|
CELEBRATING Your Body of Earth
In this Issue Feature Article
Inspiring Women
Message in the voice of |
New
Newsletter
February/March 2006
Welcome to Eye of the Moon
The updated Eye of the Moon gives you a consistent, interactive and empowering experience.
|
|
|
Happy Women's History Month!
PLUS A joyful relationship with your body and your food
during the National Eating Disorders Awareness Week
Corazon Tierra is a New York coordinators for
|
|
Who Looks at you An intimate journey through the memories of an anorexic woman. Follow the trail of inner voices. Discover the hidden issues. Listen to Corazón Tierra's insights as she heals from anorexia. Enjoy two Tasks of Power you can do to transform the wounds of eating disorder and body-image distortion into your Personal Medicines. Don't miss our upcoming E-greetings with a Cause, promoting this important cause for women and girls. If you are not a subscriber, click here to subscribe. It only takes two minutes. You will receive the Free Eye of the Moon Newsletter AND the Free E-greetings, PLUS a Free E-product. What are you waiting for?! Read more
Read Maria Mar's intimate confessions: Dialogue in Front of the Mirror, including one eating empowerment and one body-image empowerment exercises for you.
OPENING IN SPRING 2006
Meet this issue's Inspiring Woman, Mary Jane Kerr. Stressed and harassed, Mary Jane spent a lifetime as a sales manager for a large corporation in Puerto Rico. But one day this Puerto Rican woman found herself suddenly unemployed, in the middle of a law suit against a powerful corporation, and with an eating problem bursting out of the seams. One step at a time, Mary Jane Kerr dealt with her obstacles and is now finishing her PhD in psychology. Courageous, loving and brilliant, Mary Jane’s healing story brings hope to the hundreds of women who are struggling with an eating disorder. Read more.
Discover Us
This issue of Eye of the Moon is brought to you thanks to The Beloved BodySoul Collection and its creatress, Corazon Tierra, who is a New York coordinator for the National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (NEDAW) 2006 campaign. Learn about the Beloved BodySoul System. This path uses art to help you heal your relationship with your body, your body image and food. Pre-register for the Spring 2006 BodyTrails Product Line of the Beloved BodySoul Collection and get 15% discount, no obligation to buy and no pre-payment. It's available in Spanish! Read more.
Link to National Eating Disorders Awareness Week downloadable resources!
Are
you ready for the
Now you can do good and do well at the same time by sending our E-greetings with a Cause. Become our Egreeting Partner and send the E-greetings with a Cause to your clients or members, at no cost to you! Raise funds or make extra money while you promote social awareness and make your organization or business visible. What are you waiting for? Check your opportunities now! Find out more. (Opens the Egreeting Partner Web Tour.)
Corazon Tierra's Magical Autobiography
Corazon Tierra is in Spain. She is in a writer's retreat at Fundación Valparaiso, where she is working right now in her upcoming novel, Almost Disappeared: Reclaiming the Territory of my Body. This section brings you a brief update on her novel, directly from the beautiful mountains of Mojacar. Read more.
Welcome to Eye of the Moon
The new Eye of the Moon
Click the graphic to open the Welcome Message.
In the next issue of Eye of the Moon, artist-shaman Maria Mar guides you through an indispensable Act of Power in the way to your Dream: Reclaiming, Healing and Assuming your Inner Mother. Women mother others constantly, but they rarely use these mothering skills in themselves. This is the result of the Dispossession, the monster that is Ana Danza's nemesis in the ANA DANZA Stories. Find out how to fight that monster and give yourself what you give others. Read more. Eye of the Moon is a free ezine published by
or email us at: eye_of_the_moon@shamansdance.com
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
cccccccccccccccccc |
From the Other Side of the Mirror?
By Corazon Tierra ©
Illustrations
by Maria Mar©
I spent the most torturing moments of my teenage years in front of the mirror. It didn’t matter how many hair-dos or styles of make up I tried, the results never satisfied me. The image the mirror reflected was still the one of a fat and amorphous girl. I would have broken all the mirrors in my house if it hadn’t been for the habit of repressing my anger. But I had learned to be a good girl and as such, I kept quiet. It was in those moments ―when I swallowed my anger― that the voices in my mind drove me crazy. In front of the mirror, the voices screamed at me. The Perfectionist
This voice, The Perfectionist, was constantly judging me. For each flaw she found, she demanded a task designed to erase or compress my body.
