%20(4).png)
I have a new baby nephew. He is 3 weeks old, tiny & gorgeous and simply perfect. I look at him and I am amazed at how well his little body works to transition him from the belly to the outside world, breathing the air, digesting the milk he’s getting and the rest. He reminded me to appreciate what an incredible & powerful ‘machine’ is the human body, and how perfect we all are in our own way.
He knows innately what and when to do. He sleeps when he feels the need for it, he eats when he’s hungry and he cries when something is not right. He just knows. No one ever taught him any of it, he was born with this knowledge. He will not eat or sleep more than what he needs at that moment.
And we were all like that.. so good at knowing intuitively how much to eat and sleep.
Then we were taught to override bodily signals such as hunger and tiredness. We are promised the ability to consciously control our bodies, and we believe this can happen, even though we are all born with the innate ability to regulate ourselves, our bodies are there to keep us alive and well. So when we ‘fail’ to abuse it into submission we think we messed up and we try harder. During this process, we learn not to trust our bodies because it fighting back means it does not align with whatever we’re trying to abuse it into. So we break up with it and instead of appreciating it keeping us alive, we keep abusing it. We starve it, we overexercise it, and we deal huge amounts of stress on it. And you know what… it’s still there for you, you’re still alive despite all that... because if you did this to anyone they would tell you to take a long walk off a short pier... at least I would. But you hate it, you abuse it, doesn't matter what it does, it's not good enough...
And we learn how to cheat it, how to work against it, but not for and with it. You don’t have energy because you’ve been starving yourself for the promise of a thin body, what do you do? You fill yourself with coffee and energy drinks to boost productivity, to hassle and perform, not realising you rush through life when you truly just need a good night’s sleep and rest. Just stop for a moment, will you? Who are you rushing for?
You tell yourself you shouldn’t honour your hunger and eat the foods you enjoy because you heard from a random media source (speaking like they’re the authority on your body) that you shouldn’t. And you believe them... Just eat that cake and don't let anyone tell you how you should feel afterwards! Isn't that true freedom?
We’re so fast to believe that we can control everything and our body is untrustworthy. We're ready to believe we should take personal responsibility for ‘failing’ and we should make ourselves miserable day to day to achieve this untouchable, unrealistic goal, rather than look around and ask ‘Why the hell am I abusing myself physically and mentally instead of listening to myself, to what I need like I used to?’
Why are we so fast to believe anything bad about ourselves but we struggle to stop, see & appreciate the truly incredible beings that we are?
And anyone who says otherwise can go ahead and take that long walk to you know where!