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Tag: empower women

How to Build a Strong Social Support Network for Women in Leadership

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Great Circle Community, Healthy Relationships.

s our interests and needs shift, our social support network must evolve, giving up relationships that no longer work and pursuing new ones that do. Part of being human is going through different phases of life. As children, we’re dependent on our parents. Then in the adolescent years, we push for a more autonomous position. Then finally as adults, we learn to become interdependent.

However, whether by nature or nurture, a person may not fully evolve as he or she has the potential to do. Because our society values independence to a fault, often individuals aren’t taught or don’t learn skills to develop interdependent relationships.

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Feeling Drained? Discover How to Manage Your Energy and Reclaim Your Vitality

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Change Your Life, Self-Leadership Skills.

When you’re feeling drained, a somatic approach makes you fully aware of energy sappers and how to renew your physical, emotional, and mental energies.Don’t you just hate it when you try to use your cell phone, but the battery is dead?  Not because you’ve made so many calls, but because the apps running in the background have used up all the energy? These hidden drains on your operating system affect your ability to connect with others. Is something similar happening with your mental and emotional energy when you’re feeling drained? Are there hidden energy zappers working in the background that you’re not even aware of?

At the end of this article, you’ll find a list of 95 possible hidden energy drains. I encourage you to look the list over and identify the ones that are impacting your life right now. But for now, it’s more important to work on the skills that will help you manage your energy mindfully and intentionally. Then when you identify an energy zapper, you’ll know how to pull its plug!  

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Empowering Everyday Rituals for Life Are Mindful, Meaningful & Mighty

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Life Skills, Mindfulness.

Empowering everyday rituals simply give secular activities deep meaning that makes you feel in control, confident, and focused on what you value most. I was recently asked by a women’s empowerment leader, Dr. Christie de la Gandara, to share how everyday rituals can empower at-risk women. She’s deeply committed to fighting the current femicide crisis in Latin America — the killing of females because of their gender. She also included my contact information in her pamphlet of resources for these women at risk, which she shared with women leaders from 23 countries meeting at a recent conference. This is a huge honor and privilege for me. And I highly commend her for her hard work on behalf of these women!

But I ask you…would you have picked the topic of everyday rituals as being helpful for women fighting for their lives? Doesn’t it give you a clue as to how powerful ritual can be for our everyday well-being?

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Desiring Genuine Friendship? Look for People Who Support & Challenge You

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Healthy Relationships.

Do you think genuine friendships are becoming rare, because of the way we’ve learned to treat social media friends, and if so, here’s what we can do…Social media has dramatically changed the idea of friends. You friend someone by simply clicking a button. Every day, your number of friends grows. You never meet face to face and you may not say a word directly to them. They know far more about you than you know of them…but they’re your friends. And if you feel like it, a push of a button unfriends them. Is that what you would call genuine friendship? 

I’m sure you recognize the difference between social media ‘friends’ and genuine friends. But could the way we treat social media friends be creeping into how we treat our true friends, perhaps even damaging those relationships?

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Do You Know the One Thing Strong Women Practice? Fierce Self-Compassion!

Written by Maria Connolly. Posted in Stepping Forward.

Strong women practice fierce self-compassion — sometimes it requires we love ourselves as we are, in the moment; other times, it calls for fierce action.It takes strength to stand up for what you believe in and to stand against adversity. Yet, every day strong women are doing so with style, grace and fierceness. When someone you love is threatened, you defend them like a mama bear defending her cub. Sometimes we have to get angry to make our point! Or think about when a cherished value — like honesty or justice — is threatened, don’t you apply all your resources to achieve balance and harmony again? And to get ahead in the corporate world, you’ve stepped forward and powerfully climbed up the ladder to success, didn’t you?

But to become one of these strong women, did it feel like you had to abandon some of your nurturing, feminine side? Does it feel as if gender-role expectations make you hide your whole, true self, like you can’t show your compassionate side?

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