Asia Hilario speaks at a local sound healing event she hosted.
ASIA Hilario, the founder of Sagan Flores, a holistic health non-profit, invites women of the Marianas to join Bloom and Belong, a weekly, no-cost women’s circle dedicated to “healing, empowerment, and connection.”
According to a news release, Bloom and Belong’s goal is to be a “nurturing” space that helps women support each other. A social media post states that the group will be confidential. Participants will “hold space for one another — listening without judgment, offering support without trying to fix, and creating a safe container where each woman feels seen, heard, and valued.”
Hilario told Variety that she hopes to help women heal from trauma that she herself has experienced. She said participants will engage in open discussion, “community bonding,” journal prompts and more. Participants can also sit in on activities if they aren’t ready to share.
“I’ve been facilitating women’s groups for the last seven years both in person and online and I know firsthand how impactful it can be to a community and to the individual,” she said. “I had debilitating anxiety, high functioning depression, and complex post-traumatic stress disorder.”
She said “high-functioning depression” refers to a form of depression where individuals experience “significant depressive symptoms but are still able to maintain their daily functioning and responsibilities, but with a persistent sadness or numbness, or hopelessness.”
When she “started to heal all of those things, I had a strong desire to help other women do the same. Since then, I have made it my life’s work in everything I do. My passion landed me the 2019 Woman of the Year Award by Women on the Rise for my efforts of uplifting women, and I was also named one of the 10 Empowerment Coaches to Watch in 2021 by Yahoo!Finance. I feel the most fulfilled when guiding women to more happiness and fulfillment in their lives.”
She said interested participants can email BloomAndBelongSaipan@gmail.com/. There is no cap on the number of participants at this time, and Hilario said the group will launch sometime in April.
She said the support group can be a way to uplift women.
“It’s important for women to support women because we live in a patriarchal society that conditions us to be insecure and that we have to compete with one another. But when we lift each other up, we break free from the conditioning that tells us we are rivals and instead reclaim the power of sisterhood,” she said. “When women support each other, we create safer spaces for growth, healing, and success — both individually and collectively. In ancient Chamorro society, where women held leadership roles and guided their communities, collaboration and mutual support were foundational. By embracing this ancestral wisdom, we not only honor our heritage but also build a future where women are empowered to lead, innovate, and thrive together. When one woman rises, we all rise.”
