Your Body As A Friend

We often have a conflicted relationship with our bodies. We judge them and find them lacking compared to some ideal form. We resent their aches and pains and their limitations. In short, we begrudge them and treat them almost as enemies. But the truth is that your body shows up for you every day, even if it's in pain. So bearing that in mind, we can treat the body as a friend and show it some gratitude.

Transcript

So let's just spend a little time arriving with soft eyes,

With kind eyes,

With an inner field of attention that's open and receptive and warm,

Allowing sensations from all over the body into awareness and meeting them with warmth,

Just observing sensations from all over the body.

Some of them may be pleasant,

Some of them may be unpleasant,

Some of them may be neither pleasant nor unpleasant.

Now a lot of us have quite conflicted relationships with our bodies.

We might not like the way our bodies look,

We may be frustrated or resentful because our bodies sometimes experience pain or other limitations,

So we can sometimes treat our bodies almost as if they're enemies.

And I just invite you to consider that your body shows up for you every day,

Whether it's feeling well or not,

Whether it's in pain or not,

It's always there for you,

It's always trying to help you to the best of its ability.

So I invite you to recognize your body as a friend and just see if with soft kind eyes you can regard it with warmth like a friend.

Let the breathing carry your warmth with every in-breath,

With every out-breath.

There's a soft wave of sensation that washes through the whole body and you can allow those soft waves to carry your attention and your appreciation with them.

And I also invite you to say thank you to your body,

Perhaps to specific parts of your body in turn,

For the service they render you.

So just turning your attention to various parts of the body,

Being aware of how they help you in life,

Regarding them with warmth and saying thank you.

So you can just continue offering gratitude and appreciation to the body for the next couple of minutes until you hear the bell.

Let the breathing carry your warmth through the whole body.

Reviews

Outstanding! I do a number if your meditations And thank you for them. This one is particularly fabulous because I am struggling with a number of health issues as are my daughter and granddaughters as is so deeply comforting to shift from panic and battling body functioning to waves of kindness. I’ve been meditating in various forms for 50 years and it is a moment of delight to discover something new. I particularly like the soft eyes, kind eyes – it really does shape one’s an entire state. thank you

Lovely, thank you. And helpful; I got an intense itch towards the end but was able to thank my skin for doing its best.

As usual, a sacred experience.
This was perfectly timed to be offered for me.
Yesterday I had some cancer removed which will require further treatment.
I have been (understandably) focused on what's "wrong" with my body for awhile.
A blessing to move back to gratitude and wonder for my body, and be with that in silence and stillness.
🙏

As always Bodhipaksa gives us a straightforward meditation that is well paced and insightful