You and your body are good

Your body is more than a temple, a shell, an earthen vessel containing a great treasure.

Your body is you. She is just as much you as your spirit is. He is just as much a part of your experience as your mind is. They are here, as you are here, in it together...

You are your body and your body is you.

Paul said:

"You realize, don't you, that you are the temple of God, and God himself is present in you? No one will get by with vandalizing God's temple, you can be sure of that. God's temple is sacred—and you, remember, are the temple."*

We think dualistically. We think that there are two things - our body, which is the shell, and God, which lives inside it. This mindset renders the shell to be at the mercy of the inhabitant... the lesser, the thing that can be used and pushed and manipulated and numbed and worked for the sake of what it houses.

But Paul? This language, when examined in its historical and literary context, is talking about integration - the connection and entanglement of the holy and the human - your blood and bones and breath and God and wonder and miracles... all housed together, in unison, in you, your heart and soul and BODY as one.

Paul was trying to get his friends and followers to raise their conscious awareness of the validity and coherence of the body in the spiritual life.

Your body is a spiritual and sensory powerhouse. Those things go hand in hand. Everything it feels and does and remembers and picks up on and dreams about and more, are connected to your inner self and beliefs and ideals. You are not a hierarchy of things; you are an integrated, complex, beautiful, circular system designed to experience and love and participate.

In her book, Mothers, Daughters, and Body Image: Learning to Love Ourselves As We Are, Hilary McBride said:

"Our mind and body, together, are intricately interwoven, and together are all parts of who we are. This is why when we don't like our bodies, we feel badly about our whole selves. Or when we feel really powerful in our bodies, we feel really powerful in ourselves. If our identity is just as much our bodies as it is our minds and thoughts, then we can use our bodies to help us experience power in a way that is just as important to the self as having thoughts and ideas or words that make us feel powerful."

Juliana Berners said:

"For as the body is clad in the cloth, and the flesh in the skin and the bones in the flesh and the heart in the whole, so are we, soul and body, clad in the goodness of God and enclosed."

Check-in on your body.

Stop calling it an 'it.' She is you, he is who you are, they are a part of you. Give it the personality and honour of being on equal footing as your mind and heart.

Ask her how she is.
Ask him what he's feeling.
Where the pain is coming from
What do they need?
How can you serve her?
What stories does he have to tell you about love and loss and hope?

And listen. Listen with love and grace and allow yourself to feel the glory of your body.

She is holy. He is worthy. They are a part of you. Your body is you.

(This post is an excerpt from The Practice Co App series called "Checking In", available to download for iOS and Android! It includes daily devotionals, phone wallpapers, a daily mindful prompt and more included. Start with a free trial or subscribe to get access to each new series as they come out.)

Mindful Prompt: There's a simple meditation called a body scan which is a powerful tool to connect in with your body. It's not anywhere near as woo-woo as it sounds (not that that's a bad thing). You begin by closing eyes and focusing on your breath, nice and deep and full. Then, starting at your head, slowly scan down your body, becoming aware of each part, noticing it, observing whether there is any pain, or freedom, or heat, or cold... sending love to the areas as you pass them. When you get to your feet, reverse the process going up your body. Check-in with each part, and include them into yourself.

Written by Liz Milani.
Instagram: @thepracticeco

*1 Cor 3:16-17 MSG