SNOW Meeting Recap – March 9, 2024 – Social Network of Women (SNOW)

Welcome and Introductions

SNOW has changed how we celebrate International Women’s Day
For SNOW, every day is Women’s Day
To celebrate ourselves as women is to give ourselves a pat on the back. Women are the glue of the family, extended family, and community

The first National Women’s Day was on February 28, 1909: women got together to protest against long working hours, poor wages, and voting rights
In 1910, there was a conference in Denmark where it was decided that the first International Women’s Day would be celebrated on March 8, 1911
During the Russian Revolution, women protested for bread and peace. When Emperor Nicholas II abdicated the throne, the feminist movement faded away.
The second wave of the feminist movement happened in 1967 when women protested for equal rights, reproductive rights, subsidized daycare, and against violence against women
In 2004, International Women’s Day was brought back and has been celebrated ever since

Resilience is the capacity to cultivate and meet your own expectations fully, and not get overwhelmed. We meet the expectations more fully when we are not overwhelmed.
Resilience involves increasing self-awareness, and cultivating compassion and trust in yourself. Compassion is how to be more aware, insightful, and resilient.
There is a load that we carry with us, and sometimes, we do not know what it is
With resilience, we can learn how to unload and process the load, be insightful and have compassion and openness
When we are down, we tend to push ourselves down even more due to lack of inner/self-compassion
As women, we are expected to carry the load on our shoulders and behave in a certain way
Courage lies in being vulnerable, we need to have a safe space for that
There is a saying that “if you can’t name it, you can’t tame it”: you need to acknowledge that the load/bag is there
A somatic exercise was conducted where we thought about our emotions and thoughts and to have a sense of gratitude for showing up for ourselves

Speaking about being a mental health professional, Priya Gaba, mentioned that acknowledging grief, creating a safe space and having compassion for the person is what works
It is often the small things that get us down
It is very important to have a safe space and a community to rely on
Faith in yourself and faith in spiritual powers helps
Letting go of the “we should do this” helps to reduce the load
It is important to not put pressure on yourself to be excellent at everything
Seniors are not always treated well in healthcare
- This is mostly for the seniors who are unable to speak for themselves
- Seniors’ families, seniors’ groups, etc. need to stand up for the seniors
Society has changed, but it is important to be healthy

On April 27^th, there will be a SNOW event at East India Company with lunch and a speaker
There will not be a SNOW meeting on the second Saturday in April
Tickets for the April 27^th event are $30 each which includes lunch
There are limited tickets for the event
There will be another event like this in the fall