FRIDAY—REVERENCE FOR YOUR BODY

“He who loses his reverence for any part of his life, will lose his reverence for all of his life.”

Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)

This is a big day! Hopefully it is the start of a new way of treating your body—the temple that houses your spirit.

I don’t want to hear any laughter about your body being a ruined or crumbling temple! If, however, it is not a temple in great shape, today is the day to change that.

Without your body, you have no life on earth. It really is a temple and it does house your soul and spirit so it’s pretty important in the big scheme of things. If it functions well and is healthy, then you have more energy to do your spiritual work. There may seem to be a lot to do here—but just choose aspects that resonate with you and it won’t seem so daunting!

First, acknowledge and thank your body for keeping you going as well as it has to date, and humbly apologize for the stresses to which you have exposed it. And then promise to take better care of it, starting today.

Our body needs to be in harmony with the world and nature’s rhythms. We need about seven hours of sleep most nights; we need to balance sedentary activity with exercise, which is critical for a healthy body; we need rhythmic patterns of eating healthy foods and drinking plenty of pure water; we need sunlight on our skin; we need to balance stress and stimulation with relaxation, and much more;

How much rhythm and balance do you have in your life?

Examine your life and identify your patterns today—and then pick one that is not so nourishing for your body and change it.

Perhaps you can set a sleep rhythm, where you go to sleep, or at least are in bed, by 10 p.m. and wake up at 6 a.m. This gives you a great length of time to sleep—and it may seem artificial, but try it before you scoff! Many people are sleep-deprived these days, yet good sleep is one of the most essential requirements for treating your body with reverence. It revives, restores and renews every cell and life process.

Choose to regularly exercise. (After checking with a medical professional, of course.) At the very least, buy a pedometer and make sure you walk the ideal number of steps for you a day—it’s not as bad as it sounds! (If you are exercising too much, do less!)

Hugs and massage are not just relaxing—they are critical. The skin is the largest organ in the body and it performs many important functions such as de-toxing and needs a good scrubbing periodically! And humans need touch—babies born prematurely who are massaged and touched frequently are out of their neonatal units faster than those who are not touched and they have fewer developmental problems. That’s how life-giving touch is to humans. Book a massage for yourself today.

Find ways to bust stress. Stop any illegal drugs and/or stop smoking. Balance your alcohol intake—moderation in everything might be a boring statement, but there is truth in it.

Create an “unwind” ritual for your journey home each night. You can have a notebook in the glove box and before you start the car, write down your to-do list for the next day and then replace the notebook, drive home and be present when you arrive instead of worrying about work. Or hang your troubles on a “trouble tree” outside your front door so that you walk into your family free of those burdens. If necessary, you can collect them again the next morning when you leave home!

Meditate at the same time every day. Pick a time that works for you and then just do it. For 5 to10 minutes, sit and focus on your breathing, a color, silence, or the sound ohmm. Do this several times a day for shorter periods if you are really under pressure. Do something that de-stresses you every day.

Doing these things will be treating your ‘temple’ with reverence and the respect it deserves. Give your body a chance to help you like it wants to. Today, stop the things you are doing to harm it.

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