This month’s Q&A blog post is a little different; I was asked this question on a recent panel discussion that I was part of for International Women’s Day:
Question:
Kate, it’s international women’s day today; given the work that you do, what would your best advice be for women regarding their health and wellbeing. If you were to give your top 3 most impactful tips, recommendations, or insights … whatever first comes to mind.
My Answer:
As you can imagine this was a question that required a brief pause on my part to collect my thoughts, but I do feel that being put on the spot in this way often results in some interesting answers!
1. Women need to recognise, understand and honour their physiological differences.
This is a tricky subject given the current conversation around gender, but it’s important to note that biochemically men and women are very different, and this means we need to approach our health and wellbeing differently.
For example, women’s bodies are far more sensitive to things like fasting, low-carb diets, over-training, lack of sleep, and external criticism to name a few… Women who menstruate have a monthly hormonal cycle that impacts how we feel, look, our energy levels, perspective, etc in a way that changes throughout the month, whereas men have a daily hormonal cycle. Not to mention the impact of the perimenopause and menopause!
We also typically react to stress and burnout differently, especially in how stress takes its toll on our physical and mental health. Of course, there will be exceptions to the rule and there are nuances here, but if we can understand and honour our differences we can also learn how to appreciate, celebrate, and ultimately make the most of our differences. There’s a lot more to say on this of course, but in a nutshell that’s the first thing I’d suggest.
2. Secondly, studies have shown that women produce half as much serotonin, a hormone directly linked to mood, as men.
Women generate that extra 50% through external feedback, which looks like sharing things with others – their worries, concerns, things they’re happy about, basically getting things off their chest and talking things through with people they trust.
Serotonin is also a precursor to dopamine, which is not only another feel-good hormone, but it plays a key role in motivation and ambition. So, what this means is that women typically need more conversations, sharing, and positive reinforcement to not only feel good but also to drive motivation and therefore do their best work and reach their goals.
In the work that I do with private clients, I do see this to be true: women typically need to talk/share more and oftentimes need more positive reinforcement and praise to progress on their goals.
The takeaway here is to make sure you’re not too isolated, to keep up with friends and/or groups you’re a part of, to make connection a priority, and make sure you have trusted people in your life who you can regularly confide in and connect with. That may be individuals or groups of people relating to your personal life and/or professional life. This is also especially important what with so many people working from home now, even more so if you live alone and work long hours.
3. Ask for help more.
Women are brilliant at juggling many things all at once, but the dark side to this is that they’re not always very good at asking for help or asking for what they need and putting themselves first.
It’s very common when I’m working with female clients that we look at where they can get more help, what they can let go of, where they need to put themselves first, and when to say ‘no’ more.
Usually, it’s fairly obvious and easy to see where help is actually very readily available. It’s also often easy for me to see where a woman is over-functioning at the expense of herself and what she should stop doing.
So my message here is, if you feel like you’re always chasing your tail, running on empty, perhaps you’re feeling tired and wired or like there are never enough hours in the day … Then I recommend you take some time to look at everything you’re doing and assess what you can let go of, what you can help with and how you can put yourself first more.
And if you find that hard, ask a trusted friend or family member to help you review everything. Or failing that, you know where to find me! It can definitely help to have the outside perspective when doing this kind of work because we all have our blind spots!
Happy IWD to all of the women reading, I hope you found these insights helpful!
Kate x
If you identify with any of the challenges described in this blog post and would like to discuss working together, click HERE to set up a complimentary consultation or email info@katehorwood.com
