Let’s Be Kinder to Our Bodies

I love watching my daughter, Isabelle, move in her body with joy, wonder and ease. She seems to move without shaming herself or worrying what others think of her. Sometimes I move in my body this way, but in other moments I can compare my body to previous versions of myself. Do you ever catch yourself comparing your body to other people or to previous versions of yourself?

I noticed myself doing this in a yoga class this morning. I was doing poses to strengthen the abs and being hard on myself because my core is not as strong as it was before COVID-19 and having a baby. As I caught myself berating myself on the mat, I remembered this Mary Oliver poem:

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Mary Oliver – From – Wild Geese

Mary Oliver’s words whispered to me, “You don’t have to be good or perfect on or off your yoga mat. Just allow the soft animal of your body to move with love.” The truth is my core, my weight, my balance, my flexibility and my strength are not what they once were, but my body is beautiful just as it is.

As we move into a new year we often make goals to become stronger or lighter in our physical bodies. And I do want to attend to my physical body in this new year, but even more importantly than becoming stronger physically, I want to be kinder to my body. I want to accept my body just as it is and instead of moving in my body purely for the goal of weight loss or strength building, I want to have the comfort I see in my daughter as she experiences the wonder of her body.Today Mary Oliver and my daughter have reminded me to love and accept my body, nurture it and find wonder in it.

Happy New Year!

Christy