378 thoughts on “The Body and My Relationship with it”

1. I also discovered too that over-exercising and pushing one’s body hard with exercise and sport is abusive in no different a way to alcohol and drugs. In fact for some period in my life exercise and sport was my drug of choice to help me cope with life and my body still bears the scars today of this excess and abuse.

2. There are people who come into our lives who offer reflections of things we can be reminded of. From experience I would say that every reflection I have received from every person in my life has offered me something. However, there are some that we value more than others and we therefore assign importance to them. What is clear is that we know Truth – yes a capital T – and it is when we see, feel and hear the reflection of that Truth that we sit up and listen. Serge Benhayon walks Truth and Love in a way that has no interest in being liked or accepted by others and does not cause any harm to another. Very inspiring.

3. We treat our body in such a horrible way at times – we over eat, we slouch on the couch in front of the telly, go into relationships and engage in sexual interactions which are clearly abusive, many of us women dress in a way that is disrespectful to the innate beauty that shines through our heart just because we want a bit of recognition, a bit of attention to make us feel good about ourselves. All of these behaviours are disrespectful to the body and makes us feel horrible about ourselves. When we look in the mirror it is not the body that we don’t like, but the reflection of all of these choices because the body does not lie, it shows us very clearly how we have abused it and when we’re faced with that, instead of taking responsibility and accepting what we’ve done – we go into self-bashing mode and cement these behaviours further – a vicious cycle.

4. Having started back at the gym again after awhile I am noticing how common it is for us to push ourselves to achieve the next level rather than really enjoying where we are at, how our body feels and letting the body , not our mind, guide us to what is needed.

5. I have very much considered my body to be inconsequential – but the realisation is that without it I cannot bring through what there is to be expressed. The arrogant part of me is getting a taste of humble pie. As my relationship with my body develops (starting with accepting I have to start somewhere), I can see that a possibility of having a relationship with my body that is harmonious exists; because currently there is a wayward part of me that can have a hissy fit at having to be obedient to the universal, multidimensional laws that govern physicality.

6. We can be very hard on ourselves, it can be extremes of competitive sport and it can also be how we get dressed, brush our hair and walk…it is no wonder we feel bad about ourselves when we treat ourselves rough, without love.

7. When we have a loving and caring relationship with ourselves through our bodies in how we treat them, life feels full and we feel quite amazing too.

8. “The Body and My Relationship with it” – The relationship with my body helps me to understand the relationship I’m having with myself and who I am as a woman.

9. We have these wonderful vehicles, our bodies and they are our pathway back to living connected to our soul, and the question is how are we with them? I can relate very much to what is shared here, how I’ve viewed my body almost as a ‘carcass’ there to do my bidding but not to be listened to, and as I’m learning to listen, I’m learning to more deeply honour my body and understand it is forever showing me the truth.

   1. When we consider that our body is made up of particles, and these particles are energetically communicating all the time without our input or control, that is a reflection of the divine order of our Universe that communicates and functions without our input either. We really are part of a magnificent whole and it is about time we stepped up to being a contributing member of that whole rather than a pesky rebel delaying evolution.

10. “For most of my life I have seen my body as just a ‘thing,’ as mentioned before, “something to cart around and get around in.” ” I imagine this is the case for the majority of humanity, and the feeling of inconvenience when we get sick or suffer with pain or discomfort is seen as just that with little or no regard for the part we played in the body getting sick in the first place. How life changing it would be to see the body as holding such deep wisdom and love that it actually has the power to heal itself of many many ailments, given the right condtions and true support.

    1. I was very detached from my body and also used to drag it around and treat it with disregard. Since turning this around my life, my health, my wellbeing have also made beautiful turn around….no surprises perhaps, but why then are so many of us avoiding this simple fact of life, increasing disease on the planet says we are avoiding the obvious….

11. Many would say that you have been successful and champion your actions Henrietta, but what comes across in your writing is how abusive those actions were on the body. As a humanity, we are a long way from seeing that sports and excessive studying harm us if we use the body instead of consulting with the body.

12. The expectations we can have of ourselves can have a detrimental effect on our bodies, which means that it is one of the ways we can abuse ourselves. Not obviously abusive, but when you consider the effect on our physicality, our wellbeing and the fact that when we have expectations we are pushing ourselves to be someone other that ourselves.

13. Learning to love who we are and our body, no matter what is a very big deal. So often we might mentally give ourselves a hard time because our bodies are sick, exhausted, ageing and no longer able to do what they used to do. Our bodies are master communicators. Clear, Always on point, never misses a beat (not literally). They simply know what to do and how to respond to any circumstance. That’s pretty darn amazing.

14. Its fascinating to read your story Henrietta – this is literally the travel guide of how to toughen up, and ouch. However, this is also seen as the temporal road to success, and would be championed by many… and that is something to be very aware of.

15. Even doing the ‘right’ thing is abusive to the body, our beliefs and ideals can keep us in the illusion we are doing great, and we do when we follow what our mind is telling us but when we become honest and feel our body and what it needs it is a whole different story as your blog is showing us.

16. It’s like our mind will agree to any deal, except admit that it’s not the boss. Nothing it can come up with can ever come close to the beauty of a body lead by our heart.

17. Yes, Henrietta, it is so beautifully humbling that the way back to soul is in our re-connection with the quality of stillness within our own bodies.

    1. Yes, no doing or fixing whatsoever – eeek!

18. The mind likes to go head of the body as if it knows better, but it so doesn’t.

19. I love the always deepening with the body. When I feel I have hit a rock it is time to deepen again, hooray.

20. “But I still abused my body, in a different way – I did indulge in sports and in studies. Now you might say “Is this not good?,” and it is not that sports or studies per se are abusive to the body, but the type of sports and the way I went around it was abusive” – yes, the more we love our body, appreciate just how delicate it is and respect that then the more we discover or uncover the abuse we do to it/ourselves. Basically, we are in abuse when we are not holding the body [ourselves] first in the delicacy of love.

21. This is a perfect example of how much we actually abuse the body with things that are considered healthy or good for us (sport and education)! This is not to say or give us an excuse to sit around and do nothing! But it does highlight the importance of doing something where we are first truly connected, to the best of our ability, with ourselves knowing that if we exercise it is not about pushing the body or any form of drive but instead supporting it; and if we are learning (education) what are we learning, what is the purpose of our learning and not to override the body’s intelligence with our learning. And I love how this has changed for you. Very cool.

22. And when we do tune into our body, with such depth wisdom and awareness, one of the most amazing miracles of the universe happens, in that we can feel ourselves expand and reconnect with the universe with a deep knowing that there is no separation

23. ‘…there is a constant deepening of my understanding of the body…’ if I really take on what you have said here, I realise the beautiful and endless invitation we have in life to forever learn and deepen our relationship with our bodies as the great guides and support they are.

24. Thank you Henrietta for bringing this up. I have also mistreated my body through sport. It is amazing the choices we can make when disconnected from our bodies. I always felt that there was something about my body that I needed to understand. I was also a believer in the mind over matter concept which allowed me to punish my body, striving to realise the pictures that I had created in my mind. It is only in the last 6 years that I have allowed myself to realise that the pictures are false and taking care of, and connecting to, my body is the true way of how I am meant to live. There is no room for pictures when living in connection with my body.

25. Doing sports is higly valued as doing the ‘right’ thing for our body but the way in which sports are played is not about playing and have fun but about competition and getting the body to be superfit and have muscles as you won’t believe is possible. This to me is pure abuse of our divine, delicate and tender body.

26. When we honour the body and walk the truth of who we are, our Soul can work through us so we don’t walk there for ourselves but for all of humanity

27. Oh how we take our bodies for granted until something goes wrong such as in an illness, accident or just plain bloating, raciness or exhaustion. Like you Henrietta, I am learning to listen to my body and am beginning to love my body as it is through my body that I can allow my Soul to work through me. So then my body can be of service to others and everyone wins. Part of God’s plan I suppose, to bring all bodies back to the One body (of God!).

28. I have held onto a huge amount of resentment towards myself which is so insidious and deeply hidden it has taken many years to come to the surface where it can be looked at in the light of day and be discussed. This resentment was so strong I did not want to be in or with my body. I feel very fortunate that I have the excellent practitioners of the Universal Medicine modalities to support me in coming back into my body and out of my mind. It’s a great pity that these modalities are not a normal part of our health industry, I feel certain that one day they will.

    1. And one day the world will be structured such that that departure from our bodies you talk about Mary will not be the normal; that we will Iive in a way that supports our staying connected with the wisdom of our bodies, our whole body intelligence.

29. Henrietta thank you for this insightful article on abuse, I feel I’m just starting to unpick the level of abuse I have allowed in my life and I have to say it has been mostly self-inflicted. Like most women I can feel the lack of self-worth or self-appreciation and so I have allowed myself to be used like a doormat as I was totally disconnected to me. It is in the building of the reconnection to me that I can feel the damage I have done. I have tried very hard to annihilate me and to be honest I think this propensity is within the majority of us. I know this to be true because when I look outside to the world we are all doing the same thing which is being very self-abusive towards ourselves and others.

    1. It makes you wonder – in the end we are our own worst enemy, and can abuse ourselves and end up treating ourselves worse than anyone else would ever dream of doing.

