3 Things I Do To Make Every Day Womens’ Day
I believe in order to affect change outside you first have to implement change within. I cannot fight to elevate the status of women around me if I don’t elevate myself in my own eyes. Here are three commitments and their associated daily practices I’ve undertaken to do just that.
- I won’t put myself last.
I come from a culture in which women are regarded and rewarded for putting themselves behind everyone else. Their parents, their in laws, their male siblings, their children. I have watched for generations as women sublimated their own wishes and desires for the good of the “unit” , to their own detriment. It’s so pervasive and it’s so much part of our identity that we believe that when we sacrifice ourselves for the good of others, we are fulfilling our dharma, our duty, our purpose.
But what I know of women is this — we are powerful and we know how to create environments in which every being thrives. All we need to remember is to turn that superpower back onto ourselves. In my life, I work every day to co-create an ecosystem in which no member is sacrificed for the “good” of the whole, where everyone can feed off the system and nourish it equally. Even children, because they have so much to give in their own ways. The woman of the house, the Laxmi, the treasure, must guide and model that symbiotic relationship.
I know this for sure: if I am not ok, no one is ok. And therefore, what’s good for me is good for my unit. Implementing this flipped script in my life is a daily practice, especially in the face of the cultural and social resistance I encounter, overtly and covertly.
2. I won’t make myself less.
In the East and in the West, we continue to be afraid of and offended by strong women. I have had men offer condolences to male partners I have been with. It is a deeply hurtful and misogynistic thing to do that aims to take down the woman but ends up demeaning the man.
But women, I implore you — the solution to this is not to tone it down to make them more comfortable. It’s to turn it up so they learn to be comfortable with the reality of women who know themselves, who speak up for themselves and who speak up for one another or for any injustice. Everything else is just a lesson for the history books.
3. I will not pass down blindly.
I will not perpetuate cultural and societal norms and traditions that are rooted in sexism and misogyny. I have a son and a daughter to teach, and what I pass down is intentional, conscious and selective.
What we are creating together a universe in which each precious soul and each distinct body is honoured, valued, and respected. From this space in our home and in our hearts, we move out to change the world.
Happy women’s day.
