April 18

I’m Thankful For My Body

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At 5:15 AM on Monday, April 15th, I roll out of bed to begin my day and head to the shower. As I turned the water on and undressed, I looked at myself in the mirror and realized how grateful I am for my body.

While in the shower, feeling the soreness in my muscles from heavy lifting a couple of days before, I felt an intense sense of gratitude for my healthy, whole body that can do 30 pull-ups, lift and carry 250+ pounds, and climb onto and over stuff. 

I am grateful for my body. I’m grateful for my two legs that carry me wherever I want to go, my two arms that express my heart through typing, and my health from the inside out. I’m thankful for my healthy heart, my intestines, and my brain. I’m thankful for the signals my body sends me when something isn’t right, inside and out. I’m grateful for my skin, my immune system, and my hormones. I love my body. 

I am also grateful for how my body helps other people. I can lift heavy things for people – be they plants,TVs, or dressers – and move them from place to place, by myself. My body expresses these words. My body pleases my husband. 😉  I love my body.

I enjoy watching my body change as I lift and eat certain ways and I feel an immense sense of pride in what my body can do

I am thankful for the discipline of healthy living I began over five years ago that is coming more into fruition each and every day, with the most results nowfive years into it.

In fact, as I stood in the shower Monday morning, I got the idea for this post about how awesome and amazing our bodies are and how although we get caught up in how we look, how this fits, and how we hate that part of ourselves, just possessing all of our limbs and enjoying some measure of health is something to praise God for every day. 

 

That was Monday at 5:15. 

 

Four and a quarter hours before the Boston Marathon began, which would run very near my house as it came into metro-Boston. Six and a half hours before the wheelchair race winner finished. Six and three quarter hours before the women elite runners finished. And about seven hours before the elite men finished.

Nine and a half hours before two bombs exploded that forever altered our lives and over a hundred people’s bodies.

Many will never worry about the physical appearance of their calves, ankles, and feet again because they no longer have them. 

Their legs and feet were taken from them in an act of evil.

They no longer enjoy the use of their whole bodies. And they won’t have their whole health – inside and out – for much, much longer, if ever.

Total re-frame. Total paradigm shift.

 

But I think what events like this do most of all is shift our focus for just a moment (a day? week? month? a Facebook status? a Tweet?), at least, outAway from “us,” thereby making us more sensitive to the needs of others and their experience. Away from what we don’t have and onto praising God for what we do enjoy (while others don’t). Beyond the busy-ness of our individual lives and into the collective health of the community we are apart of – as Bostonians, as Americans, as humans.

And when our perspectives are altered, the fringe things – other people – become the main thing, and our main things – ourselves, our families, our schedules, our worries – become the fringe things, as it should be.

People are nicer, more sensitive to others, and empathetic. People rally to be a part of groups united for the cause. People give. Lots of folks will take up running. I’m glad. I’ll be going to give my Type O- blood next week.

 

I’m glad that horrors like this never fully have the intended effect, but remind us who we really are and that we’re all on the same team as human beings.

 

 

So I am thankful for my body. 

And as we all begin to practice more gratitude and self-care with less worrying and self-obsessing, we’ll all begin to heal, first on the inside with our self, and then on the outside as we develop the discipline and stick-with-it-ness to continue implementing what works for a desired result. And from a larger perspective on the outside as we get more involved out in the community, in uniting, and in helping bring people help, hope, and relief.

 

****************************************************************

Gerilyn Burnett liberates women from the downward spiral of ever-increasing responsibility and stress without self-care to experience more ENERGY, more VITALITY, and a fitter body permanently! She trains women (& some awesome men) all over the world how to eat, move, and live for their best mind, body, and life! Her own journey from miserable, fat, stuck, and tired to fit, confident, vibrant, and delicious make her uniquely suited for this mission! She has a knack for creating contagious healthy experiences and providing the needed support and accountability that turn diets into lifestyles and dreams into realities. Get started on your journey to vibrant vitality for life here


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  • Thank you for your perspective, Gerilyn. I have been thinking of you and your fellow Bostonians this week as you, as we, try to process what happened and is happening and will happen again. Keeping a grateful, eternal perspective is what is needed most. Always. Everywhere. Forever. Though it’s not easy.

    May you be a light in these troubled times, Gerilyn. Thank you for being who you are and for sharing your gifts and talents with all of us.

    So glad you’re safe.

    Jory

  • Thank you for reminding me that our bodies are a blessing in many different ways to others as well as ourselves

    • THANKS Lydia! I really thought of that point in the flow of writing, almost as an afterthought, but the more I think about it, the more I understand that perhaps it’s a fundamental point of our humanity.

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