30. We can drive our bodies to function beyond its natural limits, overriding the messages it is communicating and being disappointed when it does not perform to our expectations.

31. We can misunderstand so easily that when we make some changes, they may feel correct and better, but actually aren’t really any different. So for example, like going from disregard not looking after ourselves to pushing ourselves with sport is still a disregard as far as the body is concerned. We need to listen deeply to the messages from the body to know its truth.

32. The way many of us are with our bodies, can be quite the vicious cycle. We abuse it, it hurts/reacts, we resent that fact so often we disconnect from it//abandon it as we don’t want to hear/connect to the truth, and then we abuse it some more. Well done on breaking that cycle and returning to the preciousness that our bodies truly are.

33. “this amazing vehicle that I have the honour of taking with me everywhere I go.” The more we appreciate and care for our amazing vehicle the more space within for the Divine energy to flow through us.

34. Every day I have a deeper appreciation of this sentence “to care deeply for the bridge that allows the Truth to be accessed and then lived.” My body is that bridge to the Truth of the Love I am made from and my body never forgets that fact, regardless of what my mind tells it.

    1. A great new revelation in caring more deeply as the depth of truth needs to be supported with the depth of care.

35. It can feel sometimes like we go around in circles, and return to patterns we thought had long passed. But we are given many opportunities to re-learn something and the body is always there to support the learning so simply with our thoughts and our movements that can bring us back to connection.

    1. Returning to those old patterns we thought were long gone can be quite a surprise until we realise the extent of the tendrils those patterns spread throughout our being and our life while we were living them. These days I appreciate the opportunity to take another look at any that return and yes, there is always something else to learn from their reappearance, sometimes not just once but several times.

36. Everyone has different markers of what is self-abusing and what is not. The key for me is to ask questions of myself of be inspired by the lifestyles of others.

37. Self-care in its true application provides honour to the body in a way I did not understand before listening to the teachings of Serge Benhayon.

38. Most people have no relationship with their body… Or their voice or even their heart.

39. It’s one thing to stop abusing the body so much, another to surrender and realise it’s the one who’s designed to call the shots.

40. Getting to know, through respect and decency and then a growing appreciation, our body we realise that our body is the bridge to getting to know the much deeper aspect of ourselves, the true part of ourselves. So much so that what may start as a part then becomes the whole of who we are. Slowly and steadily.

41. The feeling of being back to square 1 is a familiar one yet is such a good example of the need to be able to tick a box and be done with this getting it right way of thinking and living. The more understanding we have about our relationship with our body and with life, the more clear it is that this is a constant unfolding, and we will only ever be aware of the next level when we are ready for it. A forever deepening of the relationship with ourselves.

42. Reading this brings it home how abusive we can be with our bodies and how hard we can be on ourselves. So, it’s no wonder that if this is the relationship we have with our bodies, then our thoughts about ourselves are not going to be very loving or even kind.

43. When we realise the magnitude of stillness and love within our body, anything that is abrasive in the way we are or handle our body stands out like a sore thumb.

44. Our body is not just some thing we cart around, and the sooner we come to realise this, then the sooner our lives will turn around. Our body is this amazing delicate vehicle, to be cared for and used with love and respect. Like having a fancy, fast and expensive car – you would drive it with care and enjoy its power, park it in the garage at night to keep it protected from rain and hail, wash it regularly to keep it shiny and fuel it with the right fuel. When we look at it like this, it seems obvious that we carry this amazing vehicle around and it is an honour to be able to care and respect it/us!

45. Our propensity to take our body for granted, use and abuse it is massive. Yet, it is the very thing we walk with every day, the thing that takes us around to live life with and we ignore all its signals and communications constantly. Why do we do that?

46. Most people have no relationship with their body at all. All they have is an expectation and when it does not deliver they feel that it has let them down.

    1. And the awful thing is when they feel the body has let them down, they attack the body and start to fight with the body instead of going into surrender to access what the body needs from them.

       1. Yes, I agree Annelies and Kathleen, Since attending to Universal Medicine courses and particularly Esoteric Yoga, the surrender into the body has shown me that there is so much more, it exposes how we have just a functional, 3D relationship with the body when in fact, it is the doorway into your Soul, into Love – which everyone has access to – its Universal – living WITH and IN awareness of your innermost Love, you understand intimately how living with this is Medicine.

47. I now know how much joy and loveliness we miss out on when we treat our body as a ‘thing we just cart around’. Our bodies are finely tuned, delicate and instantly responsive. It is through the body that we feel life, which is much more real than what we receive through the clouded perception of the 5 senses.

    1. How did I not know this from birth?! There are generations of people who have not been brought up this way so the more we make a choice to investigate it and live it for ourselves, the more we contribute to a change for our society as a whole and generations to come.

48. ‘But I am also realising more and more how there is a constant deepening of my understanding of the body. And so, very often I will find myself feeling like I am back to square one – abusing my body again but in this I am realising the more insidious ways that I have placed pressure upon myself’ So true Henrietta the relationship we have our body deepens our awareness of what abuse is … and is always developing.

49. I love the word ‘honour’ and to apply it to the way we are with our bodies brings a whole new quality and reverence for this vehicle that guides and supports us through our lives of learning. Thank you, Henrietta.

50. In order to allow our essence to shine we need to take care of the body that carries it.

51. It’s amazing really that we make it possible to ignore this body that we ‘cart around’ with us, when it is sending us so many messages about what it really needs. The energy we use to ignore or dismiss it could be so much better directed in ways that would leave us feeling much less tired, and plus it would support us and others at the same time.

52. It is astounding really to what extent we can push our bodies, when in truth if we stopped to feel the effects of this striving is easy to expose how damaging it is. The mind with all the beliefs and ideals it can feed is a hard taskmaster, whereas the body when listened to is respectful of the whole body and being.

53. “To care deeply for the bridge that allows the Truth to be accessed and then lived.” If we only thought or addressed our bodies like this, then the saying “my body is a temple” would come alive – for how could you mistreat your access to truth, or why would you ever cut down your access to truth and to the one thing that makes life make sense?

54. The relationship with one´s body is a forever deepening exploration and activation of awareness of that which the body receives, resonates with, responds to and expresses – the body is the vehicle for us to return to who we are until we don´t need a fleshy body anymore.

    1. And when we accept the facts you share here, Alexander, it becomes simple and clear that we honour, nourish and stay very open to the communication from our bodies.

55. To care for our bodies is ” to care deeply for the bridge that allows the Truth to be accessed and then lived.” What a beautiful place to come to from the inspiration and teachings of the ancient wisdom by Serge Benhayon , Universal Medicine and The Way of The Livingness.

56. I am really inspired by this blog and the ever-increasing comments as it confirms there is no end to the deepening connection we have with our bodies when not ruled by the the mind.

57. It is not only studies or sports that in a subtle way have insidious effects on our bodies that are far more long lasting. Also relationships can have that effect, even the ones that look ‘good’. There can be investments in a relationship which drive it like ‘I don’t want to be alone’ or ‘he takes care of me’. The reasons why we got into these relationships are interesting to explore and to wonder: am I in this relationship for comfort, a certain need or is it truly supporting my body and me to grow together with the other? Less than love is abusive. The body will tell.

58. “The Body and My Relationship with it” – deepening the connection I have with my body I can feel deepens the relationship I have with myself, with life, my work/job, and with those people in my life too.

    1. Isn’t it amazing how our body is actually our access to deepening all the other aspects of our lives. Could it be worth properly and truly investigating…..?

59. We are always in the process of refinement when it comes to self-care and listening to our body.

60. ” An amazing body that I have not really ever stopped to appreciate deeply.” So true and so different to what we know when we recall the ancient wisdom and all its offers us in connection love and communication with ourselves our soul and the bigger picture of the universe.

61. We as a society (humanity) still have to realize what the body is truly about before we change any of the grievances we see everywhere in life. Before we don´t know how to honour the body and make use of it as the vehicle of expression for the Soul we have not yet fully developed the relationship with our body.

    1. A great point Alex and beautifully expressed. This brings a whole new understanding to the relationship we have with our body.

    2. Agree Alex, when we live in respect to the body we inhabit we live in respect of every-body; and in relationship with all of life that we are a part of.

    3. This is a super important point you are making, Alexander. Whilst we stay disconnected from our bodies, focussing on ‘any of the grievances we see’ we are simply circulating in the grievances. When we ‘honour the body’ as the precious vehicle through which we can connect to Soul, and build this relationship with care and commitment, we reset the standards by which humanity lives and the grievances will become a thing of the past.

62. Our body will always send us a message for us to stop and listen to take responsibility for what we are loading the body with, and it may only be something subtle and if we ignore, or override it, the messages get louder until we cannot help but stop and observe what is going on.

63. It is great to become aware of the many ways we have put pressure on ourselves. I am finding that most of these pressures come from long held ideals and believes of how I should be in life and the more I untangle the more there is to untangle. But it feels beautiful to live more and more free from these ideals and beliefs.

64. “…. it is the body (and not the mind) that is our means of connecting to our Soul, and this is the blessing: to care deeply for the bridge that allows the Truth to be accessed and then lived.” This is beautiful. So many feel the mind is the be all and end all. This palpably isn’t so when you invest love and care in your body.

