12 reasons every woman needs a tribe! by Tara Wagner

12 Reasons We Women Need Our Tribes

1. We are inherently tribal. – We use to live in cultures where the women raised babies together, did laundry together, cooked together, and helped each other laugh through the ups and downs of life. We have evolved to be inter-dependent. It’s only in the last few decades that we’ve held up that fierce independence as the epitome of a strong woman. Well, if alone against the world is what makes you a great women, count me out. I’d rather feel great, than only look it.


2. Your partner can’t be everything. – I used to lean on Justin for everything. It was a real bitch when we had a fight and he was the only person I had to talk to about it. For awhile there I even thought it wasn’t okay to talk to other women about our challenges. And in a way I still find that true; I don’t want a tribe that will help me complain about him. I want a tribe that will help me examine my triggers and overcome any barrier that keeps us from loving one another better. I also came to find that it was simply unfair to him to place every stress on his shoulders. He’s one man, who wants very hard to fix as much as he an to make my smile, and without more support in my life my husband was becoming heavy with the burden of being the only person I would turn to help me meet my deeper needs for connection, growth, fun, or help.


3. Your kids need a break from you. – Oh man, am I serious about this one. Especially because my son is an only child. Without my tribe of conscious mamas, from both local parenting groups with like-minded philosophies on life and parenting, to online tribes, to coaches who have helped me through rough spots, I’m pretty sure my son and I owe our relationship to the support I found in others. Without it I was constantly examining and analyzing every action my son took, worrying that I was doing something wrong (or he was), or just not giving him the space to just breathe, explore independently, or make his own choices without my fear trying to micro-manage, nag, control or stress him out. Having other mamas helped me to put things in perspective, lighten up and be a better mom more capable of responding to his needs with compassion and support.


4. You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. – You want to radically change your life? Surround yourself with examples that it’s possible. You want to live a deeper, more meaningful existence? Engage in deeper, more meaningful conversations with the people talking about deeper more meaningful things. Don’t let the limitations of what those around you can do become your reality. Seek out possibilities, surround yourself with inspiration, and what seemed impossible will soon become the only thing you know.


5. Girls just wanna have fun. – Life gives us plenty of opportunity for stress, heartache, overwhelm or depression. It’s our job to counter those things with laughter, fun, and connection. Have you ever had a terrible day and called a girlfriend and you both ended up laughing at the utter ridiculousness of it all? Suddenly what you thought was going to do you in is not so bad when our tribe helps us to play and lighten up. And fun is a damn important thing in life. We have enough seriousness. We need more fun.


6. You need people who won’t let you off the hook. – I didn’t use to see this was true about myself. I’ve always thought I was pretty self-motivated. Until my tribe called me on my bullshit and helped me to see how I was giving up, playing small or rationalizing away my dreams. Because I allowed others to know what my real desires were – what my heart ached for – they were there to call attention to the ways I was neglecting them. It was not a pretty mirror they held up but it was a much needed view hat helped me to confront my real barriers and catapult right past them.


7. You need a safe place to land. – The world can be harsh. Have one terrible day and you could end up on YouTube being bashed by millions of people. Make a mistake and you probably have learned to do the bashing yourself. But the right tribe of women will open up a safe and sacred space for you to bring your cracked and weeping heart. They will wrap you in compassion ad stillness and allow you to breathe and vent and process without judgment. They give you the nurturing and the encouragement to heal and grow and move forward again. I can’t tell you how powerful it is to know that a circle of women, some whom you haven’t even met, are waiting with open arms, whether you’re having a horrible day or your life has just been shattered.


8. You can’t see your own blind spots. – I’ve already mentioned a few times how the tribes of women in my life will call my on my shit. And sometimes it really pisses me off. But without their intuitive ability to hold up that mirror to what I can’t see I would still be spinning my wheels in frustration over the patterns I couldn’t change. With the multiple perspectives and the collective wisdom a tribe of soulful, conscious women can be a catalyst for the most powerful personal growth.


9. You’re can’t jump over buildings in a single bound. – Or any of the other impossible things we try to do on our own. You’re not Superwoman. You’re not a one woman roadshow. Stop trying to be perfect and infallible and so great that you never need anything. You! Need! Support!: practical, emotional, spiritual support. Whether you’ve just had a baby, or you are struggling with food, or you’re trying to manage a household, love a family, and run a business, for the love of all that is good in the world, ask for support. Trade support. Pay for support. You’re worth the investment.


