Belly Dancing and Belly Love: A Body Positive Blog Post On How Belly Dancing Gets You To Love Your Body

Recently a friend of mine suggested I give Belly Dancing a try. Then, our VLL employee told me she did it and loved it.
Well, of course I said yes. I'll try most anything once.


And let me tell you, I am never giving this up.
I will be the first to admit that while I own a body positive website, blog, and FB community I am also human, and female to boot. The reason I do what I do is because I recognize what societies expectations of women do to our self esteem. I am not excluded from this and while my self esteem and body image have come a long way in creating VLL I still struggle with my feelings about my belly.

So, here I am at my first class with my belly out there for the world to see. I start to follow my teacher and very quickly notice something astounding: I am damn sexy.
Talk about a revelation!
I am watching my belly in the mirror and when you are dancing, feminine and sensual, you find out why your belly is round and not flat. Round bellies are purely feminine. At that moment, staring in to the mirror I actually found myself thanking God, The Universe, my Mother for this round belly of mine.

The roundness, softness and control that I found in my belly while I danced suddenly became a source of confidence and honestly: sheer bliss. I was in heaven and I was belly dancing. I was woman just as woman is meant to be.
I have been 3 times now, set up a belly dancing mirror in my bedroom so that I can practice every day and in just three short weeks I have gone from always hiding my belly to showing it off as often as I can. Right now? Totally wearing a sports bra and shorts. I am a t shirt and jeans girl even in the hot Florida summer. But right now I am not even questioning this soft, round belly that is scrunched up because I am sitting. I look beautiful. I am on the balcony feeling the fall air and I am happy as a clam.

So, really what I want to get across with this experience is this:
If you are a woman and you are shy because you feel like your belly is too round, too jiggly- get your beautiful belly to a belly dancing class! You will quickl;y find yourself falling in love with the soft, round jiggly perfection of your body.
If you are in South Florida here is the info for the class that I attend: http://www.majanile.com/
The teacher is phenomenal!

If you are outside of South Florida and would like to share your class location with us and recommend your teacher that would be fantastic!