This International Women's Day - start with yourself.

Editor’s note

This article is part of our Reflections series - a space for honest thoughts on connection, change, and how we show up in the world. These pieces aren’t here to tell you what to do. They’re here to offer a moments pause. A few minutes to notice what might be going on in life and knowing you're not alone.

International Women’s Day often brings with it a familiar set of gestures. Celebration. Recognition. Calls to support and uplift.

All of it is necessary, but it’s worth asking what follows once the day itself has passed and how are you able to contribute?

This year, we want to stop and try something different.

Before we show up for others - in visible ways or private ones - we have to be resourced ourselves. Not inspired, not optimised. Simply enough energy to meet the world as it is without running on empty.

The phrase “you can’t pour from an empty cup” is easy to dismiss because it’s so often repeated. But repetition (or overuse) doesn’t make it wrong!

Psychology and neuroscience both point to a consistent finding: emotional energy is finite. When we are depleted, our nervous system prioritises protection over connection. In those moments, generosity, patience and encouragement don’t disappear - they simply require more effort than we have available.

Research into emotional labour and burnout shows something similar. When people feel rested and supported, they are more likely to offer support themselves. Not because they have been told to, but because it feels accessible. Care flows more easily when it isn’t competing with exhaustion.

This is where the idea of self-focus is often misunderstood.

Looking after yourself isn’t a retreat from responsibility, and it isn’t an act of self-absorption. It’s closer to maintenance than indulgence. The kind that keeps systems working, rather than waiting for them to fail.

And yet, many women are practised at doing the opposite.

Tiredness becomes normal. Depletion is minimised. Rest is delayed until it feels earned, justified, or unavoidable.

So this International Women’s Day, our suggestion is deliberately different.

Do something, even if it's something small, that helps you feel better.

Not changed.Not resolved.Just a little more like yourself.

When you feel calmer and more confident in yourself, the impact tends to be cumulative rather than dramatic. Encouragement comes more easily. Support feels less like a demand. Showing up for others becomes part of the rhythm of life, rather than another thing to manage.

And it's easy to forget that support doesn’t always have to be large or visible.

If you want to do something small, right now, that costs nothing: like, share, or comment on a woman-owned business you admire. Say something specific. Make it genuine.

Women-owned businesses aren’t simply economic units. Many are quietly reshaping narratives, creating space where it hasn’t existed before, and rebalancing long-standing inequalities. Visibility, even in small ways, contributes to that shift.

What is She Shares doing?

Well, if what you need is something in person; a pause, a reset, a sense of being held for a morning - we’ve created space for that too.

This International Women’s Day, we’re bringing together three incredible and experienced women to share practical, everyday health and life insights.

No grand overhauls. No pressure to become a better version of yourself. Just small, sustainable things that can make life feel more manageable.

The details:

Sunday 8th March | 9:30–11:30, Walcot House, Bath

Click here to find out more and save your space.

Come as you are.

Leave feeling a little better than when you arrived.Sometimes, that’s enough to change the tone of what comes next. x

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Want to offer women the space to come together in your area? She Shares is growing, and we're bringing it to new areas, want to host in your local area, then get in touch here.