Resources for living happy and free

Visibility can be sooo hard sometimes

For years I did no outreach in my business. By outreach I mean reaching out to influencers, connecting with people who were further along the entrepreneurial path than me, putting myself forward for interviews, pitching myself to media or conference organisers.

I said yes if things came my way – and because of my visibility personality they did – but I never went looking for them because it all felt like too much hard work.

I felt uncomfortable about putting myself forward with thoughts of ‘I’m a nobody, why would they be interested in me?’
I felt pushy, like others would judge me for stepping forward and presuming a place at the table when I hadn’t been explicitly invited. (By whom? I’m not sure. There is no official invitation to the table of entrepreneurial success. You invite yourself.)
I felt like I should learn more first. That I should perfect

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Have you got another woman’s back today?

One of the most insidious aspects of the patriarchy is the way it divides and conquers. Everywhere I look women are struggling on their own.

Some women are struggling to care for small babies. Burdened by the demands of caring for young children on their own. Hour upon hour of changing nappies, singing nursery rhymes, feeding young ones. Isolation and boredom pervasive, no village to support her.

Some women are speaking up against power – at work, online, in politics – and they’re doing it alone. People aren’t rushing in to support them. They’re standing on the sidelines, glad it’s not them that’s being attacked or criticised.

Some women are saying no to bullies and being ridiculed or diminished because of it.

Some women are finding themselves homeless as they age, society turning its back on its nurturers at the very moment when they most need support.

Some women are … [Read More...]

The huge issue the personal development world is not focused on

A strong theme of individualism informs English speaking, capitalist societies. Perhaps because of that, the personal development and wellbeing movement that’s evolved is very focused on the experience and identity of the individual. Teachers instruct you to focus on who you are, what you want to manifest, and what your dreams are for your life and for your family. In some yoga and meditation classes, Eastern teachings will guide you to open your heart and set an intention for the planet, or to practice loving kindness to all beings. But on the whole it’s, ‘Manifest this to be more wealthy, use this exercise to be more happy, try this to be more healthy’. It’s mind boggling in its self absorption.

In a world where even those who are trying to live a more conscious life are driven by self interest, unconscious blindness is easily perpetuated. The impact of systemic inequality … [Read More...]

Why I speak up

I speak up because I want others to see that they can too.

I want them to see that I have spoken up and been criticised and had people disagree with me and had people unfollow me, and I’m still here. I’m still speaking up. I’m still running a business. I wasn’t destroyed. Yes, I was wounded by some of the comments, but not badly and not for long. Most of all, my voice hasn’t been compromised If anything it has been strengthened. And that’s the thing about speaking up; the more you use your voice, the more comfortable you get with using it. It’s like any other muscle.

And eventually, after being beaten down a few times you realise the liberating truth; I won’t be silenced. I will keep speaking up.

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Tampons are women’s business

This week tampons were finally made exempt from the goods and services tax (GST) in Australia. For eighteen years women campaigned to have them made exempt so they could sit right alongside condoms and lubricant which were already on the exemption list.

Eighteen years for the men in Parliament to step toward us and start to comprehend what it is to be a woman with a uterus lining that sheds itself every month.

When it was first suggested that tampons be exempted from the GST the then health minister declared, ‘As a bloke, I’d like shaving cream exempt but I’m not expecting it to be.’

Apparently we live in a world where shaving your facial hair is perceived, by some, as similar to a woman’s monthly bleed.

Of course, that’s the real problem isn’t it? No valuing of women’s experiences in society. No placement of motherhood or reproduction in the … [Read More...]