Finding Love for the Body You Have.
/Our bodies are a vessel for how we live this life. Our bodies are a sacred space simply by existing inn the seat it’s sitting in, and with the shape the air takes around you. Our bodies are the ultimate sacred space. How many of you are treating it as such? How many of you practice gratitude in the form of spirituality, practice, sweat or nourishment for your body? And how much of your daily life is built on a foundation of this deep gratitude for the ultimate sacred space?
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Our hands help us communicate, exaggerate, nourish, feed us. Our legs hold us up, bring us from place to place with ease, support us as we sweat and ground into this earth. And then there are our insides, all that is happening inside of us that we cannot see. All that is happening simply to support us in living our best, high functioning life. Every limb, every organ has it’s function.
We live our life focused on goals, dreams, what we want to create. We live day in and day out with our wounds, our heartaches, our worries. And yet how much of your day do you spend feeling gratitude for your body? (And if you’re someone who does, I would love to hear from you about your rituals, experiences, tools in working with this.) I know for me, it absolutely has not been enough.
Recently I heard one of those stories where a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend had been in an accident. This distant soul whom I’ve never met went to work one day worried about the normal worries of life, busyness, bills, schoolwork. He had his health his fully functioning body, expecting to leave that night and return to his children, run around the baseball field that weekend, and enjoy life with his family. The accident took this away from him, he was badly injured, luckily still alive, yet life will return to a new kind of normal after this accident. I’ve had a client who truly could not see the beautiful body that she owned. She knew there was an opportunity for more love, yet it was a daily struggle for her to love what she did have while at the same time feeling sick and tired of these self-sabotaging feelings taking up brain space in her mind, in her body. Body-shaming for her was easier than gratitude and love. Hating her ultimate sacred space was habit, second nature making the depth of gratitude truly f foreign. Back in December I injured myself and have spent the last 3 months in Physical Therapy rehabbing a simple limb that has wrecked havoc on how I walk, get places, work out and more.
Self-love has many layers.
You learn how to love something about yourself one day, and one layer feels healed, and then a new one shows up thereafter. You learn to love yourself in a new role, in a new position, and then a new opportunity to check into your feelings of worthiness pops up. The layers of loving ourselves are endless, and as we live each day we have a new opportunity to feed, open to and spread that love. A huge part of our life is built around having the functioning of our bodies, of our health. And no matter where you fall on the spectrum of this, no matter your health situation, or journey with your body, I’m sure there is an o opportunity to call in a little more love and gratitude for the ultimate sacred space that carries you throughout this life, your body.
It feels almost imperative at this point to find ways to celebrate our bodies, our ultimate sacred space. If you’d like a little support today here are some ways you can start a practice of daily body-loving, or bring this in however feels right to you.
First and foremost make a decision to stop talking badly about you and your body. For this to work, make the mindset shift that you are done letting body-shaming, or negative body thoughts take up space in your brain. And overtime you notice your mind falling there you instead switch your language replacing it with something you l love or are grateful for. For example, you’re getting dressed in the mirror and you see an extra role or muffin-top, the thought pops in quickly, and you kindly, gently, let the thought go, and replace it with something you are grateful for about your body.
Throughout your day, close your eyes, how does your body feel in this moment? What does it feel like to live in your body? Are there aches and pains that have frustrated you, or brought you a new kind of experience living in this body? And are there ways you can appreciate these pains, these scars for what they have opened for you? If not, simply identify them, say hello to them, and then return to calling in something you are grateful for about your body.
Note on Gratitudes :: They can be as simple as :: I am grateful to have a body. I am grateful to have the ability to walk myself from my car to my job, or grateful to be able to walk hand in hand with my child. Gratitudes do not have to be complex, but they can be something you believe in.
Take one hand and run it down each arm slowly, feeling the pressure, the touch of you on you. Do the same thing for each leg. As you roll across each body part say thank you to them for their function, for what they do. Let the Thank you be said out loud, exclaimed, felt. Embody the feeling the gratitude.
No matter what our bodies look like today, no matter what they feel like, no matter what injuries, or body parts you do or don’t have, we must find a way to embody the depth of gratitude and love for the body that we do have. And there is always an opportunity to call in more, deeper love. Your invitation here is to look yourself in the mirror this week and love the human staring back at you just a little more deeply than you did yesterday.
