Belly Blog

What about men?

2009-07-02T19:32:00.004-04:00

Every now and then, a woman or a man asks, with respect to my penchant for belly-celebration: What about men?

I appreciate these questions. What I write follows from what I experience...in a woman's body. Although I've heard from some men about their belly-related experiences, I'm not in a position to speak for men's experience.

What I've got to say is pretty much what I've written in the essay titled "What About Men?"

If any man or woman would like to write about this topic in the next issue of The Belly Bulletin, send me your thoughts. Or speak your piece here on the Belly Blog!

Health At Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight

2008-09-15T17:27:00.003-04:00

In this long-awaited book, nutritionist Linda Bacon shows us how to boost our health and self-esteem, no matter what our body size may be.

What a gift! Here's liberation from the tyranny of useless weight-loss regimens and the feelings of failure they provoke. When I read this book, I couldn't sit or stand still -- I was dancing around the room!

Linda Bacon details the convincing proof that diets simply don't work. In fact, they set the stage for repeated weight gain. She offers a welcome, practical alternative to obsessing about your weight and shape -- eating and exercising according to your body's built-in wisdom. She shows you how to enjoy sound health and unstoppable self-esteem whatever size your body may be.

If you're ready to escape from self-loathing and discover the pleasures of self-affirmation, toss out those diet books and dump the bathroom scale. Treat yourself to this sane and friendly guide to making peace with your body and nourishing all of who you are.

Linda proves that fat isn’t the problem. Dieting is the problem. A society that rejects anyone whose body shape or size doesn’t match an impossible ideal is the problem. A medical establishment that equates “thin” with “healthy” is the problem.

The solution, she says, is to tune in to your body’s expert guidance. Find the joy in movement. Eat what you want, when you want, choosing pleasurable foods that help you to feel good. You too can feel great in your body right now -- and Health at Every Size will show you how.

Health at Every Size has been scientifically proven to boost health and self-esteem. The program was evaluated in a government-funded academic study, its data published in well-respected scientific journals.

Health at Every Size is not a diet book. Read it and you will be convinced that the best way to win the war against fat is to give up the fight.

Read more

Order

The Body's Center, Chinese-style

2008-08-10T17:07:00.006-04:00

As you may know, the power-centering exercises I share in The Woman's Belly Book and teach in my workshops are moves I've adapted from a number of healing arts -- including tai chi, qigong (a.k.a. chi kung), and an invigorating Japanese style of yoga developed by Masahira Oki.

These exercises, gathered into The Gutsy Women's Workout, use movement and breath to energize the body's center. In Japanese, this onepoint within the hara -- the belly -- is called the tanden. In Chinese, it's called the tan tien.

Continuing my love affair with the body's center, I've recently begun studying with seasoned qigong teacher Michael Winn. I've been thrilled to experience the ways in which qigong practices, rooted in the ancient Chinese philosophy of the Tao (the Way of nature), affirm and expand what I've learned in my own journey of discovery during the past several years.

Having taken four of Michael's classes since November 2007 (and always ready for more), I can say he teaches with a deep understanding of the body as an energy field rooted in the belly's center, the tan tien.

If you're interested, here's how, when, and were to start -- with Michael's November 7-9 classes in Asheville, NC in the Inner Smile and Qigong Fundamentals 1 & 2. Click on the links below for more info. And prepare yourself in advance by downloading the free e-book, Way of the Inner Smile, from the top left section at www.healingtaousa.com.

And if you'll be in Asheville (my home town) for these classes, let me know! Email me at lisasarasohn(at)earthlink.net

*
November 7, 2008 (Friday, 7pm)
Inner Smile
Evening Lecture & Meditation

November 8 - 9, 2008 (Saturday/Sunday)
Qigong Fundamentals 1 & 2

Day 1: Five Animals Qigong, Six Healing Sounds, and more.

Day 2: Micro-cosmic Orbit, the Taoist meditation that unifies all the core energy centers into a flowing whole.

Times & Valentines

2008-02-10T19:38:00.000-05:00

Like many holidays, Valentine's Day holds a secret.

In other times, this day was a celebration of women's pro-creative power — the body-centered power to renew life, and the pleasure of doing so!

Strands of Celtic, Roman, and heretical Christian customs weave through Valentine's Day...

