This is our follow up interview after our first podcast on Yogic Lifestyle and Living in Alignment episode. I wanted to talk to Belinda more about Goddess Circle, Women Rite of Passage, and building a community of women supporting other women. We also touched on the beauty and joy of women retreats she leads in North India, South India and Japan that include travel, yoga and wellness. 

Belinda O'Dea is a heart-based certified Yoga & Meditation Teacher in Hatha, Mantra, Tantra, Vinyasa and Yin yoga. She is also an accomplished fashion designer and she is passionate about yoga, travel and wellness and that's why she now takes women on beautiful retreats several times a year to North India, South India and Japan. She is originally from Australia and currently a citizen of the world.

Belinda is an experienced Women's Circle Leader where she creates a safe, welcoming and inspiring space for all women to participate, to feel the connection and the importance of the sisterhood. She also offers personal or business 1-1 mentoring for women as well. 

Interview Summary & Highlight

* What is a Women Circle or Goddess Circle? 

* Magic happens in a women circle when we form a community of support with transformation, opening, speaking from our hearts and listening. It creates a very safe space for women without judgment.

* Whatever happens in the circle stays in the circle, there is a lot of opening and sharing 

* There is a set of agreements to keep the circle to feel safe and scared. It sets the tone of non-judgement and it is not a public speaking platform. It is about speaking from your own feeling inner experience but there is no obligation to speak either. 

* Some of the agreements include: we all take a turn to speak, but only one person speaking at a time. There is no jumping in, no fixing or “helping”, just listen deeply and wholeheartedly.  

* As a result, we allow ourselves to free our emotions and express them instead of stopping them from surfacin

* Women's circle is like "the other sister of yoga" because it's another way of discovering things about ourselves that don't necessarily arise normally.

* Two type of circles: Open Circle (no fix or set number of members and come with broader questions, e.g. What are you focusing or struggling or grateful for right now?) and Close Circle (it has a fixed number of member each time and come more intimate or deeper questions as you get to know one another  e.g. Spiritual Practice of Women's Cycle, Rite of Passage experience, initiation, etc.)

* Rite of Passage: Birth, Menstruation, First Sexual Experience, Pregnancy (which can also be about giving birth to an important project), Menopause.

* There is a lot of healing work that we can do retrospectively and there are layers of information and insights at each rite of passage as we explore and dive deeper each time when we reflect on that we’ve experienced. 

* Get to know ourselves in this feminine body, in this female existence, learning how to try and rest into being and accepting who we are through the practice of yoga.

* 10 Days Women Travel, Yoga and Wellness Retreat: North India - it’s like a spiritual pilgrimage,