The Measurer As The Perfectionist prescribed exercises, another voice ran ahead of time measuring the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of each exercise. Her name was The Measurer.
she said, pinching my flesh to measure how much of me had to be erased.
The Body Judge But even before I executed the prescribed exercises, another voice would rush out of my mind, The Body Judge. She invalidated any strategy planned by The Perfectionist and The Measurer.
The Food Police
Then, The Food Police, a voice that focused exclusively on food, would take control.
The Food Police, with the assistance of The Measurer, measured the calories of everything I ate. Each day she would eliminate something or skip a meal, expecting immediate results in the mirror. The Anorexic Mantra Amidst the noise of all these voices, a chant took shaped in the back of my mind. It constantly repeated:
“I must lose weight. I need to be smaller, very small.” Every time I looked at myself in the mirror, I heard these voices. It didn’t matter how skinny I was, the image I saw in the mirror was always fat. I saw a body without frontiers, overflowing from me into the space around me. It was terrifying. No one could convince me that I was not fat. This feeling kept me trapped in the cycle of wanting to lose more and more weight. The Healing Process Although these voices were present in my life throughout my adolescence, I didn’t discover them until I began my healing process years later. I realized then that these controlling voices were directly related to my eating disorder. The first step in healing my perception of my body in the mirror was to detach from these voices. Through a discipline of body awareness exercises, I learned to bring my attention to the feelings that were trapped in my body. The Sacred Witness
I developed my Sacred Witness, the Inner Self capable of witnessing emotions, memories and beliefs without judgment, with compassion, and from a place of wisdom. The Sacred Witness didn’t fight with my voices. Instead, she listened to them in search of information about my emotional wounds. As I listened to each of these voices, I began to understand why I was so afraid of being fat and how I came to perceive a distorted image of my body. Each voice carried a story, a memory embedded in time, in my atoms. Each memory revealed the origin of a fear.
Today, my inner voices no longer torture me in front of the mirror. They have become my allies in my Healing Journey. As I look at myself in the mirror, I enter silence. I put my attention in the air that comes in and out of my body. I touch my legs, my arms, my torso, and I experience the tangible and distinctive frontiers of my physical body. As a result of my Healing Journey, I developed the Beloved BodySoul System. This healing path helps you explore the unique beauty of the sacred vessel that is your physical body, and the Essence it contains and expresses.
Your Act of Power: Taking Back the Mirror Modern Western society is based on the Male Way of Knowing. It places almost exclusively emphasis on the logical mind and tries to control the body by imposing the mind’s will on the physical body, which it perceives as indulging in sinful pleasures. The problem with this way of relating to the body is that most of our Shadow Voices live in the mind. Originally, these Shadows were defensive reactions to particular childhood or adolescent situations. They are, therefore, fear-based defenses constructed by your mind in an immature effort to protect you. Relating to your body from your Small Mind allows these Shadows to distort your body-image self-esteem. Your first Act of Power in taking back the mirror is to change the way you relate to your body. Instead of thinking your body, you need to experience your body. To take back the mirror is to see yourself from your female experience, to inhabit the truth of your body instead of trying to control your body to fit a mental image of what it should be. FIRST WEEK Task of Power #1: The Breath of Life As you look at yourself in the mirror and the voices start their attack, begin to breathe gently, slowly and deeply. Do not push. Open yourself to RECEIVE the Breath of Life. Allow the air to travel from your nose or mouth all the way down to your crutch. Then allow more air in, gently, until you feel the air warming your stomach, filling your chest and expanding your upper back. Then RELEASE the air gently, allowing stress to leave your body as you exhale.
Practice the Breath of Life for 5, then 10, then 15 minutes
every day. The Breath of Life helps you to EXPERIENCE your body.
Focusing on your breath helps to silence the mind’s fear-based defenses
because it relaxes you, therefore sending a signal to your mind that there
is no danger. The logical mind cannot do too many things at once. When you
focus on your breath, it finds it difficult to focus on your Shadows.
