Your body is amazing.

Your body is amazing. Your skin is perfect. 

Your body moves you forward, its joints, tendons and muscles flexing and stretching to let you grip, walk, hug, climb and smile.

It’s more intelligent than smart technology, signalling emotions before your head catches up. Your senses react and your body adapts to the world around it. Your skin protects vital vessels and organs from intrusion, acting quickly to heal if something does cause injury. No matter how many wrinkles it has, it does this amazing job. 

These vessels we travel around in are simply mind-blowing. No matter how many kilos they are, no matter what shape. 

When did you last remember to be amazed? Or did you instead look disparagingly at thighs you don’t quite like or loose skin on your arms? Did you think you ‘should’ or ‘must’ do something about it. Eat healthier, move more. Turn it into something you can appreciate. And then – did you perhaps go grab another muffin? The dislike or disdain feels heavy and can be overwhelming. 

Learning to love this vessel I’m in and being grateful for it has been a gift for me. Think about it: How do you look after what you appreciate; what you’re grateful for? How does it compare to the treatment you give to what you can’t stand? 

Appreciating your body can take work. If you’ve spent a lifetime imagining it’s just not good enough, change requires you to actively choose a new perspective. I’m in awe of what my body can do now, but dealing with the wrinkles appearing with age , or my arthritic toe joint, can be a struggle. So I work, tentatively, at feeling good about them, too. It makes me care more about the whole package. 

What can you appreciate about your body today? What more of it can you choose to add to your appreciation and gratitude? 

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Photo by Debbie Hudson on Unsplash