HEAL

Heal: to become sound or whole

I began to change my relationship to my body recently. As a result, I have begun to feel less segregated within myself. I am beginning to feel whole again.

As infants the only thing we could relate to was our bodies – the cries for hunger, thirst, and comfort. We felt these needs in our tiny selves, and reacted to their requests. We relied on others to care and nurture us to the best of their ability. Their responses were not in our control. As adults we’ve learned to place demands upon our bodies to appear, behave, and perform in all sorts of manners.  Over time, a dissociation happens separating our bodies from who we are.  Our world becomes: I have a body, rather than I am my body. 

My body is my home – to my heart, mind, spirit, muscles, bones, joints, organs, needs, desires, aches, joys, grief….everything I am and everything I have lives in this one body of mine. 

As a result of remembering that I AM MY BODY, I began to HEAL.

I ask myself often:

What do I need right now? 

What do I want right now?

Then I listen and apply with a gentle, kind, and loving presence.

**I write this piece mainly for my white and able-bodied friends (myself included). I point this out because our existence in this world does not force us to constantly acknowledge our bodies. For those in Black, Brown, Indigenous, and differently abled bodies a constant awareness of their bodies is necessary to both survive and thrive in the world.