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W.O.M.A.N. Newsletter:
Making a Difference in the World
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OCTOBER 2009
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Dear Friends and Supporters,
I was hoping that we could have a visit together today. It’s been a little while since I’ve written to you, and this is one of my longer newsletters. So I’d like to invite you to grab a cup of tea, coffee, or whatever inspires you to sit back and relax and to take time off the treadmill of this crazy modern life we are all living. And give yourself at least a half an hour. I’d love to share some of my thoughts and feelings with you and hope that they will in turn provoke your own mental meanderings and inspire you as well.
Ready? Let’s spend some time together.
P.S. If you have any trouble viewing this e-mail, right above the newsletter is a link by the question “having trouble viewing this e-mail.”
“There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments,
cellularly, like a laborious mosaic.”
~Anaïs Nin
“The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be
joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.”
~Henry Miller
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GET YOUR COPY OF
“W.O.M.A.N.: A NEW DEFINITION” TODAY
CLICK HERE TO BUY THE BOOK
To all of you who have purchased my book, I thank you. It’s quite an adventure promoting a book and, to be honest, it’s way more work than I realized! Certainly more work than went into creating it. Writing it was an inspiration for me, but promoting it is an effort!!! So I’m learning a lot. The most important thing for me is that my book is making a difference in the lives of those who read it.
It has currently sold in the U.S., UK, Brazil, Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Japan, Denmark, Amsterdam, Sweden and Australia. I’m more pleased with the global appeal than in book sales volume, though I am definitely seeking volume. Remember that 50% of the proceeds are going to The Jacaranda Foundation, a school in Malawi, Africa for AIDS orphaned children. Click on the link to read more.
I’d like to share a story with you. I received an e-mail from a man who lives in Belgium that read my book. Believe it or not, more than half of my reviews on Amazon.com are from men. I’m very happy that men are reading and really enjoying the book. While it was written for women, I also wanted to include men, and it seems that my intention was clear enough that they are responding.
In the e-mail I received from this man he shared a story with me about his best friend, a woman, who had been on birth control for the last 10 years, after having had cervical cancer and treatment for it. Doctors kept insisting that she remain on birth control pills, despite her headaches and nausea and generally feeling sick. She had not had periods for a very long time.
Finally, she decided to listen to herself and tell the doctors to stick it, and she went off of the birth control.
He said that when we was with her recently, she came running out of the bathroom and “jumped him.” She had gotten her period and was very happy and excited. He told her about my book and that she needed to read it.
I got teary eyed over this for several reasons. The first was that this woman had listened to herself and in doing so, reconnected with an aspect of our lives as women that, while we may collectively regard as a nuisance and unwanted, in our bones we know it matters and is an important messenger in our lives.
Secondly, this man who had read my book and was impacted by it, was moved to tell her about it so that she could read about celebrating her menstrual cycle, as I write about it in my book. And finally, the place inside me that longs to make a difference in people’s lives was ignited. If only for this one incident, writing my book was worth it.
I believe that it will make a difference in your life, too. If you haven’t already gotten your copy, please do something that I know will inspire and uplift you and make you feel differently about being a woman: buy the book. And if you’re a man reading this, my book will open your eyes and your heart to seeing women in a new and more compassionate light, as well as inspiring you to be your best self as a man.
HERE ARE ALL THE REVIEWS AND THE LINK TO PURCHASE THE BOOK.
NEW DEVELOPMENTS
I’m in the process of making some new and exciting changes to my work that I’d like to share with you. The first is that I have a new website that will be available in about two weeks. I know, I know, I just finished one. While I can’t quite call it a mistake, as all things happen for a reason, it was a valuable lesson in what NOT to do. For those of you who are creating your own websites, make sure that the person you hire REALLY knows what they’re doing, and more importantly that they know what YOU need and can deliver it. While I love the look of the new site, in terms of growing my work and really using it to create forward motion in my business, it was a mistake.
So, given that I believe in learning from my mistakes, I’m creating a new site, which already has a landing page set up, though it is by no means in its final form. I am now directing all of you, new and old fans alike to www.ginacloud.com This will be the central hub, if you will, for all that’s coming. So stay tuned. You’ll need to put in your e-mail address to get to the free archives (which won’t be there too much longer as well), and if you’re already on the list, don’t worry you won’t be receiving duplicate emails. If for some reason I’m wrong and you do, simply unsubscribe from the duplicate.