This Valentine came in the mail today—
the fe-male, that is:
Greetings from history in women's terms.

Valentine Day's is a fraud, of course, you know that,
Hall-marked and carded as it is for commerce.

But more than that:
The boy himself's a fraud.
St. Valentine's a fiction, the convenient invention
of some grim Christian churchmen.

What Valentine's Day is:
it's a thin distillation of our
midwinter night fever;
the celebration of our sexual heat and staying alive.

More...

Healing Bodies and Souls

2007-10-05T11:53:00.000-04:00

Bodies and Souls is a series of stunning nude portraits of women combined with their personal statements. Presented as a book as well as a traveling exhibit (a selection of photos is available online), the images bring forth what photographer Frank Cordelle calls The Century Project.

As Cordelle photographs women of many sizes, shapes, and ages -- from newborn to nearly 100 years old -- his purpose is to "give voice to women through pictures and words which project, among much else, courage, vulnerability, strength, diversity, multiplicity, and uniqueness."

O, the Oprah Magazine, raved about the book in its March 2007 issue and tens of thousands of people across the continent have viewed the exhibition. The photos provoke powerful responses. For example:

"When I left the exhibit, I was a changed woman."

"Never have I been in a room with more beauty, more talent, more freedom. Never have I felt more in love with myself."

"To see an image of a nude woman that is not sexual is rare. To see an image of a woman who is nude, old, proud, powerful, honest, and beautiful -- this is amazing."

Celebrating women and our bodies as subjects, not objects, The Century Project will be on view in 2008 with exhibitions in Kentucky, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. I heartily invite you to consider bringing an exhibit to your community. See The Century Project's website for details.

Check out readers' reviews and order Bodies and Souls at amazon.com or your local bookstore.

Dancing with Sabrina

2007-09-27T18:14:00.000-04:00

Okay, I'll say it: I'm devoted to watching tv's Dancing with the Stars. I love seeing how the newbie dancers develop their skills and confidence from week to week.

On Monday, September 24, the six women in the competition took the dance floor with their professional partners. Far and away, it was actress and "Cheetah Girl" Sabrina Bryan who delivered the most dazzling performance.

And, with all due respect, it was supermodel Josie Moran whose performance left both judges and audience yawning.

From a body-confidence point of view, the contrast was amazing. The scenes of Josie in training highlighted how uncoordinated she was. (Well, anyone might stumble around on their first day of dance training.) Still, she lacked strength and fitness, admitting that just because a model looks good for the camera doesn't mean she's physically fit. As this svelte figure moved through her steps on Monday night, her shapely arms and legs were lovely yet they seemed to be floating in space, disengaged from her body's core.

Again with all due respect, as tall and skinny as Josie is, Sabrina is short and chunky. And the non-question of the night was: Who cares? So what?

Sabrina drenched each step, twist, and turn with overflowing exuberance. In the moments she fixed her gaze on judges and audience she made direct transmissions of delight. It was plain to see she was taking supreme joy in her body and her capacity to move.

I wish every girl and woman beset by worries about her weight and shape could see this pair of dancers, could compare and contrast Josie's and Sabrina's vivacity and vitality. I would ask each one: On the way to being your true self, whom would you rather emulate?

Hands down, I choose Sabrina as my inspiration.

Now about breasts...

2007-09-27T08:21:00.000-04:00

A friend writes:

The Breast Cancer Site invites people to visit and click the pink "Click Here to Give - it's FREE" button at the top of the page. Clicking on the button enables the National Breast Cancer Foundation to donate at least one free mammogram a day to a woman in need.

It takes less than a minute and doesn't cost you anything. The site's sponsors donate mammograms in exchange for advertising.

Here's the web site! Pass this message along to people you know: www.thebreastcancersite.com

Who are your "gutsy women"?

2007-09-15T16:53:00.000-04:00

On page 6 of The Woman's Belly Book, I invite you to list the women you admire and their qualities that inspire you.

Sherryl Treen writes:

"This is my list: Comedian Phyilles Diller; Florence Nightingale, who improved/started nursing; Clara Barton, who started the Red Cross and went to war zones to help people; Deborah Samson, who fought in the Revolutionary War. Also abolitionists Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. These are gutsy women."

