Now, imagine a man asks me about what I do and I say that I am a Feminine Power Coach. Then he goes straight......oh, so you are a feminist? And of course his body language shows that he is about to withdraw as if he was in danger. Honestly, it's crazy how quickly people jump to a statement like this.
No, it's not about being a Feminist. It's about helping women to recognize that they can be powerful while being feminine. It's about not pretending to be a man to achieve success, and not trying to prove anything to anyone.
When you mention Feminine Power, people see a masculine woman fighting for her rights, screaming and being bossy. Oh yes, and she is usually angry.
Feminine on its own however, if ever used, is often misinterpreted and traditionally equalled to being helpless and needy. Having worked with hundreds of women, for me, Feminine Power is about...
1. Giving yourself permission
We are conditioned since we are little to follow certain steps and roles. The conditioning is so strong that lots of us actually just fall for it without questioning what we really desire. We feel stressed if we don't have a partner or child by certain age. We feel we failed when we get divorced. Working on Feminine Power in this case, is about discovering our own desires and giving ourselves permission to follow them without feeling guilty or like there is something wrong with us. Let's face it, the social conditioning expectations are general and don't suit every person. Some of us are too wild to be tamed by it. When we finally take a deep breath and let ourselves go for what we really desire, we step into the version of the exciting, awakened and sensual woman. Yes, this so-called inner light that shines through our eyes, the way we move, speak and inspire those around us.
2. Recognizing the power of Feminine Essence and owning it
Women are told they are weak, too emotional, and when we feel that intuition tells us something different than what we hear or see, that we are indecisive or irrational. How will this impact the unconscious mind of a woman, you think?
She will feel that she has to be tough and she has to suppress her feminine qualities in order to succeed. This doesn't have to be the solution.
The feminine qualities were given to us for a reason, they are the co-creative element of the world. Men have their essences and women have them, too. This imbalance of the masculine versus feminine traits will lead to problems at some point. We suppress our own essence while we could bring our heart, passion and intuition to the business. We could bring our deepest desire to build connections and relationships with people, teams and business owners. We could bring our Feminine Presence, which is the element connecting everything else.
Women are born creators, if we only gave ourselves permission to be them, we would start creating what we desire more effortlessly.
3. Releasing conditioning regarding what you should do, how and when
This releasing is almost like getting out of a spider web. A web full of not only expectations from family, partners and society but also our own. Women just fall into it and what happens next? We search and search even more, either in another job or another partner. But nothing will ever complete us to be whole until we get in touch with ourselves and discover how we want to live our lives.
This releasing is actually a quite transformative process, it's the unfolding into who we really are. Instead of making ourselves a new person, by releasing the conditioning, we are unwrapping ourselves and getting to know our precious essence, who we are and what we are really made of.
4. Valuing yourself.
Not comparing or fighting for equal rights - valuing ourselves is about not settling for anything less than what we deserve.
Fighting for a higher pay shouldn't even be a question. I personally think that we shouldn't settle for less than we think we are worth in the first place. It's about the decision within ourselves as to what we know is acceptable for us (not the society). Yet, it takes courage to do so, as we are afraid of how we will be perceived. We fear that we will be seen as greedy, yet, men have no problem saying what salary they expect. In my practice, most of the work with women is around the negative beliefs we hold about ourselves and what we are worth. Once this is lifted and a woman can come to believe what she is really worth, miracles follow. World starts treating us differently when we recognise our own greatness.
Women will never be on top of the game until we give ourselves permission to be there, confidently taking steps towards it. Not apologizing for being too confident, ambitious or successful.
I am talking here about owning every step of our journey. Yes, every single step. Add a smile and a bit of feminine essence to it.
That would be an amazing mix, don't you think?