Goddess Spiral Health Coaching: My mission is to support women in improving their health and happiness holistically.
Paola Suarez, founder of Goddess Spiral Health Coaching, is preliminarily certified as a Health coach. She has a Master’s in Education from Wagner College and will graduate from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in July 2012.
I want to share my journey from a self loathing, unconfident young woman with an eating disorder to a confident, self loving healthy eater. The idea of Goddess was so important in my recovery. Ultimately my disordered eating came from an unhealthy relationship with my body, even my very sense of self. I had a feeling of not being worthy and a true disconnect from my body. I did not see my body as something to love. It was often something that I could use to feel the pain I thought was only emotional. It was a body to be put up on display for other’s enjoyment but not mine.
It took many things to lead to my recovery. It was years of behavioral therapy, actively participating in the Landmark Forum and years of attending Womongathering. Also a powerfully transformative year with the Journey to Yourself program and an empowering IMPACT Self Defense class helped as well. My own introspective work supported my self-healing immensely throughout all of this. At the center of my growth has been the belief in myself as Goddess. Ultimately I saw the most change when I realized that it wasn’t my relationship with food that was lacking but my relationship with myself.
Truly seeing my body as Temple of my Spirit or Goddess self was the tipping point. I was then able recognize that the most important relationship I have is the one with myself. I also saw clearly how my actions and thoughts reflect that relationship. Once I truly sat down and thought of what it meant to love myself, it was easier to pick up the food and eat, to take care of me. From a space of self love it was easier to say no to unhealthy relationships with others as well.
Thinking of the idea of Goddess: that my body is a reflection of the Divine, worked with my inner self that needed the healing to open me up to self loving. I knew then that if I am Goddess then I am a powerful, loving, protectress of myself. A Goddess takes care of her body as Temple of her Spirit. Here are the vows that I created:
I vow to treat my body like the temple of my Spirit. I vow to be patient with myself as I grow and change. I vow to love myself at all times. I vow to listen to my Spirit and intuition. I vow to take action on what makes me healthy. I vow to do all this until the day I die.
From my journey of self healing, my goal as a Health Coach is to support women in improving their health and happiness holistically. I want to work with women who resonate with Goddess either as an archetype or a spiritual path. Using Goddess imagery, language, affirmations, literature, songs, and poetry I will support and encourage women in their growth. I would love to support them in writing their own vows!
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