Reverence

I am on day five of a consciousness cleanse, and today’s lesson was on reverence for the body. I often ask my students after a yoga class to give their body thanks or props as some say. What follows is what I interpreted from this idea. Rather than feeding our bodies any old junk that comes our way, as we often do, we must come to the body as we would a sacred altar, giving thanks and offerings from a place in our hearts and souls.  If we truly revere our bodies as they were meant to be, we would treat them with the utmost of respect. It takes a little shift in our consciousness to remember that we are not our bodies, and that our bodies deserves our loving support. The vessels that carry us deserves to be honored.

 In our society, I see so many people, without realizing it, abusing their bodies, deforming them into the round shapes of potato chips or the flesh-less bacon version, both two sides of the same coin of abuse, not reverence. And I am by no means immune to this desire to abuse what I have been so graciously gifted with, an incredible working body that takes me wherever I choose to go. Fingers that type, instantly on command, legs that walk and push pedals and run when they need to, a face that expresses, lungs that breathe and a heart that never stops, (until it does.)

But how do we as a society treat our bodies? Magazines tell us that our bodies are not good enough and will never be. What does it mean to show reverence for our amazing bodies? The body does have a method to communicate its needs, but often these methods are silenced with drugs that numb us to the call of change. And when we do not heed the warnings, we suffer greatly, at least until we separate from the poor abused, unloved body. And what did our bodies ever do to us to deserve such treatment? 

Not realizing that we are not separate, we do ourselves harm. And in the process, our little lights shine dimmer and dimmer, flickering and fading unfortunately while we are alive. By taking care of ourselves with real food - greens, vegetables, fruits - preferably in its raw state, and with enjoyable exercise - gardening, dancing, walking, hiking a cliff, yoga, biking, etc. - and by taking time for ourselves to meditate and clean the palate of our minds of old, out-dated ideas and debris from the attic or our consciousness, we are showing reverence for our bodies, minds and spirits. And that is as it should be.