~ Gratitude for the body~

What an exquisite pleasure to move within my body! My thoughts and feelings swirl, but I take a deep breath and focus on my body. It is my constant companion, my loyal servant, and my trusted guide.

I am grateful for my body’s strength, endurance, and flexibility. It sustains me, even when I am tired. It gives me courage, even when I am afraid. It is carnal and temporary, but it is also an inspiration and miracle. I am amazed by the way my body can transform itself through exercise and diet. It is a testament to the power of the human body.

I often value my thoughts and shelter my emotions, but my body, present in the moment, carries both. It is through my body that I experience the world, with all its beauty and pain. This is a gift, and I must not take it for granted.

My body is here in the present moment, serving me with its own delights. I can feel the sun on my skin, the wind in my hair, and the taste of coffee on my tongue and the smoothing flow of soft music into my ears. I am spoiled by my senses, and I am grateful for each and every one.

My body will communicate its own state of health through pain, tension, and tiredness. I must just take time to listen. I must honor my body’s needs and give it the care it deserves; the nurturing needed to function optimally with elegance and grace.

The body also gives me the pleasure of fitness and mobility; needed to breathe and to navigate this physical world. I breathe deeply and relax in the comfort of my body. I am more grateful than ever for this energy serving me.

Are you listening to your body? Stop criticizing your body with a negative body image. Take the time today to thank your body for it’s service through some love and pampering.

© Jurgens Pieterse, 2023, All rights reserved.

Habits for a new year

The day started of well. I have a new vigour for my spiritual or self development. It will be wrong to call is spiritual development since I have lost the distinction made between body and spirit. It is one self and one continuum of being. When you act on the body the spirit is impacted and when you act within the spirit the body is impacted. They are interlinked, fused together for as long as I live the life of a human being. The seperation will only come after “death” when it is time for the big transition where body and spirit seperate ways. But the spirit will yearn again to merge into the material world in order for it to become perfect as a unity that is part of the Unity. It will be arrogant beyond measure to claim that perfection or to think I can find a highway in this life towards that point of perfection. My life is not a pure ray of white light but through virtue and focus the light has become more focused and it is growing in its brightness.

I had become convinced for some time now that to plan in terms of goals and objectives are a bit of a weak strategy if it is devoid of being supported by habit forming. It is habitual action performed consistently that sets the course for achieving objectives and goals. While being on holiday I had the time to play around with different applications on my cell phone and I discovered an app that tracks habits calle habits. It is a simple app where all the things I do want to do is listed and one can keep track of when you have done each habit. Being able to tick of a habit is a boost of good feeling endorphins. Since a habit is different from a task being completed it is also more predictable that a habitual action can be completed. The discipline developed will result in the stanima needed to address the tasks at hand that must be addressed to achieve our objectives and goals.

So my day began with the feeling of success as I could tick of having done my dose of Tai Chi for the day as well as some mystical experiments. They do not only boost my own inner effectiveness for my work enviroment but they form part of the internal alchemy that changes the way I think and act in the world. Developing healthy habits are a powerful way of changing behaviour and I am looking forward to experiment with techniques and methods to develop the habits that have a positive impact on both body and spirit.