BODY LITERACY: A Gateway to Self-Knowledge, Health and Healing

The capacity to trust ourselves and our bodies is not a common or shared goal in western society. In 2005, the term “Body Literacy” was coined by three women: Laura Wershler, Geraldine Matus, and Megan Lalonde.

Body Literacy is the foundation for practicing fertility awareness. It refers to a core group of skills and competencies (cognitive, emotional, and intuitive) which enable an individual to navigate their well-being on a continuum which marks the experience of health and wellness on one end and illness and dis-ease on the other.

Body literacy fuses the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual into a united whole. Health knowledge is multi-layered. It is external, objective and scientific and it is also internal, subjective and personal. When we integrate these aspects into a working whole, we gain new freedom and perspective for understanding how we create health and wellness in everyday life and choose the personal tools and resources for achieving health and healing in our lives.

What is Body Literacy?

To my understanding, the concept can be translated into many levels of meaning:

• Knowing the medical science behind how the body works, together with fluency in understanding the language in which your own body “speaks.”
• Listening and paying attention to the signs, sensations and emotions that our bodies communicate.
• Trusting our bodies to transmit innate wisdom using our instincts, intuition, and senses
• Developing internal locus of control and a sense of personal power.
• Questioning external authority and “expertise” so we can examine the range of alternative approaches.
• Cultivating a love and acceptance of the body/self vs. changing, controlling, fixing the body
• Building self-efficacy- an ability to master a skill, a practice, or a discipline for self-care
• Becoming your body’s best expert; Physician & patient are both “experts” & partners
• Creating physical & emotional boundaries which ensure your safety & equilibrium while allowing flexibility and growth for moving beyond your comfort zones
• Affirming personal/ethical values and living by them to create harmony & wholeness; Doing what you know is right vs. doing what is trendy or popular.
• Recognizing what is normal and safe for you rather than comparing yourself to others; recognizing when a sense of balance becomes one of imbalance
• Discerning between “treating” and “healing;” viewing the body as a machine which can be “fixed” vs. the body as a dynamic, self-correcting healing system (According to the Rambam)
• Connecting to the holiness & sanctity of our bodies, as vessels of creation.

We are all summoned to ask ourselves to what extent are we committed to using body literacy for the purpose of promoting our health, well being and quality of life.

“Ve’nishmartem Me’od Lenafshoteichem”