    1. Beginning to access the wisdom within, I realise absolutely that my heart is central office not my mind.

65. “How I live my life now is vastly different to how I lived it prior to encountering the Ageless Wisdom.” I agree Henrietta – for me too. I would regard illness as a nuisance and something to be got over. Nowadays if I get ill, I know something in my livingness is awry and it’s a good opportunity to stop and take stock of how I have been living.

66. Once we start listening and developing a relationship with our body, it is like you have a constant ‘best friend forever’ that’s always with you and who has ‘got your back’ – and you’ve got theirs… and this relationship has no end.

67. The body – the bridge for the spirit back to the one body we belong to, the Soul.

68. We conduct life like it was our God given right to experience consistent grandeur. Anything less and we get angry that we’ve been hard done by. We are designed to experience perpetual beauty, true but it’s initiation and maintenance all comes down to you.

69. ‘ … over time I have come to realise that the body is a tool, but a very precious one… one not to be abused, but instead used ever so lovingly to express that which lies deep within us all, our essence.’ – What kind of tool do we consider the body to be when we dishonour its preciousness? It is like abusing a Stradivari for a hammer and instead of producing utmost beautiful rich sounds settling for the monotonous beat of metal on metal.

70. “An amazing body that I have not really ever stopped to appreciate deeply.” I ask myself this question today and also don’t feel that I deeply and truly appreciate my body, more that it is there to allow me to do what I do but I feel a deeper level of care and tenderness when it comes to knowing the power of my body.

71. I am deeply appreciating my body today as over the last few days it has given me very clear signals of what was going on and what I needed to change.

72. Our bodies are so beautiful in their constant communication, indeed showing us the next step that needs healing or reflecting our next area of expansion in life.

73. Most of us think that we have the right to abuse our bodies and there is nothing wrong in it if we are not hurting anyone else. This in itself is rubbish for the unseen consequences of abusing ourselves runs deep energetically and effects all around us and the planet, universe etc.

74. “….over time I have come to realise that the body is a tool, but a very precious one… one not to be abused, but instead used ever so lovingly to express that which lies deep within us all, our essence.” Indeed, this is something that so many of us not only overlook, and often because we are unaware of the subtle levels at which we abuse our own bodies.

75. Looking after our homes or cars requires constant attention, care, cleaning, servicing and so forth, and in our lifetimes we may have a number of moves to different locations or cars. Our body stays with us for our entire life and in this way is unique – it requires care, love, refills and services and is a lifelong vehicle for us to look after.

76. It’s amazing how we tend to live right next door to people but never go past saying ‘hello, nice weather!’. We come nowhere near to maximising the depth of connection that’s on offer. So it only makes sense that we have this frosty attitude to ourselves too. It’s where it all starts

77. “There are many things that I still do today that may not appear different from the outside, but there is a difference in the quality that I am doing them in” this is the potency of living in a way that deeply cares for oneself to the inner-most, others get to feel this and know that there is something different – not because it looks any different but because they sense the energetic quality of the body that is simply ‘doing’ life/work/family, just like every one has to.

78. ” I have come to realise that it is the body (and not the mind) that is our means of connecting to our Soul, and this is the blessing: to care deeply for the bridge that allows the Truth to be accessed and then lived.” What a beautiful understanding to share with the quality of how we live and move everyday from listening to our body and our divine connection that is within us all.

79. Our body is the greatest friend we will ever have, as it tells us the truth no matter what and patiently persists in its communication until we learn from its wisdom.

    1. I wonder if there is something deeply inspiring for us as friends in this – that it is not about being heard by another but about being the constant reflection of Truth, Love, Joy and Harmony.

80. Every moment counts and thus it is the quality that we chose to be in in every moment that determines how we feel and go about life and never the doing as such.

81. Movement is endogenously generated by our previous movements. We cannot change movement at will without healing the reason why we move as we move in the first place and then learning how to walk in a way that honours where your body is at.

82. “There are many things that I still do today that may not appear different from the outside, but there is a difference in the quality that I am doing them in – in terms of being so much more caring of my body, this amazing vehicle that I have the honour of taking with me everywhere I go.” This is beautiful as this is felt by others. The quality is the key, not what you do, but the quality in how you do what you do.

83. Henrietta, I have also felt that frustration – why can’t I eat and drink whatever I like without my body complaining? But it is so great we have the body which so gently supports us by the adverse messages we get sometimes, depending what we have put in it. It constantly brings us to realise we gave a responsibility to look after it, and we cannot live recklessly without consequences.

84. It is interesting to consider how we push the body in sports and in life past its limits to prove ourselves. What and who are we really proving ourselves to? Does the body not know a natural rhythm, balance and harmony? If so perhaps we should consider the being in the body that drives the body into disharmony all for the sake of an experience or sense of individuality.

85. I have come to realise that so much of what I have done in the past has been to prove that I am ok, that I have value. Now that this way of being is unravelling, the relationship with my body is entering a new chapter, where I listen to it’s communication rather than the critical voices in my head.

    1. Janet it is amazing when we let go of the critical voices that we can truly connect to the beauty within, without any judgment and allow for that to come to the surface.

86. We have made life such that it pushes the body from many angles and does not leave it the space to simply be. While we think, because of this construct, this is how life is, that there is no another way, there is another way if we are brave enough to stop for a while and allow the body to take the lead over our thinking mind instead.

87. The ageless wisdom that emerges from the body gives us a way of living that is gracious and not of this world.

88. How I have gone against and abused my body to ‘fit in’ in life. Thank God I am now listening to it. Thank you Serge Benhayon for ‘the body is the marker of truth’.

    1. So simple and true, and this we cannot escape. I love this quote from Serge Benhayon, “The body is the marker of all truth”.sb

89. The pressure we exert on ourselves can be huge and create an enormous tension that affects our whole outlook on life. Your blog is so important in highlighting the fact that this shouldn’t be the ‘norm’ and there is another way to live.

    1. Indeed Suzie, because everybody is abusing themselves and we can call it the norm, we have to be aware that it is not normal, that there is another way to live that is honouring our being and brings back the graciousness of the love that we are back to into our lives.

       1. So true Nico, we need to change this normal which is not normal, by living the truth ourselves and reflecting it to others.

90. “had this body that I have been carting around…” Carting is so descriptive of how we humans just move around without considering exactly ‘What’ we are moving around… I have found that the modality of Esoteric Yoga has been such a pioneering way of discovering that so much more lays within our body than meets the eye… a Stillness so deep, that makes you aware and definitely not wanting to simply ‘cart’ the body around anymore.

91. If I am aware of the truth – the way I live needs to match this. Any discrepancy causes toxic and poisonous results in my body.

92. An amazing expose of how we are with our bodies right from young Henrietta. I can relate to the tom-boy time myself for years as a child largely because of having two older brothers. These past ten years since my 30s, as i grow to know myself and more through my female body i fall in love with myself and with my womanliness … and reflect on how come that was not the case for me (and also many female friends of mine who also fell into the tomboy-ness too), as a young girl to have been embracing the loveliness that she was and always is.

93. I find this only occurs when we are choosing to seek approval or recognition, and then listening and honouring our body very quickly goes out of the window.

94. ‘..I have come to realise that it is the body (and not the mind) that is our means of connecting to our Soul..’ This is beautiful Henrietta. I too realise how important it is to listen, honour and deeply care for our body, it is the gateway to our Soul and our connection to God. Our body is very precious, sacred and divine, why would we choose to abuse it?

95. The pictures we have of our body often demean us, rather than supporting us. That alone tells us that there is something fishy going on. Every single body on the planet is different. Why should we all be measured against a picture of perfection that has been decided on largely by advertisers to sell products. Rather how about we connect with our body and as Serge Benhayon has said for nearly 2 decades, let the body be our marker of truth. It is our own personal all knowing point of truth with us every day.

96. When I first came across this idea of being connected to my body, I thought I was connected to it- or at least to the edges of what I knew was there but didn’t want to look at or deal with, i.e. A lot of anxiety that was carefully managed yet constantly bubbling away under the surface. What’s been quite amazing to feel is that the anxiety is not me, and that there is a far deeper level of connection to my body always available, but that I’d never realised before. Underneath the anxiety and whatever other behaviours and ways of being we’ve adopted over the years, there is a deep settlement and knowing of who we are that is foundational to everything else. When I connect to that, being abusive to and with my body really stands out. Then, making choices that really support my body, and that connection to steadiness, consistency and solidity, becomes very normal and natural.

97. It is so cool to have this open developmental relationship with our bodies and enjoy how life offers us new opportunities to learn so regularly.

98. I can connect with the more subtle messages and quality of movement in the body, rather than leave it to illness and dis-ease to shout to me that there is something needing a correction.

    1. The more awareness we connect to the more our body gives us messages of what is going on in our body. If we respond to those messages we can move in away to support our body from going into deeper illness or dis-ease.

99. I have just gone back to do further studies and can feel how easy it is to study without disregarding myself when I listen to my body.

100. “a resentment of my body for not fitting a picture that I have had of how I should be” I’ve had this feeling as well, growing up I wanted to look a certain way and I didn’t. I felt like I did not fit in or would not get loved because of the way I looked. Yet in truth it was never about the way I looked or not, it was about how I felt inside. The relationship that I eventually built with myself after putting into practice the teachings of Universal Medicine are what has without doubt transformed my life.