Thanks, Sherryl!

The Heart of the Game

2007-09-13T11:19:00.000-04:00

The Heart of the Game tells the story of a scrappy Seattle high school girls' basketball team and their unconventional coach, Bill Resler.

Ward Serrill began filming the Roosevelt Roughriders girls' basketball team without knowing the drama that would unfold over the next six seasons. He shows how these gutsy girls triumph on and off the court — and how their coach provokes their self-esteem and self-confidence along the way.

See this movie (available on DVD) and revel in the images of young women expressing their soul power as physical, emotional, and spiritual strength.

Also: check out the conversation between coach Resler and filmmaker Serrill included in the DVD's special features. You'll see a fine example of men actively serving and supporting women as winners.

As Resler says: Have fun. Never give up. Put yourself in a position to be lucky.

A Charming Review...

2007-09-13T11:12:00.000-04:00

I recently received this poetic review of The Woman's Belly Book — I'm charmed! Say it out loud and see if you hear the poem as a rap:

The image in the mirror — the body that is me
I feel is looking good except my fat belly
My stomach sticks out, my pants are stretched tight
50 situps each day haven't put it right

Then I read a book that changes how I feel
My belly becomes my center and my soul is real
Centered in my fat white belly that I was taught to hate
are intuition, compassion and the ability to create.

Now I look into the mirror and smile
Breathing life deeply all the while
Thinking how wonderful my belly can look
After reading Lisa Sarasohn's book.

— Brenda Phillips

Minerals, Magnetism & A Mighty Midriff

2007-08-16T09:05:00.000-04:00

Something remarkable happens when I'm at the natural foods store, standing in front of the bin of Celtic Sea Salt.

It's like a crowd of long-lost relations has gathered on the ocean shore as I'm rowing toward them in my wooden boat. They're smiling broadly, hopping up and down, sending up flares that make the air above them sparkle.

And every cell of my body is waving madly back at them, shedding the weariness of separation, lit up with homecoming.

Okay, that's a lot of drama for standing in the aisle at the grocery store. But what do I make of this sense of coming home?

As Belly Queen, I've had the opportunity to study human body and being in many dimensions. I've come to understand our bodies as portions of the ocean made portable. After all, where did life on this planet begin? In the ocean. (For my musings on this subject, see Serotonin, Peristalsis, and the Origins of Life, page 102 in The Woman's Belly Book.)

No wonder all my cells get excited at the sight of Celtic Sea Salt. French farmers have harvested this salt by hand from the coastal waters of Brittany. Standing in the aisle at the grocery store in Asheville, NC, I can hear the salt in the bin still whispering "ocean." The coarse granules put me on the scent of my ancestral home. They lay out a banquet of minerals and trace elements that my body is craving even if my mind can't put a name to the hunger.

continued...

I am truly fantastic

2007-07-28T10:51:00.000-04:00

A friend writes:

I don't know that I have one defining moment of acceptance for my belly, but I have lots of moments when I recall being degraded, or snubbed because of my size.

The fall of the year that I turned 28, I met a man who I am still together with, and with whom I own a home.

He loves me. Every square inch, including my big belly.

It has taken him almost 2 years and innumerable compliments for me to finally realize that I am fabulous just the way that I am.

My pants may sometimes be too tight, but that means we have good incomes and enough food to satisfy us.

My body may not resemble that of a Victoria Secrets model, but every part of me is in good working order. I can run - if I want to. I can walk, and see, and hear and speak, and play games and ride a bike. There are so many people out there who can't do what I can do, and who don't have what I have.

I am now using my size to my advantage. I flaunt my curves and swing my hips and hold my beautiful head up high.

Those who don't like my size? That's their issue, because I like who I am!

It just took me 30 years to figure out that I am truly fantastic - me and my belly.

Belly-Centering Our Awareness for Peace & Justice

2007-05-11T18:56:00.000-04:00

Here's an excerpt from a message I sent to peacemaker Sharif Abdullah. He recently met with a group of people interested in Sacred Activism.

My questions these days: How can we bring our power-centering practice to the attention of those who could and would like to use it in the process of peacemaking? How can this practice play a part in resolving the local and global crises that are putting human and planetary survival in jeopardy?
•
Dear Sharif,

I loved the moment during your presentation when you showed us the photo of Earth from space. You said something like "Look at this picture with more than your eyes. You have to look at it with something deeper." At the same time, you brought your palms down from the level of your chest to the level of your waist.

