March is Women’s History Month! This month’s Girltalk…Taking it Deeper™ focuses on appreciating the journey of women throughout history. Christine Arylo, creator of Girltalk, felt so strongly about this issue that she changed the previously scheduled topic. Read on for her thoughts. To download this month’s printable guide, click here. For more information on Girltalk, click here.

A personal note from Christine Arylo, founder of Girltalk.

In honor of Women’s History Month, I have to out myself.  As an MBA from one of the best schools in the country, I have been ignorant to the truth of our history as women. Sure, I know the facts… but that is not the same as knowing, or feeling, the reality. What I learned in history class didn’t come close to telling me the truth of what women have endured just in the last century, let alone the last three hundred, or two thousand years. I got the same scrubbed-down version of history that you did — unless you were a feminine studies major — straight from the lips of a patriarchal society.  Oh, women couldn’t vote, so there was this suffrage movement and now they can. Oh, there was this thing called Roe vs Wade that made abortion legal. Oh, women were burned at the stake during this thing called the Inquisition. And yes, there was this other thing called the Feminist Movement that created equal rights. None of those were more than a few pages in any of my history books, how about yours?

And my female relatives growing up didn’t make me any wiser about the reality either. They came from the school of “that’s just how things were,” not the “you need to know these historical realities as a woman because we never want to forget where we come from, and what has been given by the women before us.” They didn’t make it part of their job as women to pass down the stories of women from generation to generation… and that is a big loss. One that I know after this weekend, I will not repeat.

On the last weekend in February — at the age of 39 — I finally got WISE! Sitting with 500 women in a hotel ballroom in LA at the Sister Giant conference, I tapped into and felt in my cells our lineage as women and I felt my heart ache, my eyes well up with tears, and my courage lift as I watched three movies that put me in awe at the bravery of what generations of women before me have faced.

I say ‘tapped into’ because as I sat there in that room, it wasn’t just the 500 women that were there, it was also the 500 generations of women sitting with us. While I couldn’t see them with my eyes, I felt them with every fiber of my being. I say ‘felt in my cells’ because I experienced the facts that used to sit in my head about women’s rights, witch burnings, transform themselves from ideas to human realities. When you see a woman being force-fed with the use of a tube up her nose and a metal device being shoved in her mouth to part her lips and make her eat, suddenly the facts become about a person, they become very human, and your heart receives a message it’s not likely to forget — nor should it.

I let myself be affected by these films — something that I am not sure we always do. Our hearts are so closed off in our society, going about our busy lives. This month, in honor of our sisterhood and common bonds as women, I am inspired to ask you and your Girltalk… taking it deeper™ circles to take a pause and watch one of these films TOGETHER… to talk together about the impact of the film using our Girltalk conversation technology. We are visual beings… and I imagine the world would be much different if we sat and watched movies like this together vs. chatted mindlessly about the problems of the Housewives of Orange County.

Pick one of these three movies… watch it together (that’s important!) and then Girltalk.

Iron Jawed Angels

You can vote, you know that. But did you know that women were arrested, beaten, forced fed with tubes up their noses and tortured with the use of iron jaws to open their mouths and force them to eat when they called a hunger strike? Hilary Swank and Angelica Houston rock in this movie that made me cry, cringe and shout with joy.

The Burning Times
It’s estimated between 1million and 9 million people were burned, tortured and killed during the Inquisition — 85% of them women — in an effort to stamp out the goddess and pagan traditions and replace them with the controlling patriarchal structures. You can watch this 20 minute movie on You Tube.

Pray the Devil Back to Hell

You might have heard the prophecy that it will be women that change the world. You’ve most likely heard that the fierceness of a mother protecting her child is like no other. These women of Liberia prove them both. They stopped a war torn country from fighting because they said “ENOUGH! No more war. We want peace.” If women with ‘no money’ can stop a country from killing each other, what the heck are we capable of?”

March: What History Left Out of Herstory

Be Real. So you knew the facts before, but what’s different about what you know and feel now?

• What surprised you?
• What outraged you?
• What inspired you?
• What is the story you were told and what now do you see as the real story?

Be Wise. There is a pile of gold just waiting to be scooped up when you dig into the depths of wisdom that exist in and between generations. Mine that wisdom.

• What did you learn from these women?
• How do you imagine they felt?
• What timeless wisdom did they have that our generation could benefit from?
• What or who did you personally resonate with? Why?

Be You. We must always remember the women who came before us … including sharing their stories and our stories with our daughters (biological or not). We are all mothers.

• What one action will you take to share what you have learned today with another woman or another girl?
• What stories about your own herstory, about this time on this planet, will you share with the daughters of our generation?

Have a great time Girltalking and using the power of the generations before us to inspire us as we face the challenges of the 21^st century.

With big heart,

Christine Arylo

Chief Girltalker

To learn more about Christine Arylo, creator of Girltalk… taking it deeper™, inspirational catalyst and self love expert, visit her at www.daretoliveyou.com, a virtual cornucopia of self-love inspiration created just for you. JOIN the international self-love movement, MADLY IN LOVE WITH ME & download her free Madly in Love with ME Guide, full of daring and practical tips on how to fall more in love with you everyday, at www.MadlyinLoveWithMe.com.