The Belly Dance Chronicles July/August/September 2017 Volume 15, Issue 3 | Page 36

Let’s talk about hips... By Nadirah R. Bray HHP Photos by Carl F. Sermon Photography Let’s talk about hips baby! Let’s talk about you and me, let’s talk about hips!  Hips are not just for birthing babies, they are for birthing ideas and businesses. Hips take up space if we allow them to. Hips assist you in moving through life with femininity, grace, and ease. Hips help you receive all the blessings life has to give.  Do you find yourself shut off from your chin down? Are you pushing through life with your mind, and forgetting about taking your body with you? Have you decided not to give birth anymore? Have you had a hysterectomy?  Have you disconnected from your sensuality or given up on your sexuality?  Have you had a difficult time in your business or getting your business going?  Do you feel you have something to prove and in doing so you are not listening to your intuition or taking the self-care breaks?  Women have different hormone levels and a different physiology than men. It is my belief that we are not created equal and instead are two parts of one whole - parts that compliment, support, and sustain each other.  In a Huffpost article written by Emma Gray, “Women And Work: Are Gen-Y Women Experiencing Millennial Burnout 36 The Belly Dance Chronicles  July 2017 Syndrome?”,  HuffPost Women spoke to Rachel Simmons, author of “The Curse of the Good Girl: Raising Authentic Girls with Courage and Confidence,” about the subject of workplace stress and how young women deal with it. “Stress is a big issue for girls and young women right now, in part because of the increasing expectation that women be all things to all people,” she said. “They’re expected to be really smart and hardworking and also have a great body, a successful partner relationship and be a great parent, sister or daughter. The sum of those responsibilities is crushing.” Unfortunately, women do little to mitigate office stress. Forbes reported that women were far less likely than men to take breaks during work hours, go out to lunch or go take a walk, perhaps a symptom of Type-A personalities and subsequent guilt about leaving their desks. (http://m. huffpost.com/us/entry/1392741) I feel that this applies to gen-x women as well as baby boomers. I believe that this is a woman thing!  I don’t know about you, but there was a time in my life where I felt like I was a failure in all of the roles listed above. This feeling of dis- ease had created a life-threatening disease in my body. My first thought was, “how do I get it out and how do I reclaim my health and remain healthy?” How do we remove the dis (degeneration) from ease?