Empowering Our Girls

My Dad had always wanted a boy, but we ended up with three girls, me being the oldest. He wanted a son so badly that his nickname for me when I was young was a boy’s name, and I had the ugliest boy’s haircut until I was halfway into high school. Even though not life-or-death detrimental, it’s had a huge impact on me as I grow older, trying to make sense of who I am as a woman. To this day, feeling and embodying being feminine is something I have to consciously work at, and is still learning everyday. As we raise a new generation of girls and make efforts to re-teach our world that wholeness and power is both masculine AND feminine, what does it really mean to “empower girls”, and most importantly, HOW do we do this on a daily basis?

First, I think it requires us to take a close and in-depth look at what we currently believe about girls. Certain concepts are so ingrained in us that we might be the biggest advocates for girls empowerment but still unconsciously say or do things that degrade what it means to be a girl or feminine. “Crying is for girls” or “you run like a girl” are common things we say and hear that naturally reinforce that being a girl is weak and not a winner. Taking the time to slow down and observe what we say will be a powerful first step to examine what we believe about girlhood. We can only start to change what we are aware of, and this change starts with us.

Next, let us re-think what it means to be POWERFUL…after all, to “empower” is to bring out the power within. True power is authentic, whole, and serves on the highest level. In daily life, this translates into reaffirming our girls that their power and beauty lies in their spirit, their whole range of intelligences, and their ability to love the world.

• Power and beauty in spirit – Teach our girls that what’s truly powerful is not temporary or destructible. A beautiful dress or a nice body can be great temporarily, but what happens if they are destroyed or gone? True beauty and power lies in what never goes away: in what we say, in our actions, in our spirit, and in our intentions, despite what we wear or what our bodies look like.




• Wholeness of intelligence – Strengthen in our girls the whole range of intelligences that exist in all human beings, both masculine and feminine, logical and emotional, rational and intuitive. There is no such thing that science or sports are only for boys or that girls should be the only ones learning how to cook. The most powerful and efficient is when we utilize all aspects of our brain and being. We need to encourage our girls to grow in all areas of inner thinking and outer skills, to practice listening to their inner guidance and then actualize that wisdom by expressing it outward through actions.




• Ability to love – Perhaps the most powerful and the most magnetic is to remind our girls that, in alignment with what it means to be a girl, is the essence to choose, to lead, and to create what is LOVING for the world. Teach our girls to respect themselves and others. Teach our girls to nurture themselves and others. Teach our girls to affirm themselves and others. Teach our girls to love themselves and others. Therefore, teaching our girls that what we do to ourselves, we do to the world and vice versa. So to empower the world, we girls must first empower ourselves.

Thank you to all those who remind our girls to go within themselves, to find the power that is already there. Now we practice voicing it, amplifying it, showing it, magnifying it…in boldly loving ways.

With love,
Lola

Empower Girls. Change the World.
www.empowergirlschangetheworld.blogpost.com