Munay Moon is an Italian lady who lives near Lagos, Algarve, where she works as a healer. Her treatments are focused on intuitive massage and intuitive counselling, but she also saves a bit of her time to organise women's circles - which are basically times when women get together to share their feelings and personal experiences.

In short, women's circles are gatherings of women where they get together for a specific purpose and generate awareness. It sounds like a very spiritual practice, but even if you're not really into that kind of thing, it's always good to give it a try. These circles can be up to 20 women per circle.

Benefits

In terms of benefits, women's circles can have wonderful effects on women's well-being, both in their personal or business lives. The purpose of this ceremony is to awaken your authentic self shine - women can share their feelings, reflections or simply their presence with other women in the circles.

The practitioner has been living in the Algarve for six years, but has been organising these circles for four years. Before coming to the Algarve, she travelled a lot, which allowed her to absorb a lot of ancient knowledge, including from the South American culture.

"What I learned, I learned from my stay in South America, talking to grandmothers, people who have a lot of wisdom, it was there that they taught me and shared their knowledge." In addition, she is very familiar with Western traditions, as well as the philosophy of Yoga, Taoism, Ayurveda, among others, which she has combined in her healing methods.

These circles usually take place at energetic events related to lunar cycles, such as the full moon or new moon, but also at solstices and equinoxes. However, there are other times when these circles are organised, for example, close to the time of childbirth or in the postpartum period. “It's good at these times, mainly because there is more than a generation that gets together around a fire to share their experiences and female knowledge”, which can help a lot who is going through these periods.

Healing power

In addition, women's circles have a nourishing and healing power. “Circles can be very emotional and energetic – we connect to ourselves through music, singing, free and spontaneous movement of the body, manifesting the inner self,” she said.

Although you may have never heard of any event related to this ancestral practice in the Algarve, according to Munay, there are other circles taking place along the Algarve, but also in Lisbon and near Coimbra.

However, there are many people who still don't know that these events even exist, so she decided to take this ancient practice to different places. “I did a retreat in Italy with women who have never had this experience before and we had an amazing three-day retreat that changed their lives. What we shared among women was so healing and nourishing, indeed, the power we can get when we come together is amazing! ”

These circles are used as an important tool of conscience that can be applied to any context - the workplace is no exception to this. Furthermore, these circles can “improve the environment and relationships among employees”.

According to Munay Moon: “In women's circle, all women are on the same level, we share the same nature and there is no room for competitiveness or disrespect. The values to be highlighted in these circles are compassion, solidarity and active listening. In a work place, it is very important to understand that we are not just in front of a worker, but a person with a life of their own who may be in a good or not very good phase”.

Furthermore, with these meetings, "we are more likely to show compassion and understand what is going on with the other person and be open to nonviolent communication, making it easier to understand the other person and have the chance to get to know the co-worker even better".

In the future, one of her plans is to integrate men in this practice too, but for now if you would like to join a circle or to know more information on her work, please visit her website and give her a call.

Author

Paula Martins is a fully qualified journalist, who finds writing a means of self-expression. She studied Journalism and Communication at University of Coimbra and recently Law in the Algarve. Press card: 8252

Paula Martins