You know when something needs to change
This year’s International Women’s Day theme is ‘Inspire Inclusion’. While the modern history of women’s rights often recalls the workers' protests in the early 1900s across Europe, Russia and the US, women have been screaming out for equal rights for a lot lot longer.
The theme of inclusion led me to read about French writer Olympe de Gouges who was outraged at the exclusion of women from the French Constitution and wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Women in response.
“Man, are you capable of being just? It is a woman who asks you this question. Who has given you the authority to oppress my sex?”
She actively spoke out and campaigned on social and political issues, from the treatment of women as second-class citizens to the abolition of slavery, which was rare at the time. Her play, l’Esclavage des Noirs (The Slavery of Blacks) in 1788, caused such an uproar (particularly from slave-owners) that the Mayor of Paris almost banned it. She went on to write two more anti-slavery plays, making her one of France’s earliest supporters of abolition. Sadly, her voice for justice and equality eventually got her arrested by the French authorities and she was killed by guillotine in 1793.
These days it might seem like our struggle for inclusion is over but it’s not, it just looks different: According to this blog post on Sport England, 36% of black girls in England are meeting recommended activity levels, compared to 48% of white girls. Different barriers affect different ethnic groups and socioeconomic backgrounds and these are covered by Sport England’s ethnicity research. In short, being a person of colour is still a barrier to inclusion in sport.
Similarly, inequalities might look like they’ve been ironed out over the years (and centuries) but they’re still there, just in different guises. Let’s look at anxiety as an example and focus on this for the remainder of this piece.
The UK's Mental Health Foundation describes anxiety as "a type of fear usually associated with the thought of a threat or something going wrong in the future, but it can also arise from something happening right now."
In 2022/23, an average of 37.1% of women compared to 29.9% of men reported high levels of anxiety. Compared to data from 2012 to 2015, this has increased significantly from 21.8% of women and 18.3% of men.
Research by Temple University in Philadelphia showed that in response to significant life stress, women are more likely to experience a state of hyperarousal (compared to men), which is described as being 'on-edge'. "This contributes to increased agitation, restlessness and problems with concentration and sleep." Sound familiar?
My tell-tell signs for anxiety feel like being on the edge (or worse, tipping over the edge). In the past that has looked like poor sleep (broken, restless or wakefulness), emotional turbulence (irrational irritability), limited emotional control (crying too easily), an inability to think clearly or act calmly, feeling detached from my life, and a physical feeling of tightness in my chest or throat. Looking back, I have at various times allowed these symptoms to persist and sometimes have only taken action when they became unbearable or collided with each other.
Awareness, the cornerstone of all yogic practices, is the first step to change. Am I aware that something is wrong and needs addressing? Am I prepared to listen to what my body and mind are trying to tell me? What do I have the capacity to change, say no to or let go of? Over the years, hearing and (more importantly) listening to the cues in my physical and mental body has been key to realising something is wrong and needs to change.
Yoga has been shown to give you the tools – via physical postures (asana), breathwork (pranayama), meditation, mindfulness, the study of yogic philosophy to name a few – to notice behaviours, thoughts and feelings that might be contributing to heightened anxiety. It also opens up the invitation for self-enquiry, which might lead to new pathways to understanding and managing the underlying stress.
If you work with a yoga therapist one-to-one therapeutically, the choice of these practices will be guided by your emotional, mental and physical needs, where you’re at and your current relationship with your body and mind, your capacity, any diagnosis, your goals and where you want to be.
Yoga therapy (such as the sessions I offer) might guide you to understand the breath more and how controlling it in different ways can balance the nervous system; there might be some introspection and self-observation during, or in between sessions to work with anxious or negative thought patterns; or it’ll introduce postures that are physically soothing with the potential to relieve heightened anxiety. This integrated mind-body work is holistic and multi-faceted, and the physical and mental awareness gained can support healing and transformation.
Releasing some pressure from the cooker of the mind in whichever way works for you is a step towards change but that can only happen if awareness is there first. Stopping to watch and listen could be the best thing you do for yourself this International Women’s Day.