{"id":573,"date":"2015-05-19T15:48:40","date_gmt":"2015-05-19T19:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sallybsedgwick.com\/conversation\/?p=573"},"modified":"2016-07-24T10:21:30","modified_gmt":"2016-07-24T14:21:30","slug":"love-your-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/love-your-body\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Your Body"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"graffiti<\/a>Hug yourself! Put your left hand on your right shoulder. Put your right hand on your left shoulder. Push hands towards each other.\u00a0<\/span>And there you have it. Did it feel a tad strange? Or good? Or interesting <\/span><\/p>\n

Are you breathing? (Yes, this is a silly question, although sometimes we hold our breath when we do something different.) But is breathing something you have to think about? Heart pumping? Can you see to read this or can you hear it because someone is reading to you? Can you move? At all? Your body supports you. It just does.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most interesting aspects of my journey toward being more present is the challenge I keep being given to love my body. This is not something we learn. Society seems to present \u201cthem\u201d (aka bodies) as something that will break down, get sick, age, be used as a rack for ornamentation, and otherwise betray us as our true self, i.e., that is our mind and\/or soul, gets on with the business of life. St. Francis of Assisi referred to the body as \u201cBrother Ass\u201d reflecting the 13th century asceticism, which we still claim, that bodies are an uncomfortable accompaniment to being more spiritual.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTake care of your body\u201d is a Spirit Moxie conversation for another day. And an important one. But today, the topic is about rejoicing (really) in being a body. As Frederick Buechner says regarding man in Wishful Thinking,<\/a><\/i> \u201cit\u2019s not that he has<\/i> a body, but that he is<\/i> a body.\u201d* And loving and appreciating our bodies (this isn\u2019t always the same thing) is crucial for how we show up in the world and how the world interacts with us. Increasingly this is affirmed by writers and speakers who show us ways to be healthier, happier, and more productive. Do you want\/seek any of these things? To be healthier, happier, and more productive? Of course you do. I thought so. <\/span><\/p>\n

So try it again. Left hand on your right shoulder. Right hand on your left. And hug. It is almost that easy. Love your body as it is right now. Whatever the weight. In pain or not. However old you are. As we work toward the gift of being present and so conscious of and\u00a0 <\/span>participating in the world as it is, our relationship to our bodies becomes central. This is not something we are taught. It is something we need to learn.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps it is harder for women with their forced body images. Perhaps it is harder for us all as we are told (yes, told) that we will inevitably slow down and become less attractive as we get older. But seriously loving your body, exactly as it is, provides the base for everything else we have been talking about for changing the world. And the result of loving it is that you continue to grow into your ideal self \u2014 by your standards \u2014 not the mental picture that\u2019s been imposed on you by a greedy and unhappy world. <\/span><\/p>\n

Amy Ahlers in her book\u00a0 Big Fat Lies Women Tell Themselves<\/i><\/a> gives this exercise\/challenge: “Stand naked<\/i> in front of the mirror and name ten things you love about yourself every day for a week. . . .They can range from \u2018great ass\u2019 to \u2018the miracle of my skin\u2019 to \u2018my heart is pumping.\u2019\u201d** I failed this one. I tried, but I literally found myself running from the mirror. What was that response about? But even trying began the process. So try that exercise with one thing. Work up to five. Skin color? Do your nails look good? Wow, can you actually see, feel your hip bones? I never noticed the curve of my neck; my ankles; that one mole that is perfectly placed to be interesting; that my eye color is more varied than I remembered; and I forgot about my dimples. Your turn. Go. And stick with it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Somewhere along the way, not by magic, not immediately \u2014 unless of course it is immediate \u2014 you will start seeing some changes. Maybe not on the scale. Maybe the pain is still there. But you\u2019ll walk a little taller. You\u2019ll get more compliments. The weight and the pain will no longer be in charge and there\u2019s a great chance both will become manageable. You\u2019ll be ready for your part in changing the world. So allow me to introduce you to yourself: you in your body \u2014 your best self.<\/span><\/p>\n

Report in. What do you need to do for you? Hug.<\/span><\/p>\n

_________________________________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a snapshot of how this has worked for me: I began this \u201cloving your body challenge\u201d feeling a little dumpy, too old, and with pain that moved from my right shoulder to my left leg. Now I feel pretty awesome, really. My body gets, no, I<\/i> get compliments out of nowhere. Age is just a number that I forget most of the time. And, when I\u2019m really present and doing what I\u2019m called to do, the pain disappears. Of course, my stretches help too.
\n<\/span>___________________________________________________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

Hugging exercise adapted from the work of SARK
\n<\/a>*Frederick Buechner, \u201cImmortality,\u201d Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC<\/a>\u00a0(Harper & Row, 1993).
\n**Amy Ahlers, \u201cBig Fat Lie #16: one of these days I\u2019ll win the battle of the bulge,\u201d Big Fat Lies Women Tell Themselves: Ditch Your Inner Critic and Wake Up Your Inner Superstar<\/a>\u00a0(New World Library, 2011), p. 69.<\/span><\/p>\n

_____________________________________________<\/p>\n

Photo credit:
\nPeaceful Heart Doctor – 3, 720 Grant Ave., San Francisco\u00a0\u2014Eva Blue<\/p>\n

Additional Resources:
\nAmy Ahlers latest work, with Christine Arylo, Reform Your Inner Mean Girl: 7 Steps to Stop Bullying Yourself and Start Loving Yourself<\/a>.\u00a0Also for Dudes!
\nChristiane Northrup, M.D.,Goddesses Never Age: The Secret Prescription for Radiance, Vitality, and Well-Being<\/a>.\u00a0Primarily for women, but there is useful information for men as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hug yourself! Put your left hand on your right shoulder. Put your right hand on your left shoulder. Push hands towards each other.\u00a0And there you have it. Did it feel a tad strange? Or good? Or interesting Are you breathing? … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main-conversation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DJHl-9f","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":779,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions\/779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}