Without self-awareness, a woman cannot achieve real empowerment

Health, education and economic empowerment are not enough to sustain the confidence of women over a period. While these are very important, they are not enough. Despite having good education and career we find many women crumbling, their self-esteem nose-diving, when faced with a difficult boss at work, unreasonable mother-in-law at home, or a jealous boyfriend

By Anupama Jha

Early this month, the world celebrated the International Women’s Day, and plenty of events were held to discuss and deliberate the issue of empowerment. Lots of activities were held to uplift women in terms of improving their education, finances, skills, and health.

Indeed, these are very important to develop self confidence as it helps women to capture opportunities and find pathways to greater empowerment.

However, health, education and economic empowerment are not enough to sustain the confidence of women over a period. While these are very important, they are not enough. Despite having good education and career we find many women crumbling, their self-esteem nose-diving, when faced with a difficult boss at work, unreasonable mother-in-law at home, or a jealous boyfriend.

It is therefore paramount that women become Self-Aware. What is Self-Awareness? Self-Awareness means knowing your true self, the perfect being, the absolute Self, which is beyond your limited Body and Mind. The true self is your Pure Being, without any trace of Ego or ‘I’-ness.

A truly empowered woman is Self-Aware and confident. She is emotionally intelligent. She has raised her consciousness by self-inquiry. An aware woman recognises the truth about ‘Self’, about her relationship with the people around, and the Nature. This consciousness helps her to understand and become aware of herself and all things that have an impact on her well-being and her inner peace and happiness. This awareness is empowering as it gives her the freedom to make decisions and choices.

When a woman knows herself truly, she makes conscious choices. She makes choices beyond the limitations of her body and egoic self. This helps in creating realities that result in her happy self. And only then she begins to appreciate the need of others to be happy. On the other hand, a woman who lacks awareness finds it difficult to live a happy and productive life. Bound by the society and culture, she ignores her feelings and emotions and suffers, even if she is economically independent.

A major hindrance in the uplift of women is their social conditioning. Women are conditioned to being safe. They are advised to not take up challenging jobs that force them out of their comfort zones. As a result, there are very few women in decision making processes, in entrepreneurship, or in the Defence services.

Social conditioning forces many women to be risk averse. Unless women learn to break out of the Stockholm Syndrome, they will continue to suffer the mental slavery of the society, and will never be truly empowered. Women must think about their choices, beliefs and decisions. They must ask themselves if these are theirs or forced down on them by the Society. Self-awareness helps in breaking the conditioned mind.

Many women are people-pleasers. They are willing to sacrifice their happiness to make others happy. They also complain about being treated as doormats. Doormats often complain that people don’t treat them right or return their kindness. Such women are those who fear they will become lonely if they alienate those around them by putting themselves and their needs first. Breaking the ingrained habit of pleasing people can happen by self-appreciation. By knowing your true self and potential, you fall in love with yourself. Self-love is important.

By turning inward, by living consciously and by being established in the true knowledge of self can a woman be truly empowered. Only then she can break herself from the shackles of ego, social conditioning and people-pleasing behaviour. Self-awareness is the key component of emotional intelligence.

As Daniel Goleman, the guru of Emotional Intelligence says: “Self-awareness is made up of emotional awareness, accurate self -assessment and self-confidence. It is all about knowing your emotions, your personal strengths and weaknesses and having a strong sense of self-worth.”

[The main/featured picture from Pixabay has been used for illustrative purposes only]

Anupama Jha is a Spiritual Coach, Writer and a Mentor. She blends modern therapeutic techniques and ancient Indian knowledge for empowering mankind.