When you’re not well it’s all too easy to be at war with your body; fighting it, criticising and trying to ignore or push away the discomfort.
Now, imagine your body were another person with a sore back, would you criticise them, and try to push them away? I’m guessing probably not.
Let’s get right down to the nitty gritty with a quick ‘quiz’.
How many times in the past 24 hours have you judged or criticised your body?
a [ ] More times than I can remember
b [ ] Quite a few times
c [ ] Once or twice
d [ ] Not at all
If you ticked a or b, it seems as if, like many people, you’re at war with your body.
Yet our bodies have amazing capacities, like the myriad of processes involved in healing a cut or burn. They have an innate intelligence that orchestrates all our body systems, that are still not totally understood.
Wouldn’t it be better to be on the same side as our bodies? To align with them in the work they do to provide a home for our spirit?
How to call a truce, and get to peace with your body
It can be a challenge to learn to talk with our bodies because we’ve not been brought up to communicate with them.
So, for now, I suggest you start by saying and doing nice things to your body, just as you would with a person!
Here are my suggestions:
Compliment your body
My body calls herself ‘Sula’.
Sula, your hair is looking really nice and shiny today!
Thank your body for all the amazing things it does for you
Sula, thank you legs for walking me into the woods today.
Send love to any discomfort
I’m sending love to my lower back now.
Pamper your body
Have a massage, a rest or a bath with oils.
Put your body in charge of what you do
Eyes, what would you like me to do so I can see small print better?
Follow through with your body’s requests
Actually practice what my eyes want: to relax and allow the text come to my eyes, rather than strain my eyes towards the text.
And as you focus on the positives, the judgements and criticisms will fall away of their own accord.
The Delicious Nugget: Saying and doing nice things to your body is a great way to start working with it, rather than against it.
Thanks, May. My body now has a name…
PS a cool way to rest one’s eyes (other than doing intentional resting) I found on the internet–roll your eyeballs in figure eights a few times one way and then the other (sideways infinity sign). It helps synchronize brain hemispheres AND it loosens up the eyeballs which get strained muscles focusing straight in front trying to “pull in” the images…
Hi Sue, yes, it does make a difference to discover your body’s name – brings it all alive!
Thanks for reminding me about tracing figure of eights with my eyes (‘Lazy 8s’ from Brain Gym). My eyes say they would like to do some.
Oh, and my eyes would like me to call them by their name too! … they say it’s ‘Horos’, which I see means ‘dance’ – ‘dancing eyes’ feels good! Thanks for prompting this for me, Sue.