I’ve had the privilege to spend my Valentine’s Day helping women in a way I know how.  I am a pilates instructor.  Much of the work I do is therapeutic.  In the past year I have become frustrated  with the feeling that I teach more hours than I have the energy or enthusiasm for, my “day job” has overridden my artistic career, and I don’t make an income reflective of my skill level, experience and education.  “Boo hoo” right? … but from a different perspective, I feel these are legitimate things that every woman should have the right to think, feel, and do something about.  After spending months knowing that this is how I felt, and not really knowing how or feeling ready to push and make a change, I finally was hit with a different approach.  Instead of only figuring out how I can work less and get paid more, I thought – why not also do work for free, and enjoy it more.  Give it away, so to speak.  Obviously I can’t afford to do that 100%, but I realized that I was willing and able to give away my skills, experience and education one time a week to people who need it and cannot afford it.

This was my second week volunteering.  I teach a “well back” class at one centre, and this week I also lead a workshop at a training centre for women who want to get into trades.  The money that I did not make during these sessions was not missed.  The energy and independence I have already gotten back from ‘giving it away’ has been more than worth it.  And this week, as it so happened, was the day of the Women’s Memorial March in the downtown east side.  I got to spend two and a half hours helping women take care of themselves, and literally walk with the women’s march on the way from one appointment to the other.  It was a humbling experience, and I took it as a significant sign that I was in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing.

I want opportunities for growth and change in my life and in my career.  I also want women in general to have more opportunities in their lives, and especially women with less privilege than me.  I am lucky to be able to afford to volunteer, and I can see that there is a need for it.  It is a small shift, but one that has already brought meaning and joy back into my “day job”.  Interestingly enough, as I sought out these volunteer opportunities, I also found the motivation to make a couple small but significant steps toward my personal career goals.  As someone recently said to me – and I am paraphrasing – “Your happiness or having more doesn’t  take away from someone else’s, in fact, it could provide you with more to give.”