Your body, this marvel

by Annick Hollender   (February 2017)

There is a tendancy to complain about our body rather than talking kindly to it. True? Who has not heard “it hurts here…it hurts there?” Is this the best attitude to experience well-being? Self-pity . . . maybe?

Try this: Sit for a few minutes in silence upon waking and ask your body: “How can I best be of service to you today?” Crazy? Come on, try!

My body is my vehicle, the place where my body resides, not who I am. We take great care of our car, yes? We go to the garage when it whines, no? So why do we wait to “fall” sick before going to get a check up? Because we haven’t learned to appreciate that our body wants the best for us, we treat it as an enemy.

If we could stop for a moment and get in touch with our self, welcome the messages of our body, our feelings, without judging or rejecting them . . . After we honestly examine what we put our body through, we shouldn’t be surprised by its condition. We might even say Mea Culpa. If we genuinely loved ourselves, our attitude would be one of deep respect and gratitude towards this truly miraculous “machine” and its needs.

Let us learn to listen to it, to consult with it, before we stuff it with anything and everything, or demand the impossible from it…before exhaustion. To prevent a burnout? No! To just stop pushing the machine with our head, and to love ourselves enough to welcome the body as it is, respecting its limits and giving it what it asks for : the respect of Nature’s laws. I promise you, it will return to you a hundredfold!