Body Love.

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It all started when I did an Ayurveda cure in spring.
The treatment was kind of a Body Reboot, in which I gave my body an attention like never before. I got massages and treatments, looked a lot at the sea many times a day and did a lot of not-doing. Every day I had an appointment before breakfast with the Indian doctor, who in loose jeans and sneakers inquired after my well-being, body symptoms and my mood. He pushed a small glass of liquid ghee over and measured my blood pressure. For him, I noticed immediately, it was the most common thing that body, mind and feelings belong together and you basically just had to listen to what the body was trying to tell you.
He wanted to know how I felt after the massage treatments, what made me hungry, how my sleep, my digestion, and what my mood was.

I have taken a lot of practical out of this cure, very simple things like: no more (fridge) to eat cold and more time for daily body rituals. Fine to perceive how I feel after dinner. To drink more water (1 liter before the first coffee) and that tea from whole spices such as coriander seeds or cumin tastes great. To go to bed earlier.
But it is the Ayurvedic teachings as a whole that have deeply impressed me – in their logic (“it’s all connected”), their approach (“you are what you can digest”) and their simplicity (“you need to love your body “).

YOU NEED TO LOVE YOUR BODY.

What sounded so simple echoed in me for a long time and I began to suspect that there was still room for me to move up. I paid more attention than ever to what I put into my body and skin. And above all, I began to consciously perceive my own looking at myself in the mirror and what thoughts about myself and about others I gave room.

From then on things literally flew to me.

I suddenly noticed how many women casually comment on social media that they hate their body or parts of their body (they really wrote hate!!).
It was and is heartbreaking for me how “normal” this rejection of one’s own body is. And above all, it makes clear that women are confronted with a perpetual social ideal of beauty, which is generated by abstruse, unreal superficialities, and in which, as a rule, all women can only lose. I was surprised that even women whom I (in real life) had always perceived as beautiful, self-assured and successful women joined this canon. And then I realized, the “problem” was even more serious and much more destructively socially anchored than I thought. Because beauty is too often equated with an outward normative look, and too little with what it feels like.

My mind was circling in my head. Because there is so much to think about, so much to say about love and caring for your own body. About how women look at themselves, as in “honest and genuine”. About which image of the “I”  day by day floats through ones own mind, and is sadly reflected and confirmed on the outside.

There was and remains only one thing: stop it.

Stop hating the “I”, crunching your own body and your own behavior.
Stop with this socially accepted view of your own inadequacy.
Stop making one’s own well-being dependent on anyone out there.

And start to be mild.
Start really looking, at the bathroom mirror as in social interaction.
Making it clear that the claim to look or be a woman, one way or the other, comes from a social norm that does not equate women.
Understanding that looking at oneself has something to do with looking at others.
Begin to wonder about this wonderful body and what it can do.
Opning up to admiration, appreciation, caring for your own body.

Strengthening this miracle – a body made to use, to understand, and experience the world through it. That can give life, and is being changed by life.

So simple, so hard.

That’s why I started looking for voices that I consider self-empowering and that I like listening to because they make me think.

What I found are incredibly smart women who think about the difference between looks and inner feelings. Who show themselves as who they are, beautiful and incomparable. Women who enlighten and stand up for an independent relationship to the body and to beauty.

This story about the model Lauren Wasser, who lost her legs due to a TSS infection triggered by a tampon. Something I had read about before only in the leaflet of the tampon packaging.

And this documentary by Taryn Brumfitt on body ideals and her great way to a happy self that feels good.

Lena Dunham posts on Instagram about it.

“You have the right to remain fat”. Stumbled upon it on Instagram, landed at the author Virgie Tovar. Here is an excerpt from her book.

Body positivity. Melanie-Jasmin Jeskes Instagram channel Melody Michelberger is to be recommended anyway, for women from young to old, for men – oh, just for everyone. Nobody poses as bold and elegant in a bikini or underwear on the roof, in the garden or in the apartment. In addition, she has founded Trust the Girls and owns probably the most beautiful dress collection in the world.

Berit also writes on Instagram about such essential things as: showing legs. You cannot say it better than her: “Summer is for everyone!”.

Teresa Bücker, Editor-in-Chief of Edition F, not only tweets incredibly smart and funny, but also posted a pretty cool list of books on constructions of feminism, beauty and love. Bookmarked!

Last but not least. This new podcast by Allison Behringer, which is actually more an audio documentary or radio play, is a real gem. I devoured all the episodes produced so far and can say that the episodes are getting better and better!

And because reading and listening are great, but doing is, too, there will soon be a personal list with practical ideas for Body Love.
Enjoy browsing!

And please let et me know who you think is inspiring, too!
I’m glad to hear from you.