“Trust your body more than what someone else tells you about your body.” I’ve been listening to Emily Nagoski’s book Come As You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life on Audible — thanks to a recommendation from Francie Streich.
As Francie promised it would be, it’s more than a book about sex (though it is that); it’s a book about having a body and enjoying that body. I am noticing how much my own experience of my body is mediated by cultural, social, and medical messages about my body. I keep looking outside myself for information about what is inside myself. While I deeply value learning and building on knowledge of others, it’s pretty strange to realize how often I feel like I need someone else’s authority to validate my own observations.
Here’s a perfect example: Tonight I was observing (not for the first time) to my husband that I get profoundly hangry if I don’t eat something every 2 hours. I was lamenting that my experience just doesn’t make sense based on what I understand of physiology and mood. I shouldn’t require calories that often to be even-keeled. He asked, “Do you need to understand it? Or do you just need to eat something?” Point taken. So, today I’m testing out what it would mean to trust my body (and mind) just a little more. Also I’m seriously going to try to eat every 2 hours.
