Body Positivity Meditation [PODCAST]
[*Automated Podcast Transcript. Typos likely.]
Hello everyone. This is Emotional Medicine Coaching with your host Amber Desmond, Emotional Awareness Coach. Today I would really like to talk about our bodies, our relationships with our bodies and how on large I have noticed that most people view their body as an enemy. It’s something to be controlled, something to be quieted, something we can shut down or shut off that we spend a large portion of our lives trying to control our bodies. Even in like there is something outside of us like we, whoever we are, soul being, whatever it is, that somehow our body is something separate and not recognizing that the body is an extension of the mind of the soul, of the being. It is the mechanism that allows us to be here on this planet, spinning at breakneck speeds in an infinite universe that we don’t even fully comprehend. These bodies allow us the ability to be in this atmosphere, to eat, to feel, to experience and that is remarkable.
So no matter what your body type is or how old you are or what color you are or what gender you are, your body is not your enemy. It is truly a gift. I suffer from chronic pain issues. I spent many years really abusing my body and not recognizing my body as a part of me to love. It was only a part of me to control and to criticize and to try to intoxicate into the point of where we would be silent, where I could exist somewhat peacefully within my body, feeling like my body was a prison. And I feel like a lot of people feel that way. I’ve been a massage therapist for nearly 16 years now, and so I’ve definitely had a lot of hands on experience with people’s body insecurities, people’s relationships with their bodies beyond just the physical appearance also, but into the realm of pain and the realm of feeling and emotion and vulnerability, you know, really laying your hands on people and tapping into people’s emotional body through the physical body is really powerful.
A lot of people don’t really acknowledge that massage therapy isn’t just physically manipulating the tissues, but it’s also releasing a lot of emotions that get stored energetically within the tissue, as they call it. The issues in the tissues, meaning that, um, you know, a lot of [inaudible] the somatic based therapies, um, psychotherapy, the somatic release and the body keeps the score and recognizing the trauma and the impact on our physical bodies from experiencing even sexual abuse or PTSD, and how that plays a huge role in our physical well-being at more than even just like recognizing how our mental trauma, how mental beliefs, feelings can have major impacts on the physical body. Now, I, I was in seven car accidents throughout many years. Um, only one of which I was driving. So I’m not the world’s worst driver. Uh, it’s pretty amazing that I’ve had seven car accidents and I never ended up in the hospital or majorly injured or anything broken or bleeding.
I did, however, have a lot of muscular skeletal problems. Um, neck, back, shoulders, low back, hips. So many things. I um, in a lot of car accidents, several of them I was in the passenger seat in the front and was directly hit by the car. So the fact that I have lived through I think what like four car accidents where they hit me directly that I came out unscathed in the sense of alive, not bleeding, not broken, is pretty freaking remarkable and I’d like to acknowledge that and recognize and own like how incredible, but I believe that even though I experienced those seven car accidents and I’ve been a massage therapist for 16 years on top of that, which has caused a lot of strain on my physical body as well. I truly believe that a lot of my chronic pain issues maybe exacerbated from these particular physical in real life events, but in my personal belief system, I feel that the source of my pain is truly emotional.
It is a heavily finally crafted in her critic that I have been working with for many, many, many, many years. Getting to know what I’m telling myself about myself and my own relationship with me and recognizing the impact that these beliefs and feelings have had on not only my mental health but my physical health within my body and being someone who struggles with chronic pain issues. It has created a whole new dimension of forming a relationship with my body beyond just, you know, the typical stuff that women tend to go through. Let’s just wait. Aging, changing, all the different things that we are told continuously that we need to be an order to be desirable, acceptable, important, noticeable, valuable in our culture that we should be thin and fit and strong and empowered and never age and be perfect mothers and perfect career women and perfect wives and perfect partners and perfect daughters and perfect sisters and perfect friends and just the amazing amount of pressure that women have in our culture to really embody all of these different roles.
And on top of that stay perfectly fit and perfectly beautiful and perfectly youthful and never have too many emotions and always be agreeable. I mean, there’s an incredible feminist movement right now and I’m really grateful to be here to watch this, this next wave of feminism and exploration and growth as, as women on a whole. And I just think that it’s so powerful and I think that that’s going to have a major impact on our relationships with our bodies. On a whole mat. We may not see it. Whoever, I don’t know what generation you are listening. As far as my generation, I don’t know if we’ll see the full impact of what’s happening now in our lifetimes. By the time we, we transitioned to the uh, non-physical, but I’m excited to be here on this journey and to witness what’s transpiring right now. But I would like to just take a moment and have a little, a little meditation with you so you can journey within yourself and explore what you’re feeling about your body. What beliefs are you holding? What subconscious beliefs are you holding about your physical body, about your weight, about aging, about your physical wellbeing, your level of fitness, health? Are you feeling pain? Do you have mental illness? How does that impact you to suffer from depression and anxiety? Are you menopausal? How are your hormones playing into your relationship with your body? There’s so many things. Oh, and also PMSA and currently being menstrual and how much we can go through ups and downs and then being on birth control and, or being pregnant. And all of these, all of these links to our physicality, to our being-ness within ourselves. So just taking a moment, closing your eyes, taking some really nice slow, deep breaths. You can sit down, you can lay down whatever feels comfortable for you. I just want you to really be present. Really take them [inaudible] moment to dip in, tip into deep self. Feel the inner body, the resonating vibe. [inaudible] the operational energy that is your body. Just really breathing, connecting with the power breath has that breath is life. Breathing has a huge impact on our nervous system.
