Relating to Our Bodies with Compassion

It’s common for us to feel uncomfortable about our bodies. We may judge them as not thin enough or attractive enough or strong enough or young enough or healthy enough.

An important part of self-compassion is extending kindness and care to the physical form we inhabit, appreciating its gifts rather than simply criticizing its shortcomings.

Our bodies are the vehicle that allow us to experience life. They give us the gift of sight, sound, taste, smell, touch, thought and feeling.  They allow us to move, to dance, to sleep, or to sing.

We can get so caught up in wanting our bodies to be other than they are, that sometimes we completely overlook the miracle that our bodies provide: existence itself.

Our bodies also allow us to process emotional pain. Whether it’s stress or grief or fear or anger – our difficult emotions are experienced as sensations in the body.

When we resist these sensations by tensing and contracting physically, we develop aches, tiredness, and other somatic problems.

This is why it’s so important to consciously turn toward our bodies with kindness and compassion.

When we are grateful for the gifts of the body and tender toward the pain it carries, we can develop a new relationship with our physical self that transcends evaluation and allows us to become more vibrant and alive.

Many mindfulness training programs like Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction use a meditation practice called the Body Scan – which involves systematically moving one’s attention throughout the body.

In the Mindful Self-Compassion program, we teach a version of the meditation called the Compassionate Body Scan that intentionally layers in warmth, appreciation, and compassion. You can find a version I recorded here.  I hope you enjoy it!