Several times during the afternoon you asserted that transforming the dead-end "mess" we've created into a sustainable future depends on our changing our consciousness. Given our brief time together, we didn't have a chance to explore just how to generate the inclusive consciousness that peace, justice, and sustainability require.

In my own work, I name the divisive patterns of perception sustaining the "mess" as "conquest mentality." I name the holistic patterns of perception as "connection consciousness." And I suggest that the evolution from one to the other follows from a change in the locus of our awareness....

Awakening and energizing the body's center, the hara, develops the awareness that we're kin to all creation. It awakens our capacity to see with that "something deeper."

Informed by the consciousness alive in our body's core, we can look at the photo of Earth from space and see the sacred home that we share with each other and all of life.

continued...

Wear your politics on...

2007-05-06T19:55:00.000-04:00

...your undies!

Panty Palooza (a.k.a. Stiff Competition 2007) is a fundraiser for Pittsburgh's Planned Parenthood Action Fund. If you've read The Woman's Belly Book, you already know about adorning your briefs and bikinis -- the chapter on "Spice Up Your Sensuality" features the Decorate Your Underwear project.

Now's your chance to help cultivate the art of political underwear. All you artists, knitters, sewers, sculptors, and crafters are invited to send your entries into this juried art show. Due date is May 24 — and there's no limit to the number of entries you can send in. Enter as many times as you wish!

For more info, read the press release and call for entries.

Don't just wear your politics on your sleeve; keep them close to your passion....

Satisfying Hunger

2007-03-22T14:05:00.000-04:00

I recently led a 90-minute workshop in Atlanta titled "Satisfying Hunger: The Secret Your Body Wants To Tell You." (Click here for details on the program.) Here's a comment from one of the women who attended...

My experience at the workshop, after doing some of the belly-energizing exercises, was a delightful and delicious sense that I was completely filled with my Self.

The struggle or effort I continually put into "connecting" to myself was gone. The distance or gap I imagine to be present most of the time as I journey through daily living, vanished. The energy released from my belly filled me up — it filled in the gap — effortlessly.

What is most interesting and most exciting to me is that although I "know" that the gap isn't real, I still feel it most of the time. I've gotten used to it and tend to try to fill it with food — the image that comes to mind is throwing food into Tallulah Gorge. It's about that senseless and satisfying.

So, I'm excited about making these exercises/practice part of my daily routine. I love the feeling of being filled with Self. I think the belly work will be a crucial part of healing my relationship with Self. Again, thank you, thank you!!

Do not strip mine our daughters!

2007-03-06T16:27:00.000-05:00

Corporations have a long history of exploiting natural resources – the earth's body – to make their profits. Think global warming. Think strip mining.

The drug companies are exploiting another resource:

Women's bodies.

Drug-manufacturer Merck, for example, is capitalizing on women's susceptibility to cervical cancer.

Merck has waged a nationwide campaign to make its Gardasil vaccine mandatory for sixth-grade girls. The company has lobbied state legislators to make 11- and 12-year-old girls ineligible to attend school unless they've received the vaccine's three doses.

Why bother creating consumer demand for a drug with limited effectiveness when you can bypass the illusion of free enterprise and free choice?

Why bother creating consumer demand for a drug with limited effectiveness when you can use the government to enforce it?

The company recently suspended its campaign in response to parents' and medical groups' objections. But not before the campaign had made its mark. And not before its questionable practices had come to light.

Continued, with links to updates, at lisasarasohn.com/gardasil.

Menstrual supplies for women's shelters

2007-03-06T09:30:00.000-05:00

Click on a link and Seventh Generation, an earth-friendly paper products company, will donate a pack of organic cotton tampons or chlorine-free pads to a women's shelter in the state of your choice.

The link is at http://www.tampontification.com/donate.php.

What could be easier?

Soft Belly

2007-02-25T16:57:00.000-05:00

a poem on writing practice
by Jennifer Browning

Click.
Rustle.
Scratch and scribble.
The ring of the bell.
The breath in.
The breath out.
The smell of coffee.
And paper.
And ink.

