How masculine achievement culture impacts the feminine soul
What I have found in my feminine healing and business work with women, is that masculine-oriented performance culture runs deep in our society.
There is a pervasive focus on outward achievement that can feel relentless and exhausting to the feminine soul.
It is found in every crevice of our society. Education, work, business, healing, spirituality, religion, motherhood.
It is a culture that teaches us to perform, achieve and strive for outward recognition, most often, at the expense of our deeper essence.
And while I don’t think that that achievement is a bad thing, what I do think is that there is very little in our world that exists to bring balance and value back to the internal longings of the feminine heart.
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When I think about this space that I have created here, this online world where I offer women a respite from the striving pace of the world, I know that I have created it because this is what my own heart craved.
A respite from a way of living and achieving that didn’t make sense to my feminine soul.
I longed for some-one to advocate for living life in a softer way.
For some-one to offer me permission to sink into my feminine nature and not feel ashamed for wanting to be loved, protected and free to not be and do it all.
For some-one to help me tend to the internal, without it being a means-to-an-end for achieving externally.
For some-one to remind me that my value was not based on what I was doing and producing, but instead was found in a place much deeper and less tangible.
For some-one to help me truly see the value in the gifts of the feminine. Relationship, connection, beauty, feeling, tenderness, sensitivity.
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To clarify, I don’t believe that the feminine needs to push aside the masculine in our world. And I don’t think that outward achievement is something to be diminished.
Yet I deeply believe that there does need to be more advocacy for the feminine in all aspects of society. And I also know that ambition and achievement can very easily be distorted into something that is harmful to the deeper nature of women.
I believe women need more spaces (whether physical, online or internal) to gently replenish their feminine core- without it being a means to an end to better achieve in the “real” world, or a way to extract a result or “manifestation” from the outer world.
Women need spaces to soften into what lies beneath performance and achievement. To reconnect with the tender heart of humanity that reminds us that there is a deeper octave to life than what we can perceive and produce externally. A space where it is not about how we can perform in the outward world, but instead is about restoring the value that exists beyond achievement. A restoration that allows us to soften, rest and truly be.
Belinda x
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hi, i’m belinda
Writer and founder of Soul & Self, an online space for women to reclaim their feminine nature, recognise their true value and restore their natural gifts, pace and path. If you’re a deep-hearted woman wanting to soften into your femininity, a gentle solopreneur craving respite from the ‘shoulds’ of the business world, or a feminine creative longing to share and sell your gifts in a softer way, you’re in the right place. Start here.