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Our Mission

To help women of all ages, races, religions, financial means, and backgrounds to realize their full potential by providing links to useful resources online and by encouraging social networking with other women.


Welcome 2 Higher Ground!

In all of our lives, we have been influenced by others who either made us take stock of ourselves and improve or who failed to support our dreams and, in turn, knocked the wind out of our sails. This site is dedicated to helping women recognize one another as guiding forces who have helped shape our direction in careers, life decisions, etc.

Focusing on the importance of nurturing Body, Mind and Spirit, I will provide links to other sites geared towards helping women succeed. Also, I will provide insights into the areas of self that I believe should be the focus of every woman's existence. These areas include self-esteem, self-defense, self-sufficiency, self-actualization and self-awareness. After much consideration, I'm also adding a sixth "S" to the mix; self-centeredness. Not the kind of self-centeredness that people often see as bad, the kind that shows that you have love and respect for yourself so that you may give love and respect to others.

Find your "self" at 2 Higher Ground. I sincerely hope you will enjoy...and use the resources provided here!

September Spotlight

September Spotlight

Jan Goff-LaFontaine

Jan Goff-LaFontaine

Jan Goff-LaFontaine is a social worker, photographer and author whose ongoing work is dedicated to creating awareness and healing through her art.

Jan has published two books in her pursuit of helping others to heal. Her first book, Reflections Between the Lines; The Healing of the Vietnam Generation examines the post-war experiences of 55 women and men who served in Vietnam.

Her most recent book, Women in Shadow and Light; Journeys From Abuse to Healing, was awarded Book Of The Year in Women’s Issues by the Independent Publisher’s Association, and was a finalist for the prestigious Nautilus Awards. In this powerful book, Jan focuses on the healing journeys of women who are survivors of sexual and physical abuse. In this book, she helps women to see and celebrate their beauty, and discover their strength, both through the interviews and the beautiful black and white portraits she created for each woman as an expression of their healing.

When Women in Shadow and Light was released, Jan began getting requests from women all over the country to create ‘healing portraits’ for them, as she had for the women in her book. After doing this for several women, and seeing the powerful effect the process has in helping women to heal, Jan started pondering how she might be able to offer this service to help even more women.

This led to the creation of her Healing Through Creativity workshops designed to support abuse survivors and those who work with them, such as advocates and counselors. In this workshop Jan works with one of the women from the book, Jeanne Kuhns - singer, songwriter, painter and Registered Nurse, who has written several songs specifically for these workshops. Through a series of meditations and journaling exercises, Jan guides the women in these workshops to a place where she can create healing portraits for each woman.

After discovering that it was not just abuse survivors who had body image issues and were unable to see their beauty, this workshop evolved into doing retreats for women titled Manifest Your Magic. The creation of essence or healing portraits for each woman is still a major component of these retreats, but they also include lots of deep sharing, laughter, fun and chocolate! And they are held in magical places as well, like the next one, in Hawaii.

Jan believes that every woman, no matter what her age or dress size, is beautiful; she sees all women through this lens, and her portraits reflect that. She feels that we can hold a new vision of who we are and what our lives can be, and experience in our bodies the healing power we have within. Her goal is to help women discover how our past wounds can become doorways through which we emerge as whole, healed and a gift to the world. She loves helping women to heal, and to live life from a sensual place, allowing more passion, awe, joy, and gratitude.

Be sure to subscribe or follow this blog for your chance to win a copy of Jan's book, Women in Shadow and Light; Journeys From Abuse to Healing!

This Month's Thoughts for:

Body-Don't forget to stretch. All of the tensions of the day can build up over time and we need to stretch away the stress! Sitting at your desk or on the floor, reach for the sky and let your body relax!
Mind-Keep working on quieting your mind. As we head into the first big kid's holiday season, Halloween, don't forget to work on settling down each day. Parties, trick-or-treating, costumes, candy, it's all floating around in there so make sure you make time to push it aside and just be.
Spirit-For me, looking at the leaves as they turn in the fall is such a spiritually soothing activity. I truly enjoy walking at the park and taking in all of the beautiful patterns created as Mother Nature paints upon her canvas. It's hard not to believe that there is some Higher Power guiding the universe when you are watching the seasons change.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

On our shoulders...

For anyone who has listened to Dr. Laura Schlessinger's radio show, it is obvious that she has some strong opinions about family and women's roles. Though I probably shouldn't be, I was surprised to read her most recent blog post on why women hold more responsibility for children's well-being than men. You can read the article here.

I agree that women hold all of the power physiologically; however, I have to disagree with her statement that we hold the power legally. Any woman has gone through a custody battle of any kind can attest to the fact that we are basically powerless with the courts no matter the circumstances of the divorce. Of course, Dr. Laura would have us believe that the very fact that we go through a divorce reveals some fatal flaw in our moral character. Take a moment to read her article and then come back to the blog here and weigh in on the matter. Do you think the mother is more responsible for the emotional, psychological and physical well-being of a child than the father? Why or why not? We'd love to hear your thoughts.

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