my body is my temple

  for years, i abused my physical body ignoring my own needs. skipping meals, thinking that i received some kind of validation by looking the way media told me i should look like as a woman. as a teenager loved ones worried about my health, knowing that i was not eating enough. it took me years to heal and understand the reason why i was taking such actions towards myself. the healing process started when i lived in alaska and finally finished when i lived as part of a community where we ate together every meal and all meals were home cooked. eating became a celebration and all the cells of my body knew that in this environment i was loved for who i truly was and living outdoors in nature and having a break from the constant messages of media also helped. life was very simple and i dressed according to the elements i was exposed to, rain, sun, snow, heat, cold, dryness and humidity instead of fashion.


i had this turning point during fall of 2008, my first semester on the bus.
it was october 7, 2008, we where camping in fish creek, ny and the sun was shining brightly. my skin still remembers how the sun felt that day. i felt embraced and nurtured by the warmth of the sun recharging a fiery energy found on my solar plexus. i also remember the place on the maple forest where i chose to sat for hours, in that place of the forest the canopy was not blocking the sun, the sunlight touched the ground creating a sparkly and light atmosphere, where my heart surrendered and opened with no efforts.


in that forest, i  read some essays from part iv ecotheology in an age of environmental crisis: ecofeminist spirituality of the book  this sacred earth: religion, nature, environment. I specifically liked the article titled ecofeminism: symbolic and social connections of oppression of women and the domination of nature by rosemary radford. 
that day 
i experienced and discovered that i am nature and nature is me
i understood that protecting the environment is protecting my body
i looked at the reflection of mother earth inside me, i felt that connection strongly
when i don't honor my body and her needs, i am not honoring the earth
when i don't respect my body and her needs, i am not respecting the earth
when i fail to listen to my body, to myself, i am not listening the earth
if i am to protect nature, to care for her well being, i also have to take care of myself

to take care of myself encompasses 
loving my body and myself
allowing my body to restore
my mind to be calm
nurturing my body with wholesome organic food, rituals, laughter...
speaking up without silencing words
honoring my moon side while keeping a balance with the sun

harmony with earth will be restored  when i live in harmony with myself. when i am not oppressing my body, my self image, but celebrating womanhood, celebrating and loving my body exactly as it is
when i connect with myself, my body, all cycles in my life
when i allow my rhythm to be the flowing river of my being
when my heart is what gives life to movement in my life
those are some of the ways i am restoring harmony with myself and nature. i am nature and nature is me.

that day i made a vow to start a new cycle of healing, healing myself to heal the earth and healing the earth to heal myself, to be alive and free to express myself. a cycle of restoration, listening and communication to the wild within

today, i revisit that day in fish creek and share this path of healing, because every day i see more and more young women struggling with self-image, oppressing their bodies, compromising their health and harming themselves. seeing them breaks my heart, i know how that feels, i went through that myself. however, i want you to know that there are other ways of being and living, there is a path of liberation from low self-esteem and self-image. all it takes is loving yourself fully. healing ourselves, we are healing the world, we are saying no to the oppression of our bodies that are our temples and to the oppression of nature. even if we live in a society that does not celebrate womanhood and unconditional love towards oneself, we as women can support one another and encourage the men in our lives to do the same. we are creating a pathof unconditional love where living beings are loved for who they truly are.