SISTER, IT’S OK to take care of yourself. Self-care isn’t selfish.
That’s a piece of life advice we reckon needs hearing more often. There is enough research out there which shows how just practising wellness helps us grow strong — and not just for ourselves.
“A woman, if she’s herself healthy, she’s well. She’s confident. She’s strong. Just in her home, she’s able to look after not just a nuclear family; very likely she’s giving care to the generation above, and also helping to nurture the generation that comes after,” said PAP Women’s Wing (WW) Chairwoman Sim Ann to a 300-strong crowd at Wellness in Action, the WW’s Saturday morning (Mar 9) event to commemorate International Women’s Day 2024.
Plus, there is the indisputable fact that women tend to live longer than men (85 years rather than 80). And the everyday truth that they often put aside their own needs to help our loved ones; a recent joint WW survey with the NTUC U Women and Family (NTUC U WAF) found that 8 in 10 Singaporean women just do not prioritise self-care or make time for activities that nurture their own well-being.
Hence Wellness in Action focusing on, well, action. No less than 12 workshops ran throughout the Paya Lebar Quarter event. They were chances for women to get a good, healthy sweat at a Barre Beginner Stretch Class and a PILOXING workout (that’s interval training combined with barefoot training).
There were also opportunities to attend expert talks about healthy eating for long-term health, and hands-on workshops about the benefits of painting and journaling for self-care.
“A lot of times we’re so busy rushing through that we don’t acknowledge and notice how we feel or what we think. And it’s only when you notice it that you can process it,” said MP Nadia Samdin (Ang Mo Kio GRC) on the emotional benefits of journaling.
True to that, Wellness in Action saw MP Nadia distributing mindfulness journals — ones lovingly and professionally-designed by WW activists — to the crowd.
MP Nadia, who is also the event’s Organising Chairperson, brought up a particularly eye-opening statistic from the WW-NTUC U WAF survey that might be good for these journals.
“In contrast to 61.8 per cent of male counterparts who believe that women leaders have access to emotional and mental health support to manage the challenges of work-family balance, only 35.9 per cent of women actually share that same perception,” she said.
That adds to another finding from the survey: Only 21.8 per cent of us make our own well-being pivotal to our life choices.
So that’s all a lot of work in this new age that needs doing — to empower other women and to care for our sisters holistically.
The PAP Women’s Wing invests in women’s progress
The WW is doing this work for women’s health and well-being. Chairwoman Sim said: “This is an evergreen topic which we can devote quite a lot of our attention and our bandwidth to.”
So lately the WW has linked up with employers to help women balance work and caregiving duties, launched an easy-to-use toolkit which supports girls and women facing online harm and even put together a recipe book which celebrates recipes handed down between generations of Singapore’s women.
WW activists also contributed to the landmark White Paper on Singapore Women’s Development in 2022.
The WW knows, though, that prevailing mindsets and stereotypes will only change with a whole-of-society effort. So WW activists and leaders will keep doing what they do — thought leadership, building collaborative ecosystems of support, and good old-fashioned on-the-ground connecting. They will keep showing that this change is indeed possible for Singapore’s women.
“Only with your support and help are we able to reach out to more in the community. And that is what our PAP Women’s Wing activists are very well-equipped to do. Because today it’s about equipping you so that you can equip others. You can share with others; you will have knowledge. You’ll have very interesting and very important material that you can share with friends, neighbours, residents, your community and then to get them all on board,” said Chairwoman Sim.
Find out more about (or join!) the Women’s Wing here.
The Women’s Wing also just launched their Insta! Follow them here.