101. What I find interesting and keep developing my consistency with is how one second I’m fully there in connection with my body and feeling solid then not long after that I am totally disconnected to it. Less and less this is happening but the more awareness i am bringing to my body the more I realise how much I actually do this.

     1. Same for me Natalie. Having this awareness is great and being open and honest about this supports us to learn and grow. The observation period is part of the process and as long as we don’t shut down our awareness and our willingness to learn, this can be a beautiful process of evolution and a continuous building and deepening of our relationship with our body.

102. “The Esoteric is not secret, hidden or mysterious in any way, shape or form. It is inclusive of everyone and treats everyone as equal” – because it is, and that is, simply love.

     1. Our relationship with true equality and our honesty around this is a profound point of transformation and one to pay particular attention to.

        1. Matilda I agree, it comes with true honesty, we have to start with honesty with self first and allow the equality too, otherwise we can get so caught in judgement, jealousy and comparison.

103. “An amazing body that I have not really ever stopped to appreciate deeply” – when I re-connected to what is inside my body, my essence, spark, light, fire, connection, being, i started to appreciate the (importance of) physical frame of my body, though it was the gentleness and (self) care of my body that happened prior which allowed me to realise all that i.e. what was within me, and hence leading to the appreciation of me.

104. It is delightful; how you remind us Henrietta that the body is our means of connecting to our Soul, and this is the blessing, to care deeply for the bridge that allows the Truth to be accessed and then lived. This is really a profound understanding and changes completely how we can live our lives in connection with the body.

105. We think that we have been carting the body around and yet it is our bodies through which we can express everything we are and never stops communicating to us.

106. I wonder what could be possible if we made the relationship we have with our body our primary focus for just a week – could it be the key to so much more than we realise?

     1. Meg the truth is we actually know what is possible, we just have not been choosing it, rather avoiding what can come through.

107. The more I get to know my body the more I understand just how much I have been reckless and abusive with it. I cannot ever remember anyone telling me to take care of my body, we seem to just take them for granted and it’s not until something major happen that we are pulled up and for some people even then the pull up is not enough. So my question has to be why do we treat ourselves in such a disregarding way?

108. I definitely saw my body just as a thing and did not think about it more than getting me to one place or the other. How I am now is like another life, I care, listen and support it and override what it let’s me know so much less than I used to, this is so much more worthwhile a life I live now. Much much more joy, purpose and vitality.

109. Anything that ignores our divine essence is a form of abuse.

110. We know from day one how to play the game of hiding and holding back from not living the love we are. I also found life easier to play the role of a tom-boy at home and in school from a very young age. It felt safer to fit in life living this way yet when I went to high school this changed as I started to physically develop into a woman, most of all the relationships around me began to change. On reflection, I can see how I knew exactly how to be in life to the finest detail to fit into life including with those around me at the expense of my body and wellbeing.

111. I have come to realise that the body is a tool, but a very precious one… one not to be abused, but instead used ever so lovingly to express that which lies deep within us all, our essence.’ I can’t but stop to consider how humanity would be if we were taught from young to know how precious our bodies are and understand what exactly they are a vehicle for – the light of our soul.

112. Having a relationship with my body whereby I listen to what it is telling me seems very normal to me today even though it is something that is continually developing. But it has not always been the case. There was a time when I would not have really understood what it meant, but thanks to the teachings of Serge Benhayon and Universal medicine I have come to understand the significance of the messages that are offered to us from our bodies in every moment of everyday.

113. Knowing what I consciously now know about my body, how every word, thought, action and emotion effects it, it is seriously worth making the effort to make sure that every word, thought and action is well considered from a deep quality first.

114. Is it not surprising that there is ever increasing illness because of the way we are living? The body has to shout really loud to get us to stop, or give us a big illness to make us pause and realise it is unhappy with the way we are living. Still then, people can sometimes think how the body has let them down, rather than understanding it is trying to help us and show us a different way to live.

     1. So true its crazy we play this game. Its about educating people to read the body differently and not get overwhelmed when we have an illness, but give our selves the space to read what the messages are and how have we been living, what changes can we make to change this. It is a process of unfoldment.

115. It’s incredible to realise that many of the things we think are ‘good’ for us are actually abuse.

116. The mind can be senseless leaving the deep sensitivity of the body out of the picture, but it is our bodies that always have to suffer and bear the consequences.

117. The body can be considered to be a burden. Until we realise it is smarter than our mind …

118. The body is the gate to the stars, i.e. back to our divine origin, the soul. As long as we don´t want to return or delay the return we know exactly how to disturb the relationship with our body or the body itself, that is we know how to lock the door or seemingly even forget about the gate to exist. We are the masters of the relationship to our bodies, masters of destruction just as masters of connection.

119. It can take some of us a very long time to learn life’s lessons and that can be because we analyse and come to conclusions in our head or we emote and find solutions from our emotional reactions or we suppress what we know and shut down our expression. Whatever it may be the beauty is that it is never too late to connect to our bodies and their endless wisdom, expanding our awareness and opening up to a new way of being, reaching for support, if need be, from those we trust and know come from a place of truth and love.

120. It’s interesting how much we push our bodies, when the body is the thing we need to take special care of because it is what carries us through life. More awareness of this would benefit the whole of humanity greatly.

121. “I have come to realise that it is the body (and not the mind) that is our means of connecting to our Soul, and this is the blessing: to care deeply for the bridge that allows the Truth to be accessed and then lived.” what a beautiful appreciation and love of your body shared here and anything less being abuse is very honest and inspiring to realise. The real nurturing of who we are feels so beautiful and warming in side to read and radiates through my whole body.

122. The impact that sports had on me and how that choice to go into extreme hardness has been a long ingrained effect on me. Even though i didn’t go into it as professional as you did just the school level and the competition that it asked of you was now looking back on it hideous. At the time however, everyone or at least most did it and if you were semi good or great at it you certainly were liked.

123. I find it fascinating that we know exactly what to do to trash our bodies so that we stop feeling the natural beauty of who we are. I can now understand that we are masters of this way of being. So imagine what life would be like if we used that knowledge to reconnect back to our bodies and reignite the evolutionary steps necessary to get us all out of here.

124. Our body is our vehicle of expression if we are not relating to it how can we possible relate to the world in any real way?

125. Appreciating our bodies and the exquisite way they feel when we choose to move with delicacy and honouring of ourselves makes it easy to say no abuse whether that is from another or to ourselves.

126. Giving ourselves the space to observe our movements is a great learning and understanding of how we are truly moving and living.

127. When listen to the body and what it communicates, we can honour what will support it and this supports the body to stay vital and not fall sick.

128. Connecting to our body which allows our connection to our soul, is a more tangible experience than getting caught in the mind.

129. I can relate to that, the deeper I go the more space for its particles, so the relationship is constantly changing.

130. It is the ways in which we can be abusive to our body which we hide under the guise of being healthy that we can be surprised by. Even in our established western science it is not disputed that elite sport is not healthy because of the training, stress and exertion required of the body and yet we put these athlete on pedestals as role models yet they are promoting abuse, knowingly or unknowingly.

131. ‘I did indulge in sports and in studies. Now you might say “Is this not good?,” ‘ – It is a common perception that sports are good no matter what, and that pushing ourselves to reach a ‘higher goal’ is the way to go, rarely do we hear that we need to listen to the signals of our body and always adjust to our individual limits.

     1. A lot of people get physically hurt pushing too hard but I observe people harden when they engage in sport and I wonder how much this hardening affects them?

132. Abusing myself through taking substances was not my thing either but I was still abusing myself through being good, polite, nice. I would say the latter is far more abusive, many would disagree but the impact of giving my power away left me depressed, helpless and not knowing where to turn many a time during my life. I am still not free from these behaviours yet but as my awareness grows they are becoming a thing of the past.

     1. Caroline I can relate to what you share, I never used substances to abuse myself, but I too got caught in the good, nice and polite, constantly pleasing. This is more abusive to our body as the poision is buried deeper.

133. Not before we start honouring the body as the precious vehicle it is will we as a society overcome abuse, violence, corruption, obesity, checking out, exhaustion or any other dis-ease that plagues us.

     1. We do need to really start with honouring our own body and live with this truth that our vehicle is precious, before any abuse, violence, corruption etc can be overcome. We are the living reflections for society.

     2. Self care comes with bucket loads of honouring.

134. It is crazy, all the different ways that we dull down and avoid true relationship with our body. The ways of the world are specifically designed to keep us away from the sacredness of our body and beauty of its divine nature, to delay and keep us from knowing who we truly are.

135. When we honor and respect our body as the vehicle of expression it is and we treat it with love this enables us to take on more work as we are able to handle the load.

136. ‘Essentially, I got to realise that I was living through my mind only at the expense of my body and not really embracing this body as Me, or even a part of me!’ – yes, Henriettta I can totally relate to this and now realise how when I depended on my mind alone I would feel driven to follow a lifestyle that was lived at the expense of the body and certainly not honouring of it. I am now beginning to understand the depth of wisdom and love that is awaiting when I listen to my body.

