just sayin......



source: tumblr

 I was reading about a recent study where researchers found that women are the unhappiest we’ve been in 35 years.

I know, right? At first glance, a big “huh?” came to my lips too.

I mean, we’re all living large and creatively our loud, running around with wolves (and packed calendars), and as the 80’s manifesto on womanhood proclaimed; not only bringing home the bacon, but also frying it up in a pan (perfectly crisp no less), while never letting our man forget he’s a man, and um, (what’s the rest?) oh yea, roaring. (Well – some of us anyway.)

So, what the heck would we have to be so unhappy about?

The University of Pennsylvania researchers who conducted the study say, “While it's wonderful that women have more choice and opportunity than ever before, the increased opportunity and subsequent pressure to succeed in so many dimensions may have led to an increased likelihood in believing that one's life is not measuring up.”

Well, (slapping the side of my head) shut the front door, Francis.
Ya think?

Which reminds me of Katie Makai’s observation that, women will prowl 30 stores in 6 malls to find just the right outfit to feel good, but haven’t got a clue where to find inner fulfillment or how to wear joy anymore.

Could all this unhappiness be because we’ve been brainwashed into believing that our fulfillment comes in places it doesn’t exist and from trying to force our round selves into too small square holes?

If it’s true that we’re unhappier than we’ve been in 35 years, (and I believe it because I talk to women every day) I can’t help but think it’s because we’re living in a world that doesn’t fit us or honor who we inherently are. We aren’t hard wired to compete with each other and find ourselves lacking. We are hard wired to nurture each other. To support, affirm and empower each other. To tend the fires of hearth and home and create unified and loving community.

We were made to create, sustain, birth and bond; to tend, feed and nourish. Structurally, our bodies were designed to enfold and our arms were made to hold. We were made to be soft and seek peaceful comfort – in mind, body and spirit. We were made to love and follow our hearts – trusting in our intuition, inner knowing and sense of timing.

“……the increased opportunity and subsequent pressure to succeed in so many dimensions may have led to an increased likelihood in believing that one's life is not measuring up.”

What if (starting right now today) we stopped measuring ourselves against each other (or anyone else) and sat ourselves down, asking what made us truly happy and then, listening to ourselves, did what our hearts told us to do? What if we never had to feel embarrassed or ashamed or “less than” as a result of our individual choices? What if, at the end of the day, we didn’t care whether we “measured up” in the world outside ourselves? What if we finally took our power back and defined for ourselves what “living up to our full potential” and/or success meant?

And what if it was all bodaciously and deliciously not just more than enough, but also a half cup more?

I think they’d have different results to that survey, but then that’s just my (not necessarily humble) opinion and what do I know anyway?

Yea.
Just sayin’ y’all.
(wink)