Make peace with your body stories
Let your body stories go
We all have our own body with our own unique stories. Most often, nobody else knows these body stories. We judge ourselves and we judge that others are judging us.
I simply want to put this thought to you: turn judgment to kindness and gratitude. Imagine that your body is your home or your temple. We all wish to be at peace in our homes.
Make peace
Whether you are living with long-term health conditions, aging or body dissatisfaction, to name just a few, John Mundahl writes:
‘Today I make peace with my body-home …’
And this short lovely video from Julia Sawalha, speaks Mundahl’s poem as a reminder to make peace with all our body judgments and stories:
Turn judgments to gratitude
A simple way to shift your negative body stories is to focus instead on gratitude.
1. Thank you for my feet that let me walk, run, dance.
2. I appreciate my hands which let me do a million different things including caring for my babies and hugging my loved ones.
3. I am thankful for my eyesight, as Thich Nhat Hanh says:
Your eyes are one of the basic conditions for your well-being and your happiness. To have eyes that are still in good condition – what good fortune! This is a marvelous thing.
4. And with wonder and awe:
You have continued to grow since your birth, with millions of new cells continually blooming to replace the old ones that are always dying. At this moment, you’re host to about 50 trillion cells, and each of them is really a sentient being in its own right. They all act together as a community, implementing the monumental collaboration you call your body.
~ Rob Brezsny
Respect, accept and care for your body, and even if you can’t love it, be thankful for your unique body-home!
Resources for mental health and body image
This post was inspired by Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK (13-19 May 2019) and the theme this year is ‘Body Image: how we think and feel about our bodies’.
Body Image Report from the Mental Health Foundation
Body Image Stories from the Mental Health Foundation
Yvette Jane – Mindfulness & Meditation Guide
