Single Working Womens Week – SWWAN

Have been hiding under my shell somewhat lately. Just too much going on in my life. My apologies. But we have some wonderful news for SWWANs of all ages and positions in life and work.

You now have an opportunity to participate–and no charge–in an 8-week series of telephone interviews with some amazingly powerful women. The group we’re partnering with is “Women Living on the Verge of Evolution.” And the topics are all about the power and impact of women on today’s world.

Last week I attended the session with Etta D. Jackson. I was impressed with her deep understanding of the inner meaning of life on many planes and dimensions. She has the real-world credentials of course—a B.A. in Biology and two M.S. degrees: one in Psychoanalytic Counseling and Development and the other in Administrative Leadership and Supervision, and she’s a Licensed Psychotherapist—but it was her confident grasp of the importance of the changing role of women in our universe that most impressed me.

Etta has written three books:
-Understanding Your Choice
-Unveiling the Secrets of the Feminine Principle
-The Role of Consciousness in Governance

They say about her: “She has always known on the deepest levels of her being the Oneness of all life, and that all differences are only parts of the One Unifying Whole. She shares with you in her books the fact that Man is, in fact, the great mystery that he has been searching for; and that in knowing himself he comes to know God. It is her firm belief that Man’s primary purpose on Earth is to answer the deep questions that lead to a knowledge of himself. And in this knowing all separation ends and he comes to know his true relationship to God and his fellowman.

In addition to all this, she’s a mom and a grandmother. So she’s mired in the real world, too. She is just one of the powerful women who will be presenting at the International Convocation in Las Vegas, Thursday, September 16 through Saturday, September 18. Hotel specials, etc. Mark your calendar!!

Tonight we’re going to learn more about how to tap into our greatest inner resources. Valencia Ray, MD (called the Confidence Doc) will explain:

• Why we tend to lose touch with our authentic hopes, dreams and aspirations so that you can begin to take steps to find your way back to them
• How we come to define ourselves and the science behind this process, so that you can begin to rewire your self-image to one that serves you now
• Recognize some commonly held myths that can block you from expanding the vision for your life and begin to take the actions that can create a new vision for your life so that you can let your light shine and live more authentically

This is great stuff. If you want to get the notices for each week’s session, visit the WomenLivingontheVergeofEvolution website and sign up.

Oh, and by the way, I will be speaking at a conference session during Single Working Women’s Week (Aug 1-7, 2010). Mark your calendar for Thursday, August 4, at 8 pm CT (6 pm PT, 9 pm ET). I’m working on the agenda now. If you have any ideas of things you’d like to talk about, please email me at barbara dot payne at swwan dot org.

Looking forward to celebrating the fourth annual Single Working Women’s Week with all of you.

Greetings, SWWAN readers. My apologies for having been away so long. It has been a time of great upheaval and change for me. Now that things have died down to a smaller roar, I’m eager to get back to writing about the wonders of single life.

It has been clear as we’ve grown the numbers of members and readers that we have single women from a multitude of different circumstances. And for most of us, one strong certain common bond is being single in today’s couples-oriented U.S. society. But we also have members from countries as far away as China, Australia, Africa, England and more. It seems likely they must face some of the same issues and that’s why they were attracted to SWWAN.

Interestingly, we had one reader unsubscribe last year because she said, “I’m over 70, employed part-time and taking care of my aged mother. I haven’t read anything here that relates to my situation.” So I guess for her, it wasn’t so much about being single but about the other aspects of her life that she wanted to hear/talk about.

Some SWWANs moms have jobs.  Some are self-employed. Some are ever-single and some are divorced. Some are 40-somethings or baby boomers and older, and some are late 20s or 30-somethings. Some are single moms and some are great aunts or only adult children. The overriding reason SWWAN came into existence was to honor the specific experiences of being a single working woman—the joys, fears, burdens, the struggle and the exhilaration of facing life with mainly only yourself to count on.  It’s an experience that no one can relate to if they haven’t lived it. And many who did live it but have gone on to other circumstances quickly forget the intensity of the single life.

We set SWWAN up originally to do many things, including awarding points for single-life milestones and to collect and eventually publish stories from our readers. We haven’t had the staff and the bandwidth to do all that we wanted. But now I’d like to ask our members and readers to weigh in on what single life is like for you—and the things you’d most like to see us set as goals. I’ll create a short survey and send a link out in the next week or two. Looking forward to hearing from all of you!

Tired of struggling with technology? I’ve been trying to figure out how to email posts from my cell phone to the SWWAN blog since I put it on WordPress, and I just keep getting sidetracked because it seems so complicated. It’s frustrating and kind of embarrassing, since I’m normally pretty with it with technology. Could have something to do with the fact that I’ve just completed a full purge of my household and a move into what I hope will be my last home.

Did you ever keep putting some project off because it required too much prep work? Feel. Overwhelmed when facing some task? What do you do? Sometimes I enlist help–a friend or relative perhaps. When I was married, of course, I’d want to hire someone, but my husband would say he’d do the things I felt too challenged by. But guess what? A lot of times he’d procrastinate worse than I did. I couldn’t figure out why someone would say, no, don’t hire someone,  I can do that and then not do it. When I asked my father about it, he surprised me by suggesting that maybe he just didn’t know how to do it. And here I thought he was doing it to annoy me, and all those times it may have been because he couldn’t admit his ignorance.

Surprisingly sometimes—when it’s over and I’ve got the thing done—it turns out not to have been as complex as I thought it would be. And then I’m sorry I resisted. But mostly I’m just really glad it’s done.

I’m typing this with two thumbs on my tiny cell phone keyboard. Now, if only I knew how to email it to the blog instead of emailing it to myself and then having to transfer it…