10. You’re going to drive yourself batshit crazy unless you do something for you once in awhile. – Nuff’ Said.


11. You can’t give what you don’t allow yourself to receive. – This was my Aha moment when it came to receiving support. I can NOT give it if I don’t fist have it. And it’s no one else’s job to know when I need it, or how I’d like to receive it. It’s my job to seek out the things that will meet my needs in such a way that I feel so filled up with love, energy, connection, passion, and everything else I might need that I am overflowing that back out to my family, my clients and the whole world.


12. You deserve to receive a lot. – Women tend to have this idea that it’s great for other women to receive, “but oh no, not me.” “I couldn’t possibly take that from you.” “I can’t justify that for myself.” “I’d be selfish.” No. You won’t be selfish. You’re selfish when you continue to try to meet your needs in ways that aren’t effective. It wastes your time, energy, money, and capabilities. And you’re never helping others. But investing well in your own health, well-being, personal growth, mental clarity, stability and ability to do more in the world is anything but selfish. It’s imperative.

By Tara Wagner, "the organic sister"

"The Dance of the Masculine and the Feminine" by Leela Francis

My earlier years of hiking and backpacking consisted of me and my avid outdoorsman boyfriend who loved to get out in the backcountry and rough it for a few days. Nature called and we both loved to gear up and get out into the wild where there were no sounds but the birds, the creaking of the tall trees and the waterfalls we passed along the way.

As much as these outings remain blessed memories and formative experiences in my evolving love and appreciation for nature, I began to realize that my partner always had a persistent striving to get us somewhere as fast as possible. I on the other hand preferred to wander and day dream my way, communing with the scents and textures at every turn. Sometimes this would result in an undercurrent of conflict between us. He was more about where we needed to get to, and I was more about where we already were. His practical, goal driven approach inevitably won out, and I seemed always to be torn from my reverie.

Years later, when I happened to start going on outings with a small circle of women friends, I noticed how profoundly different it was. We planned shorter distances whether hiking, biking or kayaking, and always had time and space to “stop and smell the flowers”. It wasn’t long before I was choosing the sister accompanied outings over those with my lover.

In hindsight, I get why we had to get where we were going. Darkness would eventually come and we needed to have covered the distance we intended in order to reach our desired location, which was what brought us there in the first place. I know this approach is not better or worse, just different. The masculine is different than the feminine. And the reality is that they are always dancing with each other within and around us

The reality is also that in the very patriarchal world in which we live, driven predominantly by masculine values and mindsets, the masculine overshadows the values and sensibilities of the feminine. While both are absolutely necessary for life on this planet, a clear lack of balance is evident. But is it balance that we need to achieve and which would bring peace, ease and fulfillment? Or, is it more an understanding and appreciating of the attributes of each, and that engaging each to enhance the other that would most serve us?

So many women who come to Vividly Woman circle start by sharing that they’ve lived almost exclusively in a masculine world in their work life for years. They feel so cut off from their feminine aliveness and starving for their true feminine nature. Once in circle and in the sacred and safe space of other sisters also craving more of their divine feminine juiciness, they start to melt away the hardened shell that formed to protect their softer essence.

It’s natural to create that shell like boundary when we are surrounded by it in the environments where we spend most of our time. Although I personally have very little experience in corporate settings, as the mom of 3 teenage stepsons I can relate wholeheartedly. It’s natural for the feminine to shy inward in the overwhelming testosterone prominent energetic because that’s the nature of the feminine; soft, inward, compliant, flowing, malleable. Without this quality in our world there would be no meandering rivers, there would be no melting snow, no merging of the seasons.

The masculine like wise brings with it essential qualities that are necessary for the beauty in our world. The masculine offers the banks of the flowing river so that it flows instead of floods, the outer casing of the tree we call the trunk bark that allows the sap direction and encasement to grow branches skyward so we are provided oxygen, and the masculine penetrating quality of the sun is what encourages our food to grow to sustain us.

Just like the way the masculine and feminine exist in nature, they exist within us and finding the ways that the masculine best serves our inner feminine is the wisest and most effective way to dance with it within us and around us.

Recently in a Vividly Woman monthly community tele-circle we gathered to reflect and share about the dance of the masculine and feminine in our lives.  It’s clear that there is a strong desire now for women to nourish more of our feminine nature to make up for the over abundance of masculine energy we’ve been inundated with. But is this all that’s needed? Don’t we also need to identify the ways that the masculine supports and nourishes the feminine, and enroll those aspects of ourselves to expand our inner feminine aliveness?

