Body Freedom
enables you to behold and be warmed by the brightest light of all, the
consuming light of love shining from your sweetheart’s eyes. People try to make their bodies beautiful so that others will love
them, admire them, reward them, and accept them.
Your body is a remarkable gift from the Creator, a vehicle through
which the spiritual can experience the material; that is what a body is
for. As spirit in physical form, you can celebrate and explore the
sensory joys of this gift. Come to your senses—all of them. Absorb
right here, right now what you see, hear, smell, taste, and touch.
Direct sensory stimulation is nourishment for your body, sensual
nutrition, another kind of food without which it cannot thrive and be
free. The freedom of the senses is the freedom to experience pleasure
and feel desire, to know you are truly alive.
Body Freedom
enables you to behold and be warmed by the brightest light of all, the
consuming light of love shining from your sweetheart’s eyes. It allows
you to revel in the husky whispers and throaty moans that are music to
a lover’s ears. To freely devour succulent kisses from pouty lips
tasting of fruit and honey. To sniff hungrily and absorb the
distinctive scent that is uniquely your beloved’s. To touch and touch
and touch with fingers, palms, lips, and tongues, then to lie at ease
in each other’s arms, safe, secure, sympathetic, blessed….
Sadly, you might not perceive your body as a biological marvel, a
sensory gateway, the temple of your soul. Like many, you might have
forgotten your Body Freedom, been indoctrinated to view your body as
ugly and sinful, a prison that will never be beautiful enough or strong
enough, will never measure up no matter what you do, that constantly
betrays you with its shameful desires and ultimately keeps you separate
and lonely. All bodies are naturally beautiful because they are the
earthly home of your eternal soul, but this is not likely the message
you most often hear. Your body perception is under attack on multiple
fronts. For instance, many religious teachings perpetuate negative body
images, either decrying the body as unclean and shameful or dismissing
it as a distraction from higher purposes. If you want spiritual purity,
you are exhorted to ignore your body’s wants and wishes.
From
a commercial perspective no body is ever quite beautiful enough. You
are bulldozed into seeing your physical self as an ongoing renovation
project. From skin tone to hair color, from breast and penis size to
length of leg and girth of waist, from laugh-lines to crow’s feet,
there’s always room for improvement. Under continued social pressure
you might come to see your body through tainted eyes, developing an
emotionally and physically damaging dissatisfaction with your natural
form. You might give yourself and others self-sabotaging messages that
continue to erode your Body Freedom.
Desire for the
“perfect” body might lead you into life-threatening eating disorders as
it has about seven million women and one million men in the United
States. Or it might entice you into the cosmetic surgeon’s office for
procedures ranging from botox injections to chemical peels, from
liposuction to breast augmentation, from hair transplants to facelifts.
Cosmetic procedures are multiplying by leaps and bounds. In 2004 alone,
American cosmetic surgeons performed more than 11.9 million procedures,
up 44 percent from 2003 and a whopping 465 percent increase from 1997.
Perhaps you might even be tempted to join the ranks of the thousands in
both the United States and Britain who apply to be a contestant on
reality shows such as “The Extreme Makeover” or “The Swan.” These very
popular television series (almost 11 million people watched the 2004
season finale of “The Swan”) feature the ultimate in body redesign,
employing teams of specialists—plastic surgeons, eye surgeons, cosmetic
dentists, hair and makeup artists, stylists, and personal trainers—to
radically alter the participants’ appearance. The premise, as outlined
on ABC’s website, is to give participants “a truly Cinderella-like
experience by changing your looks completely in an effort to transform
you life and destiny, and to make your dreams come true.”
People try to make their bodies beautiful so that others will love
them, admire them, reward them, and accept them. It would be better to
learn simply to love your body and so to become free and loveable in
it. However, it’s often easier to blame your equipment and try to make
it conform to someone else’s ideal than to learn about it, to listen to
it, and to honor it for yourself.
