Respect For The Physical Body

Each of us is endowed with an amazing gift. This gift is our physical body. In and of itself, the physical body can consume a life time of study and experimentation, and still we will remain ignorant of many of its mysteries. The physical body is our first fascination when we are infants. We must learn to master and coordinate many of its functions and put them under conscious control. We discover that the body can be a source of pleasure and pain, leading us early on to seek how we can cultivate the one, and avoid the other. Unfortunately, our early experiences of the body may become surrounded with taboos, compulsions, avoidances, complexes. This can lead over time to a general habit pattern of ignoring the body, taking it for granted, and becoming oddly disconnected from it. The result is that we enter adult life with a great deal of ambivalence regarding our physical bodies. We need them, but often act as if we would rather live without them. This can go on until the body ultimately reacts, primarily through an explosion of disease of some sort, forcing us to pay attention to it.

It is never too late then, to re-discover the beauty and mystery of our physical bodies. In doing so, we can recognize that everything that happens to us in life, affects the physical body somehow. The physical body does its best to serve us, despite the daily impacts and traumas it may sustain. Likewise, we can learn to properly serve it, by developing a healthy attitude of respect and care towards it. This can first be done by learning to love and appreciate your physical body without judgment. No matter what your body looks like, it has attempted to serve you in life. It has done its best to meet your wishes and carry out your demands. The excess weight you may carry is there for the sake of protection. The wrinkles you may see are your victory marks for having made it successfully into maturity. The scars you observe are only there because your body allowed you to take risks in life. Even when the body succumbs to illness, it does so only after many weary efforts of attempting to teach you, perhaps in vain, that your body needs its share of care and consideration. It is time to embrace your physical body.

Standing naked in front of a full length mirror, you may see many things your mind would prefer changing. These changes can be made in a number of ways, many of them obvious to us, yet still resisted. We can change our diets. We can increase our level of exercise. We can resort if need be to cosmetic surgery. We can use creams, and vitamins, and other body enhancing aids. We can take the appropriate medications and rest necessary to heal a physical ailment. We can utilize medical people, chiropractors, massage therapists, nutritional consultants, physical fitness trainers, martial arts people, and numerous professionals specializing in a variety of approaches both mainstream and "New Age." All of these people can benefit us, but none of them can really heal the body, if we continue to be at war with it in our hearts.

We are our physical bodies! Though we are ultimately spirit and much vaster than the physical body, the body represents in time and space our only gateway into the manifest world. To be at peace with the physical body, we must desire to know it, as we would a dear and cherished love
and/or friend. You can will the body to do your bidding, but it will eventually rebel, unless you do so lovingly and harmoniously. The most important gift you can give your body, is the gift of loving support and affection. Feet, legs, arms, hands, torso, face, skin, muscles, bones, nervous system, circulatory system, lymphatic system, organs of all kinds, glands. Begin to discover the wonder of your body! As we no longer resist the body, and start to befriend it, something wonderful happens. It responds. In turn, we begin to "carry ourselves" and our "bodies" differently. An aura of respect prevails. This body is our temple! And in acknowledging this, we and others begin to see our bodies differently. Perhaps the body is OK after all!

Dr Lisa Love, Life, Relationship, Law of Attraction Coach
www.doctorlisalove.com
Author: BEYOND THE SECRET: Spiritual Power and the Law of Attraction