Hand on my stupid heart

Tip #29 - Do something nice to your body

Tip #29 - Do something nice to your body

Here’s the thing.

For a lot of us when it comes to our bodies - the physical shell of us that carries our souls - the default attitude is often negligence, indifference, making do with the minimum, being overly harsh, functioning on lack or less than optimal for our needs, forgetting to take care and taking nothing instead to make up for it, to require maximum functioning on a less than ideal situation, to be out of alignment mentally and physically, to inhabit toxic things that take a toll on us physically – every thing except care taking, pretty much.

The reasons for this seem infinite.

The demands of our situations that require action and work instead of sleep sometimes.

The multiple ways it is easier to find something tasty that isn’t healthy.

The way we grew up thinking Jessica Simpson at size 4 was a warning to us all when really she was just existing and omg the discourse from one picture of an incredibly talented gorgeous woman led to a generation of human beings feeling like our bodies were offensive as they are. That the world and ourselves would be better if we took up less space.

Theres the reasons of shame and religious issues that comment nearly relentlessly about what to do and not do with your body while you’re in it.

The difficulties of toxic relationships. The physical ways we can participate in dangerous escapes in search of something else or better of just not the this of the moment we’re in. Etc etc etc…

The body keeps the score. For real. It does.

So when I say to do something nice to your body, I am also asking you to acknowledge the ways – without guilt please, just a recognition – of how we have continued to exist in this meat suit while often operating below ideal means.

And to some degree, regardless of the infinite situations that make things challenging, to some degree we have some control. We do. Even if in our minds voice.

Next is my favorite part. Let’s consider how much our physical beings have done for our little souls with our wants and our projects and our things to learn. How much my body and yours have helped us endure, feel, grow through, consider, fail at, succeed in, and prompted us to consider while allowing us a home, whatever that might be like, to the cells of our spirit to be attached to.

My body has brought me up immense mountains, taken me all over the United States so far, twice in other countries in which I’ve seen the incredible achievements of other human bodies compelled to action. My body has carried me through divorce and trauma and gave me the energy to get through single parenting three kids through the pandemic while I was also in school, learning how to parent myself to a degree, getting a job for the first time since I worked housekeeping and in the kitchens and for the financial gift hotline in college, and all at the same time. It breath by breath by deep fucking breath helped me figure out how to parent a kid with a massive health issue – and to learn to let him do what he’s made for and to sit myself at the sidelines of every game I can physically be present for.

My body helps me keep my promises.

My body has produced three incredible humans, the reason, I’m sure of, for their dad being in my life when he was. My body carried me to the other side of the country at 17 to go to school and run and run and run in Virginia.

My body learned how to remain calm and my body has learned how to feel pleasure and my body has let me read and see and enjoy and hear things that have also made me feel connected to other people.

My body has hugged people I love and warned me about people I don’t need to know. My body has hummed like gold when I’m onto something good and true and real and tells me exactly what I need and rewards me when I listen.

My body has done magic for me.

So in that point of view, when I say it’s time to do something nice for your body, can you feel more accepting of that?

Because when I think about it like that, separate out my soul from the body that holds me, look at that part of me with care in mind, it makes more sense. It is more important to treat myself with the tenderness I deserve to find from others and that I want to give others and that I want to feel and gawd hasn’t my body done a good job even in it’s various restrictions?

With that point of view I can nourish myself well. With that point of view I can rest when I need to without guilt about it. With that point of view I can exercise in the ways that work for me so I will be healthy and functional for *fingers crossed* decades still into the future. With this perspective in mind I can do the self care type stuff that actually provides and cares for my self.

Hand on your heart, have a listen, and bless the form that holds your soul.

Ilysm - Marian

The title of this post is from the last line of one of my favorite poems - Meditations in an Emergency.