Above is an excerpt from The Woman's Belly Book:
Finding Your Treasure Within
by Lisa Sarasohn. If you are interested in purchasing
a copy,
go to http://www.wisewomanbookshop.com
Loving Your Belly 101
by Deb Lemire
The Women's Belly Book is a wonderful introduction
to the often uncharted territory of loving your body
and loving yourself.
It may sound odd to characterize "loving
yourself" as uncharted territory, but for many
women the idea that they could love their bodies is
something that has never occurred to them.
Throughout the book Lisa uses the analogy
of uncovering an earthen bowl that is sealed up and
filled with treasure. She gently takes your hand and
leads you down a path toward the recognition that your
belly is the center of your self, the home to your "soul-power,"
the source of your wisdom and creativity. You must love
your belly because "whatever happens to the center
happens to the whole."
A couple of weeks ago I sat in my studio
in my home with three friends and we decided to go through
Lisa's book and see what we thought about it. The four
of us have some common ground, but we all had very different
bellies and very different relationships with our bellies.
None of us were new to the concept of
learning to love ourselves. We were all familiar with,
had attended or even facilitated workshops or classes
that were designed to help women overcome the social
conditioning of self-hate.
Even though much of the beginning of the
book was information we were familiar with, we found
ourselves talking about memories and feelings it stirred
up, often getting sidetracked to tell a story or laugh
about something we had remembered.
We talked about the scars on our bellies,
some unavoidable and some at the hands of lazy doctors;
how one believed, when she was young, that her grandma's
belly button came untied and that is why she died; and
how carrying shame about our bellies affected our lives
on many different levels.
We recognized ourselves as we read through
many of the personal thoughts that are shared throughout
the book from women who participated in workshops with
Lisa. We laughed so hard we could not breathe as we
tried out the Belly Laugh exercise.
Lisa's training as a yoga instructor and
her struggle with an eating disorder gives her a unique
insight to understanding the body, spirit and mind connection.
The book is filled with practical methodology and sage
advice.
Now, there have been hundreds, perhaps
thousands of books written with a "how to love
yourself" theme. Many of them don't really mean
it. They are just soldiers in the diet industry's army.
And we all know the diet industry thrives on making
sure we hate ourselves enough to participate in it.
But this book is different. Not just because
you truly believe that Lisa understands where body hatred
comes from; not just because the book takes a practical
"how-to guide" approach; not just because
at times it is sprinkled with nuggets of profound wisdom.
This book is different because you will
come to understand as Lisa has, that "Woman's belly
and the power it contains are necessary to our survival,
both as individuals and as a tribe. What's necessary
to our survival is sacred."
Our survival as a species depends on women's
bellies. Not just because of our capacity to bear children,
but because of our procreative powers to heal the world
into which our children are born.
So gather the women you know. Spend a
couple weeks or so with the book. Meet over it. Talk
about it. Explore it. Laugh with it. Remind yourself
of the time when women and their bellies were sacred.
As women come together and begin to fully
realize their power, as we allow ourselves to love our
bellies and rise to our full potential, we will reveal
our treasure within, and the world will change.
Deb Lemire is Artistic Director of
Queen Bee Productions (http://www.queenbeeprod.com/),
producing staged works that advocate for women. Offerings
include the Secret Life of Flowers workshop series designed
to educate and explore the truth about body image conditioning,
menstrual cycle conditioning, and relational aspects
in womanhood.
This review also appears in the Autumn 2004 issue of
Goddessing.
http://www.goddessmandala.com/goddessing_magazine/goddessing_mag.html