…….. what makes you feel empowered?

…….. as a woman what word makes you feel empowered?

‘Wordslut’, what a word. Wordslut! This is the title of the book being offered as a prize for a competition I entered and for a chance to win I had to comment a word that makes you feel empowered as a woman.

Well it really got me to thinking? The cogs were indeed crunching into gear early this morning as I sip my two times teaspoon strength coffee, bleary eyed and sat here on the most uncomfortable office chair in the entire world thinking about female empowerment!

It’s such a powerful word, but how I have felt empowered has changed and evolved with me over the years, changed with my maturity or ‘lack of it’ some people may say, but the one thing that hasn’t changed, no matter what age, is that I feel most empowered when I surround myself with relatability. If we can relate to people who inspire us, that’s pretty empowering right?

It’s still out there on the gram, in the mags and media, the effervescent photoshopped images of perfect pouted, peachy arsed, golden tanned, slim women, drawing in the 1000’s of ‘likes’ through beautification, feathering out their miniscule flaws, is this empowering? To me no, but to my younger easily influenced teenage self, it probably would have been because I was conditioned to think that being pretty made me popular, and being popular made me feel ‘empowered’ and that’s really sad.

Being a mother myself and raising children in a time where they are so heavily influenced by what they see on social media. I try very hard to advocate to them the importance of being true to themselves, and that is far more empowering then becoming a carbon copy of who you think you should be. Being true to yourself will take you on a journey of self-discovery, being anything other than this will take you on a journey of self-destruction, so let us be self-aware and keep these doors open for daily discussion.

Nowadays, I find that I feel more empowered seeing and wearing ‘confidence’, choosing a bikini when you’ve got a few extra rolls of ‘human insulation’ but totally rocking the bikini anyway! When I see humility, someone cleaning the toilet in the office, even though they own the fucking company. Women breastfeeding in the park and owning her right to do so should she wish, when I see working women raising kids, when I see shared laughter, the hand of friendship and kindness, when I see intelligence, when I see women reaching the goals they set themselves. Empowerment is ambiguous, but the framework remains what is relatable to you?

For me, most of all I feel empowered by strength and resilience, feeling the fear and doing it anyway is the epitome of empowerment. Fearlessly following dreams, desires without external judgement dissuading you away from your destined coordinates, fearless when you look into the mirror and not hate on what is reflected back at you, styling yourself fearlessly and freely, advocating yourself fearlessly, speaking your mind without aggression or angst but expressing your opinion, fearlessly.

SO MY WORD, FOR EMPOWERMENT IS FEARLESS.

BE FEARLESS IN YOUR QUEST OF EMPOWERMENT.