Self Love 2.0 - Body Talk

Welcome my friend. It's wonderful to have you here. Thank you so much for stopping by and browsing around. While you're here, let me ask you this: How much do you love yourself, your physical form, the body you experience your precious human life in? If you look at yourself in the mirror, are you totally at peace with it? Do you cherish it, or do you secretly wish it were somehow different - prettier, thinner, more curved, more muscles, less fat, younger looking with less wrinkles and age spots, maybe?

Today, I'd like to invite you to look at your precious, beautiful, and highly intelligent human body with "fresh eyes," marveling its strength, beauty, and intelligence. Hopefully, it'll open your heart, too, inspiring you to instantly fall in love with it, wholeheartedly and unconditionally, until happily ever after.

In some of my previous articles, I already wrote about the complex health-related challenges and accompanying sensitivities that both my physical and energy body are dealing with, on an ongoing basis. Every day, when I get up and start my day, I don't know what might come my way, or if my physical body will be triggered into having a reaction or not. Neither can I foresee the intensity or duration of such episodes.

Yet, every day I'm finding myself falling more and more in love with my physical form, despite the challenges. Let me give you a few more insights into the complexity of the situation, so you might get a better understanding of it. My body doesn't cope well with all kinds of things - among them are fragrances and strong smells, bright light, heat, noise, and too much physical or mental activity, such as intense discussions or working in front of a screen for too long. Stress in general is almost a "safe bet" for some form of reaction to occur, sometimes negligible, other times the "emergency brake" is being pulled.

Exposure to chemicals, both natural and artificial, such as certain medications, salicylic acid, amines, preservatives, colorants, and flavourings is another no-go. My diet is hypoallergenic, as there are countless foods that my body just can't digest properly or tolerate in general, thus initiating an immediate response to varying degrees. In short, my body is constantly on guard, monitoring every invader, every suspicious particle that's trying to get unauthorized access. It's doing its job remarkably efficient, protecting me from harm and ensuring a pleasant, joyful life experience. Although the means it uses to ensure a task well done seem to be a bit "over the top," in the end, it still keeps me going. So far, I've reached every destination. What more do I want?

You might feel tempted now to ask, "How on Earth is that supposed to be a pleasant and joyful life experience, if your body reacts to so many things?" I've heard that before and understand your concern. Life is a challenge, especially when so many things are considered a potential threat, that needs to be dealt with by getting out "the big guns." But you know what? I'm all in for the challenge. In fact, it's exactly what I signed up for to help me grow and evolve, spiritually. So, I intentionally rise to it. I face it. I just adapt and stay flexible. I deal with it as best as I can - and so does my body.

I'm pretty sure, your body is dealing with its own unique challenges right now, too. Maybe a painful injury that just won't heal properly, having you reconsider what you do for a hobby. Maybe your hair is falling out in patches, leaving you feeling ashamed of yourself and insecure. Maybe your digestion is easily upset, forcing you to steal away during every meeting to find some relief for the pain. Maybe you've just been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, or are already in the middle of dealing with one. We're all connected, all facing a barrage of physical challenges that seem too difficult, painful, or unfair to experience and live with, at times.

But, our body is an amazing piece of art. It's beautiful. It's intelligent. It's capable. It adapts. It heals itself - all day, every day. Sometimes it can do so alone. Other times, it needs a bit of help for the job. I want you to contemplate the following paragraphs for a while. Just let them sink in and unfold their potentiality.

Every day, we are honored to witness our body's amazing capabilities in action and marvel its perfection. Let me put the mind-bending, awe-inspiring perfection at play here into the limelight for a sec. Your key bodily functions alone perform millions of individual actions and functions to sustain your human life for as long as possible - every single day. That's 365 days per year. That's 18,250 days if you reach the age of 50, or 27,375 days if you were to make it until 75.

Your heart beats approx. 100,000 times per day to pump blood throughout your body. This equates to circulating over 7,500 liters of blood daily.

Your lungs facilitate gas exchange, meaning taking in oxygen and expelling carbon dioxide, through thousands of breaths each day, depending on your activity level. But on average you have between 17,000 and 29,000 breathing cycles per day.

Your kidneys filter your body's entire blood volume multiple times, processing approx. 180 liters of fluid per day to remove waste products.

Your brain manages both conscious actions, such as movement, speaking, and learning, as well as involuntary functions, like breathing, heart rate, and digestion, through complex electrical and chemical signals that are not only continuous, but infinite in number. 

Your metabolism is active 24/7 and includes thousands of chemical reactions, both anabolic and catabolic, that occur constantly in every single cell to convert food into energy, build tissues, and maintain balance, a.k.a. homeostasis.

All these "basic" activities, along with others like digestion, cell repair, and immune responses, happen inside of you, right now, and for the rest of your precious life. They should be more than enough to help you be grateful for, appreciate, and fall in love with this gorgeous, incredibly complex network of systems, which is working non-stop to keep you alive so you can fulfill your soul's mission, don't you think?

Taking all these and the sheer infinite number of other functions and activities into account, just to make my human life experience possible in the first place, I can't help but to love my wonderful body with all my heart. Yes, it may struggle. It may stumble. It may even fall. But, who am I, if I weren't quickly to jump in and lend a helping hand to support it in doing it's job, as best as I can?

This precious life experience is not a one-aspect-job. It's a team effort - body, mind, and soul - to let me, the Spiritual Being who once chose to try out a human life experience, "play my game," and perceive it from inside the form. Yes, my body may feel like an old car sometimes, an oldtimer that has run over way too many 4x4 tracks although it's better fitted for the freeway.

My "oldtimer" is a classic, a "workhorse" with dents and scratches, badges of honor, that tell the story of my life - of all the struggles, adventures, and close-calls. It needs specific fluids to keep on running, so it can take me to places I've never been before. It took me decades to finally figure out how to access the glove compartment, and which screwdriver to use to replace the light bulb in the footwell. It still puzzles me though, as it keeps on changing its engine settings every now and then, without prior notice.

I bet your "car" also has its unique quirks and tics, the ones it took you years to figure out and eventually get accustomed to. Yet, I'm sure you love it, nevertheless. Because you appreciate it. You are thankful for it. You honor its company, its dutyful service, its determination, and its perseverance. You owe your life experience to it, after all.

Never let anyone tell you that your body is working subpar or that something is inherently wrong with it. Because it isn't and there is nothing wrong with it. No doctor, family member or well-meaning friend will ever be able to fully appreciate the perfection of your physical form the way you can - your soul does. You feel it "working" for you during every waking moment. You are in touch with it, literally.

Next time, you look at yourself in the mirror and notice the harsh comments, the unfavorable critique, or the lack of self love sneaking up behind you, just blow them away like dust on the windowsill. Smile at yourself. Give yourself a gentle and loving hug. Give your body a kiss or two. It deserves it. It deserves all your love, gratitude, and so much more. Remember the catchy song by Rascal Flatts? "Life is a highway, I wanna ride it all night long." Your body "drives" you whereever you want, day and night. Isn't that worth all your unconditional love?