My Good Body

Blogger: Laura
Blog: Hello Sunshine

Just as the narrator begins, since I was a child all I have wanted is to be good. To be the good girl who always does and says the right thing, eats with the right fork, has great hair, and of course, a good body. For me, similar to most American women, my good body is thin, fit, and toned. And so begins the quest for this perfect body. I discovered a world where women nip, hide, slim, sweat, pull, tighten, loosen, wax, shave, exfoliate, tweeze, condition, trim, pump, plump, and adjust their bodies to always be different. Somehow perfect never arrives, and self-love is always just a few pounds away.

I understand now why self-help gurus always say you have to start by loving yourself exactly as you are NOW. I understood it mentally before, yet couldn’t quite connect it to myself. I will not love myself when I lose those few pounds, when the cellulite vanishes, when my teeth sparkle, when I fit into smaller pants. Because when those pounds are gone and your teeth are glowing, there will be an extra roll on my stomach or hair on my arm to obsess over. But I can love myself now. My body has shifted to a fuller model. I have breasts I dreamed of as a little girl, I have a butt, hips, and a curve to my stomach. Yet I have been living in a world somehow determined that if I return to my pre-adolescent one-dimensional body, somehow everything would be good.

Tonight I saw that I have a GOOD BODY*. (more after the jump)

I have a healthy body. My face is a small mirror of all of my ancestors that worked so hard so that I could be here today, who only dreamed of the abundance that I have in my life. My body is a sensitive finely tuned intuitive instrument that filters so much from the world, and channels it into beauty. My voice is kind and my words are loving. My stomach is filled with delicious and nourishing life food, and my blood is electric with light energy. I have the ability to see, breathe, touch, and feel and that is everything to be thankful for. I have ability to use my voice and advocate positive change in the world.

I no longer eat to limit myself. I eat for love and gratitude. I eat for every person that is hungry. I eat for nourishment. I eat for pleasure. I eat for life. I eat to maintain this body so that I may be strong, contribute to the community, build a healthy body to conceive future children, explore this planet, have adventures, laugh, sing, and play. I use my good body to the fullest extreme. I am blessed, just as every human being on earth is born and blessed, with a good body.

* This piece was inspired by Eve Ensler’s “The Good Body.”