This is the second part of my piece talking about those things in life that make me feel stronger. In the first one I shared about how important has been for me to keep physically strong, to exercise and maintain moving, walking, biking, no matter how the external conditions could be. This may sound simple, but I learned how important is movement and health for the body to do everything that we pursue. Now I want to share about how moving is important also for my mind and emotions.
Appreciating how my legs are able to move and jump, make me feel happy, but overall, grateful. Both states, happy and grateful have a deep meaning, are powerful, and not always easy to reach and maintain. Well, start it simple, let’s talk about a good mood. It has been years since I started trying to wake up in a positive mood. Taking at least 5 or 10 minutes before going out of bed and give myself a moment to think on what I dreamed, wondering about how my day will look like, feeling my breath, asking questions. How was my day yesterday, how it will look like today, what did I learned in my dreams? I can run my mind until I realize that my second or third alarm is going to ring soon. Having this time for me in the morning makes everything better because I reach an initial level of consciousness of what I am doing. It is very simple; I just stopped bounding in the mornings every time the first alarm sound, and instead, try to have 10 peaceful minutes just for me. It is possible most of the times and it makes a difference in my daily routine.
What about feeling grateful? That is wonderful. Gratitude is one of the finest feelings for me. It just comes along with other mindsets, during moments of joy, laughs, even pain or deep reflection. Having ways to be in a good mood impulse me to be happy and grateful, and this strengthen my mind and my emotions. Gratitude makes me feel stronger because I realize how lucky I was to be born and to join many opportunities along my life. Not only from my successes, but also from my failures, decisions and learning’s because those taught me better, they built me stronger and placed me in the precise moment in which I am right now. I try to be grateful every day for who I am, for what I have, for what I can feel and do for others, and that have lead my commitment towards social justice and a better world.
Keeping practices to feel strong physically, mentally and emotionally, are all individual performs that balance me and help me to do what I do. But I want to recall now how important is community, and especially, our female community in which we grow up with and within in all ways; our mother, grandmothers, aunties, sisters, friends, neighbors, classmates, professors, mentors, colleagues. Most of them can become our mirrors, our teachers, our guides, and our source of power. They encourage and empower us throughout many ways along our life.
I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by wonderful and courageous women that have shown me different ways of being, of facing challenges, experiment pain and joy. I have been listened, supported, pampered by the women in my life. I have been growing up with them, personally, professionally and more important, humanly. Working in human rights for the last years, taught me to recognize and admire the inner strength that women possess to fight for others and for their selves. I have seen their eyes full of hope and braveness and I felt it. Women have been there for me and I am for them. Because the path of becoming stronger could not be easy, but it is mandatory to support the women by our side so we can all walk farther together. We need to support each other to become more ourselves and rely in our inner force that will guide us to fulfill our dreams. And that, exercising the muscle of building a community, makes me also stronger, because it is strengthening my spirit.