Dear Body, I’m sorry…and Thank You

I cringe at all the ways I used to abuse my body—

with substances, with the wrong people, with too much, not enough, or the wrong kinds of food.

By demanding it labor for me when it was exhausted.

By ignoring it. Shaming it. Cursing it.

Our bodies are the containers through which we experience life on earth.

They are not us… and yet, they are integral to our existence here.

They show up for us without fail, every single day.

They absorb the abuse we give them and still keep showing up.

They are our one constant witness—

to everything.

They see, hear, taste, smell, and feel

it all.

They interpret and carry the weight of all the information and emotion we are surrounded by.

They let us taste a warm peach fresh off the tree.

They let us smell the neck of a freshly bathed babe.

They let us drive a car, sing with the windows down, and witness sunrises.

They create life. And feed it.

These temples we inhabit hold ancient wisdom encoded in their DNA.

They speak to us constantly—guiding, balancing, stabilizing.

They bend and stretch and recover.

They chew and grind, pass and connect, open and close.

They contort and reach and bounce.

They create. They change. They heal.

And most of the time… we don’t even say thank you.

The relationship we have with our bodies is a curious one.

We’re taught to be dissatisfied with the one we have—to wish for someone else’s.

We criticize the variety of shapes, sizes, sounds, and colors.

We’re taught to ignore, bully, and starve it.

But this one body…

It protects us.

It carries our soul.

It separates the physical from the metaphysical.

It greeted us at conception, and it will send us off when we voyage.

What more reason do we need to honor it?

If our bodies do all of this

even while being mistreated,

imagine what they might be capable of if we showed them love instead of hate.

Bodies wear out.

They get tired.

They get hungry.

And if ignored for too long, they get louder.

Eventually… they demand attention.

They ask for the rest they’ve craved.

One way or another—they say, “no more.”

When will you listen?

How long does your body have to scream before you listen?

Health is the ability to hear the whispers before they turn into screams.

The better you get at listening, the less you have to suffer.

Your body is not your enemy.

It is in constant service to you.

Your heart beats for you.

Your lungs breathe for you.

Your nervous system sends messages to every cell, every second.

Your skin shields you.

When you begin the process of befriending the vessel you live in,

you begin to change the relationship you have with everything—

yourself, others, the world.

So, pay attention to how you speak to this body.

Are you gentle when it asks for rest?

Or do you resent it for being human and having needs?

Because the way you treat yourself is

the way you treat others.

And if you don’t honor your own humanity…

how can you truly honor anyone else’s?

What would shift if you treated your body as your ally instead of your enemy?
This week, practice listening to its whispers before they turn into screams.
Notice your self-talk. Offer compassion. Rest when it asks. Nourish it like it’s your one and only home—because it is.

Eva