One thing I’m VERY excited about is that by year’s end I will have a membership site set up where I will be sharing my knowledge and resources in very concrete and informative ways. If you think about all the shows I’ve done (in excess of 110) and all of that wonderful content and information, and plug it into a website where I will direct you to specific products to address different areas of your life; body, mind, heart, soul, hormones, relationships, beauty – you name it. I will also have a blog, video tips, teleclasses, and more. I’m just so excited to be able to create a “place” where you can get what you need.
And on that note of what you need, I want to ask you, what would you like me to be able to give you in such a place? What are you struggling with in your life? Where would you like to grow? What would you like to learn? Where would you like us to go together? Whatever it is, I SINCERELY WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU NOW WHILE I’M BUILDING THE SITE. A huge piece of my passion comes from being of service to YOU and giving you what will improve your life and to help you grow into the sublime W.O.M.A.N. that you are. (Men, sit tight, I’m being asked by some of you to create a place for you and that’s coming, too, but ladies first.)
So please, take 5 minutes, more or less and click here to tell me how I can support you.. I mean it. Don’t read past this sentence without taking the time to let me know. We are co creators in this next phase of my work, so please take it seriously. I am here because of you and for you. So do it NOW, and then come back to reading.
God, that Gina Cloud can be pushy!!
QUICK LINKS:
WEBSITE:
BUY THE BOOK:
SHOW ARCHIVES:
CONTACT GINA:
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TERI HAWKINS:
A WOMAN WHO CAN HELP YOU SHARE YOUR GIFTS WITH THE WORLD AND GENERATE FINANCIAL SUCCESS
 I discovered Gold! I really want to share this with all of you!
There are so many people who promise they can show you how to make the money, have the success, live the dream …that it is hard to figure out who to turn to.
I love having personal recommendations, hearing an opinion first hand from someone I know and trust. So, I am giving you my first hand opinion on the most powerful coach I have met in all my years as a successful business woman. She’s also been a guest on my show.
Let me introduce you to a woman who has been a leadership and speaker coach for the likes of Lee Iacocca, Liz Claiborne and Pat Riley – She is the real McCoy and she is opening a club for 50 fortunate people who are sincere about being successful. I cannot say you will be accepted in the club, but even getting her video tips, or listening to her free teleseminar that is coming up would be worth you considering. OH AND THE PRICE OF THE CLUB IS UNBELIEVABLE! I APPLIED THIS WEEK MYSELF!
Please know there is no monetary compensation to me whatsoever in letting you know about Teri Hawkins – I just wanted to pass on the word because I am excited I’ve found her for myself and if you are anything like me – wanting the kind of long term, personal and powerful coaching from one of the best – then I want you in the club with me.
The best thing to do is to sign up for her seminar
( via telephone) that she has coming up, and figure out for yourself if she is the coach for your dreams.
Here is the link to sign up for the teleseminar:
( I’m attending)!
OH AND IT”S FREE! Even if you do not want to join the club, you want to be at her teleseminar. You can easily get more from this W.O.M.A.N. in 60 minutes than you have from all the other ” experts” you have turned to in the past 5 years combined. She is the real deal and she has created a way for entrepreneurs to get what the big guys get.
The seminar is: October 28th, details when you sign up!
I hope you’ll support Teri. I KNOW first hand she can support you
Love & Blessings,
Gina
PS: Maximum of 200 attendees in the seminar so sign up ASAP.
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MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD
ARE YOU GIVING YOURSELF FREELY?
“Life is like a ten-speed bicycle. Most of us
have gears we never use.”
~Charles Schulz
In sharing the story with you about my book, I hope that it makes you think about what it is in your life that inspires you. I hope it makes you ask yourself the questions: How am I making a difference in the world? What are my gifts? Am I giving them freely to the world? If not, what’s in my way?
Every single one of us is here to contribute to what I call the big puzzle of life. I often imagine us all, each of us individually as a piece in a giant puzzle or multicolored tapestry. That piece is not just our physical presence in the world, but our inherent
gift(s) that we are here to share with others.
We are all gifted with a magnificent purpose, and in finding it and living it, you will be inspired and transformed from the inside out. When you give those gifts freely to the world (and I don’t mean for free here. Money is part of our birth right as another form of energy), you make this world a better place and you help to transform every person you share it with. Who you are matters and makes a difference. Every single one of us has an important role on the planet, and no role is insignificant or less than another’s. What makes it significant is your passion for it, which creates a desire to share it with others, which in turn inspires you and those who come in contact with you.
