The good body = the good we embody
Originally appeared on spirituality.com
Standing in the checkout line at the supermarket, you don’t have to pick up very many magazines to recognize the deep dissatisfaction many people feel about their bodies. But while articles promise ways to “Walk Off Pounds” and discover “Easy Body Makeovers,” they rarely deliver.
Some people treat the topic with a sigh of resignation, while others take pretty drastic steps to alter their bodies in some way. But no matter what tack you take, a lot of thought and energy is spent on body and body image.
Eve Ensler’s play The Good Body addresses what she calls an American addiction of self-hatred, mainly by women, of their physical bodies. She suggests that the crying need is to accept and embrace our bodies. By turning away from self-absorbed attempts to perfect them, we can expend the freed-up energy to respond to a wider sphere of needs and conditions (“Belly, Dancing,” O: The Oprah Magazine, June 2006).
While almost anything that lifts someone out of self-absorption is beneficial, I’d like to recommend an entirely different way of thinking about our bodies. This new view makes it possible to be completely at peace with ourselves, as well as a help to others.
Frequently, our attitude toward our bodies greatly influences our self-confidence and self-esteem. And far too often, we come up short because we have chosen to focus only on the imperfections we see in a material “self.” But if you stop to think about it, deep in our hearts each of us knows that we’re made up of something more substantial than what we see with our eyes.
After all, when we really know someone, we rarely think of them as a configuration of physical parts; we think of their kindness, gentleness, generosity, goodness. These characteristics are spiritual and expressed uniquely by each one of us. This is how we are known by God. I learned this many years ago.
From a very young age, through university, I was a ballet student. As I advanced, the pressure to maintain a perfect physical body increased. There was more emphasis on diet, the physical aspects of dance, and bodily perfection, than I was comfortable with.
I eventually decided to leave ballet, but that didn’t resolve the underlying issues. I continued to be concerned about what I should or shouldn’t eat, fearing the effects of food on my body.
As I studied Christian Science with this issue in mind, I discovered that Mary Baker Eddy, author of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, identified body with identity. But she shared a definition of body that was new to me.
In answering the question “What are body and Soul?” she elevated the question by answering, “Identity is the reflection of Spirit ….” What this meant to me was that being made in God’s image and likeness, I reflect Spirit and Soul—two names for the one God. And just as the reflection in the mirror is perfectly at one with the original, God and His image are at one, as well.
It follows then, that imperfection is not something we have to accept as being part of ourselves. When we think of body representing our spiritual identity, and this identity as being God-derived, we learn that it is spiritual and good. This presents an entirely new view of what we consist of and who we are.
Through prayer, I started to take in the fact that being is spiritual, not material. I learned that my body, my identity as an idea of God, is made up of concepts. It is not the material compilation of parts, structure, and flesh it appears to be.
As my understanding of my essential spiritual nature increases and I allow myself to be governed by good, I express more harmony, peace, and order. And that’s what occurred with my fears over food and weight.
Eventually, I was freed from the obsession. Little by little, I exchanged wrong concepts—material concepts—for spiritual truths. I like to think of my identity as the good concepts I include, and that these are what God has instilled in me—in all of us.
In other words, rather than seeing a limited material sense of myself, or others, contained in bodies, I could see everyone as being the thoughts they embody. For example, selfishness made me feel burdened by an incorrect view that I existed separately from divine Spirit. Caring about others made me feel happy and free.
I gradually understood that the more I attributed the origin of my activity to be divine Love, or God, the greater my stamina and strength. These were spiritually scientific facts I was proving, and the more I saw them in action, the more I wanted to let others know of their availability to everyone. Gradually, this took form as a desire to help people achieve healing through prayer.
Years later, when my daughter was in college, I was able to help her overcome a serious bout with an eating disorder that is considered life threatening. This healing came about through prayer alone. Since then, I’ve known other people who’ve been healed of various versions of these disorders, body-image related problems, and identity issues of all kinds.
To see our bodies as the concepts we embody, we need to nourish them not just with food but by exercising God-qualities such as lovingkindness, charity, gentleness, and honesty toward ourselves and others. “We should forget our bodies in remembering good and the human race,” wrote Mrs. Eddy. This statement directs me to forget the material sense of body, and to embrace God’s goodness and His loving intention for His children. Those who take those steps will be led right out of selfishness through reform, and move on to transformation and healing.
When healing is the goal, we are not merely addressing surface issues, which can be misleading. Instead, we are guided to tackle the underlying cause of problems and have the spiritual strength to face and remove them. Mrs. Eddy’s statement directs our thoughts Spiritward. And this outlook equips us with the “good” through which we can help the human race.
The good we embody will also heal whatever is amiss in our physical bodies. Pages 224-228 in Science and Health specifically cover the greater freedom we will gain by thinking of ourselves in spiritual, not material, terms. Speaking again of generic man, Mrs. Eddy wrote, “The enslavement of man is not legitimate. It will cease when man enters into his heritage of freedom, his God-given dominion over the material senses.” She continued with this hopeful promise: “Mortals will some day assert their freedom in the name of Almighty God. Then they will control their own bodies through the understanding of divine Science.”
The Bible and Science and Health guide us through the practical steps needed to gain our freedom. They show us how to quit believing we are confined to a body that’s out of control or enslaved by narrow thinking that “hoards” ideas and thoughts Even a bit of this mastery over the material senses, will enable us to transcend the false concepts about the human body and the belief that it is material. And day by day, we will progressively see more of the good we actually embody.
Embodying good:
Science and Health