Where do you find embodiment?

[Alice]

Or in other words, how do you connect with your body? Jamie talks about how religion, particularly evangelical Christianity, can cause us to disconnect from our bodies. Maybe you had to cover up the slightest hint of your curves. Maybe you were taught your attraction to the same sex was sinful. Maybe being taught to stifle your emotions led to a stiffness in your shoulders and a chronic tightness in your chest. What are the ways you've noticed your body has responded to religious teachings, and have you found a way to release that stored trauma? How?

Like so many, it was my sexuality and my sense of womanhood that took the brunt of religious teachings. I was barely twelve when my dad handed me Joshua Harris' "I Kissed Dating Goodbye," and the following years of my adolescence were spent hiding and repenting for "even a hint" of sexual immorality, as the apostle Paul warned against. It was reading "You Are Your Own" that helped me see ways I'd already begun heal through embodiment: dance. And especially pole dancing. ;)

I started pole dancing at age 22 for no one but myself. Letting my body move however it wanted, slithering, slinking, grinding, allowed all of my pent-up sensuality to come flowing out with tears I couldn't explain to my dance teacher. I also let my friends take me to a nightclub for the first time, and though it took me a few songs, eventually I danced free of worry about distracting any brothers in Christ. Dance is one of my favorite therapies, a way of putting myself in my body that allows me to celebrate my femininity. I love to dance alone and with and for others. There are few things I find more empowering than reclaiming my sexual self through movement.

What helps you release religion-instilled body shame?