Love Your Body: 6 Ways To Find Appreciation For It
I was at the beach, eyes closed, senses focused on how the breeze stroked my skin, tugged at my clothes and ruffled my hair. Underneath the playful breeze, the warmth of the sun, as cliched as it sounds, felt like a warm hug.
Even with my eyes closed, my vision was tinged orange.
My ears painted the scene around me. To my left, the wind tried in vain to uproot our beach umbrella from the sand.
A distance away, waves crashed, seagulls cawed, and kids laughed and shrieked occasionally – a happy sound that meant playtime no matter where you go.
Then I opened my eyes. Under a blue sky decorated with pillowy white clouds, people dotted the sea in their multi-colored bathing suit.
My gaze glided over the expanse of the ocean, the gathering gulls, then shifted to the tiny grains of sand between my toes.
I breathed in deeply, grateful for the moment. And my brain interpreted it – the indescribable and unique scent of the beach, interrupted by whiffs of sunscreen lotion.
A smell forever intertwined with memories.
Our senses work like magic.
That moment at the beach, I realized how much I’ve taken my body for granted.
To Love Your Body, Appreciation Is Key
Have you ever stopped to think about the things our body does for us?
We hardly think about the million things our body does to keep us alive on a daily basis. (Until it stops functioning properly, that is.) Instead, we dwell on its appearance.
It’s like having a million dollars in a suitcase and being upset over how the suitcase looks.
To love our body, we should learn to appreciate it. To facilitate the process, I’ve written about 6 important body functions and 6 corny activities that hopefully can help you appreciate your body more.
Here it goes!
1. Vision
Ironically, it was thinking about how cameras worked that reminded me how intelligent our eyes are.
Our pupils contract and constrict in response to light so things aren’t overexposed in the sun or underexposed in the dark.
We can focus on any object, and the background blurs instantly. Or we can look at something in the background, and the object blurs instantly. Even the fanciest cameras can’t do that as swiftly and easily as our eyes can!
Also, the eyes can see about a million different colors.
The gift of sight or color isn’t one that everyone has, so we all know we shouldn’t take it for granted.
If your thoughts about your eyes are focused on discontent towards its size (like me), shape or color, remember that they’re the reason you can see a beautiful sunset and the faces of your loved ones!
Activity: Put a small object on a window sill near you, by a window you can see the sky from. Without moving your head, look at the sky, appreciate the colors, then look at the object.
Feel how your eyes adjust its focus? Let your eyes linger over the details of the object. Marvel at this work of art – your eyes.
2. Circulation
The driver of our circulation is our heart.
The average heart beats 60 to 100 times per minute. That is 86,400 to 144,000 times a day.
We don’t need to remind it to beat, it has been beating since we’re fetuses and will keep beating until the day we die, pumping life-sustaining blood around our body to deliver oxygen and nourishment to every cell in our body.
Even though it doesn’t “feel”, we feel like our heart is breaking when we’re sad. Yet, it works throughout every heartbreak. There’s no rest for this organ. It doesn’t even take a nap when it feels broken.
Activity: Close your eyes and place your hands over your chest, a little toward the left side. Feel it beat. Our lives depend on its even rhythm.
3. Respiration
Similarly, we don’t have to will our respiratory system to work. We draw breaths automatically.
If we trained the way we breathe, we can even use our breathing to manage anxiety, or free dive for 10 minutes between breaths.
Our lungs serve us faithfully – constantly taking in oxygen and expelling carbon dioxide. It never skives unless it’s very sick, even then, it still struggles to work.
Activity: With your eyes closed, take in a deep breath slowly, and hold it in for three seconds. Then slowly breathe out. Open your eyes. Do you feel a little clarity settle over your mind?
If you do it for a sustained period of time, it becomes a meditation!
4. Protection
Our skin is the largest organ in our body. It protects us from the elements, regulates our body temperature, and keep moisture in our body. Without our skin, we’ll be dehydrated in no time.
Thanks to our skin and superb sense of touch, we know how good hugs and cuddles feel and stay away from dangerous things like hot iron and sharp blades.
Yet, our poor skin often bears the brunt of our criticism, the way it bears the brunt of the elements. We scrutinize and amplify its every flaw.
Maybe instead of feeling sad when they get wrinkly and spotted, we ought to be thankful that they’ve protected us for decades.
Activity: Look at your arm, trace one finger over your arm slowly. Focus on the sensation your finger leaves on your arm, and observe how your finger feels the smoothness and warmth of your skin.
What do you think? Isn’t our skin precise and responsive?
5. Digestion
In a society where loads of emphasis is put on body shape, it’s painfully easy to dislike our bodies. I’m petite, but I often wished my boobs are bigger. Yet someone blessed with curves may wish they have the slender body of an underweight supermodel.
The fact is, we never win when we don’t love our bodies.
Our digestive system is a food processing factory, taking in nutrients and water our body needs and disposing of what’s left.
When we have body image issues, it changes our relationship with food. Food becomes something we’re wary of because they represent calories.
But we shouldn’t be wary of food, we should be wary of bad eating habits – be it overeating, undereating, or eating junk food.
Food, with the help of our digestive system, nourishes our body and keeps us alive. In fact, we should count ourselves lucky – we could’ve had the diets of cows or dung beetles, but we have diets that actually taste good and can be turned into an art.
Yes, it’ll be way more convenient to eat grass or dung, but I’d rather not, thank you.
We should definitely appreciate our digestion system.
Activity: Prepare or buy a healthy dish you enjoy, and make sure you’re hungry when you eat it. When you’re eating, don’t use your smartphone or talk to anyone.
Give your full attention to your food, chew slowly and focus on its taste and texture. Be thankful you have food on the table and the ability to eat and be nourished.
