Body Respect

Dear Delyara, This year I learned to take my body seriously. Not only when it was convenient. Not only when it looked good. Not only when it could still perform for me. I mean really listen. I started going on walks because I wanted to live longer, not because I wanted to punish myself into becoming smaller. I started eating better because my body deserved support, not because I hated it. I started resting before collapse. I started paying attention to pain instead of negotiating with it. It sounds simple. It was not. When you have spent years feeling disconnected from your body, care itself can feel foreign. But I am learning. And this is my victory: I no longer treat my body like a machine I own. I am beginning to treat it like a home.