Suppose you found an earthen bowl wrapped in a tattered cloth
and bound with metal bands. You remove the straps and take
away the cloth. There's nothing very special about the bowl.
It's not stylish. It's not fashionable.
Some people say your bowl is shameful. Voices all around
you tell you to lose it, hide it.
For a time, you might believe those voices. You might spend
many years and much effort trying to lose or hide your bowl.
But no matter what you do, it stays with you.
One day, for whatever reason, you take another look at the
bowl. It has a lid, and the lid is stuck on tight. You can't
see what's within. But when you shake the bowl, you hear something
rattling inside.
Whether you know it or not, there's treasure inside this
bowl, seven jewels that can:
• keep you looking and feeling great
• spice up your sexual pleasure
• magnify your courage and confidence
• fill your heart to overflowing
• unleash your creativity
• enhance your intuition
• make your dreams come true.
There's one more gem inside the bowl, a constant source of
light that gives all the other jewels their sparkle.
You and only you can open this bowl. But how?
To lift the lid and claim your treasure all you need to do
is…love the bowl.
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.
Online Course by Lisa Sarasohn
Initiation 2012:
Awakening Your Sacred Center, Part I
Mentor: Lisa Sarasohn
The year 2012 heralds a revolution in human consciousness. The signs suggest that the Sacred Feminine will be informing, and reorganizing, every aspect of human experience. As we embody the Sacred Feminine, we’ll be equipped to participate in — and shape — this evolution of human awareness with wisdom and grace.
This course is the first part of an ongoing process through which you embody the Sacred Feminine by energizing your body’s center with breath, image, story, and movement.
As a first step, this course focuses on befriending your body’s center and learning yoga-based movement and breathing exercises that will form the core of your practice. (Even if developing a movement practice isn’t for you at this time, you’ll still find a process that engages and rewards your participation.)
Price: $49.95
Sign up for Awakening Your Sacred Center, Part I
About the Mentor, Lisa Sarasohn
This workshop flows from my quest for the Sacred Feminine blended with my experience practicing and teaching yoga.
I’ve been a Kripalu Yoga instructor since 1979. I’ve also trained as a yoga and bodywork therapist.
From 1981 to 1988, I served on staff at Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in Lenox, MA. During this time, I led yoga classes for thousands of guests, conducted a practice in bodywork th erapy, designed workshops on many aspects of holistic health, and trained yoga teachers and bodyworkers.
In the course of my continuing yoga studies, I learned how cultures around the world have valued the body’s center as sacred. Delving deeper into this subject revealed connections between the body’s center and qualities of the soul, the extent of women’s power in family and society, and the degree of a culture’s reverence for Sacred Feminine.
Deb Lemire is Artistic Director
of Queen
Bee Productions, 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.
