International Women’s Day has crept around again, and as far as I am concerned it deserves to be celebrated! I count my lucky stars to be a woman in a free country where I can run my business and be a valued member of my community. Where I can be friends with my husband, and we are equal partners on our adventure through life. I salute the women who fought to give us the vote and the chance to be on an equal footing!
Attitudes to Feminism
In September I went back to University study MA Photography, and I have been shocked by the attitudes of some of the younger women on my course. Who see feminism as a dirty word on refer to feminists as ‘feminazis’. Now I wonder who coined that word because I doubt it was a woman!
As far as I am concerned everyone should be a feminist. And if one day they are, the word won’t need to exist.
The Gendered Brain is a Myth
I read an interesting article in the Guardian the other day about studies on babies brains. Scientists have discovered that there is no difference whatsoever between a male and female brain at birth. It is now believed that all difference is created through nurture! From birth boys are taught that they can achieve anything, and girls are subconsciously taught that they can’t. We have a lot to answer for, but now that we know this we can change it.
International Women’s Day Workshop
On that note Amanda Green and I teamed up for Yesterday’s International Women’ Day to make a start. Amanda is a very talented life coach who specialises in emotions. She had prepared a wonderful exercise to help us become aware of and conquer our own personal limiting beliefs.
This tied in very nicely to an ongoing project that I am doing for my MA and so between us we invited 5 women to come and take part in my project and come to the studio for this special event.
Conquering Limiting Beliefs
We kicked off with choccy and biscuits and coffee and a good old mingle. A chance for everyone to get to know each other and relax. We had introductions and then Amanda led us through her exercise. The session was peppered with really interesting interjections from the group and I everyone got a lot out of it. Amanda gave us some simple techniques to help us take charge of the negative narrative that can all too easily hold us back. I actually felt my body physically calming as I followed her techniques.
Creative Reenforcement
Then after a little break the group were introduced to my part of the session. Everyone had already visited me earlier in the week to create a portrait of themselves (more on the here). Now it was time to get creative and infuse their portrait with Goddessness! They were given gold ink, pens, sequins and gold leaf. There was a lovely dynamic around the table as the women laughed and created, they all had such different approaches, but you could also see that they were inspiring each other and new ideas sparked and developed as they worked. This relaxing and uplifting exercise gave them chance to digest what they had just learnt with Amanda and then visually project it onto themselves.
Time Traveling Self Help
Then to conclude the event, our participants were invited to write a time traveling postcard to themselves. A message that would help their past self and make them a stronger version of themselves today. The messages were so lovely, that I asked everyone to share them with the group which made a perfect, impromptu finish to a very lovely celebration of International Women’s Day! Thank you so much to everyone who took part. x
Another Workshop?
Amanda and I can see further potential for this little workshop. If you feel you have a group who are in need of some help conquering their limiting beliefs, please get in touch. We’ll bring the gold pens and the chocolate biscuits!
