(This post comes to you from the brain of Emma Dines, studio co-director and teacher)
I have been thinking a lot recently about how I came to have a fairly positive relationship with my body as a kid and teenager, and how that led to my work at The Branches.
I think a lot of it had to do with my mom.
My mom grew up on a farm with two older brothers who called her “fat”, which affected her sense of self for a long time. When she had me, my mom was determined that me and my siblings would feel differently about our bodies. She was vigilant (and my dad was too) about never commenting on or talking about our bodies in a negative way. I still got the fatphobic messaging of mainstream culture from TV and school, but my childhood home was my first experience of Body Neutrality.
I am so proud that Body Neutrality (and Body Positivity) are core values of The Branches, and that they shape how we teach our classes. Our teachers are careful not to use language that privilege some bodies over others — that insinuates that being stronger or more flexible is “better”, more desirable or even the goal of yoga. Our teachers use language that attempts to acknowledge, inform, respect and celebrate a range of different bodies and needs. We are careful about our language because most of the world is not, and we want to be a safe space for people to feel into, experience and learn from and in their bodies.
My body has gone through a lot of changes in the last few years. I had two kids, I turned forty, the hormonal changes of perimenopause are coming for me and the body I taught yoga with for 10 years has changed. I’ve done a lot of work to reconnect with my changing body, and to replace my internalized fatphobia with Body Neutrality. One thing I am grateful for, and that I think comes from so many years of integrating Body Neutrality into my teaching, is that when I am teaching, I am so rarely self conscious about my body shape or size. My body becomes a tool to explain spinal movement or joint centration. Any fixation on what I look like evaporates. I really hope that is a shared experience in my classes. I hope that when people are moving and breathing in my class, they have an experience of their bodies that is so much more vast and varied than just what they look like.
I’m so grateful to my mom for cutting out the noise in my childhood and giving me space to hear myself. And now, with kiddos of my own, I am intent on sharing Body Neutrality and Body Positivity with them.
Some amazing resources I’ve found that are inspiring and radicalizing me on these topics are the Maintenance Phase podcast and the book Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture by Virginia Sole-Smith. I also continue to love The Body is not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor.
I honestly cannot shut up about all of them (ask me about the BMI! Ask me!!) and would love to chat further about all of this, so don’t be a stranger. Catch me after class or shoot me a note anytime.
I also re-vamped a printable journaling prompt on Growing Body Neutrality/Positivity. If you want to spend a little time reflecting on this, print it out and give some of this a think.
Sending you warmth on this cold January day,
Emma
The Branches 