Your most sacred possession

One of my favorite self-care activities is to take a day off, go ‘inside’ into stillness, and visit the Korean spa. And that’s where I was earlier this week.

Now this isn’t for the feint of heart, both physically and energetically. Spending an entire day with yourself is worth it’s weight in gold but so is walking around in your skin without any place to hide.

Sometimes I let myself go deep: I don’t interact much with others, I try not to look at my phone or emails, I don’t distract myself with music or reading. It’s kinda like a day-long meditation retreat.

The energies that can move are huge when we take this downtime from our every-day busy-ness.

As I was there, being in the moment without distraction, I realized my physical body is an unwavering partner. I realized my body is the only thing in the world that has been with me every single moment of my life. 100%.

Every high, every low. It is unwavering in being there with me. It tirelessly keeps beating, keeps digesting, keeps taking steps to move me forward.

It has been with me through the highs of achievement and the lows of loss. It has birthed children, been through the difficulties of adolescence, and the lows of a chronic health journey. Each time we stumble, it gets right back up with me.

And through it all, I’ve not ever stopped to revere it’s sanctity or even taken serious time to thank it. Sure, an occasional thought of ‘wow I did that!’ And maybe ‘wow I can’t believe I moved that huge log’ while cutting firewood or restraining an emotional preschooler. But not true appreciation or deep reverence for all the amazingness of this physical form.

Do you ever stop to thank your body? Do you ever feel grateful or awestruck at it’s amazing intelligence and power?

I must admit, this is not my default. I grew up feeling my body wasn’t enough…not strong enough, not fast enough, not healthy enough.

It always needed more training, more work, more medication, more dieting, more…something. I was a quite serious competitive swimmer for years, always receiving coaching on what needed to change. But not usually appreciating what my body was doing for me.

How is your body sacred and amazing?

I invite you to consider. Reflect for a moment.

I frequently ask my clients to make a list of ways their body is strong or amazing. Unfortunately, we generally spend too much time focusing on what is not working right and what we feel needs to change versus spending hardly any time on what is working well.

Let’s review some truths:

• Your body innately knows how to heal.
• Your body is an amazingly complex system that functions day in and day out to keep you alive.
• Your body serves you without a lot of recognition for the amazing feats it does each day (turn a carrot into energy-truly extraordinary!). I surely don’t know how to do that!

Your body is a vessel for your soul. For you. For your consciousness. Your awareness.

It is intricately connected and stays that way until the moment of your physical body’s death.

And so, I invite you to consider your body a loyal partner, until death do you part, and find a way to feel appreciation, gratitude, and yes, reverence, at the sanctity of your body.

This appreciation is like a shower of water on the seedling in the garden. Big growth can happen when we partner and appreciate all the parts of ourselves.