Remember that women's book from the 70's called Our Bodies, Ourselves? I think it's now in multiple editions. It's still a resource for information about birth control, female anatomy and even emotions, hormones, women's rights. I'm writing about it today because the title really says something I've thought to be true for a long time: our bodies ARE ourselves. How we relate to them, treat them and even think about them affects us and shapes us. And yet most of us treat them as objects, to be whipped into submission. We want to get them into the best shape possible, push them to do the best work possible, or drive them around, travel them around, sleep them around. Our bodies quietly accompany us in our lives while we do all these things. Most of the time they don't say a word.
But sometimes they do. They may show up from the silence in the form of a disease that no one can diagnose; or those extra ten pounds that don't seem to go anywhere; or the fact that we can't orgasm when we want to. Our bodies don't lie. After awhile, when we don't listen, they begin to get more clever about trying to communicate. They begin to inconvenience us.
I write this because I think acknowledging and working with our bodies before they get to this point is essential. I'm writing and creating this blog because I believe there's another way. The new road is one of listening to and respecting our bodies as the living, breathing beings they are. As we become conscious of the relationship we're already participating in with our bodies, healing on all kinds of levels becomes possible: the undoing of disease, letting go of weight and even gaining of energy.
I'll share with you my thoughts and stories, and I welcome yours.
Anna
