Woman's Belly is Soulful, Not Shameful: Eating Disorder Therapists Relish Gutsy New Approach to Building Body Confidence
So often the diets that target "trimming the tummy" lead to additional weight gain and disordered eating. Eating disorder professionals are now hailing a gutsy new approach to building body confidence that honors the belly as the site of our soul-power. Yoga and bodywork therapist Lisa Sarasohn, author of The Woman's Belly Book: Finding Your Treasure Within, reveals how to recharge the "energy battery," the core life force, abiding in the body's center. Power-centering yoga moves and breathing patterns nourish the soul, fulfilling the spiritual hunger that eating disorders vainly attempt to satisfy.
Asheville, NC (PRWEB) January 5, 2005 -- Two sobering facts accompany all
those New Year's resolutions to lose weight: Most diets fail—actually resulting
in additional weight gain. And dieting can lead to life-threatening eating
disorders.
Regardless of the season, more than half of all American women
are on a weight-loss regime; four out of five girls are dieting by the age of
ten. Why? Typically, they're trying to "trim the tummy." The belly has become
the focus of women's shame and self-hate.
But a recent conference on
eating disorders,"Hungers, Health and Healing" hosted by the Renfrew Center
Foundation in Philadelphia, revealed a gutsy new approach to building body
confidence: Honoring the body's center as the site of our soul-power. Reclaiming
the belly as sacred, not shameful.
"Starving or stuffing our bellies
cannot satisfy what's truly a spiritual hunger," says yoga and bodywork
therapist Lisa Sarasohn. "Eating disorders represent our hunger for a soulful
sense of self in intimate connection with a nurturing universe. When we try to
satisfy this hunger with food, the belly becomes the container for a futile
struggle."
Author of The Woman's Belly Book: Finding Your Treasure
Within, Ms. Sarasohn introduced conference participants to dynamic yoga moves
and breathing patterns that recharge the "energy battery," the core life force,
abiding in the body's center. "Cultures around the world know the body's center
to be the source of our physical and spiritual vitality," says Ms. Sarasohn.
"When we energize our bellies with movement and breath, we nourish our
souls."
The Woman's Belly Book has received enthusiastic response from
eating disorder professionals and their clients. Dr. Margo Maine, a leader in
the field and author of The Body Myth: The pressure on women to be perfect,
hails it as a "soulful antidote to the cultural indoctrination into body hatred
experienced by contemporary women of all ages. Many other books inspire us to
'talk the talk' of making peace with our bodies, but The Woman's Belly Book
shows us how to 'walk the walk.'"
Dr. Sheila M. Reindl, author of Sensing
the Self: Women's recovery from bulimia, adds: "This book is a rich resource for
women recovering from eating disorders, especially as they dare to open
themselves to a fuller relationship to their body...and their
womanhood."
Among many appreciative readers, one woman exclaims: "What a
glorious book! I have decided to end my eating disorder after thirty years of
spectacular bingeing and starving and this book is a marvelous resource and
support for me!"
Gürze Books, specializing in educational resources for
eating disorders professionals and their clients, includes The Woman’s Belly
Book (ISBN 0974548111) in its 2005 catalog. The book is available from Gürze at
800-756-7533 as well as through online bookstores and http://loveyourbelly.com
Lisa Sarasohn is an honors
graduate of Brown University with a concentration in Biology; she has received
the Unitarian Universalist Women's Federation Feminist Theology Award for her
work. Her articles on revaluing the body's center have appeared in publications
including Yoga Journal, SageWoman, Radiance, and Personal Transformation. She
has conducted workshops on "losing the weight of shame" on college campuses and
at learning centers including Omega Institute, Kripalu Center for Yoga and
Health, Journey Into Wholeness, and the Sufi School of Healing.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/1/prweb194115.htm