Forgiving My Body

BY BRI AREY

​In any kind of therapy, there's a lot of talk about forgiveness. Forgiving others, having others forgive you, forgiving yourself. but one I've been working on lately isn’t always talked about as much: I've been focusing on having my body forgive me.
 
From a scientific standpoint, I know that physical bodies are not sentient beings. Muscles, nerves, organs, etc. They do not understand the concept of "forgiveness" but I do.

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In the course of daily life, our bodies put up with a lot. We put pressure on ourselves and push ourselves harder and harder. We don't get enough sleep, we stress ourselves out, we use up our body's stored resources and then ask for more. When you have an eating disorder, this is multiplied tenfold. For years, I deprived my body of essential nutrients, pushed myself to a breaking point--multiple times, and ignored any resulting health problems without thinking of the consequences.
 
So now that I am confidently and easily able to say that I am recovered (!!!), I'm focusing on apologizing to my body. It has carried me through so much and deserves to be treated like a hero.
 
I believe in 7+ hours of sleep (and the nerdy bedtime alarm that gets me there).
I believe in fueling my body and fueling my soul.
I believe in saying "thank you" and "I'm sorry" and "you're amazing" to my body every single day.
 
I believe in putting myself first and I encourage you to as well.