137. ‘An amazing body that I have not really ever stopped to appreciate deeply.’ this is something that we are not taught when we are young and to the contrary we are taught about its functionality but not about the immense wisdom it holds or that can be connected to through it when we treat with the regard for the instrument it is.

138. So often I have thrown up my hands and gone for the ‘everything out, total change, baby out with the bath water’ approach, when it wasn’t what I was doing that was causing the problems but the how and why. I love the simplicity of realising that it is not what we do but how and why we do things that is really significant and leads us to true revelations and opportunities to grow.

139. I have been so caught up in my head with continual doing, with little regard for my body, forever burying what I did not want to feel, until one day it decided to speak loud and clear with a nervous breakdown, this was huge jolt, and a wake up call to healing, healing the abuse I held my body in and learning to bring love to this most amazing vehicle of expression I have for my essence to express through.

140. ‘I also felt safer playing the role of being a tom-boy’ – It is the sad reality that we find it safer to play a role in life, rather than simply living and reflecting the natural beauty and sweetness that we all innately are.

141. No wonder our relationships with other people don’t go so great when we ignore, override and suppress what our body has to say. What kind of relationship is that? Abusive I’d say.

142. I resented my body for most of my life, judging it for being such a let down as it prevented me from doing what I wanted. But now I deeply appreciate that my body was telling me to slow down, take more care and not treat it so badly. And now that I am finally listening, there is great joy and insight as I deepen this most precious relationship.

143. I agree and we have asked why and then the next step is doing something about it! Not only for ourselves but also to show everyone else that there is another way.

144. I love the guidance my body gives me as I deepen my relationship with it and how I care for myself. Sometimes it is subtle as in the message I need to move or to be still, other times it is loud like with an illness. It is always showing me my next step.

     1. Well said Ruth – the different messages from our bodies are always available for us to discern.

145. The body is a vehicle designed with immaculate precision and all we need to do is pay close attention to which source of ‘fuel’ we use (prana or Fire) in order to use it to its full capacity. Prana will burn out the engine and Fire will be very respectful of what the body can and cannot do in each given moment ensuring we get ‘more for our mile’ without the collapse of the vehicle in the process.

146. I have treated my body with much disdain and resentment… it always fell short of my needs and expectations. I realise now that this was simply an extension of how I felt about myself and the part I played in the world. Working with Universal Medicine has changed all that, supporting and healing me back to a quiet and sure place of self-acceptance and appreciation for the learning we are all doing together.

147. Yes, it is so easy to lose the connection to the body when we have study deadlines etc. I find that every half an hour I have to get up and stretch, do some exercise or even do a little dance sometimes to check in with myself and what is needed to support me.

     1. I love this Janet – great reminder. I feel the same when my work keeps me at my desk for periods of time. Great to get up and walk around the office, connect back to my body and the other people I work with.

148. I found it was only when I didn’t need to push my body to that extreme level that I realised the damage I had done to it in my blind obedience to fill the aching need. Blogs like your offer me an opportunity to appreciate the care and tenderness I now take as my bodies normal and wonder how much deeper this relationship can go.

149. If we are not having a true relationship with our own body how are we faring in all other relationships? It would not be outrageous to suggest that how we are with our own body could be a maker for all our relationships.

     1. Great sharing our relationship with our bodies is a reflection of our relationship with others.

150. It’s interesting how, when we get sick, we can tend to ‘think’ there is something wrong with us, as opposed to allowing our first response to be to question; what is it that my body is sharing with me, what is the deeper meaning in what is being offered to me? With this openness and understanding we can then show a deeper level of love and care for ourselves, as we embrace the healing/clearing.

     1. The difference between having a respectful or resentful relationship with our bodies, which let’s face it is the foundation for our relationship with ourselves.

151. ‘How I live my life now is vastly different to how I lived it prior to encountering the Ageless Wisdom’ same here, how I am with my body today is far far from the neglect I had with it a few years ago. I wouldn’t have imagined I would be this way then.. and there is always more care and love I can bring in my relationship with my body.

152. We live in such an incredibly sensitive and finely tuned body that knows and responds to the future, in essence our very own “Time Machine”! No amount of academic education can ever match the amazingness of tuning into this inherent wisdom and subsequently living the future now.

153. It is crazy how we can resent our body for not fitting the pictures we have imposed on it and the communication about how much we are abusing it by e.g. getting sick. I have been so hard on my body for many years but am now appreciating more and more the nuances that it so lovingly reveals to me when I make choices that are not honouring of myself and my body.

154. I keep coming back to these words
     “For most of my life I have seen my body as just a ‘thing,’ as mentioned before, “something to cart around and get around in.”
     Because I feel that for most of us we sleep walk through life and I have to be honest and say I know I was a ‘sleep walker’. Coming across Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine was a literal life saver as I have been supported to wake up and embrace life again rather than withdraw from it thinking life is too hard and so checking out which is what ‘sleep walking’ is.

155. It feels amazing to me that now in my late sixties I appreciate and value my body and its messages more now than I ever did before, all thanks to the Way of the Livingness – and the changes in my choices.

156. ‘ There are many things that I still do today that may not look different from the outside…..’ this is true for me also, and for many students of the Way of the Livingness, ‘ but there is a difference in the quality I am doing them in.’ The consequences sometimes may seem obvious however, for example in closing doors and drawers gently, rather than just banging them shut.

157. I also care far more for my body these days, part of it is because I am getting older and my body simply refuses to work like it could 20 years ago and needs more rest and recoup time but also because now I am gaining more and more respect for this vehicle I have a lend of.

     1. It’s great how the natural processes our body goes through, such as ageing or illness, can bring us to a deeper understanding a relationship with it. I know when I was younger i felt invincible and I could put my body through whatever I chose to – now I have far more regard for it and am deepening my relationship with it returning to a time a knew it to be sacred.

158. An amazing sharing Henrietta that really makes sense and i can relate to so much listening to ones body and learning to live from here deepening with a harmony and joy is one of the many gifts Universal Medicine offers us all to bring a loving relationship to our bodies our lives and our families beautifully with an honesty and willingness to go there.

159. How about we would learn to really like or even love our bodies from childhood on instead of being bombarded with pictures and expectations of how it should be and or simply degrading it to be an object that is supposed to function due to its mental master´s whims and wishes? Doesn´t that sound like the most natural thing, how it actually should naturally be? So we have to honestly explore and discard what goes wrong when we want to change the many grievances that result from a lack of love and care for our bodies.

160. The body is worth so much more than simply ‘being carted around’, yet this is what most of us do. Paying attention to the quality in which we move turns everything around. We can offer so much beauty to the world when we move with love. If we move in any other way we are simply in reaction to our own issues or to the world.

161. It is indeed through the body that we can access and then live the universal truths and maybe this is why we abuse it so, as through the abuse we will not hear it’s communication that brings the wayward spirit back to the soul.

162. Currently I am find that the way I move my body is having the greatest effect on my wellbeing. Awareness of movement is an incredible medicine and instantly changes my relationship with everything around me.

     1. It may seem too simple and something our mind wants to corrupt, but how we are moving really does change everything in an instant. There is enormous detail and bigger mechanisms at work within these loving movements, and we connect to God and the grander picture that we are part of.

163. Like it or not, the body communicates with us all the time, so we can choose to listen to it or ignore it. When we ignore it, we get another message and another until such time that we decide we have to pay attention to it, because the repetition of our actions has given us an illness at this stage. But the body is not cross or bothered, it is simply responding to what we have done to it and it continues to support us because the illness will hopefully eventually get us to wake up. The more we love our body and listen to it sooner, we build a deeper relationship with it.

164. Absolutely Henrietta, what is next? As we deepen our relationship with ourselves the depth on offer is incredible. The more I scratch the surface in deepening love for myself, the more I get shown another layer of distraction I have used to avoid this incredible body and all it offers; the bridge to my soul.

165. As far as my body goes, I’ve gone from pride in having scratches and bruises (as to say look how outdoorsy I am) to the stubbornness of not listening to what’s going on to the surrendering to what it’s telling me.

166. Our bodies may be great at functioning in the world, because they carry us around all day, and we use them to express what we feel and think but they are also capable of operating at a much deeper level. our bodies can read energy, we can feel a person and how they truly are regardless of the words they speak.

     1. So beautifully said Carmel, and thus in only focusing on the functionality of the body we can miss out on the blessing that the body is and brings to us.

     2. Yes, and when we accept this fact and start to listen to our bodies’ readings, life becomes richer, simpler and clearer.

     3. Yes Carmel, bodies read energy. When we are functional and disregarding of our bodies, is it because we don’t want to read and feel energy around us?

167. Over the past 9 years of being a student of Universal Medicine and having a deeper level of awareness and commitment to life, there have been many changes within my body from how it has been nurtured and cared for. This is constantly being refined by choice, for the body to be a vehicle of expression for the soul to communicate throigh and re-imprint this loveless world we inhabit.

168. Thanks, Henrietta. I too have lived most of my life through my mind at the expense of the body, but thanks to the teachings of Universal Medicine I can now say that I am starting to listen to my body first, and then respond to life from the connection to the truth of what I feel inside. As a result, life is becoming simpler and I have much greater clarity.

