This is a Article I Really Love it
A big part of having a positive body image is taking good care of yourself. It’s supporting your body by being gentle and compassionate.
Doing so creates a positive cycle. Taking good care of yourself relaxes and soothes your body, which, of course, helps you feel more relaxed. Once you’re more relaxed, you’re less inclined to beat up on your body. Because we know that stress can fuel an already iffy body image (or emotional eating).
In his newest book Just One Thing: Developing A Buddha Brain One Simple Practice at a Time, author and neuropsychologist Rick Hanson, Ph.D, writes: “It’s common to push the body hard, ignore its needs until they get intense, and tune out its signals…People can also get mad at the body and even mean to it…But if you do any of these things, you’ll end up paying a big price, since you are not separated from your body after all. Its needs and pleasures and pains are your own. Its fate will be your own someday.”
Hanson offers some valuable advice on how we can befriend our bodies.
For starters, he asks readers to imagine our bodies as separate from us, and to consider these powerful questions:
How has your body taken care of you throughout the years? (Not only does it help you breathe and keeps you alive, but it’s also taken you from place to place.)
“In return, how well do you take care of your body?” Alternately, how do you possibly harm your body?
How are you critical of your body? Are you disappointed in your body? Embarrassed by it? Do you wish it were different?
If your body could speak, what would it say?
If your body were your good friend, how would you treat it then? Would you treat if differently than you do now?
Next, he suggests remembering a time when you treated a good friend well. Think about everything from what attitude you had toward your friend to what you did for them to how being kind made you feel.
Imagine, then, a day when you treat your body like a good friend. OK, read that again, and really take it in.
I say that because for so many of us our bodies have become our worst enemies. We don’t just bash them, but like Hanson writes, we ignore them. We blame them. And being kind to our bodies seems like an impossible request. But take it slowly, and give this activity a try.
Imagine loving your friend (i.e., your body) first thing in the morning, being gentle with it and not rushing around. Imagine cherishing your body as you take a nice shower, eat a yummy breakfast and get dressed. Imagine treating your body lovingly as you engage in other activities such as driving, exercising, working and even doing the dishes and brushing your teeth.
Even if it’s just a few minutes per day, try treating your body well. What does that really look like for you?
Hanson suggests writing a letter about how you felt about your body in the past and how you’d like to be nicer to it in the future.
He also suggests creating a short list of ways you can take better care of your body. For instance, you might leave work earlier, try a new physical activity, stretch more often, get more sleep or start applying lotion after a shower.
As Hanson concludes, “Kindness begins at home. Your home is your body.” Never forget that.
How will you start befriending your body?
Hello Caitriona2, thank you for sharing with us this article, some really good suggesting to put us to think.
I really like the questions:If your body could speak, what would it say?
If your body were your good friend, how would you treat it then? Would you treat if differently than you do now?
I wonder what our bodies would say if we asked ourselves these questions more often/
Thanks again
Regards
M
Hi Catriona,
That book you mentioned sounds really good! I'm going to look that up.
On the subject of letting our bodies speak to us, that has been something huge for me in the last 2 years...
I suppose it's my body that I'm listening to now when I make big decisions instead of my brain. An example of this in full swing was when I had broke up with my ex-boyfriend. For the following months we were still in touch, as he wanted to get back together, and I was very emotional and found it hard to cut off communication. I was working in a TEFL job, where we were sent to different places each week to teach a one-week course of English to school children. I was sent to Bulgaria, and I had decided I would stop off in London on the way back to meet my ex boyfriend. Now, if I had tuned into what I really wanted, and what my body was telling me at that stage, I would have realized that I did not want to do that. But anyway, I went ahead...and this is what happened!! First of all, my eardrum burst - which caused excruciating pain, and it was risky to go on a plane again. I, however, was very stubborn, and didn't want my plans to get mixed up, so I went ahead and took the flight to Bulgaria, while taking antibiotics for the burst eardrum and infection. Then, the second day in Bulgaria, I woke up and looked in the mirror: I was covered from head to toe in a bright red rash, my face was even swelling up! I was in a panic!! This led to a surreal trip to a Bulgarian hospital in the countryside, where the doctor was smoking away inside the hospital, the beds were dirty, I didn't understand a word of anything!! What emerged in the end was that I had an allergic reaction to the antibiotics. At this stage, all I wanted to do was come home! And I couldn't help but match up the fact that deep down I didn't really want to go to see my ex boyfriend in London (and all that that would have entailed) and the fact that my body was acting up in all sorts of ways. Anyway the company I worked for organised a flight home for me, and everything fell into place. I was back in Dublin and fine again very soon.
It was step one on the steep learning curve I've been on in terms on listening to my body's messages.
hi Catriona..wow what a great article i have a new diary to write in and am going to write the questions down, in particular how can i better take care of my body..love this,
Thanks hunny
Butterfly xx
Thanks Caitriona2. This is very relevant for me at the minute, and always worth thinking about, whatever stage of recovery one is at. Thanks for posting it:)
And to girasole, thanks for sharing your story. I've had unpleasant experiences (none, perhaps, as extreme as yours!) where I've thought back and realised little or none of it would have happened had I not begun the train of events by not listening to my gut. Now, I am always cautious about 'blaming' x event on y decision, but certainly, there is an awful lot to be said for making the choice that is right for you, and a lot of evidence that making choices to please others or meet some outside standard is not good for you. This is probably a whole new topic, but yours is definitely a cautionary tale!
I'm pleased to say I've already begun some habits to help remind myself that my body IS ME. That's been easy to allow myself forget in the past, and is really helpful to put a bit of effort into. There are other ways I can do this some more.
Also, looking after your body is potentially one of the more pleasant areas of recovery, even though it can bring up some uncomfortable feelings and highlight negative thoughts you might not have even realised you had about your body. I've come to realise that often a positive, progressive thing to bring up uncomfortable feelings. So enjoy it or not, you benefit from caring a little bit more for the body you live in.
This is a great topic. Thanks for all the sharing on it.
Happy New Year to all - 2012; the year of loving the bodies we live in:)
Michelle xxx
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