I met Kat Mills the way I meet a lot of women these days—around a tea table. While I grew up thinking that tea was simply a hot beverage, best used during mornings or illness, I would learn later that there was an entire practice devoted to it. Cha Dao, or "The Way of Tea," is an ancient tradition of connecting with the leaf. Originally coming from China, these tea ceremonies provide an opportunity to enter a meditative state, while receiving sensory and wisdom-based delight. As I sat with tea-loving women like Kat, I noticed that the one thing they had in common was their pronounced femininity.

 

Receptivity is by definition a feminine quality. Growing up, I watched my powerful and successful father use his masculine traits to get what he wanted in the world via force, persistence, pushing, and fierce tenacity. So it isn't surprising that I struggled to embody my own femininity and found myself wanting to know more about feminine embodiment. Instead of hustling and chasing, which is what we are essentially taught in American culture, this path is about allowing things to come to you.

 

Wildstate, created by Kat Mills, came into my life at the perfect time. Essentially, Wildstate organizes workshops, classes, and events for yoga, meditation, ritual, and feminine practices. Kirtan (the practice of call and response chanting), Yoga Nidra, and tea ceremonies are a few of its main offerings.

 

Kat is both a filmmaker and yogi, using a blend of art and spirituality to help raise the consciousness of the planet. She works in both a private and group setting, finding different strengths for each. Using the metaphor of being an open vessel, she described receptivity as living in an empty space or possibility: "Sacred feminism is an act of becoming friends with the great mysteries of life—birth, love, death, and beyond. In order to be receptive, there must be a certain amount of relaxation and openness. From there, feminine receptivity takes place effortlessly like a flower unfolding, it's a powerful shift to surrendering to the unknown."

 

When I asked her how one could delve deeper into this state, she told me that it's really an open ended exploration. "It is different case by case. We all have our own unique gifts and ways of accessing them," she said.

 

She added that her hope is to get people more in-touch with their own version of softness and receptivity—through nature, a daily practice, archetypes of different Goddesses, nonlinear feminine yoga or movement, tea, or exploring the voice through Kirtan. Luckily for me, I have gotten to experience a mixture of all of these practices through Kat. They each have their own power, and I love stepping into certain ones at specific points in my life. Through personalization, Kat's hope is to help women and men create a clear intention for their life. By sharing what works for her, she can help others achieve their own version of heart-centered openness. She also facilitates the creation of community, something that can be missing in today's busy modern world of work and technology.

 

As you move throughout your day as yourself: where can you start to slow down, and be open to what's coming to you in the moment? It is through this that one can begin to step into a more feminine flow. And from there, all of creation is truly possible. 

 

An L.A. dweller with New York roots, Kenna Conway is a storyteller, kundalini yogi, and traveling spirit. Her work can be found around the internet, her blog, Kenn-a.com or on Instagram.