Lisa B.
March 4, 2007

My experience after doing the Gutsy Women's Workout during the workshop was a delightful and delicious sense that I was completely filled with my Self. The effort I continually put into "connecting" to myself was gone. The gap I imagine to be present most of the time as I journey through daily living vanished. The energy released from my belly filled me up — it filled in the gap — effortlessly.

What is most interesting and most exciting to me is that although I "know" that the gap isn't real, I still feel it most of the time. I've gotten used to it and tend to try to fill it with food — the image that comes to mind is throwing food into Tallulah Gorge. It's about that senseless and satisfying.

So, I'm excited about making this practice part of my daily routine. I love the feeling of being filled with Self. I think this brilliant belly work will be a crucial part of healing my relationship with Self and eating when I'm not physically hungry. Thank you, thank you!!

April 5, 2007

This morning when my alarm went off I JUMPED out of bed ... eager to do Lisa's belly "workout." It's that good! I absolutely love the way I feel after moving through the gentle rhythms. I feel deeply connected to myself with all the gaps filled in. I feel centered, whole and filled with Self. Lisa's teaching of connecting breath to belly to body is grounded, real and powerful. I highly recommend her work to anyone who is working to heal body image, self esteem or disordered eating issues.

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L. Haynes
April 5, 2007

Don't let the word "belly" scare you away from this excellent workshop. After taking the workshop and reading The Woman's Belly Book, I now think of my belly as the center of my soul.

Initially, the word belly made me think of a line from the movie "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" where a disgustingly obese character, called Fat Bastard, yells at the midget to "Get in my Belly!" because he wants to eat him. And there is always "The Night Before Christmas" where Santa's belly shook like a bowl full of jelly.

But after reading this book, my idea of the word belly and what it stands for has completely changed. And anyway, those two references are to men's bellies. Now I understand more about a woman's belly, and that it includes so much more than a stomach.

The idea that the region between your pubic bone and your rib cage can be a wellspring for courage, confidence and passion may seem absurd. But the author provides historical and cultural references that the female belly is all that and more.

Like most women in their late 40's, I grew up with women's lib and the knowledge I could go to college and, just like the boys, I could become anything I wanted. I grew up thinking that any real power is what I store in my brain — in my head. So it was difficult in the beginning, to accept that I do have power in my abdomen. After all, that is the place where I have been storing all the shame and self-doubt I earned during a traumatic childhood.

Women need to take this workshop and read this book. We have lost touch with who and what we are as females. Historically, the ancient wisdom of women and their bodies was honored and respected, rather than demeaned. The workshop and book have helped me break down a barrier that has stood for many years — decades even. This barrier, the shame and disgust I felt because my stomach was not flat and taut as society and the media has decreed it should be, kept me from truly loving my body. Now I can listen to the wisdom held deep inside me — inside my center, my belly.