Letting the tension stress just melt. Melt into the chair, bed wherever you are. Just let it melt away. I’d like you to check in, check in and see, see where you might be struggling right now. Where are you having a hard time letting go?
Mind busy or is it still, what are you telling yourself right now? Do you have time for this? There dishes that need to be washed, kids need to be picked up.
Are you just antsy? Is it hard for you to rest, to be still set and just be with yourself?
Recognizing that we so rarely spend time just being with ourselves, just being just like, Oh, here, you’re with this body here with this body and I’m gonna. I’m going to consciously spend time with my physical body. It’s like visiting a friend. How are you? How have I been treating you? What have I been saying to you lately? What is the message I’ve been most adamantly giving you over and over again? Is it one of kindness, respect, understanding, or is it critical and harsh? Can lie working with you or against you? Am I valuing the gifts, having a body or am I taking for granted, but I am able to do by having this physical body you want to make love to my partner, to pet my animals. Take a warm bath to dive into a cool river on a hot summer’s day to lie down on a warm rock in the middle of a river raging around you. To be able to take in the warmth, the sturdiness of raw, to feel new river rushing all around you, to be able to hear it, to be able to smell all the smells and hear the birds. I feel the cool breeze on your skin. This is the gift
and that same potty that we continuously mag and scold and try to control still loves us. That our body is an obedient servant, that it does everything you tell it too. You might think that’s ridiculous because I tell it to be thinner, younger, more beautiful, more strong, less pain and it doesn’t do that [inaudible] but we tend to tell ourselves those things from a place of criticism and harshness, we don’t realize that the body is giving us what we’re asking for, but it’s actually giving us, staying fat, looking Haggard, feeling in, in pain. Because when you push against anything [inaudible] you get more of that. The universe doesn’t hear. Your body doesn’t hear. Be thin. Here’s, I don’t want to be thought. I don’t want to be old. I don’t want to feel this way. I want to be different. I should be different. Why is this this way? Why can’t I change? What is wrong with it?
Your body is not your enemy. Your body is your friend. You kind of go as far as saying you are your body in the sense that it is an extension of you. When we leave this body body and it stays behind as it is built to do, we are travelers here in these bodies, these amazing earth space suits that allow us to participate in this thing. We call it life.
We should take a moment and I want you to recognize whatever’s come up for you. Has there been a message that’s become clear or something you’ve been telling your body over and over again? Whenever that is, I want you to apologize to you [inaudible] body. I want you to take a moment, put your hands on your heart and really tell your body how else are you? Are you so sorry, body for being so harsh and cruel and demanding, taking you granted every day thinking that I have to torture you in order for you to change to be what I think you should be. I spend so little time truly recognizing how bad nymphos scent and beautiful you really are.
I give my body the love and support it needs to thrive. I’m so grateful for my body. [inaudible] no matter what the state your body is in right now, it deserves your love. It deserves your loving, passionate, Tinder patient presence. Your body wants to serve you. Your body is not here to torture you.
Your body is here to be a vessel creation and life. Could you take a couple nice, slow, deep reps as you let that sink in.
When you’re ready, slowly open your eyes, taking your surroundings and take me through you through the rest of the day or the evening into your dreams, whatever. Whenever you’re listening to this just let this sink in. Really, really feel it. Go to the mirror. Look at your body with new eyes.
Well, look at it as this beautiful, amazing gift, this incredible miracle that we don’t even yet fully understand scientific studies still don’t fully understand the miracle that is us. That is our mind, our nervous system, our intuition, our gut, how that has power, how our heart has a frequency and can radiate energy. It’s heart intelligence. It’s heart coherence. How our hearts can actually sync up with other hearts in, you know, some long distance. I don’t remember the actual distance, but it’s pretty freaking phenomenal and that your body is that body. Your body is that capable. Your body has all of those powers
regardless of your size, your weight, gender, how tall or short you are, the color of your skin, texture of your hair, whatever age you might be, however your teeth might look, whatever your skin looks like, it’s okay. It’s okay to be you. Whatever face you were born with, your face to hate one’s own face, to take a look at ourselves and hate it.
What a horrible punishment. How painful is it to see ourselves and see only inferiority or inadequacy and to completely miss the profound, miraculous and incredible beauty that stands before us.
I want you to take this with you, pondering, feel it, question it, meditate on it, doubt it, do whatever you need to do.
But I just really encourage you to continuously circle back to the fact that we are on a planet, in a universe of infinite expansion and possibility that we can’t even really comprehend and how truly strange it is to be anything at all. Thank you.