3 Reasons Why Loving Your Body Is Holy & Sacred
Treasure yourself in more ways than one.
getty Did you know that loving your body is a sacred act? And did you know that body love is a path to spiritual empowerment?
Learning how to love your body is more important than ever in a time in our culture where 80 percent of women and 30 percent of men do not like how their bodies look and suffer from body-image issues.
Negative body image is a big problem in our society. It contributes to depression, social anxiety, food obsessions, and even eating disorders — many people suffer from these.
Loving your body is not only good for you, but also a deeply sacred act that benefits your soul. There are great spiritual benefits of loving your body.
As a result, when you love your body, you’ll free yourself from the inner struggles that come with not liking your body.
With that said, here are 3 reasons why loving your body is a holy and sacred act.
1. Pleasure, love, and the power of now.
You’ve heard that quote, "Love makes the world go around."
Love is one of the most powerful energies on the planet. We are all here to learn how to open our hearts and love one another. The problem is that there is still too much fear and hate in the world.
Everything you do is based on seeking pleasure or avoiding pain. Author and life coach Tony Robbins taught that concept his whole career.
We could equate pleasure to love and pain to fear. Most don’t make this association and as a result, we live in an anti-ecstatic culture.
We’ve just got it all mixed up since pleasure happens to be associated with the body. And God forbid you desire pleasure!
But when you let go of all the religious programming that tells you that sex is bad and that your body is sinful, what you’ll access through pleasure is the awareness of how sacred your body is.
Taking time to experience pleasure in your body is the way you learn to love your body. If you overwork your body or under-indulge it, your body will not be a happy camper.
When you take the time to slow down and be with your body, whether that is solo or with a partner, sexual or non-sexual, presence arises.
Author and spiritual tutor Eckhart Tolle talks about the "power of now" — spiritual energy. It’s in the present moment where all is made manifest. You manifest from "the now."
2. Freedom and inner peace in the present moment.
The idea of the power of now and the present moment is directly related to being in your body. And when you are in your body, guess what? At that moment, you are not in your monkey mind.
Your monkey mind is the incessant mind chatter and a neverending stream of thoughts that you’ll probably admit can often consume you. It’s not fun when you’re upset and you can’t stop thinking about the situation.
Your mind can take hold and bring you to places that magnify your upset.
Loving your body is a sacred act because of the body — your body is always in the present moment. And loving awareness will always bring you into the present moment.
It’s in the power of now!
On the other hand, when it comes to your mind and your thoughts, you are either in the past or in the future. That’s how the mind works.
Think about it.
Your mind is in the past...
Your mind is in the past in memories — the should have's, could have's, and would have's. Or in a dreamy state thinking about a past lover and pining over "the way we were."
Your mind is in the future when...
Or your mind is in the future, fearful of what might happen.
The mind will play tricks on you. But your body will tell you the truth.
So, stop being in the insanity of your mind. Learn how to love your body and experience the presence, peace, pleasure, and joy it can offer you.
3. Your body holds the truth.
Your body will never lie to you — most of us just take the lead from our heads.
If you take the time to listen to your body, you’ll have access to great inner wisdom. And the reason is because the body is always in the present moment as mentioned earlier.
When you learn how to slow your mind down and enjoy being in your body, you will access your truth. Truth is a very spiritual concept.
In my yoga teaching they say "Sat Nam," meaning "the truth" or "my true identity."
We are so cloaked in conditioning, other people’s agendas, and our need to please that our truth gets harder and harder to access.
When you love your body, you have easier access to what’s going on with it emotionally. And your emotions are your guidepost to your truth.
If you’re feeling an uncomfortable feeling, it means something is not quite right in your world. We were taught to repress or bury these feelings. But that’s the same as burying your truth.
When you love your body and listen to its emotional signals, stay true to your feelings, voice them or processing them instead of repressing them, you’ll stay true to you.
The more you stay true to you, the more connected you’ll be to the light of your soul. That’s a very spiritual experience.
So, loving our body is the most spiritual, holy, and sacred thing you can do. It is the vessel that brings you through your life experiences — be good to it.
Anna-Thea is an author and Divine Feminine Educator. Her online courses teach women how to speak from their hearts, honor their emotions, and claim their bodies as sacred.