Jun 08, 2021

Quarantine Reads: Empowered by Power

Quarantine Reads: Empowered by Power

Happy June! I’m so happy that our lives are getting back to normal again! To be outside without a mask on and fear clinging to me, I feel liberated!

 

In hindsight, the one thing I did during quarantine that I know I must continue to do is READ! I love books of all kinds but lately I started to read self-help books. I think I needed to know that it’s ok to be different and to know that my story is my own and I need to be proud of it and share it.

 

Two books that really spoke to me were Cassandra Speaks by Elizabeth Lesser and Untamed by Glennon Doyle. After reading both, it is clear to me that as a woman and a mom, it is my responsibility to empower both my daughter and my son to live in a place where they speak their truth, live an honest and open life and to always tune in and listen to that little voice inside their heads called intuition.

 

Author Glennon Doyle sounds like my kind of woman! She’s loud, kind of kooky and always looking to understand the “why” behind why she says and does the things she does. I love that in a person. Self-aware people are always more interesting, agreed? I enjoyed her insights into motherhood and how interesting/difficult/wonderful a journey it is. Parenting is a work in progress and I learned some valuable lessons from her. She opens with a story about a caged, female cheetah in a zoo and brings it around to her 10-year-old self who used to be free but now feels trapped in societal constraints. She writes that the poor cheetah wanders around looking like she knows this cage thing doesn’t feel right and that there was once a lot more out there to explore. The cheetah doesn’t really remember the freedom she felt but knows in her gut that it's out there. Studies have shown that at age 10 girls stop exploring and creating and begin internalizing their wants and needs to conform to what they now see as expected of them – at home, school and even in sports. Young girls feel the need to reign in their fire, the creative, the freedom they instinctively felt and focus on the things they think will make them smarter, more popular, a better “fit” into stereotypes that they see all around them.

 

Cassandra Speaks really focuses in on this theme as well. Imagine if women's voices were heard and respected throughout history; how would all of our lives be different? Myths and stories throughout history were told by men and therefore, put women at a disadvantage from the start. Lesser tells wonderful stories about Adam & Eve and that infamous bite of the apple, the opening of Pandora’s box and then her own journey to owning her voice, her story and coming to terms with the word “power” and all the good it really symbolizes when used constructively.

 

Both of these writers have opened my eyes to not only owning my own power but making sure I pass this on to my children. It’s time women become the storytellers and the old stories passed down through history that form the basis of our collective values be rewritten.

 

So, I encourage everyone to get outside and feel the sun on your face, stomp on the grass beneath your feet, channel your power from within and tell your story!

 




Risa Barash,
Founder & Owner of the entire Fairy Tales Hair Care Family