169. When I was involved in sport I saw the body in relation to performance and was always interested in its ability to develop to meet demands made of it. This was not the body doing this though it was the domination of it by the mind, making it do what it deemed beneficial.

     1. I am in awe of the bodies ability to adapt, yet I now wonder if we are abusing this ability for no real gain other than a short-lived pleasure or external approval.

170. And that naturally leads to us being more of who we truly are – living to our full potential.

171. There is an exposure here of how much more subtle the toll on the body can be when we do the things to extreme that society finds more acceptable – like sport or education. They tick all the boxes, but the damage it can be doing in the background are so well highlighted in the blog.

172. Very true, Johanna, it’s the human part of us that craves recognition and validation – in order for this to happen we have to see ourselves as separate from everyone else – and so the dis-connection from the whole that we are a part of begins.

173. Yes, it all comes back to our willingness to listen to our body and how honest we are willing to be. We know a lot more than we ‘think’ we know.

174. I love your comment, Mary, it raises the question about how much we know and how much we resist being aware of what we know. If we eat something and feel sick afterwards, we can join the dots and recognise that either the food was off, or we have reacted to it for some other reason. If going without coffee for x hours gives us a headache and when we have another coffee our headache goes away, that is showing us that we have a dependency on coffee (caffeine). This may sound harsh, but I feel we are very good at playing dumb and seeing what we want to see and ignoring what we don’t want to be aware of to stay comfortable.

175. We can cause our bodies a great deal of trauma in the guise of sport, then kid our selves that we are looking after it and back this up with strange sayings like “No pain, no gain”. Who ever thought that one up was clearly not in touch with their innately fragile and incredibly wise body.

176. I feel I must be very humble and honest to my body that I have abused it a lot and possibly at times still do. Thought the years I have found that the body is so delicate tender and absolute in its sensitivity and awareness of energy, so much so that I start to appreciate it more and more for the gift it is for me instead of just a body that is to be used to live through.

     1. I agree Nico, and the more I listen the more I realise there is to hear and open up to… in fact I get a sense of a depth to life and our reason for being here that is very rich and inspiring.

        1. Indeed Matilda, you could say there is a purpose to life, the purpose of returning to a way of life that is respectful to our being and from this beingness we will all unite as one. Which one day will be our reality.

177. Our body is the temple of God, the art is to live this in full appreciation of the divine beings that we are.

178. When we connect you our body, we too connect to the continuous communication with it. The communication that tells us what depth of Ageless Wisdom and knowledge we can access, that tells us what true love is by living it as an example in the body for everyone to see, that tells us that we are all equal and that borders, languages, cultures and such we have created do not make any difference. It is about the living essence that is of the same source in every-body.

179. It’s great to expose how we can do ‘good’ to our bodies when in truth it is harming – ie we can think sport is healthy but if we push our bodies then it is still abusing them.

180. It is onyl in recent years that I have become fully aware of what foods my body wants and doesnt want. On some level I always knew that there were certain foods that disagreed with me, but I never really put two and two together. Our bodies speak to us all the time – we would do very well to pay more attention to what they are telling us.

181. We are so blessed with being surrounded with numerous immensely supportive factors in life, that help us heal, deepen our awareness and evolve. Our body is but one such support and we have it 24/7. We are far too quick at complaining about things we don’t like, which ironically tend to be there because of our own ill choices, and we don’t stop, take note of the immense support and appreciate nearly enough.

182. ‘most of the time I find myself getting frustrated with my body – why can I not move faster, be less clumsy, get more things done; why do I have to stop to feed, care for and sleep this ‘thing’? Why can I not eat and drink certain foods without the body reacting or getting sick?’ – You have described so well the reality for a lot of people, the fact that we tend to blame our body for our so called ‘short comings’.

183. I think it’s great to realise or be open to discovering deeper levels of appreciation for our body and all it offers us, not just as a means of moving around, picking things up etc but the actual wisdom that we all have within us in our body…

     1. Agreed Fiona its that appreciation that is so key, if I feel a little “off” then when I bring in appreciation that feels disappears as I realise I’ve just not been appreciating me and being connected to me.

184. “a resentment of my body for not fitting a picture that I have had of how I should be”
     As i read this Henrietta its suddenly so clear how led and dictated we are by our minds, how we don’t see the value in listening and cherishing the bodies dialogue unless it calls us to stop.

185. Great comment Rebecca, it is a powerful and simple choice. Also, to be aware and know we can choose what energy we allow in and through our body to govern our every expression is a responsibility we all have.

186. ‘…I have come to realise that it is the body (and not the mind) that is our means of connecting to our Soul.’ This highlights how powerful it is when we connect to our body. This makes me wonder, what is going on in our world, because currently our mind is being sold as the champion and our body seems to be disregarded and often abused?

187. So, what I understand from reading your comment and this awesome blog is that if we want to live harmoniously, all we have to do is listen to our body, honour its messages and our body will naturally guide us back to love and harmony.

188. When we beat ourselves up and fight love, illness awaits in the wings to give us a wake up call.

189. Yes, Henrietta, your sharing is a great example of how we can make life hard for ourselves, creating struggle and pressure at every turn so we do not have to feel the harm we are doing to our bodies by simply not feeling what is really going on inside us.

190. It is a constant, development of deepening the relationship with the body and sometimes it does feel like I have gone backwards abusing the body but moments like these are natural steps in bringing a greater love towards my body and wellbeing.

191. For our first 18ish years we are driven everywhere by others. When we get our licence to drive ourselves, there is only one person driving us.

192. I know the dishonouring of my body very well. For decades my head was the ruler of my body. I could get annoyed when my body would come up with inconvenient feelings like tiredness or sadness. The body should act according to my likings. There was a little tyrant housing in my body. Very much opposed to now: there is a servant in me honouring the body deeply with so now and then a disregarding or dismissive gesture. But…my body always let’s me know in a clear and in-my-face way: ‘a bit more loving please…’

193. Most of us live without even the slightest idea of all our body parts – let alone their energetic significance. It’s like receiving the most amazing present and just leaving it in the box unopened.It’s time we took an interest in the purpose of our cells.

194. Yes, among many other benefits it gives us a level of confidence that our mind can never deliver.

195. My body is smarter than my mind. That is one of the biggest and unexpected understandings that I have had.

196. I too struggled with growing into a young woman. It felt much safer to hide behind a tomboy facade then show the world my fragility. Hence it was easy to abuse my body because I didn’t know how to cherish my delicate and graceful qualities.

197. So many of us are chameleons, morphing into whatever ideal or belief is around and or imposed upon us, always seeking something we know is missing in our lives… and that something is us! Reconnect to ourselves, our innate essence, and there is no need to play the chameleon game anymore because we know who we are – there is no interest in external games.

198. I also arrogantly saw my body as just a thing, with no appreciation for the most amazing wonderment that it actually is. More and more I am wising up to this fact as my appreciation grows.

199. We can use our mind to impose on our body what we think is good for it (that we have heard from others or read somewhere) or we can use our mind to connect truly with our body and sense from inside of ourselves what is needed to support it and us.

200. Do we perceive our body as a ‘lump of lead’ that we cart around begrudgingly from A to B or do we truly honour that it is a temple through which divinity can express?

201. And this all starts with just letting ourselves connect with ourselves and feeling what the body is actually communicating.

202. Without naming it you have brought attention to the fact that there must be an instance or aspect in and of us that is geared not by the body or the soul but acts on its own, follows its own agenda, willing to make the body even suffer as long as it can have its will over any of the love based impulses of the body or soul. It may make one wonder how this is possible that we are harming ourselves consciously which makes not much sense from a human physical perspective as we clearly feel the pain and suffering it causes us, hence why the teaching of a spirit inhabiting the body makes perfect sense as presented by Serge Benhayon – it explains many things in human life that otherwise remain incomprehensible.

203. Yes indeed why do we do that to each other and ourselves?

204. It is interesting to read at the start of your blog about all the demands and abuse you placed on your body because in many ways we do that with every-body – wanting others to move at the speed we want and do and say things that way we want even in subtle ways which are really no less than obvious ways and sometimes even more harmful as you share.

205. “I got to realise that I was living through my mind only at the expense of my body and not really embracing this body as Me, or even a part of me! ” I know this one well, I used to think all sorts of things including that I could think myself to happiness. This never happened and never was sustained more than just a few moments.

206. There are so many ways to put pressure on my body. I keep discovering new ones every time. The pressure hardens my body and tightens my connective tissue which leads to feeling less spacious and vital. What I can feel is how spaciousness actually supports my connection to God and or the universe.

207. I share your love and awe for the body Henrietta, it is a magnificent and wondrous tool that is much wiser than the mind could ever be without it.

208. “I say honour, because I have come to realise that it is the body (and not the mind) that is our means of connecting to our Soul…” – This is a Truth that I have only recently began to really honour and accept, as my whole life I felt I could just intellectually ‘figure things out’. Even when it came to something like reconnecting to my soul, when I knew it required a surrendering of my body to that connection that is there to feel, I would ask the question “Ok, well, what do I have to do to surrender?”, which is funny to think of now, as there is absolutely no ‘doing’ in surrendering one’s body to the soul!

