Happy International Women’s Day
8th of March is dedicated to women. It is a day devoted to “girls” of all ages. Maybe you are one of the lucky ones who will receive a beautiful bouquet or, in some other way, will be appreciated for being an important woman in someone’s life. If that is the case, I couldn’t be happier for you. Open your heart and receive that celebration fully.
Today is also a day when you will be reminded about gender inequality and unfairness in education, income and healthcare. A mix of facts and upsetting personal stories about exploitation, disrespect, violence, abuse and powerlessness. This is the everyday reality for many women around the world.
If you do not belong to the lucky ones who are valued for who they are and unlimited by gender prejudice, I am sorry for the hardship you are going through. If you feel unheard, unseen and pushed to the back, there is one thing I would like to remind you of, and that is that your thoughts and emotions hold power.
What you think matters
Independent of the circumstances in your life or the opinions held by the people in your environment, no one can decide how you should think and feel about yourself or what words you use about yourself. What is going on in your mind and heart cannot be controlled by others; it is your own private space.
If you have ever tried to change someone’s firm opinion against their will, you have probably discovered how true this is. If we do not lower ourselves to foul play, we cannot control other people’s thoughts or feelings. However, with a little bit of awareness, we can control and shift what is going on within ourselves. This ability can be used to our detriment or to our advantage, so we must choose wisely which thoughts and feelings we fuel.
If those around you treat you as less worthy or less important because you are a girl or a woman, they cannot make you agree with them unless you think they are, on some level, right. With agreeing, I am not saying that you are in support of gender inequality, and that you also think women should step back because of being inferior in some way. No, I am talking about that sinking feeling of powerlessness.
This is why I want to remind you to deliberately choose empowering thoughts about yourself. It is equally true that no one can stop you from thinking kind and loving thoughts about yourself, nor can they prevent you from dreaming about a different tomorrow.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder – unworthiness, too
Over the millennia, the cultural image of what a woman should be and have the right to embody has shaped the feminine expression. Through different eras and different measures of control, violence, brainwashing, gas-lighting, and ridicule, beliefs about the feminine as weaker, less capable, and less worthy have been deeply ingrained into our psyche. These beliefs have been passed on from generation to generation, and history lives on within us.
Added to traditions and cultural imprinting, we all have personal experiences of how women have been treated unequally and limited in different situations, often sabotaged or punished for staying true to their own nature. (One example that still makes my blood boil is Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s parental advice to deliberately disturb girls when playing so they wouldn’t get used to becoming too absorbed by their own interests.)
This is how the powerlessness is created.
These limiting beliefs, all of them imposed from the outside, can be shifted. When we truly understand that others’ opinions about us do not have to define who we are and that we do not have to look at ourselves through their lenses, we have come far in this process. If we, on top of that, also realise that it says more about who they are, their filters, and their worldview than their opinions say about us, we have reclaimed a big portion of our power.
Then, we will understand that the most efficient countermeasure is to meet the external resistance with the opposite force from within.
Stop – Breathe – Replace
So, let’s weed the gardens of our minds and hearts from unloving and disrespectful thoughts about women and the feminine. As you catch yourself with a negative thought about your worthiness due to your gender, stop for a moment, take a breath and replace it with a more loving thought for yourself.
By addressing one thought at a time, we can replace the sense of unworthiness with appreciation and respect for ourselves. By healing ourselves, what we forward to the next generation will be a different truth than what we were given by the generation before us.
With intention and persistence, we can change our beliefs about who we are and what we can do. It happens in a place where we have full power—within our own minds and hearts. Over and over again, I have seen how this simple change has “moved mountains” and changed women’s lives for the better.
On a mission to elevate women all around the world…
So far, I have focused on how women can empower themselves from within, but there is also wonderful support outside of us.
International Women’s Day is perfect for introducing you to my dear friend, Mi Elfverson.
She is the founder and director of Eyestorm Women, based in the UK, but it has a global reach since it is mainly online based. Mi and Eyestorm work diligently to achieve gender equality and replace the outdated beliefs I discussed earlier. She does this by assisting women in showing up (Mi is a brilliant photographer and visibility coach), finding their voice, and sharing their messages with the world. You can find more information about Mi and her work at www.eyestorm.org.uk
Today’s addition to Magic Mittens’ playlist
The song I have chosen for today’s post is Adele’s “Make You Feel My Love.” To all women out there, Happy International Women’s Day. By shifting one thought at a time, you will change your perception of yourself and women in general, and dream your dream into being —and no one can stop you from doing that.
I love you!
Carin
PS. If you want to listen to the rest of my “blog music” you can find the complete list on Spotify. Search for Magic Mittens’s Magic Playlist
