"'The body is a sacred garment. It's your first and last garment; it is what you enter life in and what you depart life with, and it should be treated with honor.' - Martha Graham

In the Garden of Eden, eating was modeled as one of life's most pleasurable experiences. But then Eve took a bite out of that apple (so much for the low calorie, low fat, high fiber theory), and women (and men) have been at war with food ever since. ...Are your weight issues really a symptom of something else--boredom, depression, regret, or rejection? At the root of many issues is our self-loathing at worst, our self-indifference at best. Food is not the enemy. We are. Break the cycle of dieting and replace it with loving yourself enough to make good choices about your diet. Examine your eating habits this week. Are you honoring your body with your food choices? How can you love yourself back to a healthy relationship with eating? Take steps towards defeating the natural compulsion or craving that might take you down a path of regretful eating. Remember the sacredness of your own skin."

This was the meditative e-mail I received from SparkPeople yesterday. I post it here because it resonates with me so well. I do NOT treat my body like a sacred garment, but rather like an old, ugly coat I have to drag around. My body represents all the negative emotions I feel about myself - and toward other people. It's much easier to stuff down feelings by eating them. At least I've learned that. 

Maybe it'd actually be easier to feel those emotions - even occasionally express them! I'm working on it. I'm working on letting myself feel angry, scared, disappointed, frustrated, mad. But I'm not comfortable with those feelings. Especially anger and fear. And since, like most people, I feel those often, it's tough. Actually, perhaps I feel fear more often than many other people. I do struggle with anxiety, after all, which I guess leads me to conclude that others don't wrestle with it as much as I do. 


In any case, it's time to change my coat.