If, like me, the restrictions of lockdown have brought you anxiety about your appearance or weight, I offer these words of invitation into a more gentle relationship with your body. They are there for you whenever you need them.
Dear one,
May I invite you to close your eyes
Imagine yourself at a table
And across from you
Invite your body to sit
Chances are you have
Ignored her
Criticised her
Pinched her
Despaired of her
May these words simply invite you back into gentle conversation with your body
Not as at looks
But as it is
Reach a hand across the table and hold hers
Comfort her as she has comforted you so many times
Notice how she beams at you
How she loves you unconditionally
In time
When you are ready
(And, dear one, that day may not be today)
Offer yourself forgiveness
For the hours of angry judgement before the mirror
For the time spent on the scales
For pinching and grabbing skin and folds
For the denial
For the punishments
Know that it is not your doing which has generated this unease
And know that it is also not for your benefit that these standards exist
May you remember this:
You do not exist in this world to be pretty
To be perfect
Or to be consumable
You exist to experience full, embodied, joy
Your precious skin is ready to go there with you.
No Comments