It is a practice to be warm, loving and also a woman.
Michael Chekhov writes to ‘accept your being, your own body’ and from this you will be stronger (1939:19). Accept your body as yours.
‘I accept my body as mine’.
A powerful statement.
To say it is to uncover
layers of fears and insecurities and directly address
the construct that
as a woman in the world
my body is not mine.
This idea, this idea that crystallised at 6 took root at 13 and blossomed ever after until recently
This idea that
my body is for other people;
to look at,
to enjoy to
be entertained by
to fuck with/on/in to rage on to love on or to
eat from-
I have allowed an amount of this idea to muddy the water of my autonomy.
Some days I sense it more than others.
-Some days I equip myself with a second skin layer
of affirmation
meditation
intentional serotonin release
healthy food/water/thoughts.
-Some of these days my heart is so full of
love and compassion
that no outside force can shut me down.
Some of these days I am steely hard and nothing gets through.
Some days I run past my second skin left on the floor behind me and the day is spent coated in anxiety tremulous heart unsure of how to respond to the world grabbing
Some of those days are considerable and there is a steel door where my heart was.
Some of these days I pull through with warm hearth-heart melting metal and
comforting the pace with which it beats itself
I feel good with this phrase:
‘I accept my body as mine’
I can practice with this phrase.
‘I accept my body’;
this is it as it is.
I keep my body as healthy as possible without inflicting change on it from societal ideals that are
not healthy,
do not serve me and
aren’t even mine to begin with.
I take ownership of my ideals again.
‘My body as mine’;
it feels good to affirm that my body is mine,
that it is for me and no one else unless I choose to share it.
This is mine and I treat it
like anything else I value:
with the upmost
care and
management and
listening to and
nurturing with food and drink and valuable rest and sleep and time to move and play and laugh and enjoy and focus and work and intention
This is how
I take that muddy water and
I take that blossom and
I take those layers of fear and
I make of myself a lotus and
I thrive and the water becomes more clear and
the blossom more vibrant and the
layers of fear soften to strength.
We are the creators and alchemists of our lives.
That we can flourish to the potential we need
the world needs.
It is a practice
to be a warm loving woman.
Actress Academic 