In this love session, Alexandra Choutko will share the story of how she grieved the loss of her fourth child after an induced birth in the fifth month of pregnancy. She will talk about how her late daughter Nadejda (“hope” in Russian) inspired her to turn away from a traditional scientific career and toward a new world, where Alexandra learned from indigenous wisdom keepers and was taught how to deal with emotions like guilt, anger, shame, sadness in a different way.

In some African indigenous traditions, grieving and crying rituals, often initiated and held by women, carry the whole tribe into releasing their grief, so that the intense emotions don't get stuck in the body. Even though there is strong scientific evidence for the benefits of this, our western society still tends to suppress strong emotions when they arise.

What would be possible for us if we would allow anger, rage, shame, guilt and sadness to be expressed more fully?

„Grief can be the garden of compassion. If you keep your heart open to everything, your pain can become your greatest ally", Rumi.

In this special love session, Alexandra invites you to explore the indigenous response to strong emotions like grief. To sound, to move, to voice, to give life to your shadows and that what you have been hiding in your closet. As much as you feel comfortable with, or maybe a little bit beyond.

Alexandra, together with WOMEN'S HUB hosts Arjanna and Nele will be there to hold space for you. You're welcome to join if you are currently grieving or want to support someone grieving, if you experience strong emotions from depression to anger trough guilt and shame, or if you have experienced a miscarriage, an abortion or the death of a child and are looking for a space to share your story and to heal.

If you have any questions about whether you should join or not, feel free to reach out to nele.cluver@womenshub.ch or arjanna.vanderplas@womenshub.ch.

BREAKING TABOOS. Making space for strong emotions

Alexandra coaches, teaches and works using elements from science, business, painting, movement, sounds and indigenous wisdom. She is the mother of four children, three of whom still walk this earth. She spent many years living in the material world, studying in an elite university, obtaining a phd, working on her career, as she was told this was what you ought to do in life to be happy and integrated into society.

At the same time she was raising her children who now range from 5 to 17 years old. After many years running in the hamster wheel, she broke free, quit her job and discovered an amazing world and was lucky to be guided by shamans and wisdom keepers from around the world.

Her heart beats for our world, our children, our companies, our society, our future. She believes we can dream our world into being by starting with asking ourselves

"What if everything was possible? What would I create? What would I want to be a part of?" To manifest our biggest dreams we should also look at our shadows and cleanse them, otherwise they will be in the way of us creating pure beauty, love and harmony and our realized dream will become a mere illusion of what we wanted to create in the first place.