http://www.care2.com/greenliving/love-your-precious-body.html
Love Your Precious Body
Adapted from Practice Random Acts of Kindness, by the editors of Random Acts of Kindness (Conari Press, 2007).
Isn’t it odd that we have such incredible difficulty coming to grips with the most basic and fundamental reality of our existence—our own bodies? If kindness indeed starts at home, certainly at the most basic level it must begin with an unswerving tenderness for and appreciation of our bodies.
At birth, we are given the gift of a most astonishing miraculous organism: A human body. It is the precious vessel for our mind, our heart and our soul, and all too often we treat it with the most abject lack of respect. We abuse it, ignore it, obsess over all the parts we see as flawed. We often hate it for its size, shape, color or texture, and, in the most ungracious act of all, wish fervently that we have been given a different body—or at least some different parts.
Because of the way society objectifies women’s bodies and holds up certain types as ideal, it is quite easy for women especially to denigrate themselves physically, treating their bodies more ungraciously than they would any other living thing.
We can practice kindness toward our bodies by physically taking care of them and by refraining from negative self-talk, concentrating instead on how well they serve us. And we can extend that kindness to our friends. When we hear them complaining about their looks, we can gently and lovingly express our appreciation for their physical incarnation and our desire for them to treat their body with compassion.
Making peace with your body, accepting it as it is, nurturing it with your care, feeding it well, nourishing it with exercise, admiring its beautiful aspects, honoring it with comfortable clothes, treating it as a temple, enjoying it as a ballroom, being awed by it as a palace—all these are expressions of kindness toward yourself.
—Daphne Rose Kingma
Robyn
Melissa
Deepak
Eric
Dave
Dr. Brent
Isha
Susan
Delia
Michelle
Wendy
Megan
Hilary
Ann
Judi
Ronnie
Kelly
Lily
Terri
Betsy
Cait
Andrew
Jana
Annie B.
Veronica
6 comments
add your comment »I'm an adolescent at present, and it's not so hard to respect yourself once you realize that you are you no matter who everyone else wants you to be. Appreciate yourself and others eventually will,too.You won't be a teenager forever, and everyone else will eventually mature, also. Remember, the harder the struggle the greater the rewards.
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
((Cecilia)), if you are an adolescent yet, and you follow this wisdom, you will be wise beyond your years. Poppy
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
I love this... but it's kind of hard to be an adolescent girl and live by this. All I can do is try, though. =(
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
What a lovely way to look at our body - "..admiring its beautiful aspects, honoring it with comfortable clothes, treating it as a temple, enjoying it as a ballroom, being awed by it as a palace..." Thank you for this perspective. :)
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
i'm going to work on this one
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
how true and how sad we abuse it so.
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
Facebook account: