Your Body

Your Body is a Vessel

When you think of yourself and how others perceive you, some of what may primarily pop up is physical descriptors – your facial features, height, hair colour, your style, maybe some factors that you might feel self conscious about. But is that you? 

If we are going through physical changes, the mental aspect of us is not always matched to those changes. You are still you if your body is different. Think of the Freaky Friday body switch concept. If you woke up tomorrow in a new skin, you would be the same internally. The body houses the brain.

The phrase “the body is but a vessel for the soul” has biblical context, as well as in many other religions – it is viewed through the lens that depicts the spiritual depth of humans, the body just being a case for our souls. But in a more earthly and realistic context, this spiritual quote still stands, without discrediting the physical realm and the importance and beauty of all of our individual, unique bodies. It holds and moves us, carries out our desires, raises our minds in a safe space, and allows us to express ourselves beautifully.

Yet most of us have or still disrespect our discredit our bodies in some way.

Your Body is a Machine

I am at my best with my body when I am completely and utterly enthralled by the mystical mechanisms of the suit I am in – how impressed I am at motor functions. How impressive and crazy it is that my conscious mind barely recognizes how I tell my body to perform a certain way, and it does just that. Immediately. Taking a moment to watch your body do its thing is amazing, whether it’s making facial expressions to communicate, crack your knuckles to relieve tension, or move yourself from point A to point B. Participating mentally in the mechanical functions of your body is a wondrous thing. We are ethereal robots, controlled by a part of our minds that we don’t even need to be at the table for. We get to carry on existing, without being concerned about how the machine works. It just does. How underappreciated these machines really are. 

The part of our mind that controls the body and tells it to put one foot in front of the other is an unconscious mind – different from the mind that solves problems and picks what movie to watch on Netflix. This unconscious self acts like an invisible hand to the conscious self, seemingly acting independent of what’s on the plate of our daily mind. The part of you that works with the body to help it run smoothly is separate from thought, emotion, societal conditioning (not to be confused with the subconscious mind that absorbs all of these things and produces more thoughts and actions based on bias and experience). This mind is a wholesome, momentary you. This you doesnt base beauty off of Cosmo or Instagram influencers. This you don’t judge. But boy, does it get judged. 

This you, this body, is beautiful in its being. Is perfect in its existence, not worrying about if you will gain weight, if people were pointing out your flaws at the function, if you will ever change. It is life motivation, putting the intangible abstracts of our minds into a beautiful tangible and physical outcome. It is a machine. Not the kind of machine you think of that is devout of function besides getting one task completed and needs to be oiled, but a miraculous machine. The ultimate blueprint for everything man made since human existence – all material machines in our lives today are originally imagined based on the human and the magic it produces, time and time again. The body, the ultimate manifestor.

Your Body is a Tool

We are at the switchboards of our bodies, calling the shots. Everything that needs to happen in your vision, you can make happen with your body. We are all equipped with a toolbox – some of us have different tools, some tools are better quality than the tools of others, and maybe some people have certain tools that are missing. This isn’t an incentive to throughout the whole toolbox, deem it unworthy, or never try to fix anything ever again – it is an invitation to see what you can do with what you have. 

Would you have conflict with a body that may not align to others views but is an excellent athlete? A talented artist, musician, craftsmen, dancer, worker? These talents and hobbies and jobs and abilities – are they for others or for yourself? If they are for you, then why does it matter what does or does not align with others in any other region of your life or body? Your body does amazing things, gets the job done, and grinds for you. Not for anyone else or anyone else’s idea of you. 

Your Body is your Friend

This skin and bones is a house. The house you grow up in. When I drive past my childhood home I feel the knots of uneasiness form inside me, just as when I would trace my imperfections with my fingertips on the darkest days of the turbulent relationship I’ve had with this body, this house. Within your walls is everything that you’ve seen, felt, experienced, loved, and thought – it holds the archives of your life. You may want to give all this credit to the brain if you’re in a tough spot with your body right now, but trust that there is a difference. Let’s say you are your brain. You need somewhere to live, to help you fulfill your tasks and needs, to nurture you and for you to nurture back. Try spending quality time with your body. Not just by doing solitary activities or sitting to think, but actually be present with your body. Listen to what it wants and needs. Be with it. Take that presence with you throughout your day by being in touch with yourself physically. This can be extremely difficult if you and your body don’t get along, but the thing is that when your body does something to upset you and you feel angry towards it, ashamed of it, or resentful, you are not on a path to mending the relationship. Hating your body won’t ever make you love it. How would you have time to appreciate the wonders of your body when you are preoccupied with tearing down the parts that don’t suit you?

When I am overly busy some weeks I don’t pay attention to my body. Sure I wash it, clothe it, feed and water it, but I don’t tune into it. I don’t always take the time to plug into my physical essence. I am just a walking mind. Being a walking mind can be fantastic for intellectual purposes – leaving behind physical needs of the body behind so that the mental capabilities can flourish, a transcendental philosophy I once was attached to. In my first year of University I was dually overtaken with being an academic and being irresistibly attractive. Not that it had to be a competition in any way, but the need for intellectual strength persisted and won. I didn’t stop thinking I was beautiful or put in less effort after this choice, but I did consciously accept that if i wanted to be brain, I could not be body. The fact that this was even a conversation is heavily linked to internalized misogyny, but that’s a story for another time. During this period I had many bodily malfunctions and fell ill several times. I had forgotten my own flesh reflection, resulting in a dysmorphic view of myself. I fell out of touch. My goal to help my mind turned my mind against me as I became constantly preoccupied with my image and bodily flaws. Negative self-talk completely took over. Needless to say this philosophy didn’t work. At least not in this scenario. A health balance between your body and mind is needed as the two work together so beautifully.

