Liberating Inner Eve: From Constraints of Historic Conditioning to Boundless Personal Power—A Christian Woman’s Guidebook

By Bozena Zawisz

Liberating Inner Eve: From Constraints of Historic Conditioning to Boundless Personal Power--A Christian Woman's Guidebook addresses the most commonly encountered social and historic challenges that constrain women's experience of personal power, against the background of an empowering exploration of the Genesis account of Adam and Eve. This book offers a fresh perspective on themes that are relevant to women's everyday lives and Christian identity, such as how they experience their self-worth, relationships, or life's purpose.
Each chapter's exercises and reflections guide readers in realizing greater self-love and personal power.
λExplore your perception of a Christian woman's identity
λLearn empowering coping strategies
λRedefine your relationship with your body
λApply Christian examples of mindfulness to your everyday life
λTransform personal/social/historic restrictions that impact your self-esteem
Liberate your inner Eve today!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: May 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9781725270794

Bozena Zawisz

Bozena Zawisz is an award-winning author/counseling psychologist living in Sydney, Australia, with husband Fred and sons Nicholas and John-Paul. Bozena’s passion is addressing the barriers that restrict women from experiencing a sense of connection with themselves and high levels of self-love. www.BozenaZawisz.com

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Liberating Inner Eve

From Constraints of Historic Conditioning to Boundless Personal Power—A Christian Woman’s Guidebook

Bozena Zawisz

Liberating Inner Eve

From Constraints of Historic Conditioning to Boundless Personal Power—A Christian Woman’s Guidebook

Copyright ©

2020

Bozena Zawisz. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

199

W.

8

th Ave., Suite

3

, Eugene, OR

97401

.

Resource Publications

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199

W.

8

th Ave., Suite

3

Eugene, OR

97401

www.wipfandstock.com

paperback isbn: 978-1-7252-7078-7

hardcover isbn: 978-1-7252-7077-0

ebook isbn: 978-1-7252-7079-4

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

06/04/20

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

This book is dedicated to all women.

Shadow of a Mother

In the shadow of a mother,

daughters watch and daughters learn

how to carry her traditions,

in their deeds and in their words.

They take the shadow of a mother

and carefully encode it into their heart,

until it is throbbing with their blood,

until it’s reflecting in their eyes.

With time they grow taller

and have more chances to catch the sun.

They find out that adults no longer have moms,

but cast their own shadows on their paths.

And with the shadow of a mother

they cover the babies in their arms,

and fill empty vases with budding vines,

watch tendered gardens bloom into life.

They gather life’s harvests in autumn’s barns;

neither daughters nor mothers,

just women in the sun—

reaching for the sky with strong nurturing arms!

Table of Contents

Title Page

Preface

Chapter 1: Eve—Inferior from the Start?

Chapter 2: Blaming Eve

Chapter 3: Embracing Adam and Embracing Eve

Chapter 4: The Legacy of Eve—Embracing Her Strengths

Chapter 5: Eve—Who am I Anyway?

Chapter 6: Into the Future—The Legacy of Respecting Eve

Chapter 7: Obedience

Chapter 8: Silencing Eve

Chapter 9: Accepting Eve

Chapter 10: Staying Connected with Eve—Mindfulness

Chapter 11: The Body of Eve

Final Note

About the Author

Bibliography

Preface

There is no true peace without fairness, truth . . .

John Paul II

1995 was my last year of high school.

It was also the year in which John Paul II wrote his Letter to Women. In it he expressed a heart-felt acknowledgement of the heavy historical legacy women carry on their shoulders, around being subject to social disadvantage . . .

In 1995 I was too young to understand his words—my future looked bright, his message seemed irrelevant.

Over two decades later, with over twenty years of counseling of women under my belt, I was deeply struck by the relevance, accuracy, and timeliness of his message—and the extent of my own conditioning, how could I have been so blind? How were so many things I took for granted, ever okay for me?

A Little about Me . . .

Reflecting on my own journey as a woman and listening to the thoughts and feelings of my many female clients (because it just so happens that mostly women seek counseling support), I’ve come to feel compassion for our struggle to define ourselves as persons in our own right and to find a sense of personal strength, high self-worth, respect, love, and acceptance.

In my own personal relationships (before meeting my husband Fred) I often neglected to put enough emphasis on my own thoughts, feelings, and what I wanted, tending to focus the majority of my efforts on trying to please the other person or on wondering what they were experiencing and how I could support them. Or I would allow their behavior to define me and I would take it very personally, with a heaped spoonful of intense emotions.

Big portions of my inner peace and my sense of self-worth were once tied to how other people felt and the state of my relationships. In addition, I now believe that I was misguided in how I thought about many Bible verses. Being a Christian, how I understood the Bible has always been influential on how I thought about myself and my relationships.

