BEing Thankful for Your Body

A song’s lyrics contain the line...“My body is the temple of my spirit.”

Is it true?

As someone who lives with a health condition that causes physical pain to my body, it is a harsh reality for me to face. Is my spirit in pain? Yes, it is. Do I create my own pain and self-hatred? Not consciously, but I most definitely have a role in it. We must be aware and conscious before we can change.

Okay, my situation is rather unique because I feel the pain physically in my body. The condition I was diagnosed with manifests as an overactive immune system, my body is attacking the cartilage, ligaments, tendons and muscles around the joints. My body is literally attacking itself...it is not a stretch to say that it is a physical form of self-hatred.

Mine may be physical and obvious, however most women suffer from body self-hatred. Yes, it is a strong phrase, and there is a strong need to accept the truth of it so it can change. How can we deny this truth when the following startling statistics from the “International Journal of Eating Disorders,” show how early we are trained to find something wrong with our bodies.

*Among children in grades 1-3, 42% want to be thinner
*Among 11-13 year old girls, more than 50% believe they are overweight
*More than 10% of teenage girls report binge eating at least once a week
*More than 90% of college women in the mid-90s had attempted to control their weight through diets
*80% of US women do not like how they look
*Approximately 1 in 100 women in the US binge and purge in order to lose weight

What are some of the repercussions of this phenomenon in our world?

*low self-esteem and self-worth in women
*women set themselves up for failure by comparing their bodies to models on magazine covers (the average US woman is 5’4” tall and weighs 140 lbs while the average model is 5’11” and weighs 117 lbs)
*women have a happiness deficit because they don’t feel good in their own skin
*women have a difficult time feeling sexually and being present with their partners because they are too worried about how they look naked
*women have a difficult time achieving orgasm
*men don’t understand women’s body issues, and don’t know how to help
*women wait until men find them attractive
*women relinquish their natural role in choosing mates

These repercussions have a negative impact on our planet. If women do not feel happy with their bodies, they do not find their relationships fulfilling and satisfying. It is hard for a man to feel happy when a woman feels that way about herself. When women are feeling their beauty and sexuality, they can literally breathe with the earth.

How can we bring the beauty back? How can we encourage our children to look within to their beautiful souls for how they feel, and not their outer appearance? What is the role of the woman in this journey back? What is the role of the man? In future articles, I will explore these curious questions.

For now, during this Thanksgiving time of year in the US, I am inviting women to BE Thankful for your body and how it has served you throughout your life: the pleasures, the pains, the glories, the defeats. Feel grateful for ALL of it, as all of your experiences have led you to this point in your life.

And I invite all mindful men to appreciate something about a woman’s body...maybe say, “Honey, you look really beautiful today.” Simple, yet so powerful.

A woman who loves her body is one of the juiciest energy vibrations on the planet!