I always shy away from events for women. Church events, work events, school events. Any even geared for the community of women that was ever presented, I find it a huge task. Despite having attended an all girls high school, I think somewhere in my mind I found it bothersome despite the topic. Yet, when I attend, I always enjoy it. I gain new perspective.
Today's blog was inspired by a work session that was set up by our HR department for women on Nutrition, presented by Dr. Safeeya Mohammed. I wasn't going to attend but recently I realized, my nutrition is not the best and I wanted to be more healthy so I said to myself, "This event makes sense!" And I signed up for it.
One of the things she did at the start was present these little cards for us to read as icebreakers. The picture at the beginning of the blog is what I got. Of course, when everyone else got one sentence, the author gets a mouthful to read. I got a shorten version of the quote but I found the longer version and it relates a lot to how I feel.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.... It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” ― Marianne Williamson
We can do so much as women! We have a lot to overcome in society, a lot to do to prove ourselves even in the workplace! We do bring value to the lives of those around us, our jobs places, our churches and communities as women and sometimes we may be afraid of how far we will go if we really unleash our true potential. Will we be able to bear it all if we can't even bear the load now? The reality is we hold ourselves back.
As women, we really need to do better, for ourselves. We do have a lot of people counting on us but, we forget our bodies count on us to. We stress out ourselves, we let fear take over and in doing so we aren't operating at our best. At our happiest. At our strongest, fullest potential, where we can in turn bless others.
I only found out a recent diagnosis when it started to become worse and I really couldn't bear it anymore. It's not news that I wanted but I had to push past fear and uncertainty and in doing so, I know I was able to do God's will and bless others despite my struggles. It takes the strength of God to be resilient and I know there are women out there more resilient than I am.
As Dr. Safeeya presented on Nutrition, she spoke about how women put everyone and everything before themselves and they don't even make their own lists. We check off everything else and we neglect our health, oftentimes until its too late and we're on an ICU bed. We justify and make excuses for our symptoms and sometimes because we are too fearful to check, we allow our bodies to deteriorate. We don't eat on time (if we eat at all!), we don't stay hydrated (drying up those brain cells), we don't fuel our bodies, we don't exercise and we don't want to go for checkups, especially when we suspect it may really be something to be concerned about.
I want to urge all women to take your health seriously. If you know there's something wrong in your body, don't wait and don't give up if you aren't finding answers. Give yourself proper nutrition and prioritize it. People will always count on us and we need to be well enough to be there.
The session ended and I was awarded a special prize, I had to hold tears back for and it fit perfectly into my card.
You see, I always wanted a glass water bottle but because its expensive and I don't trust myself to keep one safe, I never bought one or asked for anyone to gift me any. This is how God cares, remembers and gives us gifts we wanted. Dr. Mohammed asked a question I only knew the answer for because of the knowledge I had obtained researching my issues. Ironically, I got the glass bottle, with the words, "I am Fearless" because of one of the most fearful seasons in my life. God has His inside jokes moments and maybe only He and I would know how much it meant to me.
God wants us to be fearless as women and when things are linked to health, we can avoid fearful health situations by putting things in place from all now.
We can't avoid stress completely but there's many things we can do to help free ourselves from the worst damages.
Most importantly, keep God in all things, He gives us all our special abilities and is able to help us through fearful situations so that we can help others who are also experiencing fears.
Happy International Women's Day!
From Celine Elizabeth.