The Shadow Voices won’t go away easily, but you will gain ground in
shifting your relationship with your body. SECOND WEEK Task of Power #2: Let your fingers do the walking
Close your eyes and put your attention in the movement of the air
coming in and out of your body. Touch your body and feel your physical
boundaries. Imagine that you are a unique clay pot, perhaps an ancient
pottery from The Goddess time. Let your hands feel the curves, softness,
protuberances and indentures of your body. Feel its temperature and texture.
Peruse the engravings and symbols that tell its history. Enjoy even the
knots, tiny cracks and stains of this sensual, sacred vessel. You wouldn’t
want to erase its history, would you? Those stains and cracks increase the
value of this valuable craft! Explore your body with the curiosity of an
archaeologist, feeling its shape and boundaries. You don’t have to walk alone in your healing path. You can seek help to heal your body image self-esteem and your relationship with food. EDITORIAL NOTE: The End
This story is copyright of Corazon Tierra.©
COMING SOON! ShamansDance Shop Opens in Spring
ShamansDance will open the doors to the ShamansDance Shop this spring. Our new E-commerce will be powered by 1shoppingcart.com and PayPal. It will feature audio products powered by Audio Acrobat. ShamansDance Shop will allow you to purchase many of our services and products quickly, using credit card, E-checks or your Pay Pal account. You will find:
Right now, you can pre-register for our upcoming products, with no obligation or pre-payment, and obtain a 15% discount. See your options below.
Next: The Beloved BodySoul Experience
Beloved BodySoul®
The Beloved BodySoul System® gives women and youth an experience of art that brings them back to their bodies, opening a space for self-intimacy. It helps them transform the negative perceptions that steal self-love. Created by Corazon Tierra, the Beloved BodySoul System® awakens the awareness of the body as the house of the Authentic Self, the true source of personal power. Participants learn to listen to the wisdom of their bodies, stopping the self-war created by body image stereotypes. The Beloved BodySoul Collection offers an integrated net of art events, books and personal growth products that help you to reclaim the territory of your body. Centered around Corazón's upcoming book, Almost Disappearing: Reclaiming the Territory of my Body, the Beloved BodySoul Collection is launching its Spring 2006 Product Line: BodyTrails
What would you do if every morning you woke up and found that during the night some thief stole a part of your house or your land? Well, wake up! It's happening!
Every day, there are Shadow Voices that steal a trace in the geography of your body. They want to erase the territory of your being. They want to trap you in a tiny space. Now you can catch those thieves and...
Vanquish the Voices that Vanish You!
Available in Spanish as
No obligation and no up-front fees.
Mary Jane Kerr
Finishing her PhD in Psychology.
Recovering from Binge-Eating Disorder.
Eye of the Moon interviews Mary Jane Kerr
EOM: What eating disorder did you face and how did it manifest in your life? Mary Jane Kerr: My experience has been with Binging Eating Disorder. I did not purge, exercise excessively or used any compensatory measures to get rid of what I had eaten. I just wore it like a gold medal around my neck and saw it spread throughout my body. My eating disorder was triggered shortly after I was laid off from my job as a Cargo Sales Manager for American Airlines (AA) in Puerto Rico. This was the first time I realized I had an eating disorder. I had worked for AA for 18 years beginning in 1974 at the age of 18. This meant that I had spent my entire adult life as part of this company. For several years, I experienced sexual harassment and discrimination from my immediate boss, but I didn’t say anything. As a single mother, I didn’t want to lose my income. Also, I had this altruistic belief that I did not want to hurt my boss’ family in the process. When I finally dared to complain, I was laid-off. Since my reputation as a person was on the line, I pondered on the decision of just getting on with my life or going to court to let my voice be heard. It was not easy, but I decided to fight, and although I supposedly won in the end, the fight took its toll in my emotional and physical self. During that period my relationship with food suffered greatly. I could not stop eating. There was like this hole in me, an emptiness that could not be filled. I tried to fill it up with food. Not just any food, mostly cinnamon toast and milk, comfort food. But it did not help, because my hunger was caused by pain, not from lack of nourishment. EOM: How did you heal and what strengths did you get from this experience? Mary Jane Kerr: My healing process began and has continued throughout my life. The first step was to recognize that I could not solve this problem by myself. I looked for help from a psychiatrist and a psychologist. Since all these things were so new back in 1993, especially in Puerto Rico, they really didn’t know what to do with me. I took it upon myself to do some research and call