In your busy daily life, do you ever stop to appreciate just how wonderful your body is?
I can probably answer this question for you with a great, big no.
Let’s face it, most of us seem to spend our time scrutinising our body, criticising it and even putting it down, ignoring the fact that, in general terms, it probably works pretty damn well.
What do you think of when you look at yourself in the mirror? Do you immediately zone in on some bodily “imperfection” – be it a patch of spots on your forehead, a waistline that you wish was smaller or a facial feature that you’re less than fond of – instead of thinking about how great this structure of blood, bones and tissue really is? Most likely you’ve gone straight to the negatives. And you’re certainly not alone in thinking like this. The vast majority of us take for granted how many things our body is capable of doing – things that one day might be taken away from us without warning or hope of return.
I don’t mean to sound bleak. On the contrary, I’m hoping to remind you of just how amazing your body really is. It carries you from A to B. It stores all the wonderful information that you’ve accumulated over your life. And, most of all, it’s probably healthier than you give it credit.
Instead of focusing on all that you’d like to change about your body, just take a moment to think about everything that it has in its favour. At this very moment, your heart is beating, your eyes are seeing and your lungs are taking in and expelling air so that you can breathe. And they’re probably all doing a grand job of this.
Instead of wishing that your legs were slimmer, why not appreciate how wonderfully strong they are and capable of taking you to so many places and people?
Instead of thinking of how much you’d love to change yourself, think of how well each part of you is working right now. Perhaps you wish to lose weight or bulk up, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that this body has carried you through your life so far, and will continue doing so regardless of how it looks.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter just how amazing your body may be in appearance. If it doesn’t do its job, this all pales in comparison. Let me tell you one thing for certain: feeling ill every minute of the day is absolutely no fun at all. In any way, shape or form. It doesn’t matter how good your grades may be or how successful your career is. If you don’t have your health, all this success is just utterly irrelevant.
I must add that I’m speaking from experience here. As a sufferer of an extremely rare, chronic pituitary condition, I’ve had my fair share of ill health. Just a couple of years back, I was going into hospital twice a week for blood tests. I spent nearly every day feeling faint or like I was going to be sick. I was a miserable wreck of a person, who felt as if I had no foreseeably happy future.
A couple of years down the line and I’m feeling much more hopeful, although I’ve had to go through so much that people will never truly understand, like starting from scratch with learning how to drink. (I know, it sounds a little crazy. Surely we all know how to drink, right?) But having gone four years with a body that failed to absorb water, (I was drinking ten litres daily and still feeling constantly dehydrated) my thirst mechanism has been completely messed up. I remember clearly the first night I took my new medication: a hormone supplement which would make my kidneys do their job for the first time in years. I was utterly terrified. My mother sat by my bed, whilst I placed that first Desmopressin pill on my tongue and swallowed. Then we waited expectantly for something amazing or terrible to happen.
For weeks I had been waiting for these “miracle tablets” to cure me of my Vasopressin deficiency (the hormone that sends the message to your kidneys to do their job). I soon came to realise that they were not the quick fix I had hoped for, and instead came with a string of warnings and dangers. Not to mention the fact that they barely seemed to make any difference at first. This realisation was utterly soul-destroying. I had been warned of the side effects of drinking too much whilst on this new medication - flooding my organs and ending up with a seizure – so I barely touched the glass of water by my side, despite the fact that my body was screaming out for fluids. Little did I know that this battle between unbearable thirst and resisting drinks would become an integral part of my life. How many people have to worry about this on a daily basis? I never thought I’d have to.
About two years later, I’m still learning what it is to drink properly. I’ve been told it could take at least another two years for my thirst mechanism to fix itself. My body is far from perfect – some days I still overdo it on the fluids and end up feeling the consequences. But what I do have, two years down the line, is a wonderful appreciation for how well my body is generally working. No longer do I have to carry four bottles of water about with me wherever I go. No longer do I spend half my life on the toilet (grim, I know). Instead, I’ve managed to travel to Spain by myself and even get a job (something which in the past seemed like it would never be physically possible).
Contentment for me is knowing that I’ve gone about four months without having a serious episode of ill health. It amazes me how far I’ve come and the fact that I still managed to get high A level results even though I felt like death a lot of the time (apologies - I don’t mean to sound like I’m bragging here). Sometimes, I look at my medication and think “My goodness. I’m so lucky to have these tablets that help me live an ordinary life.” Sometimes it shocks me that I can drink a whole cup of tea without feeling like I’m going to lose consciousness due to diluting my blood too much. It really is the little things that matter most.
Perhaps, like me, you don’t always feel like the prime example of health. But having gone through all this hardship, I now have a greater appreciation for all the parts of me that do work. And all the things I can do.
Give that body of yours the praise that it deserves. Nourish it, enjoy it and, most of all, stop criticising it.
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