Your belly is supposed to hang down

Today I had a session with a bodyworker. As she massaged my belly, she pointed out how tight the fascia was.

“Our bellies are supposed to hang down,” she said.

To make room for our organs.

So our uterus and our intestines have space.

I have known for a long time that I’m not supposed to have a flat belly. But I always heard this as “women just store more fat on our bellies, it’s ok.”

This image of “letting my belly hang down” really struck me.

No wonder I have so much period pain.

All month long I am subconsciously pulling in my belly, trying to have “good posture” (aka the body of a man), constricting my uterus and my entire digestive system and depriving them of the blood flow and ROOM they need to heal.

Today since our session my belly has looked like this.

I’ve been giving it continuous permission to open.

To take up all the space.

To hang down.

It feels like I’m finally giving my body permission to be a woman.

I’ve had tears streaming down my face intermittently all day.

When I was little, the worst thing you could be was “fat.” And somehow, in our fat-phobic society, flat bellies equated to not being fat.

I would try to hide how “bloated” I was (bloated?? Maybe I just have organs).

I thought my clothes would look better if I could hide my belly.

One layer deeper, I felt like this sunk today.

Not only do I not have to suck my belly in — but I need to be letting it hang down.

I feel like suddenly my energy is taking up twice as much space.