Here are some qualities of each:

Masculine qualities

Boundaries

Direction

Force

Commitment

Feminine qualities

Fluidity

Spontaneity

Ease

Devotion

Let’s look at how can we pair up these qualities to optimize, enhance and grow ourselves, our vision, and our planet?

The freedom loving aspect of our fluid feminine nature, that loves to day dream and absorb ourselves in the moment through our senses, could be harnessed and boundried by the masculine to amplify our rich sensuality and make it even more potent.

The spontaneity of our creative feminine wildness could benefit from some sense of masculine direction to harness the power of that wildness, apply it to a desired goal and achieve it.

The masculine force of a motor facilitates a feminine ease of travel.

And the masculine quality of commitment becomes necessary when all the feminine essence devotion in the world just isn’t enough to sit through the football season with your husband in exchange for him attending the flower show with you last spring.

The fact that we have been so immersed in the masculine energetic for so long qualifies us as experts, unfortunately often to the exclusion of our feminine blessings. Perhaps the answer is not to throw out the baby with the bath water so to speak, but to creatively and wisely interweave the gifts of the masculine to support and expand the blessings of the feminine.

Look around at your life and see where you are using mostly masculine or mostly feminine qualities. Then determine if a dash of the opposite could be useful there. Instead of thinking “how can I balance one with the other?” think, “how can I enhance, grow, optimize one with the other?”.

The dance of the masculine and the feminine is indeed a dance where one leads, one follows, and one channels and is informed by the other in a constant feedback dynamic. It’s how this planet continues to exist and flourish, and how we can too!

Jealous? Not me!

Good Girls don't get jealous? HA!

Your stomach drops and with it goes your confidence. Sounds are garbled behind the deafening thud of your heart and the defensive mind chatter. Inside the locked jaw and grinding teeth subsists your dry sponge of a tongue, saliva like civility, M.I.A.

In the rainbow of ways to be feeling, this one doesn't seem clean green to me, more like a sludge color.
On the list of taboo emotions, jealousy vies for first place. 

Other times it's just a mild undertow, a soft growl of envy, like a low grade fever. Whatever the degree of jealousy you're experiencing, most will agree, it's not a favorite!

There was a time early in my life, one relationship in particular where I was gutted with it, routinely devastated.  I lashed out at him. I wrote chapters in my journal about the injustice. I lost weight, sleep, and rationale.

At the detonation of that relationship, I realized how inappropriate this jealousy thing was. In a blind backlash, I built a lifestyle around ensuring I was above and beyond such pettiness. Ridding myself of material possessions and refusing to be trapped by monogamy I declared myself impervious to that green eyed monster.

The experiment albeit short, was not without merit. It stretched me and my perspectives in ways this Taurus (Scorpio rising, I know yikes!) never thought possible.

There's a bullet point here: Although jealousy isn't pleasant, it's the resistance, suppression, denial, and guilt of it that causes the agony!

Like all emotions, it is in fact vital information. It is pointing you to a clue. There is a reason for it, if you look a little closer.

"I already have my binge planned for tonight." 
This week a coaching client of mine opened our session with that confession. 

At the heart of her preplanned binge was an emotion fighting for air. This suppressed emotion was living at the top of her belly. She learned long ago that this emotion was taboo, that "Good Girls Don't Feel Jealousy!" This myth had been active and driving her behavior for most of her life.

She admitted to feeling jealous and also revealed her humiliation at succumbing to this bad girl wretchedness! 

Eventually she gave herself permission to feel her jealousy for the first time. No acting on it, just being with it. The very act of allowing it to be there was revolutionary for her. The tears flowed taking with them decades of shame.

What followed was a discovery on her path of Self care. It went a little something like this:

I'm jealous of my sisters.
I'm jealous of their material possessions. 
I'm jealous of how they're supported financially by their spouses.
Do you feel supported in your relationship?
hmmm... Yes, I guess. We chose our arrangement, and actually this isn't even about finances.
Where are you feeling unsupported? In your relationship?
I want to support around my health, going for walks. (laughter) OMG this is hilarious! All this was really just about asking for more support?!

Staying curious, letting go of old stories, assumptions and judgement can reveal simple life changing truths. 

 1)    Be tender with yourself. Notice when you’re feeling jealous and that there’s an insecure part of you. Acknowledge that part. Where does it live in your body? Make contact. (Remember it's about you, not them!)

