Women's inner strength extolled

She also uses a personal ritual that has become a source of daily strength, she said, filling a designated bowl of water each morning while thinking of every dimension of her life, both positive and negative. When it's full, she takes it to a private place in her home and "dedicate(s) all it contains to the service of life." Each evening before bed, she takes the bowl outside and pours the water on the ground, then lays down to rest.

The process involves "taking in whatever has been given and then letting all go completely."

Marybeth Raynes, a clinical social worker and family therapist, said a process of interior "triangulation" can be helpful for women who are looking for inner strength. The three part process involves thinking in detail about one's:

• Most meaningful spiritual experience.

• Most enjoyable spiritual practice, including contemplation, meditation or service.

• Most potent, personal experience that has never been labeled as "spiritual."

Then she suggested looking for any kind of relationship between the three, to determine whether there are similarities or simply differences, whether any leads to the others, or whether they are distinctly separate.

As women examine the details of such experiences, they can find their own inner map or constellation, she said, helping them find the source of "how I know what I know."

Often by writing about the experiences, women will find they are in conflict, she said. By choosing to write from inside one of those voices at a time, "you start to understand what the other part of you is saying. As you do that, gradually they become friends."

Building on one's inner strength also can be boosted as women exercise regularly while focusing on one or two simple practices in five areas of their lives: social, physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual.

Exercise is necessary, she said, because a concerted internal effort in each area will tax physical strength, often when "unfinished business" comes into consciousness and needs to be dealt with.

Lorie Winder Stromberg received the Mormon Women's Forum 2005 "Eve Award" during a luncheon ceremony at the conference, and paid tribute to the forum's founders.

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E-mail: carrie@desnews.com