I know this from a deeply personal place. W.O.M.A.N. is my life, literally. I share my life with you in this work that I am so passionate about. And I KNOW that I make a difference in doing so. Knowing that inspire me to give more.
When I come in contact with other people who feel this kind of passion, it inspires me just to be around them. Passion is an element, an aspect of love, which means it is an energy that comes from the heart. As I so often say, anything that moves through the heart is a gift; both to the giver and the receiver.
So here are those questions again: How am I making a difference in the world? What are my gifts? Am I giving them freely to the world? If not, what’s in my way? Ponder them. If you know what your gifts are, then just start giving them. Offer them to everyone you meet. When you do this, the Universe presents you with opportunities to turn it into work for which you can be paid, so that you are living your passion and it is also sustaining you. Make it your intention to share. What you give fully in the world comes back to you.
If you don’t know the answers to those questions, then spend some time thinking about what makes you feel lit up from within. What were your dreams as a child? Do you feel numb in your life now, like a drone, marching to the same monotonous tune every day? If the answer to that last question is yes, then you have to get off the grid. Inspiration is not formulaic or predictable. It comes in waves and when you open yourself without an agenda. It comes to you when you are ready to receive it. And so you must let go of all that does not serve you. And you must create a vessel in which to catch it.
In general, life should be a joyful experience. If the way you live is causing a sense of apathy or joylessness, start asking yourself, as you move through your life, “Does this bring me joy?” If the answer is no, start the process of eliminating those things. There is a tenet in physics that no two things can occupy the same space. If your life is filled with things that bring you joylessness, then where will there be room for those that will bring you joy? You must make space.
Remember that you are worth it. And remember that everyone in the world deserves the gift of you. Please don’t be selfish. Share who you are with all of us.
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WHO THE HELL DECIDED MY LABIA NEEDS
RESHAPING????
MORE NEGATIVE PROGRAMMING WE NEED TO STOP
So here’s where you all get to see my darker side, the part of me that gets infuriated by the messages that help to send women’s self-esteem plummeting further into the depths. This is the kind of stuff that I’m adamant to see change and to be a force in making that happen.
What am I talking about? CLICK HERE
Here’s the article title and subtitle:
“The man who wants to reshape your private parts
David Matlock, aka, Dr. Sex, can “fix” you down there with his pioneering gynaecological techniques. But did you know it needed improving?“
I’m going to rant concisely (Did I write that? concise ranting??) so that this newsletter doesn’t become my second book. But this is too insane, ridiculous and absurd for me not to address. And it hurts my heart to think of the women who will fall prey to this nonsense.
This falls under my category of “Leave my body alone!!!”
Who the hell decided that there was anything wrong with the appearance of a woman’s labia? This is a serious question. Apparently this enterprising doctor did and knowing that he could easily pander to the multitude of self-esteem deprived and negative self-image women who feel that almost everything about their appearances isn’t good enough already, he’s guaranteeing that the “almost everything” part now becomes everything.
It incenses me when I read these types of things. Here’s a bit in particular that really bothered me:
“Sexual gratification for women is directly related to muscles and tightness. Kegel,” he says, referring to pelvic-floor exercises, “we all know Kegel doesn’t work. So we ask, ‘How tight do you wanna be?’ What they say is, ‘We want to be as tight as we were when we were 18, before we had children.’ That’s what they want and that’s what they get.” In fact, there are no studies to prove that the diameter of a woman’s vagina is the determining factor inher sexual pleasure.” (Bold is my emphasis).
So given that there are no studies to support this idea that vaginal tightness has anything to do with a woman’s sexual pleasure, how can he make these ridiculous statements and stand upon them as terra firma to what will undoubtedly make him a rich man and impoverish the self-image of women who succumb to the mastery of marketing.
I remember an expression that goes something like, “believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see.” When most people read things in newspapers, reputable magazines and medical publications, they tend to accept what they are reading as truth and fact. I personally trust none of it, and I implore you to question as well.
We women are being bombarded by the media, most of the mainstream medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry with messages that tell us that our bodies are not good enough, therefore neither are we. But here, take this pill, have this surgery, and you’ll be fixed. You’ll be beautiful, you’ll be loved.
okay, okay, I’m not ranting concisely.
