"This is my body-like-no-other."

Soul's Address

“There comes a time when it is vitally important for your spiritual health to drop your clothes, look in the mirror, and say, 'Here I am. This is the body-like-no-other that my life has shaped. I live here. This is my soul's address.'”

Barbara Brown Taylor

Recently, I talked with my physical therapist, Garvice, about chronic problems in the body. They develop in the areas we tense when we are stressed, and can create big problems with our health. We know where in our bodies we carry our stress, because that is always the first place to get sick or have pain—for me it is in my neck and shoulders. For others, it is the gut, or heart, or lungs, or joints. We literally create our bodies by the way we live our lives. We overuse certain parts, we under-use others, we hold our bellies in, arch our backs, or slouch and cross our legs when we sit. Every action requires adjustments to accommodate whatever posture we use most of the time. We end up with one shoulder or one hip higher, one leg slightly longer, our chest constricted, and so on. When I walk on the track at Lakeshore, I notice the posture of other walkers. Some have obvious limps, some hunch their shoulders or tilt their head to one side, or chronically look down. We are mostly unaware of our posture until it hurts. When we become aware, we usually judge ourselves harshly.

There does come a time when we need to drop our clothes and take a look in the mirror. When we look at our body, can we be grateful for the way it has carried us through good times and bad, through stresses and joys? It has accommodated our unconscious postures and excessive over or under use. If you were to appreciate your body, and realize it is, in fact, the body that your life has shaped, your soul's current address, would you feel differently about it? If you were to love it, even though it has some flaws, would you be a happier person? Would you take better care of it?

There is no prefect body. All bodies have flaws. Even the ones on the big screen. The only perfect body is one that is healthy, that is loved and cared for, and it can belong to anyone. Different body shapes are like different languages and different personalities. If we were all the same, what a boring life it would be. This is your body-like-no-other. Give it some love.

                                                         In the Spirit,

                                                            Jane