5 Inspiring Women from the Recent Past that You Should Know More About
Who do you look up to? Is your role model a top-earning actor or actress? A sports personality with a big heart? Or maybe a strong spoken music artist? Our role models tend to be the people whose faces we often see in the media, and our world seems to glorify them -- sometimes for all the right reasons -- to an extent that leads to them being portrayed as the main source of inspiration even when their achievements, despite being praise-worthy in themselves, do not necessarily warrant that level of admiration. And while that may not be an issue in itself, the issue of balance comes into play. That's why I thought it would be a good idea for me to share some of the women I personally look up to. These are women from our recent history who have done amazing things, and have in their own way made this world a better place. Hedy Lamarr If you’re wondering where you’ve seen that name before, it was probably on the credits of an old black and white movie that you saw on late night TV. Lamarr was a well-known actress and during the 1940s she was considered to be one of the most beautiful women in the world. It takes self-confidence and talent to be a successful actress, sure, but that’s not why she’s one of my role-models. In an era when women had to look beautiful but not appear to be intelligent, this actress, along with a male composer she recruited, invented a frequency signal device that could be used to stop torpedoes from going off-course. As you can imagine, devices like this were important during the early to mid-forties but Lamarr really didn’t get the recognition she deserved until 1962 when an updated version of their invention was first used on Navy ships. If it wasn’t for Lamarr’s idea we may not have had wi-fi, Bluetooth or GPS. Although she didn’t live to see it, Hedy Lamarr was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014. Irena Sendlerowa Irena Sendlerowa was a social worker and nurse from Poland who smuggled 2,500 children out of Warsaw during World War II. The children were given new papers and safe accommodation until the end of the war. She was responsible for saving more Jews than anyone else during the holocaust. Why is this woman’s story not taught in schools? Sendlerowa was eventually captured by the Gestapo and was tortured and sentenced to death. Even that didn’t stop her. She was rescued moments before she was to be executed and returned to Warsaw under another name. She continued her work, and found permanent homes for the children who had lost their parents. Sendlerowa was nominated, twice, for the Nobel Peace Prize and several other awards but her favorite was the Order of the Smile. That’s the international award that children give to adults who have distinguished themselves in the care, love, and aid of children. Judy Freespirit Judy Freespirit was a poet, author and fat activist, back in a day when limitating beliefs made it generally accepted that overweight women were lazy, ate too much, and not very bright. She was a sexual abuse survivor, a trapeze artist and a fighter for Lesbian and Gay rights. Freespirit has often been cited as a role-model and mentor for women who have struggled to be accepted for who they are and not for what they’ve been told they should be. She was truly a huge woman, not in size, but in courage, heart and passion. Sara Aldebaran "A diet is a cure that doesn't work, for a disease that doesn't exist". This is a quote penned by Sara Aldebaran and Judy Freespirit who formed The Fat Underground in 1973. The movement was the beginning of what we have today in Body Positivity and Fatshion. Aldebaran believed that the general public was frightened of overweight women because they were frightened of women who had their own power and knew how to use it. For Sara and others of the times, discrimination against overweight women was a feminist issue. Whether you agree with Aldebaran and Freespirit’s views or not, it’s impossible to deny that these women fought, and fought hard, for something they truly believed in. They put their money where their mouths were and refused to be silenced. Kate Sheppard Kate Sheppard was at the forefront of the Suffragette movement and because of her, and others who followed her, New Zealand became the first self-governing country to legalize a woman’s right to vote in Parliamentary elections. Sheppard spent her entire life as an activist long before the word was even invented. Can you imagine the trouble she would have stirred up at the time? Now, on to you: who inspires you the most?
