The curse of the superwoman
By Gizane Aparicio
I scroll down my Facebook thread sometimes half amused half astounded at the apparently inspirational messages of the ‘superwoman.’
There’s the photos of the woman with four kids. She has the body of a fitness athlete, and a trophy in her hands, accompanied by a quote that promises she did it in three months and a “what’s your excuse?” message.
Then there’s the seemingly successful mumpreneur, who wakes up at 5am to get shit done before taking her kids to school.
She meets her personal trainer, records a daily podcast, writes a blog post, makes ten grand, cooks an Italian dinner for her husband from scratch, attends an entrepreneur of the year gala and reads a whole book before finally going to bed for her nightly four hour sleep.
I’ve seen the messages “no pain no gain”, “live a F**k Yes life” and “sleeping is for losers” more times than I care to care.
It seems that these days, if you don’t have a high paying job, a detached house by the sea, a BMW on the driveway, a ton of kids, a husband, the culinary skills of a pro-chef, a gravity defying body and never aging face, a bunch of successful friends, an amazingly supportive family, an award or two, the mind of a genius, and the sense of humour of a comic… well, you’re no superwoman.
And by the standards of today’s society, apparently at least, you’re just not good enough.
In which case, I’m definitely not good enough. Only I couldn’t give a rat’s arse.
‘But what about the pressure to be perfect? Don’t you feel it?’ I hear you say.
Nopes.
I learned a while ago that perfect doesn’t make happy. And I’d rather be happy. In fact, that’s all I do every day now, be happy.
Being happy doesn’t involve buying, selling, owning, rushing, achieving, showing, or doing anything at all for that matter.
Happiness is, as many wise men have said before me, a state of mind. It’s about being as opposed to doing.
Being is something we seem to value little in our modern society.
It seems somewhere along the line, we turned our lives into full blown Olympic games, where if you don’t compete in the decathlon, you’re a nobody.
What? You only compete in one adventure sport?
What a loser!
Well, here’s the thing, the question that made me quit the games for good.
Am I enjoying my time on this planet, or am I living like I’m doing military service?
Which led to the next question:
Why do you feel like you must be or do all these things to feel like you’re good enough?
And do you actually feel like you’re good enough, because most superwomen I know don’t.
This fact perfectly illustrates why happiness and true superwomanhood have nothing or very little to do with achievement.
In fact, these are qualities that don’t require you to lift a finger.
All you have to do is be you, be happy and enjoy your life.
And if this doesn’t seem like enough to you, there is even more reason to stop doing whatever it is you’re doing whilst reading this piece, whilst drinking your cuppa, whilst checking your emails… and take a good look inside ya.
Gizane Aparicio
Energy Healer l Wisdom Spreader