I used to think of leadership as an intellectual pursuit. We learn how to influence people's behavior, mange change, inspire and motivate. Leadership as an institution exists for most part in the service of doing. As such, it is best suited to men, because it aligns with the masculine energy of doing, striving and making order out of chaos. It makes sense. We need to get things done. 

Until now, if women wanted to enter the arena, they had to align themselves with this energy, and endure the consequences of squeezing themselves in a box that didn't quite fit. They became effective, powerful, and respected leaders, but at a price. 

The price have been overwork, burnout, strained relationships, chronic tension, and complete disconnection from the body, emotions, and sensuality. 

There is nothing wrong with masculine form of leadership. Let's get that established from the start. AND,  just because it has been the norm for as long as the modern society existed, it doesn't mean that it is the only effective way to lead. 

We have embraced personality profiles, Myers Briggs, 360, and number of other tools to identify unique strengths of varied individuals, but somehow we are completely circumventing the one characteristic staring us in the face, which contains within a gold mine of gifts and strengths: our sex! 

We are not brains moving though life with an aid of a bony structure covered by a meat suit. We are uniquely designed marvels of universal engineering that bring to the table a whole different set of tools. 

It is time we make room for a feminine leader. One who doesn't follow the established path, but who gets informed by her own rhythms, instinct, sensuality, and inner wisdom. 

Women's bodies were designed to bear children. We were designed to be able to feed them with our bodies. Because our evolutionary responsibility is a long term and dangerous proposition, we have been equipped with an exquisitely sensitive bodies, intuition, imperative to connect, and collaborate. We also have an intricate anatomy, which serves no other biological purpose than to give us pleasure, and any mention of it is conspicuously absent from mainstream anatomy books, but that is for another conversation. 

For a woman to be able to thrive in life, whether she chooses to have children or not, she needs to be connected to her body, and her energetic center of gravity is closer to earth, in her pelvis, legs and belly. 

If she is faced with a need for action and mental activity due to the demand of the daily living, or career, she needs to squeeze that energy and push it from her pelvis to the head. Not her default. 

In a perfect world, once the action is complete, she could relax and return to her center of gravity. Alas, with the relentless pace and never-ending to do lists, there is a constant need to push upwards, and since our nervous system learns by repetition,  over time it becomes a pattern, and we slowly loose connection to our bodies, emotions, intuition and deep knowing. Not to mention sensuality, sexual expression and pleasure. 

The result is chronic tension, maladaptive coping strategies of overeating, overworking, overthinking, overdrinking, TV, and so on. Relationships suffer, pleasure is elusive, stress and resentment set in, and baring a select few, we never feel quite good enough and for good reason. We play at a game that is stacked in favor of those who designed it and are better at it, men. 

So it is time for female leaders to step out of the fast lane and retrieve the treasure living in their bodies. Pleasure. Sensuality. Instinct.

It's time for women leaders to lead their people with love, compassion, kindness and play. To unwind the millennia of relentless tension. Be the tortoise, not the hare, and arrive at the top with a sway in the hips, chocolate on the lips, orgasms under the belt,  and stuff still magically done, while they enjoyed the journey of getting there every step of the way. 

Because the nervous system in pleasure is effective, creative, and efficient. It generates flow, and gets things done in half the time, without pressure, fear, or hurry. 

The key to unlocking the genius of a woman lies in her body. To date dismissed, controlled and shamed, it holds the key to liberation of the powerhouse that is a fully expressed Woman. 

So I am calling for a Midlife Pleasure Revolution, a movement of the reclamation of our own bodies as the source of healing, creativity, joy, and OUR unique version of badassery.