THURSDAY: BODY GRATITUDE DAY

“Grace isn’t a little prayer you recite before receiving a meal. It’s a way to live.”

Writer Jackie Windspear

Your mission today is to spend the entire day expressing gratitude to your body! You are to say nothing negative, no matter what your stomach, thighs or face look like! Treat your body with respect today, love it, and tell it how thankful you are to it. Be grateful your stomach is digesting your food and bless it today. Be in awe of how well your body works, despite the processed foods, junk foods and sugary drinks you might pour into it!

Be grateful you have hair and if you don’t, be grateful you have a head! It’s so sad that people only really learn to be grateful for what their bodies are, or do, when they become unwell or disabled in some way.

How often are we grateful for our ability to walk? Not until we can’t any more. When do we value our ability to exercise, move and stretch and how important that is for our body and wellness? Only when we are confined to bed or for some reason cannot move as well as we once did. We treasure how great it is to not have pain only once we have lived with it for a while.

Appreciate the enormous job your body does for you every single moment you are alive. Thank it by treating it well from this moment on. Every step you take in the snow and mud and pouring rain—be grateful you can. Your faithful body is pumping blood, working hard and bringing you nutrition.

When you have flu or a cold or fever, be grateful your immune system is fighting off those germs. Our immune system is working for us every moment of every day and yet no one ever says “thank you!” As a gesture of gratitude, tell your body that, “Today I am going to help you by washing my hands carefully and frequently.” Then make sure you do it!

What about your blood and lymph systems? And your nervous system? How do you treat them? Do you know how much your nervous system is battered day to day with stress and yet keeps serving you as best it can?

Stress is a huge factor in everyone’s life in our culture—we must do activities on a regular basis to bust our stress. Book a massage; go for a walk; have a bath and de-tox your body; exercise; rest; turn off all PDAs, phones and any other electrical thing for 30 minutes every day; sit in the sun for 20 minutes; meditate; laugh; deep breathe; book a yoga or Pilates class.

Ask your body what it needs, or ask your heart what your body needs—it will know!

Problems can occur when we do not have rhythm and balance in our lives and we push our body beyond its limits—it tries really, really hard to keep going, but there comes a point when it no longer can. And then we find ourselves with a very serious condition that may never resolve or take years before we have energy and vitality again.

For instance, most of us walk around dehydrated these days. We drink too much coffee, soda and sugary drinks and not enough pure water. By the time we are thirsty, dehydration has already had an effect.

This was shown to me dramatically one day in Dallas when I had a dark field microscopy session. (This is an amazing process where we can see our blood’s living activity through a drop of blood.)

I had been in a couple of weeks earlier and had been thrilled that my red blood cells looked so round and healthy. Then on the day of the checkup, it was very hot and I had not been drinking much water; when we looked at my blood—gasp!—the red blood cells were all shriveled up and sad looking! And I hadn’t even felt thirsty. I learned drinking a little bit of good water often was important.

Be kind. Be very kind to your body today. It probably works harder for you than anyone or anything else in your life. Bless it, nourish it and feel real gratitude for what it does for you. And on top of all that—your body houses your soul. That by itself is worthy of true reverence. (More on that later!)

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