What’s more painful than chronic physical pain?

The pain that lives inside of us, that’s what. Can you imagine being 100 pounds overweight and living with all of the agony that goes along with that? The inability to buy a dress or the fear that goes with flying on an airplane? Now, can you imagine losing that weight and still coming up short? Still feeling deep inside that you are not good enough? Never believing for more than a few moments at a time, that you are beautiful and valuable?

Art by Tricia Walman :www.seeyourvisionart.com

I did my Ask The Girlfriend Gyno chat in front of 400 students at Sonoma State University this week, and during my talk, I spoke about how I believe talking about your vagina can be very healing. After all, not only is the vagina where we create life and experience pleasure; it’s also where many traumas happen -- sexual molestation, rape, abortion, childbirth traumas, painful experiences at the gynecologist’s office, and traumatic sex. When we don’t release these traumas, they fester and manifest in ways we might not even associate with the original trauma. They might express as depression, eating disorders, or chronic pelvic pain. But when we talk about our vaginas, when we seek solace in the company of others, we set ourselves free.