You do not know strong until you are a woman.
I never realized the true meaning of this until I reached the stage of being a mother. As I embraced the motherhood journey, I was proud to be the giver of life! How miraculous and wonderful is nature's way of invoking the innate woman power that knows no bound of sacrifice and selflessness. Not to say that it is an easy path, but with all the ups and downs, postpartum blues, and nurturing a kid, I ended up losing myself somewhere. With thinning hair, post-delivery body, lack of sleep, and no one to help around, my self-esteem and confidence took an all-time dip.
Being in a foreign country with little to no help around, I wanted to join a physical activity where my child could be with me. At the time, with my limited knowledge, I thought that lifting heavy weights in the gym and sweating like a pig was the only answer to a healthy body. Fortunately or unfortunately, going to the gym was a huge task for me, and I ended up skipping it quite often for silly reasons.
In a desperate attempt to prioritize self-care, I started seeking out other options, namely, yoga. India is known to be the originator of Yoga, a practice of regulating the body and mind. It focuses on mental strength, resilience, and adaptability. In fact, with its myriad benefits, India commemorates International Yoga Day every year on June 21st.
Its praise has extended far enough for Yoga to become popular in many Western countries today, with regular practices being taught. But as they say, we never realize the true value of what we have been bestowed with, and I always undermined this practice. Though I was not interested as much in the beginning, it was a routine task that ticked all the boxes in my health journey: an activity that can be done at home, at my chosen time, and with minimum equipment required.
Fast forward to today, it has been a year since I started practicing Yoga and meditation and my only regret is that I didn’t start earlier. And why is that?
Maybe the answer lies in the fact that I chose to do yoga when my mental and physical well-being was at its lowest. It came to my rescue. I remember my first class when I was gasping for breath while doing suryanamaskar. Today, I’m able to perform this and so much more! When I first started, even 20 minutes of daily pranayama and meditation did wonders for me. It amazed me to realize the power of pranayama, and how simply the breath holds life.
The movement of the shavasa or breath is directly related to the movement of the mind. If the breath is long, controlled, steady, and calm, the mind will also hold less stress and negative thoughts. Controlled breathing improves body functioning as a whole.
It is not that I have attained the highest level of peace, but I can feel the miracle of meditative breathing and its positive change in my daily life. This was my wakeup call. As they say, yoga is not about accomplishment, but to learn the limitless power of the human mind and body. I have promised to give myself happiness and celebration of quality life.
Now that I know how imperative one’s health is, on Women’s Day, I cannot help but think how many of us really celebrate ourselves?
“Sacrificing”, “compassionate” and “selflessness” are some defining terms of femininity. Whether we want it or not, we get thrown into a continuous loop of putting everything and everyone above us. We try to excel and prove ourselves to everyone around us, many times at the cost of our happiness. We are conditioned to follow the paths that have been laid for us by past generations. Even a well-educated, wise woman, at least once in her life, has been trapped in being the epitome of being a selfless caregiver. Just because we can’t escape this doesn’t mean that we don’t deserve a quality life, a life of equality, well-being and contentment.
It is not the time to wait for a knight in shining armor to come and fight for us. Our happiness starts from us, our well-being starts from us!
To keep everyone else happy, we have to be happy with ourselves. An empty cup cannot fill other cups. A healthy mind and body is our only long-lasting friend, and it is high time that we start prioritizing it. They're not wrong when they say that health is the only wealth we have, and therefore it becomes imperative for us, for a woman to be a strong version of ourselves.
Fill your cups with whatever you like but make sure to live a fulfilling life. Do what excites you, do what keeps you going. It can be a gym class, a Zumba class with a friend, a yoga class with your buddy or simply a morning walk with your partner. And even when there is no one, be sure to get up in the morning and work for yourself.
Don’t try to balance it. Aim to integrate life with it. Let us not forget that being a woman itself is a superpower, we just need to exercise it correctly!
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