Don’t give it a thought
A Cool Collection
Let’s discuss the value of your physical body. If it was possible to put a numerical value on that collection of organs and bones you drag around with you, what would it be? Do taller humans have a higher value? Do shorter humans have an advantage because they have less to take care of? If you have a chronic illness, how do you value your physical self? I have never met anyone who is completely satisfied with their body. Maybe that is good in some regard. If I didn’t believe that trying to maintain my health was a good thing, I might not exercise. But exercise also strengthens my mind without my having to work at it. Exercise even adds to my social realm. There is no activity more fun than the water zumba class I attend. I laugh more, I smile more and I enjoy the company of other happy people more in that one hour than many other times all week. It has a lot to do with the teacher who keeps us on our toes by switching up the dance moves enough to challenge us. It is great exercise also.
Arms and Legs
Let’s break it down even further. How much thought do your give to your extremities? The skin is the largest organ and gets very little love. We take it out into the sunshine, we expose it to stinging and crawling and biting things and use it to tote all manner of heavy stuff with no days off. Look at your legs. They carry you everywhere. They deserve lotion and great cleaning products. Your arms are on display a lot in life. If you can still make muscles that make you proud, you are doing it right. Arms and legs are the work horses of movement. Consider how to value them so that they stay at the top of their game.
The Innards
It is difficult to value what you cannot see. But you know when your body is not working correctly. Those pains in your digestive system can be improved by some detective work on yourself. You do not always have to live in constant pain. For women, there are moving parts that we have not always treasured as a society for the depth of their use. Knowing as much about your own fertility and internal parts that work together to keep you in balance is as important as drinking water. Essential. Add to that the importance of understanding your own elimination cycles will help you see how the machinery that runs the system works to your benefit. You are the equivalent of the finest machinery. Your heart physically tells you when you are in crisis. Get to know your own body. If you are the most acquainted with it, it will keep you living not just longer, but stronger.
Grow Up
You learned how to walk and talk when you were a toddler. When were you planning on doing more? The basics were super important, but they were only meant to get you so far. If you are wondering why your life hasn’t progressed as much as you might like, look to how you are treating your physical being. The spirit that is using your bag of bones wants you to continue to be inspired enough to use this miracle of a gift as it was meant to be used. There is actually no end point for this. The expectation of life is to take your physical body and treat it as well as you possible can. That means that you should constantly be on the lookout for new ways to have fun with it, see what kind of difficult stuff you can try and even fuel it well. If you know that by drinking a single one glass of water more per day would insure a longer and healthier life, you would do it, right? Well, it’s like that. Incremental changes keep life more interesting and keep a body improving. If you want to know what works, experiment with yourself. Doctor Frankenstein would be proud.
Are you at a stale level with your body? Try one new thing this week. Just one.
