As our world continues to change and adapt to the challenges of the pandemic, it is becoming even more clear to me the strength we as women have. I look around me at my friends, colleagues, acquaintances embracing new roles in full messy technicolour. I see mothers in health care, my dear friends making the deepest sacrifices in order to serve their country and people…the sacrifice of living away from their own children and parents for months on end. I see the patients who are surviving long stays in ICU thanks to the unspeakable sacrifices of so many of my female (and male) warrior friends. I see nurses who despite having risk factors, put on their PPE and get far closer to COVID-19 victims than the patients own family members are comfortable or even allowed to be. Often these are the very last kind loving eyes imparting strength and care as patients take their last breath and depart. I wonder, do these women know their own worth? Do we as women embrace our collective and singular power?
All around me, mothers are working from home, full time or part-time in a hybrid way if they are lucky to, continuing to cook, clean, shop and in many instances homeschool whilst providing support to external family and the community at large. We are now the very cogs that keep our family wheels turning, socially, emotionally, physically, spiritually.
Resilience
Compassion
Love
A deep and abiding yearning to be of service for the greater good.
There is no doubt that we as a world, despite our differences, come together at times of crisis.
When I think of women I think immeasurable strength.
Now can we as women start to recognise our own strength and boldly occupy this very sacred space in our lives? Can we be who we are meant to be in this world and live our truth unashamedly.
When I think of women I think of the great capacity to love.
Now can we also see ourselves with the eyes of love and begin to deeply love and care for ourselves.
When I think of women, I think of the capacity to serve, to forgive, to care.
Now can we also serve our own higher needs. Can we put ourselves first and make sure that as we serve our families, our community our co-workers that we also are serving ourselves…that we are operating from a space where we are serving our own highest needs.
Can we ask for help before it all becomes too much? Can we offer this service and allow our loved ones to serve us in their own capacity? Perhaps they may be unsure of their own role?
Can we say no, with kindness and love, long before the frayed edges start to show.
I hope that this pandemic has shifted so much for us as women. That when this is long gone, the lessons remain and the journey of growth continues.
I hope that instead of seeking recognition and validation from our partners, children, employers, employees and society, that we cultivate our own measure of success and grow and validate our own progress.
We can only do our best when we are living from our own highest value system. When we recognise what that is for us, we can then consciously act and plan from that space.
Then and only then can our ‘No’s’ to things that sap our energy become “yes’s” to growth of the things that energise us. When we are energised, when we live our own truth and from our highest selves, then we are serving, loving, honouring and living for the very purpose we each have on this earth.
It is my firm belief that living from this space, we can illuminate and send ripples out to our families and communities and the rest of the world and encourage the people around us to live in this brave strong way too.
You can do this by putting your own health first and say ‘NO’ to foods that are harmful to your overall health.
You can do this by taking steps to study that subject you have always been interested in, whether you are 5 or 95.
You can do this by recognising things and people that energise you and then prioritise the time you spend with them and also lovingly releasing those things and people who no longer serve and support your own growth and value system.
As we grow more into ourselves and embody who we are meant to be, may we teach our sons and daughters how to enrich this glorious world by embracing their own ever present being. The future does not belong to our sons and daughters. The future and the power is in the present moment. How we react now, the choices we make now, the steps we take NOW will guide the steps for the the future.
Be love. Be you.
About the author:
Dr Hassina Kajee is co-founder and Medical Director of The Noakes Foundation ‘Eat Better South Africa’ program and was instrumental in overseeing and facilitating the Foundation’s first ever Eat Better South Africa! intervention programme conducted in the Ocean View community. She has since advised on a number of the Foundations subsequent interventions. Her enthusiasm and passion about the LCHF eating science emanates through her. She believes that prevention starts with educating and empowering her patients and the general public with knowledge of the tenets of optimal health including optimal nutrition backed by robust science.
Dr Kajee turned her clinical practice towards chronic disease prevention after years of practicing ‘palliative’ chronic medicine at the tertiary level where she headed up the High Care Unit at Groote Schuur Hospital. She currently practices privately; in addition, she advises as Medical Director of Eat Better South Africa, The Nutrition Network and as a director on the Board of The Noakes Foundation. As a wife and mother of 2 young children, she is passionate about preventative health care and believes in supporting prevention as early as possible- at the prenatal level.
