides our passion, whispers in our ear with longing, and reveals itself abundantly when we allow our bodies to show us the way.

This is a deeply personal book, born from my own explorations, struggles, and victories, infused with my passion carried over the span of more than twenty years of teaching and mentoring individuals and couples in the realms of relationship and sexuality.

I am focusing here on womens bodies, for a few reasons.

First, I am happily living in a womans bodyyes, I said happily!and as such am continually traversing both the fertile lands of feeling embodiment and the turbulent seas of unfeeling numbness. I am also the lineage holder, a keeper and teacher of the ancient wisdom of a Kashmiri Tantric tradition that has been passed down from woman to woman for thousands of years, and, as such, am dedicated to empowering womens understanding of their bodies as a devotional vehicle. I see the current cultural emergence of the sacred feminine as a beautiful opportunity for exploration and growth, and, at the same time, a movement fraught with the dangers of gender wars and false entitlement.

I am writing this book mainly for women. I also hope that men will benefit: in their relationship with their own bodies, and by gaining a different access to and understanding about what it is like to be a woman in the twenty-first century.

I personally love men, and am fortunate to be surrounded by wonderful, talented men with generous hearts. This is not a book to set men against women and fuel a battle of the sexes; it is instead an exploration of what defines us as men and women, what unites us, and how to become whole and serve one another as we traverse these extraordinary times.

Never have we as women in the West had more opportunity, more choice, and more freedom. Granted, we still have a long way to go, yet compared to any other time in history, we have the greatest options and choices to forge our own paths and determine our own destinies. At the same time, with these opportunities come new challenges and distinct difficulties: the demands of life have created unprecedented levels of stress, pressure, disconnect, discomfort, and dis-ease in women.

We women are now, more than ever, able to have the careers we want, whether that is to be an entrepreneur, a CEO, a full-time parent, an educator, or a social media sensation. We make our own money and our own decisions. We vote, we march, and we support our causes. We have more freedom today than ever before to determine the kind of relationships we wantand freedom to determine if, and how, we will birth and raise children, and to make decisions about how our households will be taken care of.

With all these options, there are a dizzying variety of versions of Woman to which we can aspire: Boardroom Executive, Mother, Entrepreneur, Martha-Stewart-like Homemaker, Vixen in the Bedroom, Visionary, Academic, Artist, Yogini, Leader, Goddess, Scientist, Earth Mother, Warrior. We are told we should lean in, drop out, and, on top of it all, be forever young and radiant.