I Believe...

Recently, I was invited by an IT organization in Bangalore, to talk on “Women empowerment”.

 

What is women empowerment?

 

I asked this question to 15 people. I got 15 different answers.

 

That’s when I realized, though we have heard this term so many times before, it means different things to different people – of course, driven by their own experiences.

 

To me, it is about “Belief in self” – Hence, I spoke about how to empower ourselves as an individual, as a leader and as a citizen.

 

Apart from very few nuances which are gender specific (eg- female gender’s need to interact more with the ecosystem), the concept of empowerment is very much the same for all the genders.

 

For many, empowering is about someone else empowering them. Someone else, approving us as “good” “bad” “ugly”.

 

But to me, the moment you start believing in yourself and allowing yourself to do what you believe in – that’s empowerment.

 

And it is very individualistic.

 

For some people, they would empower themselves for a family cause. For others it would be for a social cause. For yet another group it would be an individual cause. It would be a combination of all these for many.

 

Why do you want to get empowered? To do what? Would it make you happy?

 

Every individual will need to decide for self on this, not because, someone else thinks “That is the right way of life”.

Because, this individual believes, that, this is his/her way of life.

 

Is it difficult? Of course, yes! But not, impossible!

 

Are you empowering yourself to believe it?

The Butterfly effect!

Nope...I am not talking about the Quantum physics' Butterfly effect. I am talking about the effect, a butterfly had on me :-)

I was on my way to the Psychotherapy class this morning...I was tired, thoughtful and anxiously looking forward to the class that I love. After a restless night due to my son's disturbed sleep, I was not sure, whether I would really be energetic through out the day.

As I was riding my Honda activa (bike), I suddenly felt something hitting my neck. Something very light in weight.

I looked at the rear mirror and didn't see anything. So, I continued to ride.

In the next traffic signal when I stopped the vehicle I looked down and noticed one butterfly trying to climb up my dress towards my lap.

It looked as if, it was really trying hard to climb. Unfortunately, my dress was too slippery to climb.

For a minute I could feel my heart pumping faster, as I was thrilled to see a butterfly on me.

Unsure about the next action, I slowly reached out to it and offered my thumb.

What if it comes to my hand? What a wishful thinking!

Oh My God!

It just easily slipped to my thumb. I just couldn't hold my smile (BIG). I was overwhelmed.

I carefully raised my hand to my eye level as I didn't want to scare it. I removed my helmet with the right hand as this butterfly continued to stay on my left hand's thumb.

Its then that I noticed its beauty. It had 2 beautiful chocolate brown wings with yellow polka dots.

I couldn't believe that this brownie beauty was just staying on my thumb.

This moment took me to a peak of joy and made me smile from my heart.

I couldn't help it. I whispered "Thank you".

It started fluttering its wings as if it got my message and slowly started flying away from me.

As I looked up to bid good bye to this brownie, the reality struck me.

People around me in the traffic signal were gaping at me as if it was a heroine's introduction scene in a kolly/tolly/bollywood movie!!!

Well....

The effect which this butterfly had on me? I would call it "Divine"!!!