The Power of Reframing: How To Use Depression to Improve Your Life
If you’ve ever suffered from depression you don’t need me to describe the symptoms to you or explain how utterly hopeless and destroyed it can make you feel. Besides, I’ve been dealing with the black dog since childhood so I don’t want to spend any more time than I have to dwelling on the many ways it steals your joy.And when I say “since childhood,” that’s when I first began showing symptoms, but back in those days, no doctor was going to diagnose me with depression. Instead, it was “all in my head.” I’m surprised I wasn’t locked in the attic and forgotten about.I wasn’t diagnosed until my early 20’s, so I didn’t get any treatment until then. Once I was diagnosed? I took anti-depressants, attended counseling, tried to eat the right food, tried to limit alcohol, used essential oils, crystals, meditation. I got on with things, distracted myself, rested, exercised, and rang a friend.Nearly 30 years later, and my depression is now a part of me just as much as my blue eyes and stubby fingers are. It has molded me into who I am now, and for that reason, I’m glad I have the experience of it.Before you start accusing me of tipping over into insanity, let me explain what I mean by that.The UK Mental Health Foundation describes it well, I think. It states that:“For many people, the concept of recovery is about staying in control of their life despite experiencing a mental health problem.”There are some people who experience one episode of clinical depression and never go on to experience it again. However, according to the American Psychiatric Association, more than half of people who have one episode are going to have another. Some people will live with this condition all of their lives.But it doesn’t have to break you. Although you have to make a determined effort, you can use your depression to increase your happiness, improve your life, and make a difference in someone else’s life. Isn’t that a much better coping strategy than giving in to it?Use it to create artArt can be any creative activity you choose. Painting, writing, and poetry are the first that spring to mind, but the options are limitless. And if you have the kind of brain that develops depression, then let me reassure you, you have the type of brain that can create anything you decide to.Creating something will help you to focus your mind on something other than what you’re feeling. Yes, it will, even if you’re expressing your feelings through whatever it is you’re creating. How liberating would it be to shift all those things from inside your head, to somewhere outside of your head? Who knows, you might even get a new career out of it.Use it to teach othersAlthough their numbers are getting fewer, there are people in the world who have never experienced depression. They have no clue at all what it’s like. You’ve met them, they’re the people that belong to the “why don’t you just snap out of it” crowd.These people need to be educated.It’s our duty, as people who live well with mental illness, to do our bit to reduce stigma and discrimination. The way to do that is by talking about mental illness. We need to discuss it in our everyday conversations, talk about it in just the same as we talk about having the sniffles or a cold.And yes, I know, it’s next to impossible to adequately explain real Depression to someone who has never experienced it, but shouldn’t we still try? You wouldn’t tell a firefighter not to bother explaining how dangerous fires are to someone who hasn’t experienced one.Use it to make a difference in the worldThis one could perhaps be described as a combination of the first two. If you create any form of art and use it to teach people about Depression, you will make a difference in the world. And you don’t even need any teaching skills, you just need to tell your story.Because you’ve made it this far, you have learned the qualities of tolerance, resilience, empathy, self-care, and the importance of looking after yourself physically with diet and exercise. To name just a few. These are all skills that our young people, and even some of our older people, need to learn. Desperately.But the steps I’ve outlined above won’t just help the world, they’ll help you. Creating is a therapeutic process, and the very act of telling your story is cathartic. Creating something from your imagination is a truly joyful experience and will lighten your heart in a way that no anti-depressant or counseling session can.And who wouldn’t like to think that they’d made the world a better place in some small way?
The Difference Between Spirituality and Religion - And Why It Matters in Today's World
One's everyday life is never capable of being separated from his spiritual being. Mahatma Ghandi Ghandi said it quite succinctly, I believe. Spirituality is a part of you, it’s something that cannot be separated from your thinking, action-taking, self. It’s who you are, your morals, your values, what brings you joy. Religion, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices. In other words, if you actively follow a particular religion, you adhere to its rules, you practice its rituals and you usually (though not always) associate with other members of the same religion. Bear with me while I break it down a little further. Many of us grew up with religion as part of our family culture. Depending largely on where you were born, you called yourself a Catholic, Presbyterian, Baptist, etc. Often with no real understanding of what the term meant. For some, it meant they went along to Church on a Sunday with their parents. For others, it meant they attended a service on Christmas Eve and at Easter. For some, it had a deeper meaning. They genuinely believed in God, his teachings and the teachings of their religious leader. As they got older they may have become more immersed in their religion, or they may have delved into other religions as an attempt to discover what they, as a thinking adult, believed. Or they may have rejected religion altogether and began to identify as an atheist. Incidentally, choosing not to believe in something? That’s a belief in itself. Are you still with me? Spirituality isn’t as ritualized as religion. That’s not to say that if you’re a Spiritualist you don’t participate in rituals, but rather