Today is International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate the uniqueness of our sex. Being human in itself is a unique experience and what makes us and our male counterparts unique to each other?
One thing that is indisputable is our biology and physiology. As I age I understand more about how cliche’s are true. ‘Sometimes it’s hard to be woman’ however sometimes it is the most uniquely fabulous thing.
Growing up in a male dominated house I always felt the need to equal or better my brothers and my personal experience was that our roles as females and males were very distinct from early on regarding household chores and general life roles.
My father ruled the roost and my mother’s role was to support his job, hobbies and rear his children.With this background I always felt my life partner would need to be my equal and not my boss.
Sometimes the feel to equal or better my male counterparts acted as a catalyst to do my very best however it also served against me as I got older because rather than respecting my body at times like during pregnancy even with my knowledge as a Physiotherapist, I have lifted and pulled and tiled and dragged much to the dismay of my pelvic floor and varicose veins. Another cliche with age came wisdom as I understood after my first pregnancy the uniqueness of my body and how ‘reality check! I’m not a man’ and letting him move the couch might be a good idea in future when heavily pregnant! That uniqueness allowed me to feed my babies myself until they were four months old but it also gave me the feeling as a mother could I ever really do/be enough for my children which all mother’s feel at some stage.
This female awareness drew me into Specialising in Pelvic Health as I wanted to educate and empower women about their bodies, how strong, powerful and beautiful they are and by working in harmony with the natural rhythms of our bodies cycles and ages we can have a better life experience. Our uniqueness is often negatised in Menstrual Cycle, Menopause & Weeing jokes and we are often hide behind laughter our bodily issues, believing society’s ideas that these issues are normal. Common yes, normal no.
We are the guardians of our bodies and minds; by optimising our own health we fulfill our roles and goals with more ease and can go and enjoy not just endure life.
Modern day media leads us to believe we can be all singing all dancing, all working, all baking and smiling gurus. Often this leads us to ignore the subtle intuition our bodies gives us leading to exhaustion, injury and possibly ignoring truly female issues that may affect us such as age related bone thinning, Prolaspe, Bladder, Bowel & Sexual issues post baby or during menopause.
So time now to claim our right to feel good in our bodies to embrace ourselves as sexual beings and demand ‘No I won’t put up and shut up!’, You will hear me Roar! Ask for help! Get the conversation started ,more talk and more action!
To book an appointment with Vivienne call 0863862001 or email me at vivienne@bodybalancephysiotherapy.ie to see if I can help.