The womb is an expansive vessel that needs space to be in her full power. I confess to years of over-exercising and ‘healthy’ eating that flattened my stomach and gave me a six-pack. When I stepped into womb work I felt the chains I had put upon my womb, the limitations, the restrictions, and the tension she held I was very emotional, shocked by how I had unconsciously held her back. Bereft that we as women were totally unaware of the consequence on our power and autonomy. I began to womb breathe and work somatically to release what felt like a tight shackle around my abdomen, the muscles so tight that my womb literally could not breathe. It took time. The women in my womb groups report the same when they go into the exercises and literally feel the restrictions they put on themselves and eventually the whole damn collective consciousness of women's womb restrictions. It's sobering work.
One thing I notice when working with women who limit their food intake, who deprive themselves and allow the diet monster to consume them is that they
- Spend their energy obsessing about food and their body weight.
- Blame themselves a lot for ‘failing’
- Change social plans and life to ensure they don’t fail their diet
- Are exhausted and depleted
- Disconnect from their body and feel numb
- Lose trust in themselves
- Unconsciously seek external validation
The structure that oppresses women's life force has all the answers on how to fix you, how to eat ‘clean’, how to restrict food groups and control what you eat. Add stories that you can't eat this and you can't eat that, and you even begin to believe the lies as your own.
Every woman who has dieted has conformed to being told what to do. Her power has been given away. Patriarchy has made you conform to an unreal ideal that they have set and aim to make billions of $$$ from while you remain giving all your time, power, and energy to your external body.
Diet culture fuels a $70 billion dollar industry. The research done on the diet industry shows that dieting and food restriction only results in one thing … long-term weight gain!!!
The industry STARVES YOU of :
Feeling happy
Engaging fully in life
Pursue your passions and dreams
Being Creative in all areas of your life
Trusting in yourself
Body autonomy
Feeling FULL
We can continue to lie to our self or we can face the radical honesty that this patriarchal power play got to us all at one point! ( my lies of healthy, tricked me) and that we invested energy, thought, and time into something that only ever took from us, and never gave back.
It’s time for us women to take this power back, to take the body autonomy back, not to be ruled by body fashions that make people money and make our life poorer. It’s time to look at the emotions of our undereating, restrictions, or overeating.
Stop pulling back the womb … set her free.
Picture: Venus of Willendorf
30,000-year-old figurine from the days of Goddess worship.
