To pick up on Palmira's blog about the history of International Womens Day, I thought it would be interesting to know what has been happening with regard to this particular celebration.
Having worked at the United Nations for many years, I found the following very interesting:
Below are some of the global United Nation themes used for International Women's Day to date. It is most interesting to read from 1996 to the present.
- 2009: Women and men united to end violence against women and girls - 2008: Investing in Women and Girls - 2007: Ending Impunity for Violence against Women and Girls - 2006: Women in decision-making - 2005: Gender Equality Beyond 2005: Building a More Secure Future - 2004: Women and HIV/AIDS - 2003: Gender Equality and the Millennium Development Goals - 2002: Afghan Women Today: Realities and Opportunities - 2001: Women and Peace: Women Managing Conflicts - 2000: Women Uniting for Peace - 1999: World Free of Violence against Women - 1998: Women and Human Rights - 1997: Women at the Peace Table - 1996: Celebrating the Past, Planning for the Future
This year's themes around the world include the following: - Global, United Nations: Women and men united to end violence against women and girls - Canada, Status of Women (Federal Gov): Strong Leadership. Strong Women. Strong World: Equality - Australia, UNIFEM: Unite to End Violence Against Women - Australia, Queensland Government Office for Women: Our Women, Our State - Australia, WA Department for Communities: Sharing the Caring for the Future - UK, Doncaster Council: Women's Voices and Influence - UK, Welsh Assembly Government: Bridging the Generational Gap - UK, Accenture: Stretch Yourself: Achieving 50:50 in the boardroom by 2020
Notice how as the years go by the theme changes so that now we even have men gathering on the side of Women's Rights. How exciting is that? Rijuta Tooker Manifest your Soul-Power! Soul-Power Community
'Breaking the Silence, Beating the Drum' was the message of a concert and cultural event held at the United Nations Wednesday, 25th March '09. International artists and performers, including drummers and dancers from Cameroon, Gilberto Gil, Sarah Jones, Carl Lewis and Whoopi Goldberg performed before an audience of over 2,000 in the United Nations General Assembly Hall.
This extraordinary event was held as a result of a United Nations General Assembly Resolution in order to educate future generations about the perils of slave trade, racism and prejudice.
The event was deeply moving, heart-wrenching yet a celebration of the victory of human aspiration and intention.
Being backstage with my friends, Carl Lewis and his Mom, Evelyn, and the other performers was fascinating. We felt an incredible warmth of family feeling among the performers who represented many of the 192 Member States in the United Nations.
Do you ever feel that you would like to transcend your yesterday's self?
You are not the same person today that you were yesterday, 24 hours ago. You have had many hours of additional experiences, thoughts, feelings and emotions.
Yesterday's limitations are only stumbling blocks to today's growth. If you wish to transcend your present reality, then you must move toward more excellence, more focussed intention, more consistent action toward the desires you have for a new reality.
Do you aspire to go beyond that which you are? Would you like to grow into a person who has more creativity, more inner and outer wealth, more capacity to contribute to humanity?
How to do this? Keep a silent time just for yourself each day - preferably early in the morning and/or after the hustle and bustle of the day has subsided - in the evening.
After you take a few deep breaths to relax, set your intention for a greater degree of excellence in one or two areas of your life. Take small steps,and,do it every day.
Each and every BraveHeart Woman who desires to make a difference in this world, must aspire to be healthy, strong, energetic and dynamic - outwardly as well as inwardly.
We are walking along Eternity's Road and all of our goals lie ahead of us. As we walk we are reminded that we must continually move toward our goals, one step at a time.
As we physically walk, we gain outer strength, determination, better health and greater joy. We are also adding these soul qualities to our inner treasure.
Having said the above, I firmly believe each of us must engage ourselves in some way with our physical body on a daily basis. We need to challenge the body so we gain physical strength, endurance, flexibility and balance.
For those not already occupied daily with some athletic activity or physical labor, I encourage you to begin to walk - outdoors and daily. You only need a comfortable and supportive shoe. Nothing else.
Begin slowly and for short periods of time. If you wish to measure your distance, go to a local track at a high school or university - OR measure a few blocks with your car.
Inspire yourself with a new track suit or walking shorts and t-shirt. Make sure you are healthy enough to undertake a daily routine. If in doubt, get your doctor's input.
Would be interested to know of your progress! Would also be interested to know other kinds of exercise that our BraveHearts are doing!
In the time-space that we now find ourselves in, we must remember to carry our personal light above all else. It must be to the fore at all times. We hear and see so much that is not illumining in our day-to-day lives that we need to protect ourselves from any and all darkness that may try to enter our consciousness.
How do we do that? Please feel and know that you carry within yourself much energy; we can call this energy 'light'. Imagine yourself as a divine warrior. When something comes to disturb your peace, your consciousness, call up your inner sun, your light-energy and illumine the darkness with your light.You can utilize your inner sun, your energy light, your soul-power whenever you need it. For example, suppose you are having negative thoughts about a particular person or situation. What to do? One way is to close your eyes if you can, take a refreshing deep breath and bring your light power, your soul energy from your heart up to your head.
Practice is necessary. You can do it. You must do it - for yourself and for everyone else. I bow to the light in you. Rijuta Tooker Soul-Power Community
Obstructions that stand in the way of your life's path to fulfillment, to contribution, to happiness and success are inevitable- but They Do Not Need to be There!
On your individual path may be rocks and debris, holes under foot meant to trip you up and other brambles that delay or obstruct your way.
Clear them. Sweep away the clutter, inner and outer. This can best be done in silence. Use your SOUL POWER! Whisk away the little bits of fear, the droplets of doubt, the wrinkles of worry. Chase away all anxiety animals - constantly, consistently, courageously.
Conquer all of your inner foes. Be the divine warrior that you are meant to be. Celebrate in your victories, one by one.
The Talmud claims that 'deeds of kindness' are equal in weight to all the commandments. 'Kindness is more than deeds. It is an attitude, an expression, a look, a touch. It is anything that lifts another person." C. Neil Strait.
Be kind to yourself today, then be kind to others.
Rijuta Tooker
Soul-Power Community
You can conquer your self-limiting doubts! Let us say that doubt is an absence of truth or light; there is some energy that is not purely in alignment with our inner truth. One way to conquer the doubting mind is to have faith or belief that the mind can transcend the doubt-darkness that it is currently experiencing.
When we have self doubt or when we doubt others, we can pull forward our implicit faith or belief in ourselves and transformation will have begun. Our faith or belief must be held in our consciousness more than a few seconds at a time in order for transformation and manifestation to take place.
Where there is light, darkness disappears.We can bring to the fore our soul's light to illumine our doubts through concentration, visualization and/or meditation. Consciously install higher thoughts and ideals in your mind. By thinking, believing and acting as though you are free of your self-limiting doubts, you make it so - sooner or later.
Do not give up. Continue and Conquer! Conquer and Continue! To your Victory! Rijuta Tooker Soul-Power Community
Look in the mirror and ask yourself the question: 'Who am I? How would you answer? You could answer, 'I am a wife, mother, friend and President of my Parent Teacher Association.' or, 'I am a husband, father, friend and CEO of my own company.' But does that truly answer the question, 'Who are you?'
The reason this is a most difficult question to answer is that we have many different aspects of ourselves that are constantly operative.
Let us look at five. Add your own description of 'YOU' for each:
1. I am the body - This is the material part of you that you can touch and see in the mirror. You clean and care for the body, feed it various kinds of food, rest it and exercise it. It is often unaspiring and slothful. You can say, 'I am a 40 year old woman, 5 feet 5 inches, a little chubby, have good teeth but am not very fit.'
2. I am the vital - You can have an aggressive vital (the lower vital), or a pure and dynamic vital (the higher or divine vital). What kinds of emotion or energy motivates your actions, your consciousness? You can say, 'I am a man who wants the best for my family and for my community as well. I am inspired to place my energies in the service of both' (This is the higher vital).
3. I am the mind - Your mind can manifest as a 'doubting mind', a desiring mind, a negative mind; or the mind can manifest as a higher mind - an illumined mind. The mind deals with form, is limited and is easily swayed. [Describe your own mind.]
4. I am the heart - Your heart is almost always pure, except when influenced by the lower vital. The heart is loving, aspiring, inspiring and peace-loving, however, it is not the most perfect part of our being. [Describe your own heart.]
5. I am the soul - Your soul is the most perfect part of your entire being. In the soul there is no darkness; it is all light. The soul has a special mission here on earth. [What is your soul's special mission?] Now with all five parts of your being often pulling in different directions, you can understand why there can be confusion and lack of clarity, procrastination and lack of focus.
Learn about each of the parts of your being. Be able to recognize which part is more operative during certain times of your day. Learn how to activate the higher parts of your being.
More will be discussed in a later blog. Meanwhile, work toward keeping your heart and soul activated as best as you can. Ideally you want to access and manifest your soul-power!
Is your soul at the helm? Are you allowing yourself to step up to your new role(s)? Or, are your ego and your fearful nature continuing to coerce you into ‘dumbing down’ your mind, emotions and aspirations?
Keep your highest intentions to live creatively. Keep your highest artistic and intellectual standards, your highest values.
Look to your soul! Be brave! Maintain a high consciousness - for yourself and for all who surround you. Each day your soul cries out to be heard. Are you listening - with rapt attention? Allow the voice of your soul to enter into your heart. Then allow your heart to whisper a soulful message as you listen with gratitude-ears and newness-breath.
Go forward. If you stay where you were yesterday, you lose ground. Take the time to listen. Be poised in your knowingness. Act accordingly.
Tune in; Tap in; Turn on to a new zest for life; Be more vital and alive. Be more intelligent. Be happier. Be like a breath of fresh air! Make others feel good. Discover the magic of tuning yourself to who you really are and view life through those eyes.
[from Abraham + Esther Hicks]
I invite you to follow her suggestions, action by action.
Look in the mirror and see who you really are - you will discover your Soul-Power ! ! !
Rijuta Tooker
Soul-Power Community
Manifestation steps: Desire It, Ask For It, Visualize It, Detach From It and Accept It. Seems simple enough. Where do you fall short? What do you really desire? Clear your consciousness, by taking a few deep breaths. Bring forward your inspiration and your aspiration. Allow your inner 'wheels' to begin working and when the lightbulb flashes, you now know what you want!
When you Ask for what you want, be exact in your asking - nothing more, nothing less. The minute you change what you want in the tiniest way, you confuse the Universe.
Hold your visualization of what you want - one thing at a time - with clarity and steadfastness. Do not change your visualization or go darting off somewhere with a side idea of something else that you want.
Now detach yourself from the result. Let your desire, your asking, your visualization go - as if it were a balloon floating up into the air, allowing it to go where it will.
Accept with gratitude the special shape and form that your manifestation has taken, lovingly placed before you by the Universe.
So simple; not easy. For years we have been used to dealing with more complicated issues. Lighten up; let go. Utilize your soul-power! Remember the simple formula for Manifestation: Desire, Ask, Visualize, Detach and Accept.
I invite you to try it for something very simple. Did it work for you? Rijuta Tooker Soul-Power Community
Two women who manifest beautifully a dynamic and self-giving spirit: Ellie Drake, founder and visionary of BraveHeart Women, and Dr. Sugar Singleton, M.D. for the BraveHeart Community, are, in my view, unparalleled! While listening to their special 90 plus minutes call this morning, I was inspired at my heart and soul level. We were given brand new, cutting edge information and super-charged constant inspiration. A jam-packed capsule in 90 plus minutes of education to 'chew on' and act upon.
For me, new and added value was placed upon what we have here in our BraveHeart Community. A stunning model for the future is being created, even as we participate in this Community, each in her own way.
Eagerly looking forward to activating at the cellular level the paradigm shift that these ladies are making possible through their upcoming mentoring program - a must for those who wish to access their soul-power.
Are you able to 'aspire today and allow the future to take care of itself? Some will say, "Let the future take care of itself? That is too scary" When you aspire, you are sowing seeds of your immediate and distant 'future'. You want your aspiration-seeds to bear fruit but when you worry about the future, what kinds of seeds are you planting? Only those of doubt, fear,worry, anxiety, and in some cases, panic.
The past we can think of as dust; we do not belong to the past. The past is the result of seeds we have previously planted and has not given us what we want today.
To aspire, means to go beyond your current mental, emotional and physical circumstances, beyond your present consciousness. We want to take our lives to the next level. Today, as we aspire, we are planting only the newness-seeds of what we want to create as our new reality.
Spend time with your aspirations. Within you is an inner treasure, an inner abundance. This is your heart and soul from where your lofty and progressive aspirations originate. Go there. Aspire! Allow the future to take care of itself!
What does it take to create a 'Ho Hum Existence'? On the other hand, what does it take to create a 'Life of Sparkling Brilliance'? Which would you prefer? I can hear some of you say, "Well of course, a Ho Hum existence is far better. Why should I put myself out there? Who needs sparkling brilliance anyway? I would rather leave someone else in charge of all affairs." And yet others are saying, 'Wait a minute. A little 'Ho Hum' goes a long way. I will put myself out there for a little 'Sparkling Brilliance any day! A life of boredom and complacency - not me! I don't mind taking a little responsibility.'
Most of us will find ourselves somewhere in between. Those who prefer the 'Ho Hum Existence' may be toying with shyness, laziness, limited thinking and an uninspired and unaspiring consciousness. This is a follower.
Those who prefer the 'Life of Sparkling Brilliance' are perhaps playing with curiosity, creativity, inspiration, aspiration and a never-give-up spirit. This is a leader.
Are you comfortable where you are? If so, do nothing. For those feeling a little discomfort, sit up, take a deep breath and set your intention to take a baby step toward manifesting something that makes you feel better. You can do it!
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