20 years ago, I never could have imagined I would celebrate women on such a personal level as I do today. Now 20 years later, as we begin our month-long celebration of Women’s History Month, I begin by celebrating the most significant woman I’ve ever known, my mother. This is her birthday month and I am celebrating it by acknowledging the incredible example she was and still is in my life.

Since her passing, I’ve come to regard birthdays highly by encouraging others to extend their birthday to birthday month and on to birthday year as I have my own. I celebrate my birthday throughout the year with both spontaneous and planned out treats and activities that constantly remind me of how precious each moment is that we can draw a breath. Meditation is the activity I now do every day that reminds me of the sacredness of each time I inhale and exhale.

In 2020 I celebrated my birthday by planning a year’s worth of travel, events, and activities intended to remind me that each morning I awake, I have the gift of “another day to get it right”, as a dear female friend often reminds me. Thank you Billie for the reminder.

Unfortunately, COVID put an end to the seven weeks of travel plans that boiled down to two at the start of the year. A few months after the initial announcement that New York City was on lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus, I wasn’t sure I’d live to reach the end of that year. So I went to my favorite bakery in upper Manhattan and bought myself a chocolate birthday cake. I celebrated with the few neighbors I felt safe enough to visit. While they enjoyed slices of my cake, I ate the majority of it on my own. Yum!

Having grown up in a very religious family, I took to expanding my spiritual life which has grown beyond what I recall as the child of a Deacon in the church, a mother who sat on the church board, Sunday school classes, and Church summer camps in Texas. Now I occasionally facilitate Open Bible Study at my local church, attend a meditation class each week with acquaintances from around the world, and have recently begun a weekly meditation class with a small group I suspect will grow over time.

These have been nurturing experiences for me that I place in the category of restorative self-care. Over the past 20 years, my life has drastically changed. Back then I was ramping up my involvement in the female-dominated world of figure skating – following my Olympic coaching accomplishment – I launched MovesMaster® educational services devoted to seminars and instruction in the field of ice skating; drawing on the arts, sports, and performance. Now 20 years later, I am back to writing my book under that enterprise as I refresh the skating world’s connection to leadership.

In my role as a leadership consultant and coach, I draw on many modalities including arts, sports, and performance in my coaching of executives. Each discipline in and of itself plays up the need for restorative self-care, something that I devote much time and energy honing. Fortunately, the cryogenics aspect of being in an ice rink for 40 years has slowed my aging process and I augment it with yoga, warm bubble baths, healthy eating habits, and massages regularly when not writing, coaching, or taking short invigorating trips to get away and clear my head.

I invite you to take stock in your own path through restorative self-care as we publish this month’s blog and celebrate the history of women whom without, none of us would Be.