by Judith Stafford | Feb 13, 2024 | Becoming a Wise Woman, self help
Knowing me, Knowing who? How self-reflection leads to personal growth. “Life really does begin at forty. Up until then, you are just doing research.” - Carl Jung. Do you think of yourself as self-aware? Do you even know what it means to be self-aware? Congratulations if you have ever considered it at all. The very act of thinking about it means you have a degree of self-awareness. I have been doing quite a bit of journalling and shadow work recently, resulting in my considering how self-aware I am. I decided to do some research to get a better idea, and this is what I learned. A poll by The Harvard Business Review discovered that although 95% of people think they’re self-aware, only 10 to 15% actually are. It makes you think. How many deluded people are there out there? When I looked up self-awareness online, ‘self-awareness as a leader’ appeared most frequently. Looks like it is the new buzzword in management speak. Something aspiring leaders have decided they must have. Looks like I have found some of the deluded 95%! But self-awareness is important, whoever you are. It is not just for your career, which undoubtedly helps, but also for your benefit and those around you. What does it mean to be self-aware? According to the American Psychological Association, self-awareness is “the consequence of focusing attention on the self.” But what does this mean? Self-awareness is the intention of aspiring to be the best person you can be. It involves a great deal of self-analysis of your emotions, thoughts, motives and values to uncover who you are and find...
by Judith Stafford | Sep 8, 2021 | Becoming a Wise Woman
Making Midlife the Best Time Ever When I started writing about being in my 50s, I couldn’t find a word that I liked to describe my age. The ones I did see were not very inspiring: Middle-aged (often used as an insult for being dull and boring) Mid-life (associated with ‘crisis’) Mature (what, like a cheddar?) Menopausal or even worse, Post-Menopausal (yuk, far too clinical) Crone (too old and warty) Which is when I decided on ‘wise woman’. I don’t really want to be any of the above, but I do quite like being a wise woman. Then, as I looked at what a wise woman was, I found that many images came to mind. A healer or midwife A shaman or medicine woman A Fairy Godmother An elder stateswoman or leader A witch or crone They all represent an older woman with a certain amount of skill and power, so I knew I was onto a winning name. So now, I want to reclaim the title wise woman for all women at or past menopause. Women living their best lives If you look up the word wisdom, it means ‘someone who has the experience, knowledge and good judgement.’ But I would also include the following as traits of the wise: Being authentic and trusting your intuition Learning from your mistakes Being independent and resourceful Open to learning new things They are non-judgemental as they are aware that they are not perfect Wanting to work for the common good rather than self-interest It is not easy to follow this path, and we will often fall short, but that does...
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