Teens talking FAT, anorexia, body image and photoshop

Teens talking fat, body image, anorexia and photoshop in the link below. 

Meanwhile Images like this don't help. 

One of the main characters in my book FINDING ARTEMISIA has anorexia. www.findingartemsia.com

Teens talk FAT

Good girls need to speak up

It's time for good girls to speak up. Too many women don't say 'no' often enough and far too many say 'yes' when they mean 'no.' 

That's the good girl syndrome. But it's time for good girls to GROW UP, to be REAL women, to say what they mean and do what they love. 

Laurie Penny's article is insightful and timely.





"Most of us grew up learning that being a good girl was all about putting other people’s feelings ahead of our own. We aren’t supposed to say what we think if there’s a chance it might upset somebody else or, worse, make them angry. So we stifle our speech with apologies, caveats and soothing sounds..."  Laurie Penny. New statesman
http://www.newstatesman.com/2013/08/laurie-penny/men-sexism/

Why go on RETREAT?

A gorgeous woman in relaxation, at the Alice Springs Women's  Retreat May 2013

Why take a retreat...

" I think it is essential to sometimes go on retreat, to stop everything that you have been doing, to stop your beliefs and experiences completely and look at them anew, not keep on repeating like machines...

You would then let in some fresh air into your mind, wouldn't you?

You would become open to the mysteries of nature and to things that are whispering about us...

In a retreat.. you can have a complete break from the past and see what happens...vast expanses of love, understanding and freedom.

When your heart is open, then your own noises are not heard.

To take a retreat and go away and stop the routine - not only the routine of outward existence but the routine which the mind has established...."

J. Krishnamurti, Madras 1952

Return to goddess fashion?

A young fashion commentator in Milan tells me the next fashion "trend" will be "A Blast from the Past." And she wonders if women consumers have had anything to do with the return to the "full figured" woman.  

It's an  important issue:  the power of women as consumers in an industry that ‘owns’ them, so to speak. 

Women wear fashion. It’s unavoidable. Every choice they make is fashion conscious. At the same time their choices are image driven, more specifically, body image driven. 

“Does my bum look big in this?” became the catch cry for the way women make a choice within the limits of what is made available to them by the fashion gods.

 So when the gods switch from heroin chic, to granny comfortable, or fifties retro etc, it begs the question: Are the gods influenced by the consumers, who have been struggling to fit into skinny legged jeans,  g-strings, pointed boots and strapless bras etc or is the switch just another whim.

Certainly the return to the more curvaceous, goddess-like women, such as Marilyn Monroe, Esther Williams, Rita Hayworth etc will be welcomed by the majority of women because the majority of women have hips, breasts and thighs. That’s what makes them women.   But will the designers allow curvaceous women to model for them? Will cat walk models ever be less leggy and more fleshy.

As a psychologist working with girls and women with eating disorders, I can vouch for the effect fashion has. While fashion may not create eating disorders per say, it does have a negative impact on ‘recovery.’ Many girls are asked if they are models. Receiving positive praise for thinness discourages them from gaining weight. And for obese patients, their depression is exacerbated by fashion which extols thinness as a virtue.

So while I would like to think that the retro fashion has resulted from consumer pressure, I am also aware that a lot has to change in the fashion psyche before women can be celebrated for what they are: diverse. A one size fits all approach does not serve them, especially when that one size suits only the smallest fraction of the minority.

Love and laughter with Uncle Bob Randall

Sharing love and laughter with Elder Uncle Bob Randall.

As the first rays of the morning sun light up ULURU,  the heart of Australia, Bob speaks softly about LOVE for all BEINGS.

Despite being separated from his beloved family at a tender age, "re-educated"by the White man's ways, Bob speaks of LOVE and FORGIVENESS and the value of the traditional ways.

His voice is rich with the songs of his life, his heart tender and his laughter as innocent as any child's.

What a privilege to welcome the dawn with him and his beloved.

Thank you Uncle Bob and Barbara for the the love and laughter.  

Getting grounded

Some of the women from my Alice Springs Women's retreat enjoy rest and relaxation in the healing river sands.

Feeling the Earth, resting on her and letting her support you, is a powerful form of rejuvenation.

I wonder if some of the strange diseases of this century aren't a result of us being so DIS- CONNECTED from the healing magnetic forces of the planet we are living on.

High rise buildings, super highways, concrete etc blocking the Earth's energy.

We need to take every opportunity to touch the Earth and get grounded.

Angelina Jolie undergoes double mastectomy

Is this the latest form of public female mutilation? 

Do you think that if the genetic odds were the same for other forms of cancer: liver, brain etc, those organs would be amputated?

Could this public mutilation of the symbols of womanhood be a further act of the masculinisation of women by popular American media and by Western science. 

What was she thinking...really? (and yes I do know her aunt died of breast cancer shortly after.)

May 16, 2013 -- Updated 1209 GMT (2009 HKT)

Touching THE MOTHER

Here I am in Alice Springs for my Ancient Women's Business Retreat.

Just outside the township in a sacred place I re-connect with the Mother....Earth

Join me on the link below


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=aLgSlEIr09o

The woman I've become...