Out of all the corny things I do, this makes me feel fullest. Not just literally too.
6. Cognition
I have a love-hate relationship with my brain. It’s the source of much of my unhappiness. But the truth is, if our brain dies, it wouldn’t matter if our hearts still worked. We’re dead.
Our brains help us perceive things, allowing us to see, feel, taste, hear and smell. It’s the reason we have personalities and can enjoy a good story, a good exercise or a conversation. It’s the organ that really defines us.
Yes, among all these organs, the brain is the only one that can be cruel to us, but that isn’t its fault.
Contrary to what we may think, the brain’s not responsible for our thoughts. Our genes, upbringing, personality, and circumstances are what determined our thoughts. Our brain is a tool that helps us process our internal programming and external stimulus.
It has a lot of responsibilities. We should cherish and care for it, say supportive things to it, and protect it from harmful stuff – like self-deprecating thoughts and substance abuse. Do you agree?
Activity: Sit down in a quiet place, close your eyes, and observe your thoughts. Don’t judge, don’t try to stop anything, just watch your thoughts. Are you creating them? Or are they just arising?
An Attitude of Gratitude
A doctor once told me that the intelligence in the way our body works made her believe in god.
While I don’t believe in god, I agree whole-heartedly that our body is extremely intelligently “designed”, for lack of a better word. It may not always work right, but it always tries its best.
What’s more, humans are uniquely blessed with the ability to appreciate beauty, contemplate on our existence, and binge-watch cat videos on YouTube.
The body and mind are pretty wonderful.
The ability to love our bodies lies in our appreciation for and acceptance of it. Don’t be your biggest enemy.
The next time something about your reflection bothers you, look at the science behind your body and remember all the good it’s doing for you, and love your body!
Do you love your body? What’s your favorite thing about your body? Did the post help you to see your body in a better light? I hope it did! Let me know in the comments!
This is the most important take on our bodies and exactly why we shouldn’t be having such insane self-love issues, all about the way we look.
I’ve always been skinny, but even I went through the worst self-esteem crisis: it’s called being a teenager. I stood in front of a mirror with actual scissors trying to cut off my love-handles. I couldn’t cause I didn’t have enough of love-handles to cut off. Thankfully I grew up and learned to accept myself as I am. I’m beautiful and I know it. But I also know that in knowing that I am bloody rare and, for some people (men), frightening. But I don’t care, because being comfortable with the way I look makes my life a ton easier than what it would be if I wasn’t comfortable. xx
Teresa Maria | Outlandish Blog
Hi Teresa! It’s terrifying to read that you tried to cut off your love-handles! I’m glad you’ve grown to accept yourself the way you are. Being comfortable with the way we look does make life much easier, both physically and emotionally. I’m glad you can see the point in my post.
And you are beautiful! 🙂 The right man won’t be frightened by your confidence.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
This was a great reminder of what our bodies do for us! We all focus on our outside features, and forget the amazing mechanics that no engineer could ever truly develop. I always focus on my weaknesses of my body, but I know my body is just doing it’s best. I’m slowly learning to love my body, starting from the outside in. But the one thing that truly amazes me about the human body is it’s natural instinct to stay keep you alive, no matter what. You get hurt, your body tries to heal itself, and so on. It does whatever it can to keep you healthy and strong and living. I think that’s just amazing and we really do take it for granted by not appreciating all it can do for us.
Thank you for reminding me of all the things our bodies do for us, that we forget and don’t appreciate. Our skin protects us, like you said, and we should take care of it, but it’s looks are not the only thing we should focus on 🙂 And your ideas weren’t corny at all, they were a lovely way to remind ourselves of what our bodies provide for us, that we take for granted every minute of everyday!
Emily | https://www.thatweirdgirllife.com
Hi Emily! Thanks for the lovely comment as usual! I too, tend to focus on my appearance and weakness, but that’s changed for now. Reminding myself about the extent of what my body does helped me more than any positive self-talk ever did.
I’m glad you find this to be a good reminder too! What you said about the body’s instinct to stay alive and to heal itself is so true! We’re all like Wolverine to a little extent.
Thanks for reading and commenting! I think you’re my cheerleader! But please don’t feel pressured to keep commenting because I said that. :p
Great reminder to focus on the easy – what we take for granted!
Thanks for reading and commenting! We tend to overlook the simplest and most important things at times. 🙂
Such an important post. Too many of us find it difficult to love our bodies and don’t give it enough credit. I think it’s largely down to the fact that we’re taught not to love our bodies if they are anything other than ‘perfect’ or what is deemed ‘perfect’.
Our bodies do so much for us and it’s time we gave back!
Hi Chloe! It is. Our bodies deserve so much more love and appreciation from us.
Unfortunately, the kind of society we’re in facilitates the mindset that there’s something wrong with our bodies if they don’t look “perfect”. I find it very oppressive and disheartening.
So I’ll keep writing about self acceptance.
Thanks for reading and commenting! 🙂
Yes! Our bodies work so hard for us, no matter what their shape or size.
I have spent my whole life at war with my body, because of other people’s comments. First I was too skinny, then I was the kid who couldn’t do sport because of chronic illness, then I was fat and somehow ugly and stupid as an extension of that.
Eventually, I became the woman who didn’t give a f*ck about what other people thought about me or my body and the proudest version of myself. I now look after that body that I used to hate and am the healthiest I’ve been in my whole life. Even healthier than I was for the 10 years I raced in competitively.
Yup, we never win if we don’t love ourselves. Humans have too narrow a view of what’s a beautiful body. And we often forget that inner beauty is more important!
I’m so glad you stopped caring about what others thought. At the moment, I’m training myself to not care what others think about my actions.
I think when we care for our body and stand by it, it has a nurturing effect on our body. It’s great to know you’re in good health!