You don’t have to think your body is perfect, or view yourself as “hot” in anyway for you to have a healthy relationship and understanding with your body – however, once you’ve truly reached a state of friendship, acceptance, and presence with your body, you will come to understand the inner mechanisms of beauty constructs and the idea of “perfection”, and how in your innate being you simply are these things – no matter what societal expectation has been pushed onto your views of beauty.

Your Body is Beautiful

I got interested in makeup before a lot of my friends in school did. That didnt come from a place of insecurity or judgement, but a place of identifying with a young woman’s niche and being a victim of beauty standards through product pushing. I matured pretty fast, but that doesnt mean I couldn’t be susceptible to the misogyny of capitalism and consumerism need. 

I did my make up often and really enjoyed it. I would wake up early for school so I would have at least an hour for my makeup and appearance. It made me feel excellent, and that’s all a 15 year old girl can really ask for. How could something be bad if it makes you feel good?

Makeup has a funny way of being positive – it enhances the features you already have, therefore not technically covering anything. It is more of an outlet for self-expression and self-love than it is a display for others, a question of validation. I took an entry level philosophy class in my first semester of University, and the professor asked us where beauty standards came from, and why we adhere to them with makeup. A classmate responded with deep sentiments on how they dress the way they dress for themselves, and they do their makeup because it makes them feel good, not because they’re putting on a show for anyone else. That’s when it hit me – it’s not meant to be about others. We all ultimately do ourselves up, for ourselves, in reaction to others. This girl in my class may indeed dress and present herself in a way that adheres to her personal views of beauty, solely to make herself feel beautiful, but then where does this idea of beauty come from? Where does this need for feeling beautiful come from? In order to make beauty remain popular and consumable in a ever progressing society, it has gotten self-expression and self-love involved. This sounds like a positive thing, as it is a wonder to feel beautiful and do things for yourself, but the idea behind this trick is that no one will find you beautiful if you don’t find yourself beautiful. Or even, If you put on make up or uphold an image of beauty, then you want to feel beautiful for you because that’s what you are ought to do. You’re supposed to want to be desirable. If you want to be pretty for you and you only, that sheer want alone proves that the pretty is either not just for you, or it is rooted in how highly you regard being pretty or looking good. 

This is not vain or trivial, I am not aiming to bash makeup wearers, but simply unpacking some questions of what beauty actually is. A face of makeup is beauty just as a face without is. Getting lost in a stylized version of yourself is a surefire way to fall out of touch with your body and your ideas of beauty. Beauty is something you have all the time, just as you have a body. If you don’t feel beautiful, it doesnt mean youre not beautiful. The way we think of beauty is programmed into us. Different eras and cultures may hold a varying sense of beauty standards, but they ultimately stem from the same set of dualistic ideals of good and bad, beautiful and ugly. The world perceives everything in black and white, never grey, when in reality all that there is to perceive is grey. This grey is acceptance – the space between good and bad, the air between beautiful and ugly. Unconditional acceptance and presence with being. When that state of mind is achieved and embraced, all ends of the perceived beauty spectrum fall into place with what they are and will always be, which is beautiful. 

Having goals is a wonderful tool. Letting goals steal you from the present and allow you to fester in dreams of a future where you will have something or be something that you are not in this moment is a crime to yourself. Living in a state of lacking and scarcity will only make your life lack and be scarce. A mindset of “when I reach this goal, I will be happy with my body” won’t result in you being happy with your body. This has been my love hate relationship with the idea of trying to lose weight. Deep down I knew that if i tried to change my body while residing in mantras of I want to change, I would never be satisfied. I would lose weight and still be unhappy with my appearance. I would maintain my weight and be disappointed for not trying. Maybe I would lose weight and be satisfied and then gain it back the next year, returning to disappointment for letting myself go. Or, even worse, my body would change as I grew older, weight fluctuating, strength altercating, skin stretching, – as it does – and I would be perpetually horrified and uncomfortable. By normal means. 

I made a promise to myself this year that before I make changes, I must find acceptance with what I have. If this acceptance is strong enough to convince me I don’t need to change, then I win. If the acceptance is present through changes, then I will be content with my body no matter what happens or how I look. If I don’t have acceptance, I will never feel beautiful – maybe I will catch a glimpse of it when society tells me i’m doing something right, but it will be brief and it will be superficial and conditional. You can’t rely on change, the future, the media, or people in your life to let your beauty shine through. It can only come directly from your source of truth and acceptance. This is a hard lesson to learn, and a hard test to pass. 

Your Body is a Gift

Just as the toolbox analogy states, some people aren’t equipped with all the essential tools to perform the same as everyone else. We should always be grateful for what we have instead of longing for what we don’t. Everyday when we wake up our bodies are non-stop for us, even if the movement is simply telling us to rest. Our bodies defy what made up rules there are for beauty and good looks, because the only beauty that exists is beauty that we have. Beauty that is fought over and judged and created is a perception, and beauty is more than perception – we are more than perception. You encompass all the beauty of the world. You really do.

Your body is a complete blessing. A temple to worship. A gift to cherish. A beauty to behold. It is the only physical thing you will ever truly own, to be yours forever. The only person you can rely on always being in your life is you, a friend forever. Respect this truth and honour it by respecting and honouring your body and yourself, inevitable “flaws” and all. Your body is never the problem, we just need to teach our minds to understand the love and beauty that we all inherently possess – then maybe one day the reality of society will reflect a perfect image of body and self love for all.