Your Body Has A Point of View
Your body has a point of view.
Our bodies are constantly taking in information from our environment while simultaneously relaying information to us in the form of feelings, desires, and physical symptoms. I don’t know If you’re anything like me, but if you are, you may have at some point been guilty of divorcing yourself from KNOWING and LISTENING to your body. For a long time, I knew how to criticize my body, to push my body, to punish my body, to manipulate my body, to fret over my body. But to listen to my body? If anything I was more like a head floating above a body.
After years of attempting to force my body into a state of health through lots of aggressive dieting and supplementation, consultations with practitioners of various modalities, body shaming and generally fighting myself under the guise of fighting symptoms, (undiagnosed autoimmune disease, cystic acne, severe anxiety and panic attacks, depression, and extreme fatigue), I was at the end of my rope and didn’t know what else to do, so I surrendered. My habitual ways of relating to my body weren’t working. I was at war, and losing. I decided to ease up. To love and accept myself as I was (even though at that time cystic acne, was wreaking havoc on my self-esteem and filling me with shame).
Easing up, was a revelation. The idea that I could nurture and nourish myself, that I could be gentle with myself felt like a balm that my soul needed. It had never occurred to me that there was a path, a way to exist in the world, that was peaceful. I didn’t have to perpetually be at odds with myself. To always be critiquing and criticizing and finding all the ways that my body was a disappointment and a source of pain.
Now, I could lie and tell you that these days I never struggle with body shame or trying to control my life and health through food, or that I don’t experience feelings of desperation when my autoimmune symptoms flair. The reality is that those things come and go but, that first act of surrender was an entry point to a different kind of relationship with my body that only gets stronger and more trust-filled over time. Instead of shaming myself when something doesn’t feel right, I’ve learned to ask, ”What is it that you’re trying to tell me?” and “How can I support you?” Then, to the best of my ability, I take steps to respond from love, instead of from fear or a sense of hopelessness or lack.
Your body is not your enemy. Your body is your ally. Your body is working for you, not against you. So be gentle with yourself. Be gentle with your body. Your body deserves to be cared for, loved, held. It deserves to be listened to. It has it’s own point of view.