2)    Jealousy is information. There is a craving you haven’t been aware of, or you’ve been denying. Become curious. What is that I desire?

3)    How can I be supported in this? How I can I support myself in this?

4) Wow the fact that it is there before me, is proof that it is possible. What I desire is being modeled for me. I can create this in my own life, or my own version of whatever it is that I am craving.

Emotions rule us when left unchecked. They subvert our highest intentions, causing us to act out in passive and sometimes aggressive ways. There no bad emotions, only unpleasant ones, and even these offer us valuable information.

What/who are you jealous of? What is the next clue on your journey?

What does your Body have to say about this?

I sat exhausted by the on going argument in my mind. I felt such a deep longing to continue in this feminine work. The Dance Your Power weekend had been homecoming for my soul.

The music echoed in me, stirring emotions and inviting my body to move in new unrestricted ways. The time I spent outdoors, inhaling the rich scent of forest, the wind on my skin, and cool spongy earth underfoot reconnected me to my wild self. I flirted with nature. Unplugged from computers and cell phone, I plugged into another kind of web, one that soothed and imparted ancient wisdom. Here I found my vitality and playfulness restored.

I didn’t understand it all, and I wasn’t able to eloquently articulate my craving for more.

With the offering of more in front of me, all my mind could churn out was the financial digits and obligations:

Pay off mortgage

IRA’s and stocks

College fund

I remembered a tool I had in my coach’s box. Gathering my wits about me I blew off the dust and put it to use.

What was my body telling me to do?

My body gave a loud clear yes. I used the Body Sourcing tool again at my doubting mind's insistence. Definitely YES! The yes was beyond question.

Now my only choice was to trust my body’s wisdom over the calculated cynical data of my mind. That day I decided to trust.

Logically it made no sense to invest in another training. I already had a few coaching and leadership certifications under my belt, and those hadn’t paid off yet, so why say yes to this one?

We had a clear financial map laid out and this training was not on the map, in fact it would mean a significant detour.

In the years that followed, the economic crisis hit the states. Decimating the value of our homes. A good portion of our retirement was sucked into the black hole of wall streets implosion. The college funds became a source of back up income.

Only one investment I made was rock solid. The Vividly Woman Embodied Leadership training. It lives in my cells. It has not only transformed my life was but is rippling out of me to transform other women’s lives. Body Sourcing had led me to my truth. This truth was now serving me in ways I could never have imagined, finally a return on my investment!

I look back and shudder at the possibility of not heeding my body’s call. If I had let my mind be the master that day, it would have been a few more coins tossed in the toilet of America’s economic bowl and I would have been left only with this ache for more and another regret.

Learning the language of our bodies, and then trusting the wisdom we find there is a key component of the work I do as a Life&Body Coach and a Vividly Woman facilitator.

Contact me for a Discovery session. Discover what may be holding you back. Kara@Sacredsassy.com.

P.S. We still have spots available for October's Dance Your Power! Reserve your spot now!

Speak up Sister!

It was my day! The live music from 2 of my favorite dancing bands, Ruby Dee and The Snake Handlers, and The Dusty 45's had the place whirling with sweaty smiling swing dancers. 300 of our favorite people had arrived to eat, drink and make merry at our big bash wedding reception. I was having the time of my life, right up until I heard my name announced. I was being invited on stage to introduce my dear friend and amazing dancer, Helene Eriksen and her dances of the East. "Do what? TALK?" *gulp*. My insides began to quiver, my heart galloped, and my mouth went dry as the Sahara. I felt my feet walking my body up there. My hand was holding the mike. There I stood, paralyzed, frozen, the only parts of me moving were the woozy melting of my insides. 
SILENCE. More of the long awkward eternal pause... 
Nothing came out of me. Thankfully Ruby Dee recognized this was going nowhere fast and swooped in to save the day. I don't remember much beyond that, I was surprised and confused. What just happened? I'm not a shy girl, where did my voice go? What just happened, or I guess, didn't happen? 


That was 6 yrs ago. It was a big loud embarrassing wake up call and the catalyst to part of the journey I've been on ever since:
Finding my voice, trusting the value of my message, and staying in my body all the while!


On the path of embodiment, we open our intuitive center and we unlock our voice. This is far more than just speaking our mind. We begin to trust our own connection to Source and understand our message matters! 


The 5 textures are a superb tool to support the evolution of communication.

5 Textures of Communication

Sense: sensing your message and noticing the felt body sensations of your words. (before you say them.)

