caring for your body
even when it's just so hard
After over a month of terrible insomnia, feeling like I was losing my mind, I finally crashed into a semi-successful sleep streak. The last few nights are the best I’ve had in a minute…but let me tell you, it’s been a production. We’re talking tea and prayers and oils and melatonin and my *new* kindle and turning down the ac and blasting brown noise. I’m not sure at this point what is working and what was just a desperate attempt that stuck, so we’re keeping it all.
It’s got me thinking a lot about caring for my body, caring for myself even when I feel frustrated with the very skin suit that’s supposed to give me energy and rest. Phew. Amidst sleep advice from left, right, and center, and my second diet coke of the day, I flipped back to one of my favorite devos from my new book, Already Whole. It was a sweet reminder that caring for myself isn’t usually fun or insta-worthy, but it’s one of the most important things we can do. Work that’s done in the quiet places. Hard and holy work.
Sharing that devo with you below in case you need a wee reminder today too that you are worth non-flashy, life-restoring care. And it’s okay if your version of care looks totally different than someone else’s.
Caring for Your Body
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31 NIV
No one in your life knows your body like you do. When you have a bad headache, when you have a knee that’s bothering you, or when you feel self-conscious while dealing with what you consider a bad breakout, no one understands exactly how you feel. We try to relate to others’ bodily experiences by remembering our own similar circumstances. But someone else’s experiences are largely unknown to us because we only know our body. Each one of us lives in a different body, so we take care of our body in different ways. This is okay, even good.
Only you know what it means to care for your body well. Some of us feel best when we walk a couple times a week and take a power nap every day, while others feel most comfortable in their body when they go to the gym each day and have therapy once a week. Healthy, fit, full, content: these all feel different from body to body. Oftentimes, however, when we find something that works for our body, we want to tell others about it. We must be careful not to force our definition of what it looks like to care for our body onto other people, steering clear of judging their decisions. When we remember that we each know our body best, we can meet each other with compassion instead of judgment.
Others of us haven’t even figured out what combination of physical, mental, and emotional health care make our bodies feel best, and we too should be met with grace and understanding. We are all on a journey with our bodies, a unique path that deserves to be met with kindness from others. When we see our bodies as a reflection of God Himself, we can focus on treating ourselves well in order to glorify Him. Even if those around you aren’t treating their bodies as you would like, remind yourself that you don’t know what their relationships with their bodies are like, and you don’t know what their bodies might be going through.
Embracing Wholeness: I know my body best, and caring for my body might look different than it does for someone else. That’s okay! I can glorify God in my own way as I care for myself.
check out the rest of my book here!
You’ll find me turning in rather early this week, curled up with another ebook trying to lull myself to sleep without thinking too much about how I want to go to sleep, cause that just jinxes it.
And in whatever way you are able to care for yourself, I hope you find peace in the weariness on this journey of coming home to our bodies. You are worth the effort. The quiet care. The non-flashy routines. The grace. All of it.