The idea of making a woman’s labia conform to whose idea anyway of what a labia should look like is absurd. So let me use an absurd example that I think will convey my viewpoint perfectly.
Imagine a bunch of flowers all sitting around talking. I frequently use the analogy that women are all flowers, so this is perfect, since flower petals are a great metaphor for labia.
So the rose looks over at the sunflower and says, “God, your petals are so beautiful. I wish mine looked liked yours.” And the sunflower says to the tulip, “But I wish mine looked like yours.” Completely ridiculous right??? Well, so is the idea that women need to have their labia look a certain way. Women may sit around and say to one another, “I wish my boobs were bigger,” or “I wish I had smaller hips,” but I can guarantee you that none of us reading this have ever said to a girlfriend, “I don’t like the way my labia look. I think I’m going to get them fixed.”
And how could anyone ever say a rose petal is more beautiful than a sunflower’s or a tulip’s. They, and we, are all different, and equally as beautiful.
And to further support how absurd this is, for you guys reading this I’m sure you’ll concur with this quote from the article by a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon:
“If someone has a functional problem with their vagina, then they should have reconstructive surgery,” he says. “But who can say what a vagina should look like? I am 66 years old. I have never, in all my life, ever heard a man say,’I saw this woman, she had an ugly vagina.’ Never. To tell someone otherwise is to promote body dysmorphia. What is the mentality of this person? It’s not progressive, it’s entrepreneurial. It’s about money. And doctors should never be about the money.”
Try telling that last sentence to the pharmaceutical industry. Sorry, that’s a different rant.
God bless this guy for disagreeing with his colleague. In Beverly Hills that’s no small feat in the plastic surgery capital of the world. Yet the doctor advocating this will make a fortune giving women what they think they need, because someone like him can spin it in such a way that they will believe that if they fix their vaginas, they’ll finally be okay.
Ladies, doesn’t this make you sad? Men, I’ll bet this surprises and saddens you.
I’d like to take a moment more in this seemingly endless newsletter to share some real beauty about women’s bodies, our labia and vulva in particular. Also known as the Yoni, in Sanskrit. Rufus Camphausen, author of “The Yoni, Sacred Symbol of Female Creative Power,” and his wife, Christina Camphausen, author of “Yoni Portraits“ have two amazing books that honor the beauty of the female vulva, of which the labia are a part.
Yoni Portraits in particular is a masterpiece and someone should get a copy to this jerk (pardon my judgment, it just slipped out). It consists of beautiful drawings of approximately 150 yonis (vulvas) drawn over 16 years. These beautiful drawing are done from actual photographs submitted by real women of their yonis. The drawings are only of the Yoni, not the woman, and they are exquisite. Like a collection of flowers. I think you men in particular would find this book quite powerful. Many of you are used to pornographic images of the vulva, and these are quite beautiful, real, visceral and evocative in a way I’m quite certain you may never have experienced.
Ladies, it will just reaffirm what I’m always telling you, that we are exquisitely beautiful in all ways and in all our forms.
Click on the links above or below to view the book. This book is a true work of he(art).
If you read the article there’s more to it, in particular G-shots. But I think that’s another rant. I think you have more than enough to ponder, so I’ll leave you here.
Ladies, celebrate your individual and unquestionable beauty, as you are in your raw, natural state. And men, do the same. It will have unimaginably positive effects on the women in your life.
And men, let me hear from you.
YONI PORTRAITS
By Christina Camphausen
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| GRATITUDE
I decided I simply wanted to add a space to this newsletter in gratitude for all the blessings in my life. Your support of me and my work is one of the many reasons I am so grateful. Please take a moment to reflect on all the many blessing you have in yours. I know that when I am going through a rough patch, many times I forget that there is so much I do have. And when I start to make the list, it lightens my heart and helps me to remember just how full my life is. And so is yours.
Express your gratitude and you will have even more to be grateful for. And let everyone you cherish in your life know that they are cherished by you.
Thank you for taking the time out of your life to visit with me. I cherish you.
P.S. if you know someone who would enjoy and benefit from this newsletter and/or becoming a subscriber, please hit the forward link at the bottom of the page. You can also share it via Facebook and Twitter by using the icons at the bottom of the page.
With Love & Blessings,
Gina
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