The Power of Women

No one can build up, encourage and inspire a woman quite like another woman can. 

I've been surrounded by strong, courageous women my entire life. I have a huge family. My grandma and grandpa had 7 children: 4 girls and 3 boys. Those 7 children all got married. 5 of them had 3 kids, the other 2 had 2 kids. Now, almost all of my cousins have children. My mom was the second-youngest, so my brother and I are on the younger end of all of the cousins. Many of them had 3 children, some had 2. All in all, there's about 70 of us. Christmas is crazy and loud. We play multiple rounds of bingo (with cool prizes) and the buffet table is outstanding.

Of all of the people in my family, the majority of them are women. We've been to wedding after wedding together. We've endured bridal showers, baby showers, baptisms and more. With a family this big, there's never been an issue of finding a baby sitter. I'm pretty sure all of my cousins babysat my brother and I at some point. 

I've been lucky enough to grow up with this family. I've been incredibly blessed with many female role models that I've been able to watch grow up, get married, start families, and continue living awesome lives. I've always idolized them and have dreamed of becoming half of the women that they have turned out to be. In the past couple of years, I've pondered the thought that having this family is what turned me into a woman-lover....in the least lesbian way possible. Seriously though, I'm into men. Well....one man....my husband. Ok now I'm getting off track....

ANYWAY - I've realized that there is something amazing that happens when I get together and chat with my girlfriends and female relatives. I leave the conversation feeling happy, healthy, inspired, creative, confident and all of the happy emotions a person can feel. We tell stories, we laugh, we talk about our lives, both personally and professionally. If things aren't going well, we ask why. We help and encourage them to make a change. We really want each other to be happy. This is a support system that is unbreakable and filled with unconditional love, because other women know how difficult, yet unbelievably amazing your life can be as a woman. The power of having strong, influential women in your life is absolutely essential to your well-being. 

The reason I say to find a strong woman and not just any person is because, as you know, we're completely different from men. We think about things differently. We feel emotions differently, and at the end of the day, as supportive as my husband is and as much as I know I can tell him anything, he will never know the pain and annoyances that come with being a woman. Our thoughts are constantly on the go, jumping all over the place and making us feel things that are completely irrational. Our hormones cause us to be outrageously emotional and can turn any good day into the worst day ever. It's annoying. On the flip side, we can find love and beauty in just about anything. We can see the potential of something so small and we can envision it far into the future in all of its huge success. We don't try to make these thoughts happen - they just do - and we have to figure out how to manage them. 

I've recently made the decision to get together with the women in my life more often. With all of the changes going on in my life these days, I've found an intense need not only to be heard, but to be understood. The women in my life are either going through the same changes right now, or have gone through them before and can help me through the tough times. They understand. We can easily relate to each other because the odds are pretty good that we've done or felt the same thing that they are dealing with. We help each other. It's awesome.

I've discovered just how incredibly important it is to make sure you see the women in your life on a regular basis. Here are some efforts I've recently made to make sure that I see the rock star women in my life more often:

• My good friend and I have just decided to start getting together on Thursdays to have a kind of "creative workshop", if you will. We discuss blog topics, creative ideas that have come up throughout the week, our careers, our personal lives, and anything else we decide we want to chat about. No topic is off limits. It's just a time for us to get together to debrief on our week and chat. This is one of the things I look forward to during my work week, a time to reconsider where I'm at in my life, with my blog, with my Etsy shop, with my career, etc. Whatever I need to chat about, she is there to listen and give her thoughts and opinions. And of course, the same goes for her.
• I see my mom every week. This is not considered an 'effort' for me. It's a necessity. If I haven't talked to her in a couple of days, I'll think, "I need to call mom" and then literally 2 seconds later my phone rings and it's her. She's kind of psychic that way. We have a million things in common and no one quite gets me like my mom does. It's so important for us, as women, to know the women we come from and to learn from them.
• I've recently decided to start reading more "self help" type books by female authors who seem to be the most like me: Creative and motivated with a tremendous amount of faith. Whether the books are about creativity, entrepreneurship or good housekeeping, these women are inspirational and I love reading their points of view. I learn from them, am inspired by them, and aspire to create, write and help others like they do.

Again, I'm very blessed to have wonderful women in my life. I know there are women out there who hate their sisters, never talk to their moms, never met their grandmas and were bullied by really mean girls in high school. I feel sad for these women. Never having a powerful female figure in your life would be really hard.  If there is anyone out there who is reading this that feels like you don't have a trustworthy woman in your life, I would encourage you to seek out a female mentor, friend or family member who you can truly confide in. I really believe it's a necessity if we want to stay sane and survive this world. We need someone to relate to and someone who can justify our crazy moments. We need someone there to say, "Oh, that's happened to me before, it was awful. But then this happened and it was awesome. Fight through it and you'll make it." 

So this week, here is my challenge for you.

Make a list of just 10-15 women in your life. This should be a list of women who encourage you, build you up, inspire you and want the best for you.

Of this list of women:

• Who inspires you the most? 
• Who encourages you to chase your dreams? 
• Who is the most pleasant to be around? 
• Who makes you laugh the hardest? 

Make an effort to see these women this month. You won't regret it.

Your friend,

Meg