One of my biggest goals for Girls CAN is to support my daughter, all of our daughters and help them To find their inner sparkle, allowing them to see what makes them shine from the inside out. We want girls to love and respect themselves, to see what makes them special and to feel their strength no matter what life throws at them. In order for any of us to have an effect on helping the girls in our lives we need to model that behavior and take a look at ourselves and be sure that we are treating the little girls inside of us like we always deserved to be treated!
I recently took part in a training focusing on empowerment for girls and I must admit I learned a lot about myself and about things that I need to put into practice. The reality about empowering girls is that it’s not just about telling them how incredible they are, it truly is about modelling self love and respect and feeling inner strength no matter what life throws at us.
In the training that I took part in earlier this week we talked about how we used to talk to the girl inside us, did we put ourselves down or doubt ourselves? Did we feel unworthy or less than or did we have trouble standing up for ourselves or did we just want to fit in? The girl inside any of us who isn’t standing up for ourselves, who is telling us that we don’t deserve happiness or that we could have done better, been better or looked better or whatever it is that mean girls says… let’s be honest, she isn’t nice and we need to get rid of her.
If I think about it we most likely all have that inner mean girl at some point in our lives… could have been when we were younger or now as adults. In the exercise that I took part in I had to think about what my inner mean girl would have said to me in my younger years, maybe as a pre teen, teenager or younger adult. I’m sure she said a few things but one thing I can hear her say is ‘you aren’t really sure of yourself’ or maybe ‘you need to make others happy before truly making yourself happy’!
I try to model self respect and of course I want to show kindness to others but there have been times in my life that I have doubted myself or put the needs of others before mine even when I shouldn’t have because it was detrimental to me! This exercise allowed me to remember those times and reflect on maybe what was going on during periods of my life, how I felt about myself and how I could have done things differently! I do believe my older self would have some things to say to my younger self if I had the opportunity.
Now, my opportunity is this – model it, treat myself like I deserve the best and believe in myself the way I expect my daughter to believe in herself, feel confident in how I look and how I feel because if she watches me having self love and respect she will treat herself and teach herself to do the same. My daughter Emily is my biggest fan and my drive to start Girls CAN and to share with others so I need to be what she sees in me- that strong empowered woman!
My hopes is that if you are reading this and you are a mom to one or more girls or someone who has important girls in their life – please first of all think of how you treat yourself first … that in itself will help all of of our girls know that they have an inner sparkle and we can help them take on any self doubt and move past the insecurities to let that sparkle shine through.
Be kind to yourself.
Stay tuned for our upcoming Girls CAN workshops.
