A woman’s belly can be multi-layered as: a sacred space of her instinctual, creative power an expression of the strength, beauty, and fertility of a woman’s body a place of cultural conditioning, emasculation and control of women, emotional ambiguity, tensions, guilt, and shame
I
have been working with women at all phases of their lives: gloriously pregnant or having difficulty getting pregnant, from yoginis of incredible agility to women who had stopped having their periods due to too much heating or “masculine” yoga practice. I started to see how much was “held” in the belly and that letting the belly soften was often a radical act for some yoginis or female practitioners. I personally experienced the transformation and shadow work of one’s sacred belly when I became pregnant, an initiation that brings so much joy and also healing of conditioning for most women. My belly radically changed from the coiled, lifting power of a third series Ashtanga practitioner to a pregnant goddess belly that expanded so much that I eclipsed the sun when I turned sideways. In contrast to my constant, lifted lower belly of uddiyana bandha (which I love), I realized how happy and authentically in my creative power I could also feel with a relaxed belly. There is a beauty that mirrors the ancient images of the Mother Goddess, whose round shape expresses the fullness of life that is often forgotten within the quest of the flat belly emphasized today. As a woman begins to excavate all of the layers and dimensions of her sacred belly, “herstory” begins to unfold.
Free Your Sacred Belly Shiva Rea
What we often forget is that the “flat belly ideal” has been perpetuated through women’s restrictive clothing for millennia. The corset, that organdamaging, breath-restricting, rigid undergarment, literally restricts a woman’s ability to move. This “holding in” creates a real suppression for the monthly swell of a woman’s belly, which expands and contracts literally in rhythm with the ocean tides and every changing moon. A woman’s belly needs space to be full-spectrum.
“At the turn of the 20th century, women had to actually fight for their rights to wear clothing that they could move in, a necessary change initiated by the cycling revolution in the early 1900’s.”
You can get a taste of this torment by squeezing your ribcage in like a corset. Try to inhale and exhale. Imagine that you had to wear a corset like a cultural uniform to create this flat-belly, narrow-waist ideal. At the turn of the 20th century, women had to actually fight for their rights to wear clothing that they could move in, a necessary change initiated by the cycling revolution in the early 1900’s. Tightness around the belly and rib cage affects our diaphragm, creating the experience of an oppressive grip around our breath. Relaxing the belly is the
38 ORIGINMAGAZINE.COM