Through God’s grace, continual learning (in particular I am indebted to the work of Virginia Satir¹, which I refer to in this book), the opportunity to hear many female voices, and the time taken to examine and redefine how I interpret many Bible passages, a deep sense of self-love and empowerment has settled in my heart.

I now long to share with others how empowering the Bible can be in helping women find self-love, self-acceptance, and personal strength. What I have to offer is psychological insight around my understanding of how the teachings of the Old Testament (in particular the Genesis account of Adam and Eve) and New Testament (the lifetime of Jesus) can empower women to experience a connection with themselves, greater self-worth, and a sense of equality.

With love and compassion,

Bozena

*Please assume that the authorship of any ideas that resemble the work of Virginia Satir and other authors belongs to these authors.

1

. See Virginia Satir, The Satir Model. Palo Alto: Science and Behavior,

1991

.

Journeys

Journeys start where pain springs forth.

Suddenly—as a stream begins,

then journeys down the mountain top

to somewhere where it’s never been.

Where rivers, by the sea engulfed,

see that which they’ve never seen—

the vastness and the depths of sea—

forgetting they were once a stream.

Journeys start where pain springs forth—

familiar windows, gates, and doors.

Suddenly—as the creeping floor

on which feet step beyond the door;

To where meadows, by the sun engulfed,

see that which they’ve never seen—

the vastness of God’s universe

beaming through familiar doors and gates.

Journeys start where pain springs forth—

from biased, overwhelming thoughts.

Suddenly—as a tired back

that aches from carrying lifetime’s load.

It rests in moments by love engulfed,

feeling something undiscovered yet—

in the vastness of an endless self

it takes refuge, gently closes eyes.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Genesis

1

:

27

, King James Version (KJV)

A little child would die without love—she is helpless.

She is holding out for the smallest of crumbs—of approval.

Her awareness is heightened to the briefest of moments—of kindness.

Her sense of self has no boundaries yet—it is endless.

She is vulnerable to every glance from you—you’re her leader.

She observes you carefully and takes in every habit—you’re her teacher.

Her thoughts are made of every word you say—you’re her words.

Chapter 1

Eve—Inferior from the Start?

My Background

Religion has always been important to me. I looked to the Bible to find answers about how to relate to myself and others, and my interpretations of Bible stories (or the ones I was taught and most commonly came across) were influential in how I experienced and thought about myself.

In addition, religion is a very big component of my Polish culture (they seem to be totally enmeshed with each other), which abounds in very beautiful religious traditions throughout the Catholic church calendar that have been passed through endless generations of families. For people from a Polish background, including myself, these can constitute significant aspects of their identities.

Within my own family, I have many fond memories of playing with hand-painted glass decorations on our Christmas tree, looking through the window of our apartment, and seeing a sea of Christmas tree lights in other apartment windows, shining prettily through the falling snow. There are memories of decorating Easter baskets and eggs (in traditional Polish folk patterns, of course) and attending Easter Mass in my best dress on crisp, sunny Sundays.

I also have many memories of country holidays spent at my cousin’s home in a tiny Polish village. There I observed her family pray before every meal and at bedtime, and wear their very finest clothes on Sunday as they went to church, out of their reverence for Catholic Mass and the Holy Communion. I remember the kindness of the nuns who taught me religion and the quiet peacefulness of the parish priests. I grew up with the subconscious impression that Christianity represented reverence, joy, kindness, gentleness, peacefulness, goodness, and fun!

As I grew, I was gradually introduced to the stories of the Old and New Testament. The book of Genesis, including the story of Adam and Eve, was one of the first stories I came across. It is a tale from which everything else in the Bible originates; hence it was particularly memorable and impressionable to me. It also felt very personal, as I thought of Adam and Eve not as strangers but as my great-great-great-great . . . grandparents, to whom I and every person were related and with whom I shared some genetic connection, however minuscule.

For me the story of Adam and Eve seemed such a sad beginning for the human race, in contrast to the happy associations I had with Christianity, around the beautiful Polish religious traditions, or the New Testament’s message of peace, love, hope, and joy.

As a child, my understanding of the story of Adam and Eve was very basic. Following God’s creation of light, water, dry land, the sun, fish, and birds (I can almost hear my favorite song that I sang so often in our religion class and still sing to my son: God made flying birds, flying birds, rolling seas, rolling seas . . .) He made Adam, the first man (of male gender). God then made Eve (a woman) so that Adam would not feel lonely (subconsciously implying that she was created to fulfill a subservient role toward him). They lived happily in a close and loving relationship with God in a beautiful garden called Eden. They were free to experience the joy and beauty of their paradise; the only requirement made of them was not to eat the fruit from one particular tree. Unfortunately, an evil snake convinced Eve to go ahead and pick the forbidden fruit from the tree and eat it, and she also gave it to