A prompt.
A sword to the heart.
Soft belly open to possibility.
Bleeding on the page.
Real life.
Real death.
Real writing.

Like blue faced Picts
facing the hordes
we rush forward
fear inspiring our courage
brandishing only a pen
for battle
for defense
for life.

Belly Story

2007-02-01T13:11:00.000-05:00

From a belly buddy...

I had a fun belly moment last night:

I was cooking and my fella was there standing behind me with his hands wrapped around my back. He was playing with my belly roll ... tapping it rhythmically and squeezing it and such.

In the past I wouldn't have been able to stand this because of how much shame I have had about that part of my body. Last night was different though.... I actually felt comfortable while he was doing it: empowered, even if just for a few moments.

He was being playful and laughing as he did it, and eventually his laughter triggered me and I blurted out, "Hey, now, don't be squeezing my beautiful bodacious belly and laughing while you do it!"

I noticed myself wanting to collapse into a victim energy because of the old emotional charge I have had about my belly, but I didn't. His reply? He smiled and said, "Why can't I? Your belly makes me happy ... and I think it is really cute."

Spiritual Activism

2006-10-20T12:01:00.000-04:00

Just returned from a life-changing conference at Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY -- Enlightened Power: How Women Are Changing the Way We Live. The speakers were fabulous -- Yolanda King, Marcia Ann Gillespie, Loung Ung, Marianne Williamson, and more. Twenty-three women joined me for a 90-minute Gutsy Women workshop. Their comments were enthusiastic!

Marianne Williamson closed the conference with an inspirational talk on spiritual activism. She presented a shining example of an articulate, self-validating, no-apologies woman.

One comment she made particularly piqued my interest. I believe she referred to the Course in Miracles in saying something like "seek power not in the body but in the spirit."

I'm not familiar with the text of the Course in Miracles, so I may have missed the full meaning of this line. As I heard it, the line seems to enforce a distinction between body and spirit, highlighting the spirit and denigrating the body.

But denigrating the body does not serve us. Rather, we must acknowledge and value the power we actually embody. It's an enormous power, a magnificent power.

As women and men around the world have known -- as the witches and pagans of pre-Christian Europe knew -- the life force concentrated in our body's center links us to the Power of Being that creates, sustains, and transforms the world.

The power within women's bellies is procreative, giving birth to new generations of humans. At the same time, to the extent we claim it, our belly-centered power is pro-creative: it's the power to promote creation in any dimension we choose, according to our intention.

In this light, the history of Western civilization is the attempt first to participate in and then to control, usurp, and exploit women's pro-creative power.

In Asian traditions, the body's center is known as Energy Garden, Sea of Vitality, Luminous Pearl, the Gate of the Mysterious Female. The Hopi call it Throne of the Creator. Although Western culture has shamed women's bellies and nearly banished our awareness from the body's center, this one-point remains the meeting place of body and soul. This one-point is the fusion of body and spirit. As we live through the consciousness implicit in our body's center -- expressed as authenticity, creativity, instinctive wisdom -- the distinction between "doing" and "being" disappears. Living through our center of being, we are spirit in action.

Over the years, I've developed a practice of dynamic yoga moves that activates and directs the life force concentrated in our body's center. The practice concludes with a body prayer aligning our belly-centered power to promote creation -- our Source Energy -- with our soul's purpose, with Universal Spirit, and with the planet's center.

Moving through this prayer, we become a conduit between Heaven & Earth, inviting Spirit to accomplish its purpose through us. Our core life force aligns with and participates in the Power of Being that animates the world. What greater power could we wish to realize?

Perhaps "seek power not in the body but in the spirit" means to direct our attention away from the force we might apply to dominate others. Perhaps these words point us toward the energy we can cultivate to revitalize our own domains, making them expanding realms of acceptance and affirmation, beauty and truth. As we live through our body's center, the union of body and spirit, each of our domains becomes a palace of creation.

In Appreciation

2006-08-08T20:06:00.000-04:00

by Elizabeth Hall

"Perfectly beautiful bodies are not composed of angular parts."
--Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757)

It all started around puberty. Until then, I viewed my body strictly in terms of what it could do. It could do backbends on gymnastics mats, flips on trampolines, and cannonballs off diving boards. It ran tan-lined and naked through backyard sprinklers with my younger sister and cousins. Then I turned eleven and started thinking that running through the sprinkler naked might not be such a good idea....

