About this episode

This episode explores the origins of body shame and offers insights on how to heal from it through understanding and language.

Most of us carry body shame. Yet, we don't always know where we picked it up. In this episode we go a little deeper into the roots of shame — because understanding where it came from is one of the most powerful steps toward healing it. And what we find, when we look honestly, is that this shame runs deeper than any one experience or teaching. It's woven into our language, our culture, and even our anatomy textbooks. Here's one example that stopped me cold: the Latin word for vagina — pudendum — literally means part to be ashamed of. That word has been in medical textbooks for centuries. It's in the name of the pudendal nerves — the very nerves responsible for much of a woman's sexual pleasure. And somewhere in our collective history, we absorbed that message into our bodies without ever being told it outright. That's what shame does. It doesn't always arrive loudly. It seeps in quietly — through language, silence, the absence of good education, and the distance between our spiritual lives and our physical ones. But here's the good news — and there is so much good news in this episode. God has a different word for your body. Tov Meod. Very good. Beneficial. Lovely. Harmonious…

People in this episode

Host: Francie Winslow

Topics covered

• body shame
• healing
• cultural influences
• language of shame
• spirituality
• female anatomy

Keywords

• body shame
• healing
• spirituality
• female anatomy
• cultural influences
• language
• Tov Meod

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: God

Books & works: pudendum, Tov Meod

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