other people. A friend in Florida told me about a clinic that specialized in Eating Disorders. In a few weeks, I was there. This experience was like arriving at a Girl Scout camp and getting an empty backpack at the beginning of the journey. Then everyday, for an entire month, I was given tools to put in my backpack. Some were learning tools, others were coping skills, but the most important thing was that I learned what I was trying to do with my eating disorder. I realized that this problem with eating had happened before in my life, in a lesser scale, usually related with the feeling of loss and the emptiness that comes with it. When I first returned from this experience at the clinic, I wanted to become a therapist to help other people. But I kept getting the feedback: “You just want to do this because you just came out of the hospital.” So I did not answer that calling, but it was still there. In 1997, I received the biggest blow to my existence. Mental health professionals turned their backs on me for fear of having to go to court against such a BIG GIANT like AA. I decided it was time to return to college, after 23 years. I completed a BA in psychology, an MA in counseling psychology and within a few weeks, I should complete my PhD in psychology. I went back to college to understand better what had happened to me. If in the process, I can at least help one person not to go through the pain I experienced, I would be happy. And I have, there is life after American Airlines, although I still miss the red, white and blue, and the family and friends who were left behind. I have a new life now, and I help people everyday in very different ways. God or my Higher Power has been instrumental in all of this, as I have let him lead the way. And boy, what a ride it has been. I have danced in the moonlight; I have listened to flutes, traveled with shamans, disrobed in a sweat lodge and seen the birth of my grandchild. My precious grandchild, life goes on. EOM: What do you recommend to women who are facing an eating disorder? Mary Jane Kerr: If you were to notice that your relationship to food and eating is not filling your stomach, maybe that is not what is empty. It can be your soul or an Ouch Zone, like I call it. Look for help. I know you live with this secret that you don’t wish to share, but only by sharing it and asking for help will you learn to heal what is eating you. I guarantee your life will never be the same. At least you will learn to know yourself and most important of all, recognize those triggers that set you backwards. This is not a matter of being strong or motivated, it is a matter of taking one day at a time to find your true path. Have a safe journey and I hope to meet you along the way! Mary Jane Kerr was nominated by: Corazón Tierra Corazón Tierra on Mary Jane Kerr "Mary Jane is a true Warrioress. When I first met her, I was inspired by her powerful story of transformation. She crossed her fears with fierceness, traveled to the emptiness that was at the core of her eating disorder, and came out a new woman full of gifts to share with the world. Courageous, loving and brilliant, Mary Jane’s healing story brings hope to the hundreds of women who are struggling with an eating disorder."
Next:
Coming Soon!
E-greetings with a Cause
Stay tune for the launching of our E-greetings with a Cause, delivered to your email box. Maria Mar is creating this beautiful inspirational E-greetings based on the causes that we are passionate about. The E-greetings with a Cause feature Maria's original art with messages that promote social awareness. The illustrations are accompanied by messages from Maria and Corazon Tierra to uplift and empower women, girls and families. As a subscriber to Eye of the Moon, or member of ShamansDance Circle, you will receive VIP delivery of these beautiful cards, directly into your email box. You can send them to all your friends and associates to mark seasonal causes, with your personal comment. The February E-greetings with a Cause will champion the cause of Body Image Awareness and Prevention of Eating Disorders, featuring art by Maria Mar and message by Corazon Tierra. Don't miss it! If you are not a subscriber,
NOTE: If you work in an organization, marketing agency or business, or if you are a consultant or professional affiliate, you can send this cause-based E-greetings to your clients, members or network and raise revenue while you promote social awareness and become top of mind... all at no cost to you.
Next:
Update!
Corazon Tierra at a writer's retreat When the Story Wears your Shoes When I was studying at Hofstra University, I fell in love with Spain through Lorca's writings. It’s befitting, then, that I arrived at Fundación Valparaiso to find that I was to spend my writer’s retreat in the Lorca Room. From my Lorca window perched on the mountains, I see the town of Mojacar, where Walt Disney was born. It’s a gigantic castle against the pure blue sky.
I write: Mountains and silence. The tranquility of sky. Blue. Dissolving the knots in my mind. The wind vanquishes urban noises. I become empty. Mountains and silence. Words, those from the Soul, those that unearth histories, pour into the page.