209. ‘This has been my approach for a long time – a resentment of my body for not fitting a picture that I have had of how I should be’ – I can so relate to what you have written Henrietta, although the way it has played out in my life differs greatly, it was still the same dishonouring of the body.

210. I am forever appreciative of the new relationship that I am building with my body. Our bodies are so responsive to whatever we put into them and this is a huge blessing for us.

211. What if we were an immortal being trapped in this physical body?
     Would this make us all feel like a super hero or maybe that we just relate to being a super hero and this is why these moves attract so many.?. Stop and ponder for a moment feel from our essence and then we may find the Truth.!.
     And we also see that we could be one day at the top of the rankings in our preferred sports or do we just relate to the top echelon as they are the super stars.?.
     Being blessed by the Truth of living for our essence as a Student of the Livingness has shared so much about why life is so.

212. As a health care professional I have witnessed clients who are addicted to exercise in no different a way then alcohol or nicotine addiction. When they have got injured and cannot exercise for 1-2 weeks they actually go through withdrawal symptoms which can be very strong. So I totally get what you are saying here that we can use any behaviours as crutches (even so called healthy ones) to try and cope with life but in the long run they do not work, only cover up the inner emptiness we don’t want to feel until such time as we face that emptiness and start to get honest about why it is there.

213. When we understand how much we drive, it makes so much sense why we get so tired and exhausted. The relationship with our bodies is so clear to show us how we are living, and then we have a constant opportunity, without criticism, to deepen our connection with the body.

     1. Small steps of simply doing what we know honours and supports ourselves and our bodies lead us to a relationship of deepening the love in our bodies.

214. The Ageless Wisdom is truth that delivers a way of living today yet suited to any era, past and future, never out dated and for forever on point.

215. This paragraph for me encapsulates the changes that The Ageless Wisdom offers us – that many of the daily things we do don’t really change but the quality we do them in is completely different. As is the evolving relationship we have with our bodies… “There are many things that I still do today that may not appear different from the outside, but there is a difference in the quality that I am doing them in – in terms of being so much more caring of my body, this amazing vehicle that I have the honour of taking with me everywhere I go.”

216. To me it feels like the best way to make life simple and uncomplicated is to listen to and connecting deeply with our body.

     1. Simplicity is so powerful and supportive when truly lived.

217. Very wise words Henrietta, loved reading each of them and can not agree more with your sharing. Can relate to a lot of what you have written too – the abuse in being hard with ourselves is very insidious as it can be ‘seen’ as being a ‘good’ thing in terms of working hard, making efforts… all of these at the expense of our bodies.

     1. It is interesting how we generally do not register that we carry our body around with us always so it is key to look after it and listen to what it is communicating about how we are feeling, living, moving, interacting, relating, eating etc
        Before coming across Universal Medicine I drove my body from ideals, beliefs and images of how I thought I had to be but then when I saw and felt the reflection of what Serge Benhayon clearly lived in his body I knew something else, something far truer was possible and then I began to make different choices to support and listen to my body. Still a work in progress – but today it is about how spacious my body feels and what quality I bring, not about meeting an image.

218. When something doesn’t fit the picture of how we want it to be we don’t usually see it as building resentment, and if it is, in the case of the body we are actually building a resentment directly against ourselves and causing an inner conflict that can eat away at us from the inside. Recognition of this process is the first step to becoming aware of what is going on and from there we can gain greater honesty with ourselves, understanding that the body has much to tell us when we are humble enough to listen.

219. Years ago I read about a scientific experiment with snowflakes which showed that depending on what type of music is played the snowflakes take on the shape accordingly. This same process would apply to our thoughts about our bodies; when we have ugly thoughts about ourselves the body acts according to that message, and when we consistently appreciate ourselves, this changes how we feel about ourselves, and we can feel the body responding positively. So much of our thought process is geared to fit a picture of changing ourselves in some way for a multitude of reasons, which only leads us to have thoughts of a constant discontentment with our bodies, therefore, a continuous barrage of abuse. If this is the case, then it makes sense that we are feeling so unwell within ourselves.

220. That resentment of the body for not fitting a picture and how abusive this is really takes over your life. It’s like it demands so much of you by way of thoughts that you are constantly fed that your not good enough. Breaking free from such imprisonment is life changing and thanks to the teachings of Serge Benhayon I have been able to truly heal this.

     1. Yes, these thoughts are absolutely an imprisonment that we have accepted. When we break free from them we have access to great power and can’t be controlled. Have to make you wonder what is it about society that does not welcome that kind of freedom and therefore perpetuates the lies and abuse?

221. I love your honesty here, Henrietta. It is so common for us to change our shape to fit in with what we think another wants us to be, or to get the affection and attention from a parent as you say. When we compromise our bodies in this way, we are dishonouring the most important relationship of all, which is with ourselves.

     1. I agree, Janet, I love Henrietta’s honesty to look beyond what others would seem abusive to the body. Compromising our body makes sure we disconnect from ourselves and can’t connect to another also.

222. What you have written is so true in as much as many of us do just cart our bodies around constantly on the go to get the things done that we think are important and so we live in the doing. We eat lunch on the go or while working at the computer or in the car while driving, we don’t feel there is any time to stop as there is so much to get through in our day.
     But I have discovered for myself this other way to live thanks to the support of Universal Medicine where it is not about the doing but about being with myself while I go about my daily life. And the biggest missing ingredient to my life was appreciation. In the lack of appreciation we can and do dishonor our bodies.

223. I love this piece. I feel so humbled to know that every challenge presenting in life is reflecting an area of deeper connection with the body. There are no issues and so much empowerment to steadily, patiently and humbly live this inspiration.

     1. I agree, there are no true issues and hence really no excuse to avoid our own grandness.

224. Living proof that we are living gods.

225. Yet we choose to abuse it, neglect it, over-exhaust it, bash it etc.. It makes no sense yet we call ourselves ‘intelligent’ when it is the one thing that is with us 24/7 regardless of what we do.

226. Beautifully said Jane – and in this realisation, coming to terms with the fact that this is not a weakness but rather it is a strength when we connect to the delicateness and fragility that lies within.

227. ‘I also felt safer playing the role of being a tom-boy at school as my body was developing and I began to turn into a woman, which I was certainly not comfortable about.’ – me too, in fact it has taken me a very long time for me to be able to claim myself as the gorgeous woman that I am. It feels very beautiful to be finally embracing all of me and enjoying choosing what clothes to wear, no holding back, but allowing the love I hold for myself to be expressed.

228. Love what you share here Jane… I’m just beginning to be aware of just how sensitive we are, and that its ok to feel this frequently. It has been confronting as sensitivity is not something that is encouraged, indeed the opposite is true… but it is in fact a very loving way to be with ourselves.

229. “I also felt safer playing the role of being a tom-boy at school as my body was developing and I began to turn into a woman, which I was certainly not comfortable about.”
     You are not alone in this Henrietta… and it makes me wonder…Why is it that we are more comfortable playing a role than being the gorgeous, beauty-full women we innately are?

     1. ‘Why is it that we are more comfortable playing a role than being the gorgeous, beauty-full women we innately are?’ – That’s the question Paula. Could it be that we learn from very young that there is a certain safety to playing a role rather than taking the discomfort that comes with jealousy and comparison directed towards our natural beauty and sweetness?

     2. Great question Paula. I also struggled with this and felt safe with the boys playing the tomboy role when younger, even though I have a deep delicacy which was, and will always be there as part of who I truly am.

230. This is a great article as it expands on our usual understanding of the ways we can abuse our bodies. We are told that lots of exercise/yoga etc is great for us but not when it comes with a push. We also think that study and acquiring credentials is great, but study can be extremely abusive to our body if we get stressed, stay up late and lose our natural connection with the body. Realising our body is the way we can feel and ‘hear’ our souls voice is a huge game changer.

231. When we understand that there is nothing that we have to prove to anyone, it takes away all the ‘need’ we may have had previously to do anything. Instead we do what we are given to do with purpose, with no ‘self’ getting in the way, and everyone benefits.

232. I had surgery last year and the total blessing was to feel the tenderness of my body, and how amazing it is. and when we are hard on our body and on ourselves, that it causes such undue strain on it.

233. Organised religion employs strategies that ensure people abuse their bodies, e.g it introduces concepts such as guilt, sinning, repentance, blindly following doctrine etc, all of these things have a harmful effect on the body. So, as God comes through our untainted bodies, what organised religion does, is it ensures that God will not be felt by the person who is tainting their body with things that don’t belong in it.

234. In the same vein, we’re often told that ‘a little bit’ of stress is a good thing, as a way of motivating us to get on and do things, drive us into action etc. But why do we need stress or adrenaline to get us going? What is it about the way that we’re living that means that we’re missing that sense of connection to a greater, grander purpose? A purpose where no driving, striving or stress is needed to motivate us to get something done, but where we are continuously in the flow of feeling what to do, and the great joy there is in simply doing it, because it is there to be done, with no expectation, outcome or reward.

235. So many of us question, why can’t I just have a bar of chocolate, what bad will it do. But as you say, as we deepen our connection with the body and we begin to cherish it, we are unlikely to want to bring any harm what so ever.

