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| Newsletter #13: Spring: A Time for Renewal of Body, Mind & Spirit Spring: A Time for Renewal of Body, Mind & Spirit Spring is here. For those of us living in cooler climates, we're beginning to think about summer clothes and when we think about summer clothes, we think about our bodies being more revealed. For many, these thoughts trigger fear and dread. Cold weather allows us to cover the parts of our bodies we don't like, and with the advent of the warmer seasons we need to revisit the ways in which we may be challenged in our body-esteem. Critical inner voices can pick us apart, reminding us of how our body falls short. When we feel our shape is "not good enough," it often translates to feeling that we, our personhood, isn't good enough. We live in a culture that has a hard time accepting women's intelligence, power, and competence and keeps the status quo by creating body-rejection. When we reject our bodies, we reject ourselves; when we reject ourselves we inhibit our aliveness, our brilliance and our empowerment. The messages women internalize from our culture's attitude towards body shape is that if we are thin, we will achieve that to which we aspire. This is a myth, a powerful one, and one that the media and the advertising industry keeps getting fat on. Despite the facts that diets don't work (95 percent of people who lose weight from diet regimes are certain to gain most of it back within a year or two) the diet industry's marketing gurus encourage us to strive for a body size, shape, and image which is not sustainable for most women who are committed to eating in a healthful way. Consider Oprah Winfrey. She is our most public icon who holds the mirror reflecting the diet-self-hate struggle. We know from watching the changes in her physical self that Oprah suffers with body rejection demons. Unfortunately, in the past, her focus on weight loss has inadvertently endorsed messages that encourage striving for that unrealistic body.As Oprah is re-looking at her attitude towards weight and dieting, she turned to the work of Geneen Roth, a writer who has gifted us with many books on the subject of disordered eating. In her most recent book, Women, Food and God, Geneen Roth says, "Unless you really see what your core beliefs are ึand until you name those beliefs, they will shape your life willy-nilly. You'll just keep on acting them out by punishing yourself with food. But if you can finally get to understanding the beliefs underneath, you can learn how to live." How might we all take active steps this spring to combat the negative myths that hold us hostage and become more accepting of the bodies we have. Like the different sized and shaped flowers emerging from the ground, we need to appreciate our unique forms, structures, colors, sizes etc. It is time to step into our differences and if not celebrate them, work with them constructivley. We offer you this body prayer. Read it to yourself. Then read it out loud. Read it out loud while looking in the mirror. Read it to a friend. Thank You Body Thank you hips for carrying me forward this morning. Thank you legs for being strong enough to push on through the distance I choose to go. Thank you feet for holding me, lifting me, supporting my every step. Thank you ribs for sheltering my precious lungs. Thank you lungs for taking in the sun-filled morning. Thank you arms for embracing my life, for grabbing onto what is important to me. Thank you face for feeling the wind and the sweetness of the day. Thank you eyes for taking it all in, for keeping me centered, grounded, and here today. Thank you brain for coordinating this amazing journey. Thank you mouth for swallowing my morning drink Thank you heart for being so dedicated, so loyal, so loving. Thank you soul for wanting so much more. Thank you stomach for sorting out all that I put in, good and bad. Thank you skin for containing me in one miraculous package. Thank you hair for growing free and helping me to dream. Thank you neck for keeping all the communications in my life flowing. Thank you teeth for enabling me to bite off what I like and growl at what I don't. Thank you ears for listening to the higher voice. Thank you tongue for helping me to sing. This is my amazing body today and always. *Adapted From Rebecca Ruggles Radcliffe, Body Prayers: Finding Body Peace--A Journey of Self Acceptance Copyright©1999 EASE. Reproduced by permission. Click here to subscribe to this free newsletter |
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 Nothing on this site is intended to take the place of psychotherapy with a trained professional.
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