Is this self actualisation journey different for women?

[RichnNL]

The older I get the more I understand the opposite sex or lets say the feminine side of people. And it seems a big part of this journey is very private. 

Maybe in the future that will change but the position we are all that at some point in your journey to self actualization you will come in some sort of conflict internally or externally with the way your friends family or just your culture at large is doing things.

Given not necessarily women but lets say the feminine are far more social in their nature than the masculine is. Is it harder as the pain of letting go or loosening of some attachments to relationships, influences and even having or maintaining the motive to self actualise I imagine would be an even greater challenge. 

[Thought Art]

Different for everyone 

[mandyjw]

Delving into relationships and letting go of them turns out to be the same. 

[Gesundheit2]

It's different for each one human. No two humans are identical, and the journey is not Super Mario Bros.

[Flowerfaeiry]

I followed actualized.org for a few years before realizing women's teachings can be quite different. Now, I find myself really diving into exploring relationships, devotional practices, getting in touch with my body and what it means to be a feminine being. 

4 hours ago, RichnNL said:

Is it harder as the pain of letting go or loosening of some attachments to relationships, influences and even having or maintaining the motive to self actualise I imagine would be an even greater challenge. 

I wouldn't say harder. It's challenging but lights me up with excitement to figure out. Part of my process has been learning about how not to be needy while still putting myself out there to explore a wide range of relationships. 

 

I dont think that women or men have any less work to do than each other, but in my experience it has been a different journey than what a man may go through.  

[soos_mite_ah]

I think a bigger thing at play is unlearning a lot of the social conditioning that comes with being a woman. Some of it includes but isn't limited to:

• building up more confidence since you are often silenced or treated like you're dumb
• allowing yourself to have boundaries and not get taken advantage of
• allowing yourself to have emotions like anger and letting yourself be upset since society typically paints those types of women as hysterical and crazy
• unlearning internalized misogyny to embrace your femininity without shame since femininity often painted in an infantilized, weak, undignified, and inferior light
• dealing with body image issues in a society that holds a woman's beauty as a way to measure her worth 
• figuring out ways to protect yourself from men who don't have your best interests at heart
• professionally getting ahead in a system that works against you in terms of things like pay and benefits 
• emotionally dealing with the trauma that misogyny and simply the threat of sexual assault causes
• figuring out to what extent what you want to do is conditioned by society and to what extent is authentic so you can make better decisions

There is a lot of trauma that women have to deal with solely because they are women that men don't even have to think about unless the conversation comes up. And you can multiply all of the above when we talk about poor women, women of color, and women from developing countries. 

[Leo Gura]

Yes

But also many commonalities.

[Bjorn_Wyrd]

One word: Relativity.

[Albert Roiterstein]

On 9/9/2021 at 7:31 PM, blueberries said:

...or when I've been sad about outgrowing a phase of my life where I had great relationships and entering a more lonely phase.

I can't really compare that to the experience of anyone else though

Yet I felt the same. 

[Flowerfaeiry]

@blueberriesThe book 'Women Who Run with the Wolves' by Carissa Pinkola Estes is a great place to start. It opened my eyes to there being a difference between men and women's teachings.

This woman in particular is one of my favorite teachers: 

https://youtube.com/c/Theholisticexplorer

I've also learned a ton about femininity from this one:

https://instagram.com/madelynmoon?utm_medium=copy_link

YouTube and Instagram are great resources tbh. There are many amazing women there sharing their work. 

[PepperBlossoms]

@soos_mite_ah I can agree with similar notions.

There is lots of decontextualizing all the social norms and programming but both men and women I would presume would have that if they use that filter.

The realization that reality is genderless, unisex.  We created the notion of gender.  Of women, of man.  But yet the stuff that we have needs and urges for is impacted by the gender.

The notion that women can be just as good as men - - it is tough when men tend to have the top positions at companies, we learn more about them in textbooks, they get more sports coverage, etc. 

The notion that the mother's opinion is worth listening to just as much as the father's - even if say father tends to try to make his appear like his matters more

The notion that yes you can speak up regardless of age, gender, and race; no you don't have to agree just because you are female and the other is male

[kamwalker]

Eckart Tolle actually says women are naturally closer to enlightenment than men: