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Leading Women

Through Birthing, Business and Beyond

By Kirstie ClosePublished 4 years ago 2 min read
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Retro sweat to red tents. We discussed it ALL.

On 12 November 2019, I interviewed Tara Darlington, Managing Director of Empowering Motherhood. She is organising the Women's Leadership Symposium coming up in Sydney, Australia on 23 November.

Tara was, back in the 1980s, an aerobics instructor. Oh, how I wish we had some tragic photographic evidence of this. Aerobics is, apparently, now known as 'Retro Sweat.' Delicious! She stepped away from this work when she had her first child, noticing the negative way in which so many people remembered and then talked about their experience of birth, and the negative rhetoric that extended beyond her circle of friends. Tara wanted to see change, so she became a doula. She had fortunately had a good birth with her daughter, and she wanted to be able to help other women have a positive experience. She wanted to be a voice advocating for women at arguably their most vulnerable time.

Tara moved in and out of doula work between having her own family, and as her babies grew she realised that negative rhetoric, and negative perceptions of motherhood, extended well beyond that initial stage of birth. She decided to work towards creating a community of women who would lift each other up, making space for honest and open discussion about what they were dealing with. She has noticed, through using yoga and meditation techniques, that the support being fostered in her network is 'so loving and genuine and gentle.' This network becomes a place to celebrate together, to build each other's resilience, and a reigniting of some of the older practices that we have lost thanks to industrialisation. Tara encourages women to:

  • Work collaboratively and consistently
  • Work creatively, and be playful
  • Find their focus
  • Get out of a state of exhaustion—which is where anxiety can really kick in. Get centred, and rediscover your intuition if it's depleted and disconnected

The Women's Leadership Symposium features a line up of international as well as Australian speakers. Tara says the speakers will address leadership on three levels:

  1. Women's sovereignty and agency—coming into leadership within yourself—taking control of life instead of letting life control you.
  2. Journey of motherhood and womanhood being a step into a new kind of leadership role.
  3. Making space for yourself—seeing the bigger picture rather than getting caught up with the minutia of life. This is where the intuition, resilience, power and strength kicks in.

If you are going to be in Sydney on the 23rd, I encourage you to quickly snap up a ticket. Otherwise, you could join Tara's Thrive Express program which is due to be launched any day now.

Are you ready to take your next best step?

https://wholewomanrevolution.com/

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