As I wait for the women to join me in Alice Springs before we travel out to ULURU on retreat, I reflect on the woman I have become:

"I am becoming the woman I've wanted,

grey at the temples,

soft body, delighted,

cracked up by life

with a laugh that's known bitter

but, past it, got better,

knows she's a survivor-

that whatever comes,

she can outlast it.

I am becoming a deep

weathered basket.

I am becoming the woman I've longed for,

the motherly lover

with arms strong and tender,

the growing daughter

who blushes surprises.

I am becoming full moons

and sunrises.

I find her becoming,

this woman I've wanted,

who knows she'll encompass,

who knows she's sufficient,

knows where she's going

and travels with passion.

Who remembers she's precious,

but knows she's not scarce-

who knows she is plenty,

plenty to share."

-Jayne Relaford Brown 

Roses and desert women

And so they met, the women who will be attending my Mother/daughter Desert Retreat at Uluru in May.

Chatting easily as women do, sharing dainty sweet treats and the joy of roses: pink blossoms for the child within, full blooms for the blossoming women.

First pic: Meringues filled with fresh cream and adorned by baby pink roses.

Second pic: French pastry filled with custard accompanied by an urn of earth coloured roses in full bloom.

Women are their own worse critics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XpaOjMXyJGk#!

The video above is a great example of how women perceive themselves compared to the way others see them.
In my consultations, husbands and partners of women always describe the women in a much more positive light than the women do themselves.
Women are in fact their own worse critics.
That's why I am a persistent campaigner against body image damage.
Why don't you join me at my image free website www.denisegreenaway.com  

Rainbow Food

Facebook viewers love this photo of  my Rainbow Food fruit platter.

There are many more ideas in my Rainbow Food book.

It's for kids but it can change the way you think about food too.

www.rainbowfood.com.au

You can order it through my site www.denisegreenaway.com

Full moon smile

What is it about full moon that enchants us?

                           makes us feel romantic?

              makes us feel connected?

  makes us stare in wonder?

Is it the magical way it paints the ordinary

       and makes it... extraordinary

                          bathing us in its light?


Or is it the comfort of having such a big round ball reflecting its glow into the darkness of our night?


I love the moon, to me it represents the Feminine, the Ruler of the tides.

I enjoy lunar celebrations, Easter and Chinese New Year.

When I look up at the shining globe, I don't see a man in the moon. I see a smile, a smile that says:

the Universe is at peace.  What do you see?

Rainbow Food

Just back from my local farmers' market: roses, honey, capsicums, red and yellow, eggs,
passionfruit, pineapple, limes, garlic, tomatoes, bananas, pineapple, ginger, eggs and honey.

Out of picture breads and nuts.

In the fridge: kefir, cheese, humus, beans, beetroot, spinach, sprouts, tempe, zuccini, squash.

Fresh, vital, colourful. For more Rainbow Food, check out my site www.rainbowfood.com.au 

International Women's Day

Women of the world unite for International Women's Day.

             You have nothing to lose but the false images that have been manufactured for you.  

Imagine whom you might have been had you been born into an image free world. 

I have been to such a women's world and tasted its freedom. I write about it in my book Finding Artemisia: A Journey into Ancient Women’s Business, a cross-cultural journey into the female mind and spirit.

It was in the central desert of Australia where I had the privilege of meeting  a community of women who did not define themselves by their physical appearances but rather by their valued roles as the guardians of children, the earth and each other.

These women knew their business. Do you know yours?

OR

Have you lost the core of what it means to be a woman, free from society’s definitions?

Don't you want to get back your roots, away from the images society has made?

Come celebrate your essential self at my image-free website

 www.denisegreenaway.com 

                                     where what counts is on the inside.

AND come on my desert retreats. 

Initiated into the ancient women's world of dance

Imagine baring your breasts and dancing with traditional women who welcome you into their image free world.

Imagine being totally accepted for who you are and not what you look like.

Imagine being a woman among women who have been initiated into womanhood by women before them.

To find out more, read my book "Finding Artemisia: a journey into ancient women's business" from Amazon

or come out on my desert women's retreats.

Your uninitiated girl

What would your life be like had you been initiated into woman hood?

Who would you be today if you had been welcomed by women who were already there?

Imagine your life without that lost girl that has led you into unsupportive relationships, subservient marriages, pleaser occupations?

Australian Aboriginal tradition mid-wifed girls into the sisterhood, the aunty hood, woman hood.

My desert retreats invite women to ask these questions and to move forward from the uninitiated girl state into the full wisdom of womanhood.

Join me www.denisegreenaway.com

or read my "Finding Artemisia: a journey into ancient women's business" on amazon

New year flowering

This exotic flower represents this New Year to me. It's open, lush, sensuous, fragrant and waiting to be dived into.

At its right sits a bud: it's still closed, without colour or fragrance. Hard to believe that this flower was once like that.

But that's how it spent a whole season, being watered with love, fertilised with intention: its nature honoured.

Same with us, we already have that flower within our self, no matter how closed and colourless we might have become.

So, rather than making harsh, self punishing resolutions this new year, why not honour, love and fertilise what is already there, and make way for the flowering of who we really are.

Blessings all, Denise