Fake Commercial Fotoshop by Adobé Rings So True

Warning, this commercial is not for real -- but it couldn't ring truer for women. The imposter commercial written and directed by Jesse Rosten introduces "the next revolution in beauty" with its promise of "full lips, sparkling eyes, and lashes that never end".

Isn't it scary that this fake commercial sounds so for real? Indeed, Fotoshop by Adobé perfection can be yours, too, if you decide to abandon your inner wisdom and self-knowledge, along with your true beauty -- to allow incessant beauty industry messages erode your wonderful, real-woman self confidence.

Bravo Jesse Rosten! A man after my own heart! Ellen

The Vulnerability of Aging Unlocks Deeper Feminine Wisdom

Vogue Italia asked global citizens to contribute to the topic: Body: Treatment or Obsession?

Taking care of ourselves, preventing or fighting the signs of ageing, working out, using aesthetic treatments and makeup are just some of the little daily rituals we perform to take care of our body, being them conscious or unconscious. What happens when it becomes an obsession? Where does the limit lie? What’s a healthy approach you should have when it comes to appearance?

This is my reply, Ellen:

From the earliest memories of being a little girl and being read Brothers Grimm fairytale, Snow White, I was made aware that beauty comes at a cost. The message was clear. If I or any woman seeks her truth in the magic mirror, she ultimately will feel betrayed.

The view of her changing body and self image will create a knot in her gut, a pang in her heart and God forbid, a frown in her forehead that will later be addressed cosmetically. Her feminine archetypes of beauty, youthfulness and power will emerge to the surface when she fears acceptance of an inevitable truth. She may no longer be the fairest of them all.

Unable to accept such vulnerability before her mirror, she may fall prey to possession or worse yet obsession. Her insecurities, found in her darkest nature, surface to turn her against herself. Her inner maleficent queen makes attempts to swallow up the sum total of her soul’s natural beauty and inner light. Casting her own shadow upon the mirror of her soul betrays her eyes.

When a woman loses sight of her essence, she can easily be seduced by current cultural media that defines beauty and its’ value. If she equates her self worth with appearance, she is susceptible to the malaise of obsession. It is her lame and desperate attempt to find what she perceives as gone.

When a woman creates a psycho- somatic split, she begins to objectify herself as well as other women who now become a competitive threat. She hires an inner taskmaster that takes her far from developing a healthy, responsible relationship with her own health to one who loathes the image in the mirror. Hence, the treadmill begins of excessive workout routines, fad diets, and purchased potions of youth in a bottle.

What constitutes responsible health and body care? How do we rescue ourselves from becoming our own worst enemy?

Table setting for Sophia, goddess of wisdom (Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party, 1974-79)Licensed medical aesthetician Nancy Bellis says “

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Body Inhabitance Asks Us to Live Fully in Our Bodies

Body Psychotherapist Ellen Gayda Defines 'Body Inhabitance' Asking 'Do You Live in Your Body or Have You Gone Fishing?' Anne of Carversville Health & Happiness

My client and now friend Anne Enke has become one of my most vocal advocates. Actually, Anne calls herself an apostle of my therapies. Because her website AnneofCarversville has such a large readership, Anne hopes to use her own therapeutic experiences to educate people about body psychotherapy and my approach to healing body, mind and spirit.

Anne asked me to define my concept of body inhabitance and the goals of my Women's Circle workshops. I shared these words with her readers:

Anne,to elaborate on what inhabitance in the body is, I would simply say that inhabitance, is an emotional, psychological and spiritual commitment to be in an intimate relationship with one’s own physical body or ,as poet John O”Donoghue would say, “the soul’s clay body”. It is no surprise as our world becomes more impersonal that intimacy isn’t understood correctly, because it is rarely experienced. The very nature of intimacy is an active state of receptivity.Learning to be receptive to oneself develops body wisdom.

Intimacy is personal. There is nothing more personal than being inhabited. I am dedicated to helping individuals experience one’s own body as a dwelling place that encourages healthy communication, no judgement and allows one’s creative consciousness to express itself in its’ many languages and intelligences. Healthy inhabitance can be equated to living in your dream home with a family that loves, supports and recognizes you for who you are! It is no wonder than most have hung a sign on their own bodies that say” Gone Fishing”. Living in our bodies as our home place can be a foreign concept, especially if home life as a child was undesirable.

The purpose of the workshop is to awaken such awareness and feelings and offer new perspectives that challenge one to reclaim inhabitance in the intimate body as the best address in town.

 It amused me to hear that Anne's readers were positively charmed by my hat. Just between us, I have about 40 -- one for every mood of my creative consciousness. Ellen

Artist's Statement | Ellen Gayda's 'Her Body Cannot Tell A Lie' Performance

Her Body Cannot Tell A Lie by Ellen Gayda

Artist's Statement

Her Body Cannot Tell A Lie is my first spoken word/ dance performance. It is all about multi-layered communication with themes that speak to the heart of feminine mystery.

Through the spoken word text, the structured improvisational choreography and   music, this body of work reveals the personal and collective truths of women’s life experiences embodied.

The performance needs no translation as the message is experienced and evokes memories and emotions from the archive of the soul body .

The text is understood cognitively as well as viscerally when the languages of body and word meet.

The work  suggests that women, who are evolutionary hardwired to be life bearers, carry an unique constitution that is essentially necessary for the success of their physical, emotional and psychic survival.

Their capacity to remain vulnerable and receptive while demonstrating endurance and a prevailing spirit in the face of hardships, reveals a unique possession of power.

“Her Body Cannot Tell A Lie” exposes a woman’s natural impulse toward growth, mastery, willfulness, sacrifice, receptivity, vulnerability, love and loss.

My spoken word was written in the intimate language I call BodyWord®, that finds its origins of meaning inhabited within the anatomy of the body. It becomes recognized as a living language when experienced and felt with emotional and tonal resonance within the body, by both the listener (audience)  as well as the speaker.

Double entendres found throughout the text, reveals the transparent relationship between the body as the sole/soul story keeper and speech as a formative and informative power simultaneously.

My inspiration to write this work came from my own life experiences, as well as from women I have had the privilege to work with in my role as a professional healer, masseuse, facilitator of women’s circles and  body psychotherapist. I have listened to the deepest, most intimate feminine narratives, as my healing hands have helped women identify the corresponding impacts their stories have had on their bodies and their health. I have supported them in a creative healing process that “re-pairs” their mind/ body relationship. This healing work has informed me with a lifetime of wisdom on the emotional-mind-body connection and gives authenticity to this creative project.

~ Ellen Gayda
Founder of BodyWord®