The first words a baby hears is that of his or her mother while in the womb; the first emotions that flood us are that of our mother and our first experience of food and nourishment is from our mothers.

A baby learns the emotional terrain about food, and the emotions around body, while in the womb.

As women, we hold the energies of time in our bodies; handed down through our ancestors. We hold the essence of life and we carry the women and men of our future. Even if we don’t choose to be a mother to children; we are mother to all. Our capacity to reach others and love is immense.

We are tied to the past, present and future and we have a capacity beyond what most of us believe to change how generations perceive, respect, love and nourish themselves and one another.

It starts with us.

A fully empowered women (and man) is free within her body and voice to walk the path of life with confidence, authenticity, and purpose. Filled with respect for all humankind, whatever colour or race. Love and respect for oneself is a transformative to all around you.

But to achieve this involves unshackling ourselves from our pain and wounds; wounds carried through since time began. Wounds of shame, guilt, oppression, silence, and persecution. The guilt of a woman’s body in creation, birth, life, loss and death. The shame of sexuality (the liberated woman); the fear of our ability to heal and help others (the medicine woman); the punishment of speaking out with the truth (the woman with a voice); the denial of an education, rights and opportunity (the educated woman); the suppression of the feminine and what she can contribute to society fuelled further by religious, political and patriarchal systems (the free woman).

We live in times where many of us are fortunate to live free, and yet without conscious awareness we carry all these fears and wounds. We wage our battle to let go and become our true selves against ourselves. The battle becomes with out bodies, we take every emotion out in destructive and controlling relationships with food, alcohol, exercise and cycles of punishment and purging. We sabotage ourselves before we even get to be all we can, before we give all we can, and lead with all we can.

The result is that every ounce of our creativity, expression, divine love, and capacity to give our all is squashed out of our being.

The fearless lioness within is tamed by hunger and fatigue.

We rarely have the energy to think beyond the cycles of dieting, exercise and self-judgement – we are anxious, stuck and unhappy. Furthermore, we are conflicted because from time to time we feel the flame of fire and passion and creativity within. The voice, the message, the love, the ideas, the leadership. It’s there, and then its squashed because “who do I think I am, I am not perfect enough, thin enough, smart enough”….

Imagine if we broke the cycle. Imagine if we nourished our being with food eaten in a state of acceptance and love shared often with others.

Imagine if exercise was done out of the sheer joy and freedom that movement gifts. Imagine if we felt proud and grateful to live and love in our skins. Imagine when we felt emotional overwhelm we talked it through; or when we faced tough life circumstances we had the courage to ask for help instead of holding it all in.

Imagine if women were able to talk about the challenges of being a woman, the really hard ones. Imagine if all of us, man and woman alike, felt confident to let our energy reach others, through a handshake, a smile, a hug and true compassion and presence. Imagine if we shone so bright it paved the way for others.

Imagine how creative you would feel free of the burden of self-hate, endless diets, unhappy exercise regimes and free from starting the day hating the image in the mirror.

Imagine feeling free from the anxiety of hating how it feels to be in your skin and endless thoughts of how to squash that energy out of yourself. Imagine how much creative power you would have, how much space for intuition and invention? How aware you would become of others and your capacity to transform life around you? Imagine feeling “good enough”.

Our relationship to everything is connected to our relationship to food, soul, and our physical self.

Imagine your power to teach our children self-love, simply from how you love and respect yourself. This message isn’t just about women. It is about everyone, men and women. As women and “mothers” we teach our boys and girls how to love and eat and be; first breath to last.

People sitting at dining table and eating

Love your body; live life to the full. Embrace your uniqueness….and eat… eat to nourish your soul and stimulate your senses.

love,

Andrea