Feeling lacklustre, or was it lost, I turned to one of my favourite self-care activities. Listening to a mind health podcast while vaguely sweating it out at the gym.
I guess what prompted this was International Women’s Day (IWD). Looking at the many events and stories featuring amazing women, I experienced something I haven’t had before.
Fleeting pangs of envy mixed with buckets of regret. (The regret bit is not new, but the envy is).
Thoughts such as “oh, that could have been me” and “what have I been doing with my life” sprung to mind.
Back in the day, when I had my own high-flying career, I never had these strange thoughts. But these days, when I am on my own with my business and advocacy efforts, not having that “glamorous” career I used to have, I must admit that the green-eyed monster occasionally takes a hold of me.
While people may see me as doing many interesting things (creating music with my band, food and travel writing, being my own boss), and doing a decent job with my advocacy efforts, I still don’t feel as if I am doing anything of any significance.
Along came Miss Mindset:
Luckily for me, the podcast gods were in sync with my state of mind, and magically, an episode appeared from Miss Mindset. While the episode was about Trauma, what perked my ears up was when the host Breanna May asked her guest a question: “What is something that you love about yourself?”
Well, I must admit, my first reaction was like “yeah right, who’s going to be going around thinking about what they love about themself? Isn’t that so self-indulgent?”
But without hesitation, the guest, psychologist Dr Sarah Woodhouse replied: “I love so much, I have learned to love so much about myself. The two things that come to mind, I love my sense of humour, and my resilience.”
Learning to Love Yourself:
What struck me was the “I have learned to love so much” part of her answer. And just as interesting was the host’s response.
She said she started doing this when she “noticed that so many of my clients really struggled to find or articulate or declare something that they love about themselves which I guess is part of our cultural paradigm.”
And that is so true, perhaps even more so in Asian culture.
We hide behind humility. Many of us are afraid to shine or acknowledge our awesomeness just because we don’t want to appear boastful or arrogant.
But why does that have to be the case? Why can’t we honestly reflect and factually identify, and even more important, be loud and proud about what makes us great?
So, today, on International Women’s Day, I’ll ask this question:
What do YOU love most about yourself?
My answer is… my resilience.
So come on, as we celebrate all the amazing women out there, let’s also celebrate ourselves.
