Angst about the body robs a [person] of her creative life and her attention to other things. -p218

These quotes from Women Who Run With The Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes seem appropriate given all of the crazy things going on in our world these days. It is hard to imagine how powerful the simple act of taking control of exactly what you put into your mouth is–you have to actually do it for a while to experience this. It is a real effort these days to have full control over this simple, everyday act. I think you are doing pretty good when you have about 40% control, when you get up to 50 or 60% that is really great. To be honest I am not even sure if 100% control is possible these days!

The ripple effect from taking as much control of your food and food choices as possible is that you are also helping the earth by not participating in the incredibly damaging factory farm ‘food’ system that is destroying everything. I know it doesn’t seem like much, but the more aware we become of what we are doing to our bodies, what we are putting in them and how they respond, the more we also become integrated into the natural world around us. As our internal environment changes from one controlled by candida and toxic bacteria to a garden of diverse and helpful yeasts and bacteria, we become more integrated into our external environments. We begin to see and understand things in a different way, we are no longer so stubborn, closed-minded, paranoid, controlling and reactive. We no longer crave the drugs (sugar!) of the industrial world. The simple act of making our own informed choices about what passes between our lips is incredibly powerful.

We are so intimately interconnected. As above, so below. We reflect our attitude towards the earth in our attitudes towards our own bodies. As we learn to love and cherish them, to treat them with respect and reverence we begin to discover the path to shamballa or heaven. What is the one thing we bring into the world and we leave the world with? Our bodies. They are an incredibly powerful tool that each and every one of us has. All we need to do is take the time to learn to listen to them and trust them. Our bodies are our rocket-launchers. Please feel free to substitute ‘person’ for woman here:

This encouragement to begin trying to carve her body is remarkably similar to the carving, burning, peeling off layers, stripping down to the bones of the flesh of the earth herself.

Where there is a wound on the psyches and bodies of women, there is a corresponding wound at the same site in the culture itself, and finally on Nature herself.

Although a woman may not be able to stop the dissection of culture and lands overnight, she can stop doing so to her own body.

By not forsaking the joy of her natural body, by not purchasing the popular illusion that happiness is only bestowed on those of a certain configuration or age, by not waiting or holding back to do anything, and by taking back her real life, and living it full bore, all stops out.

This dynamic self-acceptance and self-esteem are what begins to change attitudes in the culture. -p219 Women Who Run With The Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

I can’t remember exactly where I found the above image, but it is so appropriate for this post, I had to use it. The woman is cloaked in a bentonite body wrap, cleansing herself internally and externally with the powerful healing forces of mother earth.

Body wrap recipe:

• 1 cup of bentonite clay,
• ¼ cup of sea salt,
• 2 tbsp. of olive oil
• 2 cups of warm water

Mix into paste. Applying the mixture to your skin (use a paintbrush), cover yourself with towels or a sheet. Rinse off the body wrap after an hour.

More info on the uses of bentonite clay here.