I’ve spent a good part of my life not being very nice to my body. It’s kind of been like a low-grade relationship with the schoolyard bully; they might not actively beat you up, but they stole the good part of your lunch, laughed at your hair cut, and called you names that made you want to slink off and hope you were invisible. I think that’s how it was. Convincing myself for whatever reason, this, that or the other was just not good enough.
In the last decade, though, things have started to change. My focus has shifted from aesthetics to function and it constantly blows my mind just how beautiful our bodies are. It’s incredible how when under threat, our lungs move down and wrap around our heart to protect it. Or that when everything feels too much, that we have this ability to tune out in an effort to keep ourselves safe, our nervous system protecting us from input that feels too much or too difficult to manage. That we have this beautiful fascial container that lets us feel into the edges of our skin and communicates to every cell, like a superhighway of sensory information.
It only takes ten minutes to learn about your body to really blow your own mind.
And then- even beyond that- how we can merge with our horses to create as a unit a power and a strength that neither of us could feel independently. What a gift.
So now, in whatever state you feel, in whatever position you are in if you can take a moment to appreciate that. To appreciate the fact that whatever hardships, difficulties or joys you have had, your body has sailed you through them the best way it knew how, and that every response it had was nothing more than its best effort to keep you safe.
What could be more beautiful?
Onwards.
❤️ Jane