In the wake of The Modern Muse Mag’s first birthday, the smell of candles is in the air and it has us thinking; what does it mean to celebrate? We asked our readers what they’ve been celebrating and the results were nothing short of eclectic and exciting, with one major thing in common – they’re all worth their fair share of appreciation. Let’s explore the fluidity and power of celebrating milestones and why acknowledging this as a female is so important.
The Power of Celebrating
Celebrating is more than just a bit of fun – it’s a way of staying mindful, showing appreciation
Along with this comes stress relief, or reduction in cortisol, which also correlates with lowered blood pressure, less chance of chronic pain
What Does It Mean to Celebrate as a Female?
Being a female is something to celebrate in itself. But one thing that we’re constantly taught is to be quiet, be humble, be the cool girl, and to not make a fuss. So, sometimes, openly celebrating can feel strange in a world that naturally wants you to stay quiet. I mean come on; we’ve all seen America Ferreira’s iconic speech in Barbie. By openly celebrating, we’re creating a community of supportive girls’-girls and thereby knocking the standards of submissiveness inherently assigned to being a female on the head like a game of whack-a-mole. Let us be loud and have fun, and celebrate whenever the heck we want. But this then leads to the question of what should we celebrate?
So… What Should We Celebrate?
Life is a mosaic of moments; some we see every day and some we will only ever experience once. So, why not celebrate anything that signifies change or progress, fills your cup, or aligns with your values?
When we surveyed our readers about what events they celebrate, responses included engagement parties and divorce parties, housewarmings and house-coolings, sparkly fun birthdays and funeral-themed-seeya-later-twenties birthdays. People celebrating the simple joys of life by dying their hair pink, or the birth of their first child. Having enough cash for a house deposit or enough to treat yourself to breakfast once a week. The 100th Pilates class attendance or getting out of bed to watch a sunrise once a month. The message was clear. When you realise that you can celebrate anything, you begin to uncover what truly matters to you.
Celebrating Together
What’s better than celebrating alone? Doing it with others. More and more in our society we are seeing women celebrating together and graduating from competing for hierarchy to completing milestones together. This has stolen the limelight at the Olympics too. There have been countless moments of morale for females through all different sports and nationalities, from celebrating wins to celebrating simply finishing the race. And, not once was jealousy evident, just a collective celebration every time. We love to see it.
As Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Comparison is the thief of joy” and as I see it, collaboration is the spark of joy, playing an important role in celebration. It’s about showing up for your female counterparts and forming that unbreakable formative union that we refer to as girl power.
In Conclusion
Celebration is a case of perspective. It’s choosing a stance of positivity in a teetering moment. We could say that we wish we had done more, been more, seen more… or we could take what we do have, as major or minor as it may be, and spin it with positivity until it’s the centre of our next party. So, think about something in your life that makes you feel a little bit lighter. And when it’s your turn to share your achievements, feel proud; if it’s important to you it’s worth celebrating. Cheers to that.
Learn more about what milestones women celebrate here.
Read more of our Thought-Provoking Articles here.
