The Body Deserves
Respect
by Chérie Carter-Scott,
Ph.D.
"Your body is your vehicle for life.
As long as you are here,
live in it.
Love, honor, respect and cherish it,
treat it well, and it
will serve you in
kind."
- Suzy Prudden
To respect your body
means to hold it in high regard and honor it. Respect is treating your body with
the same care you would give any other valuable and irreplaceable object.
Learning to respect your body is vital.
When you respect
your body, you are in partnership with it. You become grounded in your physical
body and able to benefit from all it has to offer you. Respect carries
reciprocal energy. Your body will honor you when you honor it. Treat your body
as a structure worthy of respect and it will respond in kind. Abuse or ignore it
and it will break down in various ways until you learn the lesson of
respect.
I know a man named
Gordon who views his body as a sacred temple. Besides keeping it extraordinarily
fit through regular exercise and sports, he maintains excellent health by always
caring for it diligently. He eats only healthy foods, would never dream of going
out in the cold improperly dressed, and generally treats his body as a valuable
treasure. As a result of all the love he gives it, his body never fails him. He
is almost always at optimum performance. His body is his beloved partner and
ready to do whatever he needs it to do.
Of course, each
person's body is different. It could be considered a big stretch for anyone else
to maintain the level of attentiveness Gordon gives his body. Every person's
body has a specific formula that works for it. It is your responsibility to
become acquainted with your body's individual requirements. No one diet works
for everyone, nor does any one sleep or exercise regimen. True respect comes
from learning what your body needs to run at optimum performance, and then
making the commitment to honoring those needs.
At the opposite end
of the respect spectrum is Travis, a twenty-nine-year-old diabetic who refused
to take his disease seriously. Travis is a wealthy, handsome jet-setter who
loved living in the fast lane. He indulged often in vodka martinis, stayed out
late frequently, ate red meat and rich, sugary desserts, and eventually became
addicted to cocaine. Despite his doctor's warnings, Travis refused to change any
of his unhealthy behaviors. He would not accept that his illness made his body's
requirements different from those of his friends.
The downward spiral
continued for months, peppered with severe bouts of illness, until one day
Travis crashed. A friend found him collapsed on the bathroom floor and
intervened, saving Travis's life. Travis's lesson of respect was learned at a
painful price, but he finally moved through the denial, neglect, and abuse and
learned to honor his body's specific needs and uniqueness.
As Travis
illustrates, learning to respect your body is challenging in a world filled with
excess and temptation. Going along with the group and indulging yourself is
sometimes a lot easier than respecting your boundaries. Indulging yourself now
and then is fine -- in fact, at times it is even healthy -- as long as you are
not compromising your own special requirements. If you know spicy food
makes you sick, but you love it
anyway, how many times do you need to indulge and compromise your body's truth
before you learn to respect its limitations? Not too many, I hope, for your own
sake.
Treat your body with
deference and respect, and it will respond accordingly. Listen to your body and
its wisdom; it will tell you what it needs if you ask, listen, and take
heed.
This article was
excerpted from:
 If Life is a Game, These are the
Rules
by Chérie Carter-Scott, Ph.D.
Reprinted with permission of the publisher, Broadway Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell
Publishing Group, Inc.
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book
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About The
Author
Chérie Carter-Scott, Ph.D., author of the
bestselling "Negaholics", is a corporate trainer and management
consultant. As chairperson of the Motivation Management Service Institute, she
has worked with over 200,000 people worldwide, leading seminars on self-esteem,
communication and leadership skills, and team building. This article was
excerpted with permission from her book "If Life is a Game, These are the
Rules", published by Broadway Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell
Publishing Group, Inc. The author's website is http://www.drcherie.com
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