I boarded the bus after back-to-back meetings kinda day at work (Took a cab in the morning). The conductor walked past me, though I was giving him exact change. A couple of stops later, an elderly lady sat next to me. I called out to the conductor to get my ticket, but the lady said to me, "free today, no ticket". I quickly googled and realized that BMTC had announced free rides for women today on the occasion of Women's day.
For someone who doesn't follow the news (or newspapers), it was a happy surprise🙂
While swiping through Insta Stories, I came across a comic strip of a woman drowning in a water body, quoting these lines:
"Being expected to work like we don't have children
Being expected to parent like we don't have work
You are a super mom"
This struck a chord so deep and I could relate to it so much. As I pondered deeper, I asked myself, "Are these expectations self-driven or by others?".
In my case, it is heavily influenced by self.
The patterns that keep repeating are
- Setting high expectations for myself on multiple fronts,
- Striving to be better on every front,
- Not willing to compromise on one over another at any point in time,
- Deep guilt if such compromises or lapses had to be allowed,
- Lack of ability to delegate to others,
- Lack of willingness to ask for help
I'm sure many women face similar patterns that can be traced back to high self-expectations.
At some point of time in our life, for our mental sanity, deeper clarity about such patterns is required to break them.
It's okay to chill and do nothing.
It's okay to not set high benchmarks for yourself.
It's okay to let go and compromise without guilt.
It's okay to not want that "superwoman" tag.
Let us not be the ones who put ourselves into a pressure cooker!! (there are enough and more people around us who do that anyway!)
Happy Women's day to the lovely ladies reading this post!
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