Body appreciation. We could all give a little more gratitude to the vessel that carries and houses our spirit. Humans are the children of the Earth and the Universe. Our bodies are made up of the elements and space. Recycled out of the past and renewed, electrical and 60% water. We are literally one with life itself. As within so without. Our bodies allow us to connect and experience the world we live in. They function without our consciousness telling it what to do. They express our feelings and thoughts. We experience luscious pleasures, debilitating pain, and everything in between.
Despite how much our bodies give us, there seems to be a war on them. We deprive them, despise them, fetishize them, abuse them, and criticize them. We’ve been conditioned to hate our bodies through the media, religion, or sadly even by loved ones. The way some of us treat our bodies is criminal. We push our bodies to the limits, at either end of the spectrum, by a never-ending reach towards perfection or ignoring the state of our bodies altogether. Our body’s ecosystem is constantly telling us to start, stop or continue a behavior if we’d just pay attention. By ignoring the trillions of sentient cells and organisms’ requirements to do their work properly, we could end up in precarious situations and conditions.
**Content Warning: Topic of Eating Disorders**
I was one such person who ignored and abused my body in an effort to reach a promoted, sought-after beauty standard. Treating my perfectly healthy, athletic, young body with disdain and contempt. I was a teenager during the 2000s and I felt the pressure to be thin. By a slow-burn combination of many exposures and trigger moments, I decided one day that I wasn’t going to eat anymore. Or if I did, enough to keep up appearances, and with as few calories as I could muster. I began to shrink, conceited in wasting away. As my weight diminished, my thoughts of food grew, until it was all I could think about. My body was begging me to eat, presenting me with slide shows in my mind of calorie-dense foods. The signals became stronger until I could no longer hold out. I imploded into a ravenous eating frenzy in the darkness of shame. And in the darkness, I flushed it away. Well, I then learned I could trick my body, family, and friends into thinking I was receiving nourishment. However, while I was doing this, I was eroding my teeth, disturbing my digestion, and denying my body of nutrients. I naively thought that I could keep this charade up. Yet with one divine day, my mother agreed to get me braces, not that I needed them really, with my vain attitude I perceived them to be another step in acclaiming the ever-elusive beauty ideal. These simple metal teeth straighteners helped me to kick my food-depriving addiction to the curb. See, I knew a senior that I played soccer with who had braces on for 4 years. She smoked cigarettes the entire time without practicing adequate dental hygiene. When she finally got her braces removed, her teeth were stained with tar from the imprints of the braces. I realized that if I continued to regurgitate my leftovers while wearing braces then I would end up with acid-stained teeth. My braces had become a training tool, a concept that replaced self-loathing with self-loving and care. I returned to eating with a newfound appreciation for the medicinal and nutritional value of whole foods and self-love.
Fast forward 18 years, with its ups and downs, two steps forward one step back progress in acclimating to my changing body, needs, and desires, I have finally come to a place of contentment and peace with the shape and feel of my body. This journey toward understanding a healthy body led me to study massage therapy and becoming licensed in 2018.
Now, having massaged over 5,000 different people since then, I have witnessed an expansive range of body types. Everybody is different and unique. To compare ourselves or try to emulate one another would be futile. Why would we want to copy the way somebody else looks, especially nowadays with so much fakery covering the true self? It’s usually to appear more attractive. Me, I believe besides a nice personality, that your health will ultimately be a sign of true attractiveness, no matter the shape of your body, face, or texture of hair. Real beauty stems from the inside out. A strong, flexible spine with a sturdy posture, abundant blood flow, functioning organ systems, and solid bones. This is the foundation of health and beauty.
Most everyone is gifted this prototype the day they were born. After about the age of 21 when our bodies are fully developed, it’s up to each individual to maintain their health, the best they can. Anyone who hasn’t lived life in a cave should absolutely know the basics to achieve a certain level of healthiness. Drink plenty of clean water, get any type of exercise or movement, eat nutritious whole foods, sleep, groom and breathe (not that you could forget to breathe as your body thankfully has that one under control).
These are the things that your body, composed of all its cells and microorganisms, demands the most and must be given daily. From there, the number of ways to care for your body is endless. This is where you find what feels good to you, what works, what your body squeals in a big ol’ thank you too, for being appreciated and thought of. Taking the time, money, and effort in caring for your body is an investment that will reward you with feeling and looking fresh, bright-eyed, and bushy-tailed long into old age. Your future self will thank you for the care you give yourself now. Treat yourself right as you deserve. You and your body are buddies till the end, make it a positive relationship.
Being secure in your healthy beloved body is a boundary to those who prey on people’s insecurities, and to a culture that tells us we are not good enough as we are. Practicing self-care is such a way to treat yourself with dignity and honor. We can’t expect the people in our lives or the society around us to sustain us. It’s up to us, each individual to bathe ourselves with nourishment and devotion. When we feel good from the inside out, then the world will appear a little nicer since our lenses of life reflect the perspective of our inner world. We can actually enjoy our lives, showing our beautiful and unique faces while we do it. Because we don’t love any of our loved ones less because of how they look? We love them because they make us feel good when we are around them, we love what’s on the inside, and the outside is manifest so that we can hug them, see them laugh, and enjoy conversations.
“Fill up your own cup so that you can overflow into the lives of others.”
- Anonymous
Inevitably, as you take care of the health of your body, the better you will look and feel. So go ahead and take that nap, get a massage, visit the chiropractor’s office for your achy back, and make yourself a juicy, creamy fruit smoothie. The options are limitless, experiment with what you research, find what works for you. If something hurts, or you get sick, it’s your body trying to communicate to you, that something needs to change. Listen! Your health care starts at home. There is a myriad of alternative holistic health practitioners that can help you learn about and facilitate healing in your body. Doctors and hospitals should be the last resort. Because hopefully by doing preventive measures, emergencies will be less common.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound in cure” -Benjamin Franklin
As you get to know your body and its changing ways, respect it as a good friend. Remember, you are made up of Earth, water, space, stars, and spirit. May you be at one in good health with your body and at one with the world within and without.
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