On Themes and Meaningful Learning Experiences
At SWC I really like the idea of having themes that can provide meaningful learning experiences.
For March and April, I couldn’t decide on just one theme so I have picked three - two of which we will continue to explore into the future!
Here is a little about each theme:
National Women’s History Month/International Women’s Day
To be honest, I didn’t realize there was a month or even a day dedicated to women until recently.
I learned that, since 1995, each U.S. president has issued an annual proclamation designating the month of March as Women’s History Month to commemorate and encourage the study and celebration of the vital role of women in American history.
The National Women’s History Alliance selects and publishes the yearly theme. For 2021, it is “Valiant Women of the Vote: Refusing to Be Silenced.”
The Alliance has chosen 4 living and 9 deceased women to honor. You can learn more here: https://nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org/2020--2021-honorees/
Each one has done amazing things to advance the rights of all people, particularly women, with respect to voting. I encourage you to read about these women - some of whom went through real hardship, even torture, to assure us the right to vote. While you may have never even heard of many of them, we are indebted to each of them. SWC plans to highlight their achievements throughout the month.
International Women’s Day is on March 8th. IWD has a number of missions that foster a gender equal world. The purpose of the day is to celebrate women’s achievements and increase their visibility, while calling out inequity. You can find out more here. https://www.internationalwomensday.com/
Leadership
This is a really rich theme. It is time to re-examine the old ways of thinking of leadership as hierarchical and top down or a model where someone is in front barking orders to followers.
My goal is to “deconstruct” what the word can mean for, and to, each of us.
I believe we can all be the leaders of our own lives and that there are many different styles of leadership from which to choose.
We will explore this theme in a number of ways at SWC, including in our complimentary month Women’s Wisdom Circle (where we will look at feminine leadership qualities), in our monthly W.A.K.E (Wisdom Action Knowledge Enlightenment) discussions where we look to move toward action) and in our upcoming MasterMind Monday event on 3/29, “Be the CEO of Your Life,”
inspired by Brené Brown’s ground-breaking work on leadership.
Resilience
This is another theme that can be understood in numerous ways. While resilience is typically thought of as being able to bounce back from difficult circumstances or events, there is much more to it. Particularly in today’s turbulent times, learning skills that help build our resilience is key. Throughout the months of March and April, SWC will post articles and blogs, including Wisdom Stories, to give you many different ideas of ways you can develop skills to enhance your resilience.
Also check out some of the great events we have planned that will help you hone these skills, including our meditation series, where you will learn a different meditation technique each time to get grounded and inspired, and our “Confidence 101” MasterMind Monday event on 3/15 with the author of the book “Dethroning Your Inner Critic.
You can also learn to increase your physical resilience with our “Roll With It” workshop and to support your spiritual resilience with “Ritual and Grace - A Practice of Reflection, both in March.
Look for MasterMind Mondays in April where we will look at ways to cut energetic cords that hold you back and what the Age of Aquarius means for 2021 and beyond.
We invite you to join us on this journey of exploration and learning!
We can’t wait to welcome you!
With love and light,
Denise