For years — for decades even, if I’m being honest — I ignored my body.
I not only ignored it, I waged war against it. I ran it ragged. I certainly critiqued it and criticized it every chance I had. I apologized for it. I hated it. And I treated my body like it was the problem. Like it was, like this was something to fix.
That was my relationship with my body.
OUR BODIES ARE A MAP
I did this instead of realizing that my body has been speaking to me all along. Because, as it turns out, our bodies are a map. Our bodies hold the stories of where we have been and also the clues about where we need to go next.
One of the many brilliant things that midlife is teaching me is that my body is not the enemy. It is the compass.
It knows when something isn’t working anymore and it speaks. It aches when the pace is unsustainable, when the grief goes unprocessed, when the love we need is absent or withheld.
Our bodies tell us and they never lie.
But you know what? Our bodies also know joy. Our bodies know how to rest and how to dance. It’s never too late to listen. It’s never too late to broker a peace treaty with our own good bodies.
MAking peace with our bodies
So in this season, let’s make that peace once and for all with our bodies. Let’s honor them for all they have carried, for all they have seen us through. Let’s learn to trust them again… because they have been speaking to us this whole time.
The Beauty of reconnection
The beauty of this “midlife renaissance” is in reconnecting with our bodies, rediscovering the wisdom we’ve always carried.
If this resonates with you, I invite you to explore my upcoming memoir, AWAKE. It’s a deeply personal story about losing what once defined me, releasing harmful narratives about my body, and discovering who I really am in the midst of midlife.