that your rituals may change or fluctuate, depending on what your goal for practice is. If you’re a Spiritualist, you may or may not believe in a God, Goddess, or the power of the Universe. Think of it this way: spiritualism is more of a practice of behavior rather than a practice of worship. You know how some people seem to just radiate peace? These are the people we love to be around because they have a calming presence, an aura of tolerance about them, for everyone and every situation they meet. These are spiritual people, whether they use that word to identify themselves or not. These are the people that are confident in their core beliefs, are quietly getting on with things. They usually find themselves in a corner at social events, offering advice to all that ask for it. Why is it important to know the difference between spirituality and religion? Because, while spirituality and religion both have their place in the world we live in, spirituality is going to heal the world a lot quicker than religion will. And people are becoming more and more disillusioned with religion but still want to identify as spiritual beings. But don’t just take my word for it. Ask anyone who has been caught up in someone else’s religious war, or any victim of an injustice due to sex, color, or belief. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.” I’m certainly not about to argue with Mr. King but I both agree and disagree with him, on this one. I don’t think religion is going to die out anytime soon, but I do think that an emphasis on the values of religion, rather than the rules, is going to help to heal the world. And I don’t think anyone’s going to argue with me that the world doesn’t need healing. What’s the best way to heal the world? I don’t want to sound like the lyrics to a pop song here but, we heal the world by healing ourselves. And that’s where our faith in religion and spirituality come into it. We have to heal our own souls if we want to heal the collective soul. A final quote for you "Because I'm a doctor, I know when you have an injury it will heal if it's clean enough to heal; if your injury is dirty, it won't heal. And so when you are talking in societies, we are also talking in healing processes, and for a good healing process, you need to make things right." Michelle Bachelet Spiritualism and Religion both have the power to lift your spirits, to bring you joy, and perhaps most importantly, give you hope. We need to share the hope. In our future, our selves, and the world we want to leave to the next generation.
5 Life Lessons from Your Mother that You Can Happily Forget
Your Mother doesn't always know best. Good lessons, just like the times, they are a-changing. It's not even her fault. The rules your mother lived by were necessary when she was growing up. Or perhaps they weren't necessary, but they were the norm, so she did what was expected of her. But many of the old rules just don't make sense anymore. Apart maybe from "Always put on clean underwear, in case you get hit by a bus."; I'm a firm believer in clean underwear so this one still stands. Here are 5 rules that we no longer need to live by. There are many more, but these are the ones I practice daily. See if you agree. 1. Never wear stripes with patterns Closely aligned with "big girls shouldn't wear stripes". Trust me, nobody's going to get hurt if you wear your favorite striped shirt with your leopard print pants. The fashion police might object but who cares? They can't actually arrest you. If you look back over history you'll notice that the people who had the most impact on the world, the men and women that we still talk about to this day, they were the rule-breakers. They said, or did, something that went against the norm. They stood out from the crowd. However, standing out from the crowd can be scary if you're a novice, so start with a minor rebellion. Practice breaking the fashion rules! Who knows, you might start the latest thing. 2. Ladies don't curse in public Why the f$%k not? And who wants to be a lady anyway? Wouldn't you rather be a woman who speaks it as she finds it? Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting you use cuss words as you do commas, but surely one or two sprinkled into a conversation isn't that terrible? And don't forget women have fought, and are still fighting, to be considered equal to men so why should we be the ones that have to censor our language? 3. Forget him, there's plenty more fish in the sea Oh? And is that particular sea shark-infested, by any chance? Sarcasm aside, this one's dangerous. If you've had your heart-broken, the last thing you should do is give yourself a shake and move onto the next willing partner. It's not fair to them and you do yourself a disservice as well. Broken hearts are an unpleasant, but necessary, part of life. They teach you what you don't want in a partner and they help you set boundaries to keep yourself safe, both emotionally and physically. But you shouldn't just go from one to the other, you need to understand the lesson first, so you don't find yourself repeating it later. 4. Always look for the silver lining under every cloud No. Don't. I agree you should try and keep a positive attitude through any crisis but most of the time, you're not going to be able to see any silver until you look back at where you are now. And why are we frightened of so-called negative emotions anyway? They're just feelings. When you feel happy, you don't try to make yourself feel sad, do you? Any person suffering from depression will tell you that ignoring pain is only going to take you down a much darker road. Don't do it to yourself. Don't look for the silver lining until you're in a place where you'll be able to recognize what it looks like. 5. Que sera sera - what will be, will be Or, as it's known in Scottish families, "What's for you won't go by you." Yes, it will my friend. If you let it. You can sit back and wait for your dreams to find you, or you can get up and make them happen. It's a busy world we live in and if you're not actively seeking out the things you want, there's a good chance they'll float right by you while you're distracted with all that waiting. With enough determination, energy, and action, we humans can make anything happen. And won't your mother be proud of you?