As tens of thousands of civilians flee Ukraine, many women are staying to fight for their freedom, alongside the men who have been ordered to stay and fight.
As I write this, we are in day five of Russia’s siege of Kyiv, Ukraine. The city still has not fallen. I pray for a miracle. Women now make up 15% of the armed forces in Ukraine, and as war rages on in Ukraine, many women across the nation, from politicians to beauty queens, have taken up arms to defend their nation against Russian invasion. Ukraine’s women are empowered.
On March 8, the world will be celebrating International Women’s Day with the historical, cultural and political achievements of women. Organizations large and small will come together to show women just how valuable they are. And here at Smart Women’s Empowerment, we will be celebrating women’s empowerment all month long.
There are so many exciting things happening with women right now, everything from the Supreme Court to the basketball court…or should we say Women’s Soccer! It’s certainly time and there is so much more to do.
So where does this kind of empowerment come from? Think back into your life. Think about the times you have faced your deepest and darkest moments. How have those experiences affected you?
Experiences can be empowering or disempowering. Some of the most important work I do is with helping women identify their disempowering beliefs, going right to the memory — the experience, and feeling where it is in the body.
Do you know that all these experiences are stored in our body and I have a process where we actually move that energy out of the body once and for all. When we do this, quite often that disempowering belief loses its energy. This is when we install a new empowering belief.
I call it my work with Money Personalities. There are five of them: Value, Love, Security, Recognition, and Status. As a Recognition Personality, I remember the exact time when my disempowering belief of, “I am all alone, and I need to prove I can do it”, was formed. These beliefs hold us back from standing in our personal power with money and in every area of life.
I’ve always been a fighter and have stood up for the less fortunate, whether it was standing up to a bully in middle school, going door-to-door at age 12 raising “holiday dollars for the poor and the needy” for my church in the ankle-deep snow of Michigan, or standing up to my abusive and predatory step-father at 17 years old.
Doing what is right, leading a cause, and taking a stand have just come naturally to me. In my case, it began when my loving father drowned. I was just six years old. Life changed dramatically, and I was put in a situation where I simply had to grow up too fast and had too much responsibility thrown upon me.
When I look back, although I’d never want to relive those times again, I have found the gift. This gift is why I have chosen this life path of empowering and teaching women to take charge of their money, to find their inner gifts and inner strength and bring those gifts into the world. I believe there is always a gift!
Today I am honored to be leading Smart Women’s Empowerment. The idea came to me while sitting in a conference at the Ritz Carlton in Washington D.C. My dream was to form an army of smart, successful women who would each reach out to just one other woman in need and say, “Here, take my hand, and I’ll show you the way.” You can read my full story in Women 2 Women Michigan Magazine.
I invite you to Pay it Forward by bringing the women in your life to our free community! Come learn, grow, and celebrate women’s empowerment with us! Simply visit or share: www.JoinSmartWomen.com.
This month to celebrate women, I’ve invited two very long-time friends who are leaders in the women’s empowerment movement, Bobette Schrandt, President and CEO of LACASA Center and Anne Doyle, author, international speaker, and women’s advocate. Bobette will discuss how to stand up powerfully after overcoming abuse and what resources are available to women who are experiencing financial, physical, or sexual abuse. She will also share what WE can do to help these women in our communities. Anne will offer a robust conversation about women rising to the challenges of the 21st century. I promise it will be an empowering and inspirational show.
Katana Abbott, CFP®, is a Midlife Millionaire® Coach, founder of the Smart Women Companies, and the host Smart Women Talk with over a million subscribers. For over 30 years, Katana has shown women how to take charge of their life and finances and believes it’s never too early to plan for expected and unexpected events like retirement, encore careers, moving abroad, or preparing for long-term care. She has written several books, created a financial literacy course, and is a popular speaker. Katana has been honored by NAWBO as one of Detroit’s Top 10 Business Women, receiving the Breakthrough Award. To download her new retirement guide, Three Smart Strategies for a Midlife Millionaire® Lifestyle. visit www.katanaabbott.com