Almost Disappearing: Reclaiming the Territory of my Body is woven in several times, with numerous voices running through each fiber of time. There is one voice, however, that roots the novel in the present. It is the voice of the Woman of Power. It is my shaman’s voices. The voice of she who has healed remembering her Healing Journey. In my magical autobiography, this woman speaks as she walks. She walks in many directions. Each direction is a path to heal from one’s absence. In my Lorca room I wondered about that voice, about the many landscapes this powerful woman in the story walks. Then I found myself walking a long time from my mountain retreat to the nearest internet place, and I heard myself complaining. Suddenly the woman from my story laughed at me. “I am walking,” she said. “I am walking through the memories of my wounded heart.” I realized that I had to walk through beautiful landscapes to get to town. As I walked, the character from my story was also walking and weaving the story. After I went to the internet place, I visited the Mediterranean shore. I sang to the ocean. I did ceremony. Then a beautiful heart-shaped stone came to me. It had a crack, a wound. The magical story I am writing comes from my own life. Now the magical story is returning to my life. I am the woman telling a magical story of a woman who walks; and as I walk, the woman in my story weaves her magic into my reality. From Mojacar, Spain, with love,
In the next issue of Eye of the Moon, artist-shaman Maria Mar guides you through an indispensable Act of Power in the way to your Dream: Reclaiming, Healing and Assuming your Inner Mother.
"Women mother others constantly," affirms Maria Mar, "but they rarely use these mothering skills in themselves. In her upcoming novel, the first of the ANA DANZA stories, Maria presents this phenomena as one of the most serious enemies of a woman's empowerment.
Selflessness, presented as a part of spiritual attainment for paths created by men, is not in Maria Mar's top list. "As women we need to learn selfhood, because we are Domesticated into selflessness," says Maria Mar, creator of the Bewomaning Experience!®
In the first ANA DANZA novel, little Ana most face an insidious, hideous monster, the Dispossession, in order to get over the first obstacles in her path as a Woman of Power. In our next article, you will find out how to fight that monster and give yourself what you give others. Stay tune for our next issue! If you are not a subscriber, don't miss this eye-opening article. Subscribe now!
ShamansDance uncovers the alchemical power of art to transmute your pain into power. We fuse the power of stories, personal growth tools and the arts to help you fly into your dream! Enjoy our Creative Collections, where we integrate art performances, interactive events, workshops, books and products to enrich the lives of women, families, youth and children. READ MORE.
That is all, beautiful friends.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
©Corazon Tierra. You may read or print the feature article for your own use, as long as you keep the author's byline and credits. You cannot reproduce this article for profit, appropriate it or submit it as yours anywhere. Infringement to our copyrights will be prosecuted to the fullest extension of the law. You cannot include this article in your website, newsletter, book or any other format, without previous authorization from the author. You are not authorized to take the feature article out of the context in our newsletter to send it via email or any other means. For quotes, display or printing permission, contact the author at: corazon@shamansdance.com. Copyright of this newsletter is owned by ShamansDance. The Art and design here is a copyright of Maria Mar. Photographs are copyright of their owners. No reproduction, copying or appropriation of these graphics is allowed under any circumstance. These graphics are part of our corporate branding. You can copy and paste articles for your use, keeping the bylines and credits. If you want to let a friend know about this newsletter, your best bet is to send her a copy of the newsletter we sent to your email address. If you are not a subscriber, subscribe and you will get the next issue. Copying and pasting from this online newsletter to send through the email will disarrange its design and may render it intelligible. If you want to send this issue, but are not a subscriber, copy the web address of this web version, and send the link to your friends in an email. http://www.shamansdance.com/archive-newsletter-EOM-feb2005.htm Under no circumstance can you appropriate, distribute or copy any of this material without appropriate accreditation to its creators. For quotes or copyright, contact us at: info@shamansdance.com.
Subscription and Unsubscription Links
If you like our newsletter, tell your friends about us!
Subscribe to Eye of the Moon!
Our confidentiality policy is 100%. We will not give away
your address.
ShamansDance honors your time and energy and will not
spam you.
SUBSCRIPTIONS http://www.shamansdance.com/newsletter_subscribe_box.htm
If you want to read more information:
If you have any problems subscribing or unsubscribing, contact us personally at:
eye_of_the_moon@shamansdance.com.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