This was also the time that I began accumulating more fat around my hips and waist. My mother had said this was normal when we had "The Talk." But Teen and Seventeen and YM and every other girl in the sixth grade didn't think it was normal. Fat was an excess and a nuisance, boys didn't like it, and we had to do everything in our power to get rid of it. So we did. Some of us were more successful than others, but, by golly, we tried. And so began fifteen years of tortuous yo-yo dieting....

Finally, about a year ago, I was in the dressing room at a department store and discovered that I had gone up a size. My first impulse was to crumple up into a ball and sob. Here we go again, I thought. Here comes another diet. So long, chocolate! So long, cheese! But, suddenly, a little voice popped into my head. I would like to think it was the voice of the true goddess that dwells within every woman. She said, "This is crazy! Stop seeing what they want you to see. See yourself as I see you: a Wonder of Creation."

Reluctantly, I took another look. Much to my surprise I saw, not the superimposed "flaws" of a fucked-up society, but a radiant, opulent, curvaceous body that was healthy and fit and oozing with sensuality. I saw my body. And I fell in love with it.

Fast-forward to the present. I am fresh on the heels of quite possibly the most intensely pleasurable sexual encounter of my life. Incredible sex, incredible because I can barely believe I could let myself go that fully....

First published in Western North Carolina Woman

My Rights as a Woman at ANY Size

2006-08-07T17:32:00.000-04:00

From Fatima Parker, President
International Size Acceptance Association
Middle East and North Africa

I have the right to love and be loved.
I have the right to move freely and express myself in my own ways.
I have the right to feel sexy.
I have the right to feel beautiful.
I have the right to move with dignity and grace.
I have the right to take up all the space my body needs.
I have the right to be treated with respect.
I have the right to love myself as I am NOW--not as I wish I was, or as I was at another time in my life, or as others want me to be.
I have the right to feel successful and fulfilled in all aspects of my life.
I have the right to live joyfully and fully.
I have the right to be a diva, a Beauty Queen in body heart and soul.

Honour my belly?

2006-07-31T16:36:00.000-04:00

What a concept! No one has encouraged me to do that before. In fact, our culture wants to me to hide my belly. No longer! Belly bold: belly beautiful.

I attended Lisa Sarasohn's one-day workshop held in Thunder Bay just recently.... She tells her own story and the stories of other women. Her book surprises me. Her book makes me chuckle. Her book gives me belly laughs. Her book sobers me. Her book makes me realize that my problem is not with my belly but with my culture.

The Woman's Belly Book is a real gem. I encourage you to begin what Lisa calls "a belly-celebrating adventure." What we do to our bellies we do to ourselves. What we do to ourselves we do to the earth.

--Marjut Vahtola
Resting Frog Yoga Studio
first published in the Chronicle Journal
Thunder Bay, Ontario, June 2006

Body, Beautiful

2006-07-24T16:50:00.000-04:00

I was avoiding the mirror as usual one day as I was getting out of the
shower. My daughter, who had magically grown to be a tall, long-limbed
six-year-old, came into the bathroom and considered my familiar
hulking form. As I was toweling off, she pointed to my stretch marks,
now mostly faded to a silvery white, but just as plentiful as ever.
"What's that?" she wanted to know. I explained how she had grown in my
tummy and stretched the skin, leaving those marks.

She gave me one of those I-am-your-amazing-guru looks and said, "I'm so
glad I was born. I love this life!"

Yes indeed. And I hope with all my heart that her body treats her as
well as mine has treated me. I know, all too well, that many women are
not so lucky. That 95-pound figure I had in college is long gone now,
but I have gained an appreciation for what my body can do and all it
has given me. My children's strong beautiful bodies are a reflection of
the beauty and grace that are still mine, and always will be.

--Elizabeth M. Browne

Excerpt from "Body, Beautiful," first published in the July 2006 issue
of Western North Carolina Woman, used by permission.

The only Bush I can trust...

2006-05-26T18:35:00.000-04:00

...is my own.

(Seen on a bumpersticker in Asheville, NC)