An Irish woman and a Dutch woman, what are they up to in the South Pacific?

. Gloria Steinem once eluded to the fact that  “Any woman who chooses to live like a full conscious human being, looking beyond what is currently so, will need her sisterhood to keep her on track.” So true. I too believe that everybody who wants to tackle becoming a fully conscious human being, needs support, big time. How come?

Wilma and Ann-Marie, and yes we are working! The WomenLikeMe way of course!

Because the status quo and your familiar patterns will worry and wonder where you are off to, when you go for full human beingness.
They have no idea what you are doing and thus will reel you back in when they think you venture out too far.

We know that only too well, I the ‘Dutch woman’ and Ann-Marie the ‘Irish one’ who are now living in the Pacific.
We’ve definitely been there and done that; trying a different tack and finding the pull of the familiar stronger than we ever imagined.
We also know that to move forward, sisterhood is what we need.

It all started for Ann-Marie and me in our buddy conversations about the Life Leverage material.
During these talks we found that we were both what we now call ’conscious’.
I saw that Ann-Marie also loved to observe herself and that she too had trouble buying into a life that was riddled with compulsion, competition and conflict between what she desired and what she thought she had to do.
She too valued herself and didn’t want to give into a life of overwhelm, agitation, upset and drama.
But it was the usual story, it all sounded good in theory but how to sustain it and go for what Gloria Steinam calls a full human being, what Marianne Williamson calls gorgeous, talented and brilliant and I call our indigenous power, the ultimate driver from within.
How to continue striving for all those wondrous things when all the time normal life with its familiar patterns intrudes?

How to sustain developing great habits that will unearth our indigenous power, the only power I know is worth giving energy to?
The only power that is to be trusted; indigenous meaning ‘coming from within, pure and claiming our innate knowledge that is native to us’.
Just as indigenous people had a knowledge, an innate wisdom that served them very well until it was intruded upon, so too have we women got an indigenous power that could serve us very well.
However just as native people, we are not much better off either and we too are very subjective to intrusion by living in a very dominating environment.

Just look at life!
Our heads get messed up at times while observing our behavior, at least Ann-Marie and mine does.
Do this, have that, wear this, be that, there is no end to the stream of do’s and don’ts that come our way.
And do they add to providing us with a wonderful great life that we feel proud of?
Mostly not.
They sure keep us busy though. On the whole they take us further and further away from our indigenous power and from becoming proud women who do the right thing by everybody including themselves!

During our conversations it was uncanny how we mirrored each other.
When Ann-Marie observed herself doing martyrdom, I immediately could see that in me too.
It was like when she had lipstick on her teeth; I knew I’d better check mine as well.
We both loved the question ‘Is there another way to do this?’
That question opened doors for us beyond what we had been assumed as a ‘given’ in our current lives.

It turned out that Ann-Marie and I were clearly on the same page.
We knew we were up to something and we knew that we had to keep questioning.
Not necessarily because something was wrong but because we wanted to reach for the best.
Through our consciousness we became aware of our current limits around who we were being, what we did and had. From there we worked on how we could move forward taking little steps at the time.
We began to appreciate the importance of these little daily steps.
Steps that would help us develop excellent habits that gained access to our indigenous power.

However Ann-Marie and I weren’t born yesterday, just as Gloria Steinem, we were well aware of what was required to keep our enthusiasm alive in the context of daily life.
We absolutely did not want our progress to wane so we looked to each other for support and that is how we built our little sisterhood if you like.
And I find that pretty cool.
We knew our limits and did something about it AND on top of that we girls had fun.
And here it is, our sisterhood; WomenLikeMe that includes all conscious women.

We’re going for ’Let’s have it all’!
Besides sisterhood we wanted to create our own playground to have fun in.
So if the context we were living in was not very joyful, Ann-Marie and I mused if we had other options.
But what to do?
I was busy with Life Leverage, my life and grown up daughters.
At the time Ann-Marie had a 3 month old baby so need I say more.
Both talented women; both determined to combine motherhood and being a loving partner with work.
What was more, we wanted it all in such a way that it was a win/win for everybody.
No martyrdom, no overwhelm through long hours in the corporate world and missing out on family life.
It was a tall order, I know. We all know how much effort that would take.
But she is conscious and so am I.
So deep down coming from our indigenous power we knew that there was a way.
And sure enough, we trusted that our indigenous power would take us somewhere, and here is where we ended up . . .  WomenLikeMe online.

It’s the perfect platform for what we are on about.
In teaming up to build an online learning community for women, we can also practice building a business model in which our indigenous power is strengthened as well.

See, we desired to have it all and now we do!

In WomenLikeMe we have built a supportive context that will let us unearth our indigenous power by practicing little daily steps.

It is just perfect.

So when we have deadlines at WomenLikeMe and I hear Ann-Marie say; “Sure I can do that”, and when in doubt I call her on it and check which Ann-Marie is speaking.
As a busy woman there is a huge demand on her time AND when the ‘people pleaser’ is speaking, we both know she is NOT coming from her indigenous power and her promises cannot be trusted.
The ways to check ’who is speaking’ and ‘where the indigenous power is in all this’ are not hard, we just need to learn and practice them.

Ann-Marie in turn keeps an eye on my tendency to think that ‘everything is my responsibility’ and ensures that that is not creeping up on me. On a regular basis I need to be reminded to practice playing team and that ‘NO’ the responsibility for making WomenLikeMe happen does NOT rest on my shoulders alone.

Having WomenLikeMe and conscious women in our lives is the ultimate and Brent and John, the partners think it’s great also.

So what are an Irish and Dutch women up to in the South Pacific?
I can tell you, lots; this is only the beginning and we are loving every minute of it.