“We have been told how to look, how to dress, how to act, how our bodies should be shaped for an eternity and it is so exhausting and debilitating. Enough. As you say, a rebellion! It is time we took back our bodies in the fullest sense–including pride in our bellies. When I swallow my anger and outrage and fear and sadness, it is stored in my belly. What an amazing thing. Maybe it’s time to just be thankful for it rather than ashamed.”
The women who wrote these words to me, (she asked me not to use her name) was standing next to me, in the rain, sharing an umbrella with her daughter, as we watched the Sister’s of the Shawl dancing in the rain at the Bedlam Farm Open House.
She was reacting to the piece I wrote about Bellydancing being my power and rebellion. She wrote so well what I was feeling, I wanted to share it.
I hadn’t thought about the idea of swallowing our anger and fear and storing it in our bellies. But that makes sense to me. Our bellies are a vessel for so much. Lets fill them with good things.
Taking back our bodies, is a basic step in making changes in the world around us. I need to be strong within myself if I’m going to reach outside of myself.
I love this! My friend has done ATS for years and I love their fierce ownership of body image. Keep on dancing!
Oh Deborah, your words “fierce township of body image” give me chills!
It makes sense that bellydancing would be your “power + rebellion” – relating to the Solar Plexus Chakra.
The more your Solar Plexus Chakra is open and balanced, the more you self-assurance and confidence becomes clear and effortless.
I once had a period in my life where I needed to work with an energy healer. She immediately zeroed in on the 3rd chakra – which was totally ‘destroyed’ in her opinion….it was a time when the documentary I had worked on for 5 years was taken from me and I was shattered. I had much work to do to restore the balance in this chakra…it took years but it has been restored as has all the wonderful attributes of this chakra. It is a very powerful chakra when totaly in balance.
It is wonderful to see how this chakra has really opened and become strong in you in this past year of bellydancing. [just my opinion]
Thanks for your own story about the third Chakra Janet. It affirms completely what I am thinking and writing about. And strangely, until I read what you wrote, how much bellydancing has strengthened that chakra didn’t really hit me. Now I’m going to consciously focus on that when I dance.