Welcome to all of you! I hope you are enjoying navigating through this website, for this work means a great deal to me. I hope you can learn from it as much as I have.
As you know, we are a nation of people whose relationship with their bodies is tenuous at best, abusive and aggressive at worst: obesity and eating disorders are rampant as are our obsession with thinness and perfection. I know of five year-olds who think they are fat and talk to 70 year-olds who hate their bodies...
Let me tell you something: to heal our issues with our bodies is NOT easy. I have struggled with bulimia for thirty years and still find that certain days of the month (you know which these are, ladies... oh, and maybe you men too...) bring me much difficulty. During those times, I go unconscious, forget that my body exists, and live either for my next bite or for the next work-out that will hopefully get rid that one bite-too-many! I just went through one of those periods, and let me tell you, I'm glad to be out.
Today, I remember my body. I remember that my body is a miraculous system who deserves gentle and loving care. I remember that I am not alone in this relationship and that both my needs and my body's needs can be met. I remember that I need to take the time to listen to my body and that doing so will bring me energy, clarity, a feeling of well-being. My body allows me to be here right now, thinking, intuiting, writing. It is allowing you to read, to take in information, or to raise your eyebrows in exasperation. It will allow you to turn me off when you are done and to go on to whatever kind of day is waiting for you. And it'll hopefully allow you to show at least one person today that you love them.
I will try to keep these articles short so that you can keep up with me. I plan on making these articles reflect my and others' journey through the Body Beloved. Because it is, as many have said, a journey, not a destination. I don't know if my relationship with my body will ever be perfect. Every time I remember that it exists, though, that it has needs, that it accomplishes much for me, I am a step closer to that heart-based relationship I am so longing to have.
So I hope you will join me in this journey. And I hope you will share your journey with me through your e-mails, including responses to my articles and to my web site. I can't do it alone. I need you.
Blessings,
Isabelle
