International Women’s Day: Reflections on Healing, Honesty, and Sisterhood
International Women’s Day: Reflections on Healing, Honesty, and Sisterhood
Why International Women’s Day Matters to Me
Every year when International Women’s Day arrives, I feel it in a way that is hard to put into words. It is not just a date on the calendar or a social media post acknowledging women’s achievements. For me, it has always felt personal. It is a reminder of the women who have shaped my life, the women who continue to walk beside me, and the responsibility we have to hold space for one another as we move through this world.
Years ago, I was invited back to my college for their International Women’s Day celebration. I spoke about the path nursing had taken me on, the places I had traveled, and the experiences that had shaped me both professionally and personally. Standing there, looking out at a room full of young women who were just beginning their journeys, I felt something deeper than pride. I felt the weight and the beauty of possibility. The understanding that each of us carries a story, and that our stories matter.
That moment has stayed with me.
This morning offered another moment that reminded me exactly why days like this are meaningful.
A dear friend invited me to a gong and sound healing circle, and I spent the early hours of my day surrounded by women in all stages of life. Women navigating grief. Women moving through obstacles. Women sitting with anger, sadness, and uncertainty. Women who simply needed space to breathe and release what was no longer serving them.
There was something incredibly powerful about that room. We were not there to fix one another. We were not there to perform strength. We were simply there to be present; together. During the ceremony, something unexpected happened for me. Experiences that last year would have brought forward waves of emotion surfaced again. Memories, situations, and feelings that had once carried so much weight, yet this time they moved through me differently, and instead of gripping me, they passed through with ease.
For the first time, I felt a release happening that wasn’t tied to overwhelming emotion. It wasn’t tears or frustration. It was simply a quiet recognition of my own power. A moment of understanding that something within me had shifted. Healing doesn’t always look dramatic. Sometimes it looks like calm. Sometimes it’s realizing that what once shook you no longer has the same hold.
The Honest Part: I’m Not Perfect at This
One of the most beautiful changes in my life over the past few years has been the women I now surround myself with. Women I trust. Women who support one another through every stage of life. Women who are willing to be transparent about their emotions, about anger, sadness, grief, and even rage.
Women who do not define another person by their worst day.
Women who remember one another’s pain.
Women who stand beside each other.
And I want to be honest about something here.
I am not perfect at this.
There are times when I catch myself thinking poorly of another woman. I gossip. I vent. And sometimes I do what I think might be the worst of them all; I compare myself. Occasionally, I even feel envy.
Yes… I know. Yuck.
So why admit that?
Because it is true.
I am not perfect, nor have I ever wanted to be perceived that way. What I want is something far more meaningful than perfection. I want people, I want you, to know me. To see the rawness and the edges that I still carry. Why? Because that is where real connection lives.
I want you to trust me. I want you to feel that you can connect with me honestly. And I want you to know that I need your support too.
Where my work is evolving now is not pretending those thoughts never arise. Instead, it is about not allowing them to stay. It is about acknowledging them when they appear, sometimes speaking openly about them when I need to process something honestly.
And it is also about recognizing when certain environments or conversations begin to pull me into heavier, more negative patterns of thinking.
When I notice that happening consistently, my plan is to remove myself. Not out of judgment, but out of awareness.
The Purging That Comes With Growth
A few months ago, I was speaking with my teacher about something I had been experiencing since beginning my deeper Ayurvedic studies. I told her that it felt as if I had been purging parts of my life; relationships, dynamics, patterns that no longer aligned with the person I was becoming.
I asked her whether this was something I should be questioning or resisting.
She openly told me she had experienced the same thing. That when she began her own Ayurvedic path, she too found that certain people and dynamics simply fell away. Her transparency is why I have consistently learned from her-I trust her.
A couple of nights ago, I spoke with a dear friend who is currently living in Northern Thailand. We began our Ayurvedic journey together years ago, and we were catching up on life, her travels in India, her new experiences abroad, the ways our lives have shifted.
And she said something that made me pause, she too has been experiencing this same kind of purge.
The same quiet release of people, patterns, and expectations that no longer fit.
There was something incredibly reassuring about hearing that from someone I deeply admire. It reminded me that growth often looks similar for those walking parallel paths.
Witnessing Women Return to Themselves
In my clinic, I have the privilege of working with women navigating some of the most profound moments of their lives. Women releasing grief, sadness, and long-held pain. Women facing diagnoses that shake the very foundation of their lives. Women seeking to reconnect with their bodies after years of feeling disconnected from them.
And what I continue to witness again and again is this: We are all releasing something. Emotions. Identities. Fears. Relationships. Expectation. Stigmas, and the stories we have carried about ourselves for decades, but no longer align with.
What moves me most is not just the release itself, but the strength that appears on the other side of it. The moment when a woman begins to feel like herself again, sometimes for the first time in years.
This Is Our Work
Supporting women has always been at the center of who I am.
It is in my work.
It is in my heart.
It is in the way I speak and the way I choose to show up in this world.
I am a fierce feminist, and I am damn proud to be her.
But to me, supporting women goes far beyond slogans or declarations. It means creating spaces where women can be fully human. Where they can be angry, grieving, joyful, uncertain, and powerful all at once.
It means remembering that another woman’s struggle is not a weakness, it is an invitation for compassion.
It means refusing to participate in the jealousy, competition, and division that society so often encourages between us.
Because when we allow those things to divide us, none of us rise, and we rise when we come together.
When we let fear, judgment, or small disagreements separate us, we shrink the circle of care and strength that could lift everyone. True rising, whether of health, community, or spirit, happens through shared attention, mutual respect, and the gentle labor of tending one another’s needs. In coming together we combine resources, soften wounds, and create a field where resilience can grow.
If we want to rise collectively, let’s practice unity: acknowledge differences without weaponizing them, repair harm when it occurs, and prioritize what nourishes everyone. Rising is not a solitary ascent; it’s a shared warming, a lifting hand, a steadying presence. Together, we make space for better health, deeper connection, and the balanced life Ayurveda teaches us to cultivate.
And sometimes coming together does not mean being best friends. Sometimes it simply means choosing respect. Choosing support. Choosing to uplift another woman with our words and our actions.
That is the work, our work.
Because when women support women, truly support one another, something powerful happens.
We become stronger, braver, and we remember that none of us are meant to walk this path alone.
Happy International Women’s Day.
Stronger together, even when we stand at a distance.
Still learning,
Lisa Ostler.
RN-BSN, 500 E-RYT, YACEP
Ayurvedic Wellness Advisor
Sacred Juniper Ayurvedic Clinic
