The Body Instrument: A Meditation on Becoming Friends with your Precious Body
Your body is beautiful. My greatest wish is for you to take into your heart the knowledge that you are an exquisite and remarkable creation. Every imperfect perfection, every blemish, every hair represents the perpetual unfolding of your life. We spend so much time in our heads that it’s easy to forget that we are our bodies, that the mind and body are intricately and ingeniously entwined. As much as we want to forget, we are our bodies. Wherever we go, our bodies are the ones to carry us. Whether we inherited shame for our bodies from our family of origin or from messages internalized from the media we consume we are bombarded with reasons why we are not good enough. Too many of us are severed from the vital connection we have to our physical form. We have to relearn to love our bodies, to make friends with the glorious instruments that perform the miracles of everyday living.
Take a moment to greet your body. Sit in stillness and feel the expansiveness of your breath: your lungs fill, your diaphragm pulls downward, and the muscles of you back and rib cage bloom outward to draw in life-sustaining air. Place your hand on your chest and feel your heart dancing to the rhythm of your being, increasing and decreasing its tempo in concert with the ebb and flow of every breath. Your vital sap, your rich and ancient blood, nourishes every living cell of your being. Even when you are exhausted or your health is diminished, your body continues its daily task of carrying your precious mind and spirit.
Become friends with your body again.
How good would it feel to make peace with the entirety of your being? How relieving would it be for your body to not only be enough, but to be celebrated for its steadfast loyalty to you? Caress the skin of your arms with your open palms while being aware of the goodness of touch. Carry these words in the vessel of your heart: you, my dear one, are my truest, most loyal friend. I will take care of you. I will take care of us.