The  #metoo phenomenon of women speaking out about their sexual abuse and/or violations by men feels like a game-changer for women.

It’s hopefully shifting the way that men treat women, but I also believe it will have a big impact on women’s body-image and body-shame.

There is SO much of women’s relationship with their body that is caught up in shame. 

• Shame of what has happened to us that we feel should be hidden away
• Shame of our body-story (our body-story is everything our body has been through)
• Shame in being the size or shape that we are
• Shame in how our body functions or doesn’t

Right now, women are casting off the shame of sexual assault and speaking out. 

I’m seeing POWERFUL and LIBERATING behavior…

• NO MORE HIDING
• NO MORE SECRECY
• NO MORE SELF-BLAME
• NO MORE  BELIEVING WE DID SOMETHING WRONG TO DESERVE IT
• NO MORE INTERNALIZED ANGER

I’m seeing:

• MORE TRUTH
• MORE ANGER
• MORE POWER

And all of this is making me so deeply thrilled and so very angry at the same time.

I’m thrilled that women are owning their stories and speaking up and emboldening others.

Simultaneously, I’m furious that this is our world. I’m filled with rage that for centuries (millennia, really) men have felt they could own and possess women’s bodies.

We have lived for too long with men mistreating women. I’m so done with it and have been done with it my whole life!

In my work with women and their relationship with their bodies, I have yet to encounter a woman who’s body image has not been impacted by the male gaze, male harassment, male expectations, or male violence.

The women speaking out right now are OWNING their bodies. Taking back their space and their safety. It feels like a reclaiming of what has always been ours.

And as a coach who specializes in helping women feel at ease and at home in their bodies, I see hope in this uprising.

• We as women are more able to create a self-compassionate relationship with our bodies when we can own our body-story, and when we know that all women have been through their own story (no need to compare ourselves to other women – everyone has been through stuff!)

• We, as women are more able to create a respectful, responsive and nourishing relationship with our body when we are willing to hear our body’s wounds and not keep them secret.
• We as women are more able to create a positive and pleasurable relationship with our body when we know that our body deserves to feel safe and that we can create safety for ourselves.

I am well aware that hearing women’s sexual assault stories every day is triggering and painful for many women. I do not want to minimize the trauma that is being unearthed. Every day I feel red with rage.

And yet, I also see how we are on a path towards women claiming their bodies…

• as their own
• as being beautiful AS WE ARE
• as strong and amazing homes to live in
• as real and deserving of deep nourishment

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nina Manolson, MA, NBC-HWC, board certified Health Coach and Psychology of Eating Coach believes that every woman deserves to feel good in her own body. She helps women create a healthy and positive relationship with their food and body so they can love their body and life!  She’s the founder of NinaManolson.com and NourishedWomanNation.com 

She helps busy women look and feel their best. She specializes in working with women over 40 who have tried other diets and approaches but are still struggling with their body and food. She helps women step into a new wellness paradigm that makes self-care real and do-able and turns it into sustainable healthy habits that

She’s the author of “Feed Your Kids Well In A World That Doesn’t: an everyday guide to make healthy food happen in your home and beyond”. She’s also the recipient of the prestigious Health Leadership Award from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

To get your F.R.E.E. Video Series “What to do now, when everything you’ve done hasn’t worked” by mail and receive her healthy recipes and wellness tips click here.

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Nina Manolson, MA, is the founder of Body-Peace®.She helps women end the war with food and body and finally feel truly at home in their body—as it is.

She is known for her deeply feminist, anti-diet, body-peace® approach. She brings her 30 years of experience as a therapist, Body-Trust® Guide and Psychology of Eating Teacher to helping women create a respectful and trusting relationship with their food and body.

Nina’s Body-Peace® work is all in service of helping people get off the diet roller-coaster, and into a compassionate and powerful way of eating & living which creates a positive long-lasting change in and with their bodies. Her courses, coaching, poems and Body-Peace APP positively change the conversation that women are having with their body.

Start your Body-Peace® journey with this free masterclass that will help you understand and shift your relationship with your body.

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