As part of the community reporters scheme I was invited to blog about a Thinking Women event which took place in Manchester last week.  I was a little wary at first.  I don’t normally go to women only events and I’ll be honest, I had a few doubts.  Why do women need their own events?  What would women say about men only events? What kind of women go to these meetings?

The last question is the easiest to answer and so I’ll start there.  There were around 30 women from different backgrounds: entrepreneurs, students, housewives, performance artists and many more.  We sat in a circle in The Friends’ Meeting House and listened to guest speaker and Well Heeled Diva, Jane Kenyon. The subject of the seminar was ‘Finding Courage, Losing Doubt: Strategies for Life’. A tough gig for anyone to tackle but Jane talked frankly and honestly about her own life and this filtered through when we split up into smaller groups to discuss some of the issues.

I’ve been to lots of seminars, workshops and lectures – some good and some bad. For me the mark of any successful event is if I can take away one valuable thing. This could be advice, an idea or a contact. Last week I learned a number of practical tips but the one thing that stayed with me was the idea of deconstructing negative beliefs and substituting them with positive ideas.  It’s too complex to tackle here but if you’re interested in learning more take a look at the sites below.

And the other two questions? Well, I still don’t have comprehensive answers to those but I think I know two women who do.

Jane Guest – dynamic entrepreneur, motivational coach and one of the founding members of Well Heeled Divas.

Jessica Symmons – social entrepreneur, creative thinker and one of the founding members of the northern strand of Thinking Women

Further Info:

www.thinkingwomen.org

http://wellheeleddivas.typepad.com