Sensing outward to know if this person is open to receiving your message. 

Ground: surrendering to the truth of you own words, trusting

Mobilize: from a place of deep meaning, you move into the action of speaking

Harness: breath pause, plenty of time, noticing where you have an agenda, becoming centered again and again. 

Express: Speaking consciously from your whole being in confidence, and love. 

Open to earnestly listen 

Sense: Sensing inward, finding your center, a place neutrality. Noting is there charge, agenda, expectation? Staying present to Self and Other.

Ground: Dropping your roots, surrendering a need to be right. Staying present to Self and Other.

Mobilize: Connecting to the meaning of this relationship, the meaning of this conversation. Opening in the 3 power centers, to whole body listening, active listening. Staying present to Self and Other.

Harness: Breathing, resisting an urge to defend. Staying curious. Allowing his words to land. Staying present to Self and Other.

Express: Gratitude for his expression. Conscious of the space/container you're creating for safe expression to unfold.  Staying present to Self and Other.

Is your message being heard?

What is a Womens Circle anyway?

Describing the experience of sitting in a Women's Circle is like attempting to capture the magic of a sunset in words to offer someone who can not see, or finding words to deliver the taste and texture of fine chocolate to the palette of someone who has never had such pleasure.

I am asked the question, "What is a Women's Circle anyway?" a lot these days, and my first thought is, "Just come. Come experience it for yourself, because words have not yet been invented to do it justice." 

However, some people require more convincing than just that. So this post is for all of you!

A woman's Circle is an ancient way women have gathered to work, create, visit, dance, pray, grieve, celebrate, and be in council and community. As far as history and herstory have record of and undoubtedly before then, Circles have served humanity.

It is only in recent times we have changed the format, and so we have suffered. When women view one another as competition and as a threat, we rob ourselves of the gift of sisterhood. Sacred Circle is one of the ways we heal that wound and see one another with new eyes and an open heart.

When I sit in Circle I can see into each woman's eyes. I see her unique beauty, vulnerability, and her power. 

As I hold the stone, I am invited to speak my truth. There is no hurry, I do not have to think ahead of time what it is I "should" say. I can ask myself, "what wants to be said now?" and wait for the words to come to me. Often I am surprised by what comes out of my mouth. There is no agenda or expectation. 

I have relief knowing whatever I say is ok. There will be no feedback, no one offering solutions, or referrals. The Circle is safe, confidential, it is it's own covenant. My authenticity has space to exist. I learn about my essential self as I listen to my own voice with curiosity. At times I pass the stone and honor the voice of my own silence. This is a place free from judgement, especially my own self judgement.

We are a mirror for one another. My sisters speak and I remember we are the same. I empathize with her, and so I have empathy for me. Sometimes I slip into judgement and arrogantly believe I know what's best for her, what she should do, ha!  I sense the tension and contraction in my body, I release this notion that I know best, and return to open loving presence. What a relief, it isn't up to me to fix it! I learn to listen earnestly with my whole being. I stay curious and keep returning to a place of no judgment. This practice alone has made me a better mother, spouse, coach, facilitator and friend. 

In Circle we invite wisdom to come to us and through us, and it does! Circle has become one of my greatest teachers. Circle says, "Come, show up, and be exactly who you are, exactly where you are in your life in this very moment. It is ok. Just be as you are."

My mission is to set the feminine free! The work I do invites women to step into their leadership. Holding space for women to gather and return to Circle is one of many aspects of feminine leadership we offer. 

Look for a Women's Circle in your area, or if you're interested in starting your own contact me. I'd love to support you. Remember, when sleeping women wake, mountains will move!

"The fundamentals of spirituality connect us rather than separate us. Women meeting in circles with a spiritual center are in a sacred space, are practicing and developing compassion when they listen, and are deepening themselves.  The more circles there are, the easier others can form. At the same time, each circle adds to collective human consciousness. Each one is one more on the way toward the metaphoric 

millionth circle and the end of patriarchy".  ~ Dr Jean Shinoda Bolen.

My Body, My Guide

Life is such an ironic trickster, wouldn't you say?


Once again I'm brought face to face with walking my talk. The old saying you have to "live it, to give it" just dropped by for an excruciating visit last week.


I am a Life&Body Coach. I help guide people who are stuck in their head back home to the wisdom of their bodies. I like to boldly imagine that, I too heed the wisdom of my own body. *Ahem* Let's just say there are varying degrees of listening.


