I feel sorry my body a lot; not for myself, but for my body. It goes through a lot.
Does anyone else separate themselves from their body? I think I’ve done this for a long time now (I named my blog M.E. myself and I in 2012 so the sentiment was obviously there then and has only grown).
I often talk about my poorly body as being separate from myself. It helps me treat it better.
Right now, my poor little already-poorly body is recovering from a cold* (which always hit me very hard so pretty please keep your germs to yourself). And I feel quite sorry for it.
I’m not sure if it’s a low self-worth thing, but this ability to separate my body from my self helps me treat it much nicer than I perhaps would.
It needs looking after and so I will rest it and nurture it and not ask more of it than it can give (wherever possible – life happens and it’s not always possible to put my body first like that).
It’s not a permanent state (nothing is) and the frustration does return sometimes where I will centre myself again and berate my whole self for not having done a task that I deem to be essential.
But it can be the difference between:
“Urgh I’m too ill yet again”
and
“My body isn’t managing so well at the moment.”
And the latter is a nicer place to be I’ve found.
The last 12 years have allowed me to work on being my body’s best friend. Sounds a bit fluffy doesn’t it but it really has and it’s really helped in terms of acceptance. I treat my body like I would treat a good friend and I would never fall out with a good friend if they had to cancel a plan due to sickness…
*Written in November 2022. Like nearly all my posts, I write them well in advance of posting them because I’m not usually well enough to write and post in a short space of time.
'M.E. myself and I' by Anna Redshaw 