We live surrounded by noise. The noise of the places we live in, the sounds created by us, the babble, the buzz, the prattle generated by the potpourri of our soundscape. However, nothing is louder than the chatter in our minds.The incessant, bold, affirmative rhetoric of words that come along and do not allow us to be silent. Or that we do not wish to silence.

Yes, this internal dialogue is a complete encyclopaedia of what, we women, have been trained for centuries to keep inside, the fruit of many sentences like ‘don’t be loud’, ‘girls talk too much’ or the simple fact of not being allowed to speak. Women have been fully coached in the art of being careful in what they have to say, which granted us the wonderful gift of being good listeners but, do not mistake yourself, we were gifted to be good listeners of others. We manage to have time to tune in with our family, our friends, our husbands, our lovers, our children, our grandchildren. Indeed, we can be excellent listeners for the entire world … but our own.

Why? I can think of a number of reasons: our minds are experts in driving us into what we think we are bad at, in what we should or should not do, in what others may think of us, in what is expected of us. The only way to stop this race is to quiet the mind and listen. But this may be scary: the noise in our heads is so familiar it can become a kind of a safe net. Well, dear women, it is not. The path of listening is not a fairytale; it may take us into our depths, be frightening. But believe me, as shadowy as it may be, it shows us a truth we need to hear, and that truth is the biggest ray of light you can get for it allows you to take action.

I sincerely hope this issue will plant the seed of listening to your-self, and keep on tuning in with what other women have to share: we are launching our podcast this month.

And, because we cannot be neutral to any kind of inequality, we decided to end every article in this onzine from now on, with a very beautiful detail that makes us all pride. I challenge you to discover it.