Body Gratitude
Updated: May 23
I have been on a search for the best and the possible. My body is something that I feel I don’t invest in hardly ever until about a year ago. I realized that I put my body through quite a lot. This pounding and lack of care comes in the forms such as food, sleep, healing, expectations, and more. I run it through the ringer and then I have the audacity to push it till it breaks, until it is exhausted, until it is run down, until it just can’t take any more and then I am sick, in pain, or worse chronically struggling with much more than I bargained for.
Like many, I too have a body journey, it is not pretty -- in fact it is cruel and hard to admit that I haven’t really ever seen my body as something exceptional. Until, about a year ago, I started a journey that has taken me into new understandings, and I am ready to share one of the new discoveries I have had here today.
Bodies have an ability to show thanks.
This sensation is unreal. It is better than any melted-butter delectable pastry, it is better than the creamy-est ice cream or the savoriest sauce. It is a sensation that illuminates and resonates throughout the entire body. It sends these waves of delight and a quiet, resounding joy. At that moment: everything feels alive.
A wave covers from the middle out that for a moment everything resonates with the food now inside my stomach. There is vitality. There is energy. There is this subtle contentment that I have found resonates most with gratitude.
My body thanks me.
It thanks me when I feed it well, when I feed it right. I feel this deep connection with my body and all feels ready to embrace the world.
I am not exaggerating that it also gives me this unwavering devotion to my body. I desire nothing more than to cultivate my life with food that resonates and build my vitality in the way that these specific foods have.
How to start finding how your body thanks you:
Take time to slow down and embrace your meals with observation
Start listening as you eat, record or make note of the way you feel after you eat the basic wheat, dairy, sugar, etc. Observe how it affects your health, your energy, your attitude or mood. Observe what happens when you take one away and then observe when you bring that food back into your diet.
Eat the rainbow: the more vibrantly you can cook and the more plant-based the better. For a year now I have eaten mainly plant-based meals and I firmly know this is one of the reasons I am able to feel and connect more interpersonally with my body.
Educate yourself on what foods build and what foods take away or reduce health within the body.
Love and respect your body, get to a point where you can mentally see your beauty and your worth. Build a beautiful body image for yourself and that respect will grow to stop doing things that would harm your body or diminish it’s quality of beauty in any way. If this is something you are interested in pursuing more deeply, I am a coach who helps women achieve a personalized beauty body image for themselves.
Do you feel it is hard to connect with your body? Do you find eating to be a hassle or a journey? Please leave a comment below, I look forward to connecting with you.
