Personal thoughts re: Instagram

Wow, so I’m not active on Instagram, but after a session with one of my beautiful clients last evening, I was prompted to “google” what’s going on over there with body pictures… Let’s face it, we like looking at bodies, especially fit and toned bodies. We admire them! But (as you know) when we feel that the body is all there is, and then are only fed images of perfectly toned and favorably proportioned bodies we can get pulled into a sort of one-dimensionality, and notice a painful amount of emotional/psychic/mental energy goes to the body and perception of what “they” think… The initial work is breaking free from any kind of cultural programming that the body is all there is. In the beginning, this can often look like (as seen here) publicly “outing” less favorable parts. I’ve witnessed women post pictures eating cheeseburgers or ice-cream as a stand against whatever ever energy that was created inside her that wouldn’t let herself be seen in that way before. It’s a self-balancing act in many ways. Eventually, the way I’ve experienced it, the deepest work around being in a body ends up being very internal. Relating to the body becomes directed from a compassionate and confident inner authority (this takes practice), meaning you clarify how you’d like to feel, understand who you (and all of us) REALLY are, and also embody the knowledge that you are fully free to make decisions for yourself, not for “them,” whoever “they” happen to be… This cultivates confidence. When I was in Boulder in 2010 for a training program, I remember one woman describing the admiration she had as a little girl for the soft wrinkles and delicate, translucent-like skin of her grandmothers hands. I was so touched by that sort of un-filtered perception of beauty. My challenge to you is to train yourself to be a better and deeper observer of beauty and better mirror of beauty to others and to yourself. Here’s a suggestion: Have your lover (or a beloved friend) take pictures of you any time he/she is seeing your beauty whether innocent, erotic, natural, “decked out” or anything else. Really see yourself. Don’t show anyone, don’t post anything. Just steep in the goodness of appreciating beauty for beauty’s sake, without agenda, and allow yourself to be deeply nourished by it. With love, Laura <3