You’ve been a pretty bad friend to your body. I know that sounds harsh, but I’ll explain.
If you’ve faced any chronic or recurrent health problems, or if your body doesn’t look the way you think it should, you probably feel like your body let you down.
Let me lovingly tell you it’s the opposite.
Your body wants to serve you, that’s what it was designed to do. It’s desperate for you to listen to it and work with it rather than against it.
The wisdom that created the Universe created your body. This power that made the body heals the body. Its wisdom flows through you and will control and regulate every aspect of your health if allowed.
The system is designed brilliantly…then our thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes step in and throw a monkey wrench into the perfection.
Negative thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes wreak havoc on your body’s physiology.
Your thoughts are an unseen force that travel to every cell of your body.
24 hours a day, your body is physically reacting to the thought impulses it receives.
Forget genetics, your thoughts and beliefs dictate which genes become activated. Your thoughts affect the makeup of your DNA.
This is too short a piece to take a deep dive into the science of DNA, so I recommend you read The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton.
You can also read this fascinating study about how mindfulness protects us from chromosomal damage.
Just know that positive, loving, non-judging thoughts heal and repair your body, and negative thoughts like fear, anger, jealousy and greed damage your body.
Your habits flow from your thoughts and emotions as well.
Be honest about the food you put into your body. Do you give it enough quality sleep? Are you over or under exercising your body?
How about the emotional support you give your body? What’s your self talk toward your body sound like?
What sorts of fears, doubts, and anger do you harbor about your body?
Do this exploration with no judgment. You’re just taking inventory.
The purpose of this inventory isn’t to start a cascade of negative self talk (we’ll talk about being friends with your mind in part 2.).
The purpose is for you to rekindle your friendship with your body. To let it know you’re not going to ignore it any longer. To acknowledge you haven’t been a good friend, but that things are different now.
Up until now, you’ve paid a personal price for being a bad friend to your body.
Almost every disease known can be traced to our thoughts, beliefs, and habits.
Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, digestive disorders, autoimmune disorders, fibromyalgia, a weak immune system, cancers, and on, and on, and on.
And the disorders thought to be hereditary? They’re at the very least enhanced by your thoughts and habits. Your heredity doesn’t have to be your destiny.
Some metaphysicians go as far as to say that even accidental injuries are the result of our thoughts and beliefs via the law of attraction.
Let’s embrace being friends again with our bodies.
“and I said to my body, softly, ‘I want to be your friend.’ it took a long breath and replied, ‘I have been waiting my whole life for this’” — Nayyirah Waheed
Get quite. Close your eyes and ask yourself on the inside, “body, will you be my friend?”
At first your body may say no. Lovingly and gently, ask it what you can do repair the relationship.
Apologize for not being the type of friend it needed and commit to listening and doing your absolute best to provide it with what it needs.
Go to the conversation with an open heart and willing to listen. You’re not there to tell your body what to do. You’re there to listen with understanding and compassion.
Sometimes your body just needs to be heard. Sometimes it actually needs you to do something or to stop doing something else.
When I first did this exercise, my body needed me to know it was feeling overworked and underappreciated.
The second time, I went a little deeper. My body let me know that our relationship changed between the ages of 10 and 13. I don’t have all the answers yet, but I’m sure more will be revealed in time.
My body also wants me to be a better listener.
So when I scoop ice cream, and a voice deep inside me says, “I don’t even want this”, but I eat it anyway, I’m working against my body.
Your body knows exactly what it needs to be able to serve you. It’s been trying to tell you what it needs, and now’s your chance to hear it and honor it.
Our bodies are friggin’ miracles, being a good friend is the least we can do!
Our Bodies are Miracles and We Barely Give them any Credit
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Originally published at Change Your Mind Change Your Life on Medium.com