Dr. Sonya Jensen - Woman Unleashed: Release Your Story, Revive Your Hormones & Reclaim Your Freedom

Copyright 2021 Dr Sonya Jensen

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, digital scanning, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

ISBN: 978-19-5-315373-9

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Dedication

To my husband Nick, for your support, your love, and for seeing me.

To my boys, Kaiyn and Soryn, for opening me up and teaching me what love really is.

To all the women in my life, for all you have mirrored for me and unleashed in me.

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge my family and friends for the constant reminder that I have an important message to share with the world. This book has been birthed through my own experiences, observations, and learning from everyone around me, especially my patients.

My patients and their stories have been the catalyst that I needed to write this book, as in it carries their journeys, the challenges, and the victories. Through my work with all the women that have come into my life, I have learned so much from them and am so thankful to have been a part of their growth and re-remembrance of who they are at their core. A woman that is ready to tap into and unleash the wisdom that has been stored and swimming in their body.

I would like to acknowledge all the various teachers that have come to me from all walks of life, especially the children around me. Watching people navigate their lives to best of their abilities and seeing the adversity so many, move through and overcome has taught me so much about myself and the world we live in.

Thank you to all the women teachers out there that have made their voices heard over the noise of society to educate, empower, and help transform their communities and my life.

Contents

The Fragile Feminist

As she walks this earth searching, she finds herself lost

She finds herself gasping for air, her moments stolen by lies, trapped in her prison of thoughts

She looks in the mirror, staring at a stranger,

Not knowing what is next

And hears a voice inside her head: Woman, you are not like the rest.

She questions, she shames, she fills her cells with guilt

Only to repeat the pattern again

Then she hears that voice from somewhere inside:

Woman, this is not how you were built.

She begins to remember that moment of light,

Born into this world feeling free

She aches for that connection, that belonging to the bliss, that feeling of being worthy

Woman, oh woman, where have you been, hiding behind that mask?

Woman, oh woman, come to your I AM, come find that love you have

Woman, oh woman, it is time to see

You, my dear, are the one who will help you be free.

Introduction

Before you dive into this book, I want you to take a moment. Take a moment to acknowledge the miracle that you are. A moment to recognize all that needed to conspire for you to be in this moment, in this lifetime, and in this body. The daily decisions your ancestors made, the experiences and environments and circumstances that all needed to line up for you to be born, to bring your brilliance to this world. The reproductive miracle that survived the various tests, challenges, and traumasyou.

We dont often spend time in reverence to this vehicle we have been given, the very vehicle that allows us to experience all that life has to offer. In every moment, this physical body is working for usbreathing, detoxing, communicating, healing, helping us survive our environments and experiences. Those experiences we have are not always pleasant and often ask a lot from us, and they give us the opportunity to choose expansion over contraction, love over fear, and growth over grief.

Through all the shifts and changes and decisions that make us who we are, the choreographer that is organizing this dance of life within us is our endocrine system, also known as our hormonal system. Our hormones are little messengers that carry out the communication between our environment, our bodies, and our emotions. They have the capacity to influence so much more than just our physiology. The change they influence in our biology influences our personality, which influences our reality, and our perception of that reality influences our lives. These moments of influence that our hormonal system has on our lives is more profound than we might think.

My most profound moment of influence occurred when I was 13 years old. I sat in my room at my desk, contemplating taking my life.

Growing up an Indo-Canadian woman has had its gifts and challenges. I grew up in a community knowing that no matter what, I would always be taken care of. I had an understanding and a deep reverence for something greater than me that connects all humans, no matter where they are from and what they believe. I could feel a vibration in all my cells, a knowing that it is our birthright to seek the truth, protect and defend those in need, and to always anchor back into my soul, and my roots, when I feel lost. That was the beauty I got to experience and witness, the side that allowed for growth. Then there was the other side. A side filled with expectations, restrictions, confusion, uncertainty, and a belief that my life would never be my own. At that moment, when I was 13, it belonged to my parents, and in the future, it would belong to my in-laws. I had a belief that I wasnt enoughinstead, a burden, a stress, a cause of illness and chaos. It seemed that my mothers health was directly linked to me. Her struggles were a reflection of me growing up, wanting some choice, some freedom in what I wore, where I went, and what I did. I struggled to navigate and tiptoe between two cultures: the culture of my heritage and Canadas dominant, mainstream culture. I was a confused 13 year old, not knowing where she belonged, feeling trapped physically, emotionally, and mentally. Stuffing her voice down further and further to meet the expectations of the outside world. In that moment, when I was deciding whether I wanted to remain on this Earth, a deeper trauma that I did not recognize was brewing in my subconscious. This trauma took place years before and for years would be the driving factor for all I did in my life.

The rush of anger, grief, disappointment, shame, and, most importantly, feeling completely out of control took over my entire being. I was swimming in a cascade of thoughts that were convincing me I wasnt important, I wasnt enough, and this life was not worth living. There was nothing in sight to do the jobno pills, no razors, nothing was making senseand then I spotted a safety pin. I still remember what holding it in my fingers felt like. My eyes blurred with tears, my lungs filled with grief, my body shook from head to toe, and without a thought, I started carving. I carved the words I HATE LIFE on the inside of my left forearm. I made an imprint on my body that would influence how I navigated and carried myself going forward. The cut was so deep that it stayed for years and years as a physical reminder of how close I came to giving up, how close I was to leaving it all and everyone behind. That moment of influence embedded both shame and guilt as an anchor in my psyche. That anchor then contributed further to me not believing in myself and a constant voice in my head chanting, You are just not enough. However, it also gave me an experience of feeling deeply connected, supported, and held by that energy and force that cannot be seen; that which we, I think, yearn for most of our lives. Yes, I harmed myself, but even in the darkest place, even in the depths of my pain, there was something in me that recognized my worth. Something in mecall it divine intervention, an insight, or maybe it was even fearsomething brought me back to show me that I had something to do in this world, that all the emotions I was feeling didnt have to dictate my world. I wiped the tears away, took a breath, and stared at the choice I had just made. The choice to live, a deep understanding that someday, an amazing woman was going to help unleash something the world is desperately longing for: connection. In that moment, the fragile feminist was born. A woman was awakened who now had a deeper understanding of the fragility of every moment, as we dont know when these moments will be lost; an understanding that in our fragility there sits a softness and a heart that is yearning for connection and love. Fragile, yes, but not weak; instead it is the most anchored type of strength one could ever experience or express.