What does it mean to trust your body?

Oh, if I only had all the answers to this question. I may not have them all, but I do have many from my own journey to discover the beauty and power that lie in our bodies - beauty and power that are so often dismissed and ignored.

Here are some truths that I hold about our connection with our physical body.

(1) One thing I have always held as certain is that the Holy Trinity in Christianity is a profound starting point for recognizing the worth and gifts that our bodies bestow upon us. First, I want to mention that I am not Christian, though I have spent decades studying Christianity in my academic research. It is no coincidence that Jesus incarnated into a physical body and that he then taught about the Holy Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This I always took to mean God, the human me, and my soul. We are the trinity, and in this trinity, there is no one aspect that is higher or more important. Or, to say it another way, each part is important and not to be discounted in its power.

(2) If our human selves are significant enough to be mentioned in this foundational teaching, then it benefits us to be in communion with our physical form. It is our physical form that makes us human, after all. Our physical forms are powerful and an integral part of our existence. They are equal in power and significance to our souls and to our connection to and derivation from God/Source.

(3) We are meant to use our bodies as tools. They provide us with information. They are much more than just a vehicle for our soul to incarnate. They are mysterious. They are profoundly powerful, and we, as a species, still know so little about all that they can do or how they work. So, if they are mysteries to us and they are powerful tools, how can we begin to form a deeper connection with them that isn’t based on demeaning them, controlling them, or forcing them to be other than they are?

Right now, I am going through a redefining of my loving relationship with my body. My mantra right now when it comes to my body is:

I trust my body. It knows what to do.

It has taken me some time to arrive at the point where I am comfortable with this because, for all of my life, I have wished my body to be different than it is. To be smaller. To be more muscular. To be thin. To be younger and beautiful. To be attractive to others (honestly, I never thought about it being attractive to me).

Now, when my body is aging and changing in ways I cannot control, I come to this concept of trusting it to know what is best for me. And being okay with the idea that my body’s wisdom is a mystery to me. I am not always, if ever, going to understand the “why.” Can I do this? I am doing this.

I AM doing this.

I am doing this while maintaining a connection to my soul and Source.

I am doing this as a co-creator with my body, letting it know what I want from my physicality.

I am doing this with love.

And I am finding that the programming I have around body beliefs, beauty beliefs, and aging beliefs is very ingrained in me.

And, lastly,

I am also doing this with patience and curiosity when these beliefs arise and speak against my truths.

When I speak my mantra, my mind immediately responds with how I have done something “wrong”in a choice I made about not walking 10,000 steps today, or about eating that sweets, or about how gluten isn’t good for me. Oh! There are so many ingrained thoughts I have impressed into my mind. I am letting them unravel and allowing a freedom of being in physicality to replace them. A faith in my body and what it can do - even though I am not sure what that is. I just know that if I am made of a holy trinity, then I can rely on that holiness in spirit, being, and divinity to guide me in love when I can’t.

This is what I know so far ...

Love,

Christine