Balancing Act: Women, Caregiving, and Careers with Nicky Bevan
The Gender Diversity Network was thrilled to welcome Nicky Bevan, a renowned keynote speaker, certified life coach, and host of the popular podcast "The Working Moms". Nicky shared her expertise, insights, and practical strategies to help navigate the demands of both work and caregiving.
For many women, striking the right balance between caregiving duties and career ambitions is an ongoing challenge. Traditionally, women have shouldered a disproportionate amount of caregiving labor, whether it's caring for children, elderly parents, or other family members. At the same time, women have made great strides in the professional world, shattering glass ceilings and proving their capabilities across industries.
This dual role of caregiver and breadwinner often requires a delicate balancing act. Women may find themselves torn between the desire to advance their careers and the societal and familial expectations to prioritize caregiving responsibilities. The constant juggling of work deadlines, household chores, and caring for loved ones can lead to immense stress, burnout, and feelings of guilt for not being able to devote enough time to either sphere.
Achieving a harmonious equilibrium is a personal journey, and the solution looks different for every woman. Regardless of the path chosen, it's crucial for women to have access to resources, supportive policies, and a societal shift that values and supports their multifaceted roles. Neverless, the balancing act between caregiving and careers highlights the remarkable resilience and determination of women who strive to excel in multiple domains while navigating the complexities of modern life.
You always get to choose how you experience any given situation. You don't necessarily have a choice about the situation, but you get to choose how you experience it through focusing on yourself instead of trying to control everything around you.
Nicky Bevan
Keynote speaker, certified life coach, podcast host of "The Working Mums"
Reflection & Take-aways
Nicky has chosen an interesting approach of not starting off with the topic itself but rather addressing the participants directly. This enabled everyone to actually enter this topic with the same mindset and finding an overlap with other participants. The below results show that no one should feel alone in this balancing act as almost all participants confirmed that they have a running commentary in their head, tending to worst case scenarios and self- judgment.
85%
of participants have a voice in their head that's giving them a running commentary.
64%
of participants say the commentary is going to worse case scenarios & self-judgment.
This running commentary sets off a chain reaction. It firstly impacts your thoughts which influence how you feel about this situation. The type and level of emotions therefore defines the actions you might want to take. All three elements of this framework ultimately impact the results.
The session though did not only put a spotlight on this open challenge but actually covered various tips that everyone can practice, memorize and apply in any given situation. May it be in a personal or professional environment.
Acknowledge where you currently are with compassion. No judgement. Just decide you're not gonna beat yourself up ever again.
Breathe. Because we all know the benefits of breathing.
Choose. Who do I want to be? How do I want to show up? What emotion do I want to communicate to this person from? Could be love, compassionate curiosity? You get to decide regardless of whether you're at work or at home.
So if you're on the commute and you're like, Oh my God, I have to stand in the train station and it's pouring with rain and I have to get on the train. This is miserable.
No. You might want to get. You might want to do that commute to work, but also you get to do that commute to work. You get to have that conversation and understand that other human you get to look after these people.
If that's what you're choosing to do because there are some people in the world that would love to be in your position. That's not a reason to beat yourself up. It's a reason to have fascination.
Learn how to receive help. It's uncomfortable but so is trying to do everything.
Even if it's just 5 minutes, maybe you need to start with five minutes, maybe initially. That's all your brain is going to let you do. I'm just going to sit here for 5 minutes and enjoy staring out the window, just listening to what's going on with my brain without judgement.
Just enjoy this really nice cup of tea. Just start there, but it's absolutely essential that you look after you. If you don't look after you, you will not be available to look after your job, to look after your kids, or to look after anyone else that you need to look after.