At the end of a life altering, super expansive week facilitating  Sacred Sensual Splendor in Mexico, my body was humming with pleasure. In fact I was unable to find anything other than pure pleasure tingling and pulsing in every cell. It was the first time in more than a decade I could recall such a clear message from my body. It seemed to be saying, "Thank you! Finally you're in full alignment with your divine purpose!"


I've been on a plan of methodical transition from 20 years of working in my barbershop to working full time as a Coach and Vividly Woman facilitator. As my business has grown I have released barbershop days one by one. And I've been down to just one day a week.


In those 20 years I have given toddlers their first haircuts, cheered when, as young children they lost their first teeth, celebrated when these teens graduated high school, and smiled as they return home from college to introduce me to their girlfriends (and sometimes boyfriends). I have held those who have just lost their spouses, consoled and congratulated people through all sorts of life changes. I have come to love my clientele. They are another family, they are my friends.


For quite awhile now my back has been the loudest voice of my body.


In 1982, my 5th grade freedom was rudely interrupted by the corseting of the "Boston body brace".  It would be worn 23 hours a day for the next six years of my adolescent life. I was warned about my "bad back"and the pain and or possible disability in my adulthood. Little did I know my spine was to be one of my greatest teachers over and over again.


Last Wednesday was my first day returning to the barbershop after Mexico bliss. My back started talking the second I laid hands on my first client of the day. Quick jabbing pains and tightening that took my breath away let me know something was not ok. By the end of the day I lay on the barbershop floor in tears, unable to get myself into my car.


I'd been in a familiar cycle for several months now. It went something like this: My body feels great while I'm coaching and facilitating workshops, dance, and Yoga. I barber all day Wednesday and as a result, Thurs-Sat my back aches. I receive regular chiropractic, massage, and acupuncture, by Sun it's feeling good again. I had a hundred reasons why I needed to be barbering on Wednesday and managed to blind myself to this cycle until last week when the truth was louder than all my reasoning.


"Hey Body Coach, get out of your head!" I am listening now. My body is no longer being built to barber.


I have a whirlwind of emotions going on today as I stay home on my first Wednesday. It's one thing to talk about retiring, it's another to do it.


Today I feel a little bewildered, like I have a lot of space and I'm dizzy with possibility. I feel sad, I sense grief in my entire chest and upper back. I feel relieved, and I sense that in my shoulders, stomach, and temples.


This is where the rubber meets the road. To trust even though this is not in the plan. I say farewell to my loyal barbershop clients, the safety of my old livelihood, and the pain in my body. Today I embrace my potential. I step off into faith and know that only one of two things will happen....


I'll either touch down on solid ground, or I will fly!

Foundations faltering? Part 2 fffffffood!

Ever hear of a food hang over? Ever have one?

Who knew the day would come when I would find myself craving kale? Feels like a dream come true,  or to some, maybe a nightmare! Nonetheless...  true story!

 
My motive for choosing healthy live whole foods because I actually desire them, (rather then because I "should"eat them), is one of the gifts of doing the "4 bodies work". 

I am feeding my mind body, enticing it with interesting, uplifting, and  positive material. I am feeding my emotional body with proper daily doses of laughter, play, and creativity.I am feeding my spiritual body with meditation, gratitude, living my purpose while searching for the light in all things.

The result is a natural ability to listen to what my physical body is asking for.By nourishing my body, my temple, it runs well. I sleep better, I have sustained energy, and more focus. I feel confidant and strong.It was not always this way! I have a tangled twisted herstory with food. When I lived mainly in my head, before I was able to distinguish between the image in the mirror and who I AM, my emotions dictated when I starved myself, when and what I ate. I was spiritually cut off and living (not really living,more like going through the motions) without purpose. I perceived food and my body as the enemy.On my journey back home to the wisdom of my body, I have used one simple but extremely effective tool in healing my relationship with food and finally developing a relationship with my body. That tool is pausing before I eat to sit and give thanks. This isn't a religious ritual, as much as a moment to reflect on where this food came from. Who planted, tended, and harvested this food? How many hands worked to bring me this meal? Thank you. Somewhere stands an apple tree that grew this apple I'm about to eat. Thank you. I spend a moment with my body realizing it's amazing ability to receive and know exactly what to do with food to serve my highest health. Thank you. Soon the gratitude is palpable, I can sense it tingling through me. When I eat I am now conscious of the miracle at hand!Artist: Hall