Kim Acedo focuses on helping women in their 50’s and beyond achieve physical and mental well-being – and she works virtually! Find out more on her website.
Valentine’s Day is just a few days away and today I want to talk about relationship, but not in the way that you may think.
I recently spoke to a group of ladies and I asked them to think of one great relationship that they currently have in their life. It may be with a best friend, spouse, child, co-worker, or parent, for example. I then asked them to start thinking about what factors make that relationship so great. They said things such as unconditional love, respect, honesty, communication, and care. I then added a few of my own such as gentleness, reciprocity, compassion, and forgiveness.
I mentioned this quote by Terry Guillemets: “Health is a relationship between you and your body.”
Read that again, but slower and with this change: “Health is a relationship between ME and MY BODY.”
I mentioned that a lot of things in life come and go, but we are certain to have the body that we are in right now for the rest of our lives. Our body is our home. We take it everywhere we go. Consequently, the relationship that we have with our bodies may be one of the most important relationships we will ever have in our life.
I’d like to ask you today, “Is the relationship you have with your body right now one of the best relationships you have in your life? Is there unconditional love, respect, honesty, communication, care, gentleness, reciprocity, compassion, and forgiveness?”
Maybe your relationship with your body couldn’t be better, but maybe there is some room for improvement. Regardless, I encourage you to take some time these next few days before Valentine’s Day to journal through these few questions:
- How do I currently “see” my body in the mirror?
- How to I currently “talk” to my body?
- How to I currently talk about my body to others (my spouse/partner, my children, my friends, my co-workers, my mother, etc.)?
- Out of these 9 words that describe a great relationship with your body – unconditional love, respect, honesty, communication, care, gentleness, reciprocity, compassion, and forgiveness – which one word best describes what you’re currently doing well and which one word best describes what you could improve on when it comes to your relationship to your body today?
- What steps will you commit to taking to improve that one area?
Remember, the relationship we have with our bodies is one of the most important relationships we will ever have in our lifetime. I challenge you to use this week of “Love” to look within and determine that this is the year that you take a step to love your body in a way that you never have before.
Meg Root
Thursday 12th of February 2015
Beautiful wellness wisdom for women at any stage of life. I think your prompts are critical in getting us to reflect on the way we talk about our bodies to ourselves and each other. We love to joke and laugh in a self-deprecating manner. But I often wonder if that's really helpful. Is it leading us toward wellness or further away? LOVE-ly post.