236. Thank you Henrietta for a great sharing, showing the many insidious ways that we can abuse the body, rather that the most obvious one, I lived with anxiousness most of my life and I am only now feeling more deeply how it has effected my body, it is calling me to be more tender in caring for my body and observant of the messages it is sending me.

237. Your story sounds similar to mine I played competitive tennis for years as well as doing Ashtanga yoga and running, all the time hurting my body under the guise of being fit and healthy. I did the drugs and alcohol as well, they were all as bad as each other at least when I was doing drugs and alcohol I knew I was abusing myself with the former distractions I was under the illusion I was doing ‘good’ for my body.

238. Great point Carmel, often we think of abuse as physical and as something we can see with our eyes that is obviously and adversely affecting someone. But unless you can read someone’s thoughts it is very difficult to spot the form of abuse you are referring to here. Abusive thoughts are not detectable with our 5 senses by other people and therefore, they can easily escalate, go uncheck and undealt with, and often falls under the radar and may not be recognised as a form of abuse. Is it possible that the more hidden forms of abuse are the ones that can be the most destructive?

239. This is so true Elizabeth, and humanity currently grade our intelligence based on what we can achieve but not on our level of love.

240. This is awesome to discuss the relationship we have with our body and what goes on for us when we are heavily involved sport in a competitive way. What you’ve shared Aimee opens up a conversation that is very much needed. The emotional abuse on the body through competitive sport is not recognised and not many people are aware of the many potential harm this can cause. But in our society, we celebrate, award and encourage children and adults to be a part of competitive sport. It has been accepted as a form of success if you are good at sport and have completed and won many awards etc. How healthy is competitiveness of any form? To me, from what you’ve describe, it is not healthy at all because it puts stress on the body and our body’s natural state is not stress but absolute harmony.

241. So arrogant are we that we continue until we are forced to stop rather than to be humbled by all the signs along the way.

242. Seeing another level of abuse to clear can make you feel like you have ‘failed’ – but truly it’s a great sign. For without feeling this discomfort there’s no inspiration to change.

243. ‘And so, very often I will find myself feeling like I am back to square one – abusing my body again but in this I am realising the more insidious ways that I have placed pressure upon myself, or demands on myself etc.’ This lack of self-regard is a continual developing self-awareness, because as we become more regarding in our choices, other not so regarding choices get highlighted with a big spotlight.

244. Ahhhh…What absolute pure Gold you share in your experience Henrietta …”the body (and not the mind) that is our means of connecting to our Soul, and this is the blessing: to care deeply for the bridge that allows the Truth to be accessed and then lived….”

245. Our bodies are amazingly sensitive and there are a lot of things going on that our bodies can feel but our minds don’t want know about, so we override our body’s actual needs and numb the awareness with excess food, excess activity and anything we can think of to distract ourselves from knowing what is truly going on.

246. This is so supportive Ingrid – when we bring understanding to ourselves then we do not need to default back into our abusive thought patterns but can lovingly say Oops and choose to return to our self loving ways.

     1. I love how you have expanded on this Helen. Yes we may default to our ingrained pattern of not loving ourselves as deeply as we could but we don’t need to default to ‘our abusive thought patterns’. Those gentle ‘oops’ are such a loving reminder that we do trip and stumble at times but that we can make the next choice one of self-love, not self-abuse, and then move on to what’s next.

247. Awesome to feel how your relationship with your body has gone from abuse to appreciation and openness to constantly expanding your understanding of what it is communicating with you.

248. I recall commencing Ashtanga Yoga many years ago. I was attracted to it for its fitness and that it looked pretty cool. My body was very quick to tell me that this was not for me. I was pushing my body, and so was the instructor, in ways that it simply did not go – or wanted to go. Fortunately I listened to my body at that time, otherwise I know I would have really injured myself.

249. I appreciate your honesty here, Henrietta, that more subtle ways that we hurt our bodies are still being revealed, and that this honest relationship with the body is key to re-uniting with the soul.

250. Vitality, fitness and health are qualities to build gently and steadily with real regard as to how much and what type of exercise, diet and work really supports us based on nurturing our selves from the inside out with immense tenderness.

251. “I never once reached out to discuss this with anyone as I felt everyone had enough pressures they were working through themselves and I did not want to be an added burden.” This I have found to be one of our greatest detriments, that we simply do not speak to each other what is really going on with us and how we are truly feeling. Because if we do we will see how much we are keeping an outer appearance and how everybody else is doing it too.

     1. So true, Esther, I have certainly suffered from this feeling of ‘I should be able to manage things myself’ and felt that to share with another person the truth of how I was feeling was to ‘let myself down’ in some way. I was more concerned about how I appeared on the outside than supporting myself on the inside. I can feel the sadness in my body as I write this, but it’s the truth and I am sure many of us have felt the same way in our lives. As you share, we can offer each other so much if we can just let go of the facade and love our selves enough to talk openly with each other.

252. Being willing to have a deepening relationship with our bodies is a great way to bring greater understanding with ourselves and the choices we make. Understanding with ourselves is very much worth developing, so we do look at our ways of abuse in a way that’s abusive. Abuse does not beget abuse.

253. There is a myriad of ways in which we can punish our bodies, and one of those ways which we believe is harmless is through our thoughts. But what if we stop for a moment and ask ourselves that if another person were to stand next to us and say things like ‘Your legs are too fat’ or ‘You’re never gonna get a boyfriend because you’re too ugly’, wouldn’t we turn around and tell them to sling their hook. And yet this is what we tolerate with our thoughts. Wouldn’t it be kinder to ourselves to examine if that thought is even true or not? It seems the more we allow the ugly thoughts to take over, the less appreciation we have for ourselves, and when we have appreciation, these types of thoughts don’t get a look in because you can see them for what they are – abusive.

254. When our head is in charge, does it consult the body if it is capable of doing whatever it has planned or is that reason we have A&E’s?

     1. I like this. The head acts solo, whereas the rest of the body acts in union and respect of the all.

255. At the mercy of the ever-demanding mind for creating and striving for perfection in all things – the antidote to this self abuse we continually heap upon ourselves is accepting and appreciating our inner beauty, that is always there.

256. I can relate to both of these Steve! Waking up from the sleep to a deeper awareness is the beginning of the end of constantly chasing round and round in never ending circles.

257. It’s so interesting that we think of our body as separate to us, when actually for our own growth and evolution we need to become at ease and at one with our body.

     1. Very true Rebecca, our body actually supports us to evolve so far from hating or disliking it we should be embracing it and all that is has to offer.

258. I love that as our relationship with ourselves and our body changes, deepens and grows, what used to feel okay and normal, starts to feel abusive. Through this ongoing process of refinement, we continuously learn what feels good and what doesn’t, and tip the balance sheet in our bodies towards more love and less abuse.

259. True Rebecca, and we have build industries around that that will serve us in many ways, always supplying to our demands until we will come to our senses and understand that our beauty is only from inside.

     1. I agree – there is an endless supply of support for our wayward behaviours

260. I can’t imagine the stress of studying an already complex subject in my own language, let alone another language entirely, then added to this having a pass mark as high as 75% is very brutal. The pressure and expectations you faced must have been enormous, Henrietta. How amazingly supportive it is to now have the understanding that we can approach study from our body first, using our innate wisdom to help guide us with a flow and rhythm, staying present with ourselves knowing first and foremost that we are already enough.

261. Every pursuit of the mind that is not connected and therefor in disregards of the body is abuse in its true sense.

262. While we think it is a good thing to learn to defense yourself as a woman. But we forget that in the first place women have to go to that because of the violence and abuse that is around, which to me is not normal, and secondly that the self defense techniques are of the same order of abuse but mainly to the detriment of our own bodies first.

263. So true, Otto, and rather than just looking to stop the symptoms – antibiotics for the chest infection, anti-inflammatory drugs for the knee pains it’s important for us to stop and take the time to understand the whole message from our body. What is it that we are still holding on to, what hurts are we still carrying around with us that we buried rather than trying to resolve and let them go? It’s only when we uncover and resolve the root cause of the problem that any ‘healing’ can truly take place. The amazing thing is, once we allow ourselves the space and honesty to let go and truly feel from our body what the problem is, it’s amazing how quickly and simply we can resolve all sorts of issues which we’ve been carrying around with us for decades.

264. We seem to have an arrogance when it comes to our bodies that we can do what we please with it and expect it to put up with everything in reality we treat it like a rubbish bin. Where does this arrogant attitude come from? It’s almost like something else is running our bodies contra to what we feel is true.

265. So true Otto, there is no ounce of resentment, judgement or hatred in our body, only one movement that is to return to God, the love that we are.

266. In our treatment of it, the body is a given till it presents an illness that makes it a gift.

267. I too can sometimes feel I am back to beginning Henrietta, but as we become more sensitive, we become so much more aware of feeling something we were previously completely numb to.

268. Before now I used to perceive the ‘back to square one’ feeling as a failure, a re-sit of something I had failed but actually now I see it as the same again but much more refined. Life is only dull and same each day if we don’t deepen our sensitivity and awareness of the many layers that are occurring each day.

269. Yes I have noticed this too particularly in my work in health care that there is a strong tendency for people to be annoyed and frustrated with their bodies which only adds to the problem.

270. I am definitely starting to realise and appreciate that there is far more to my body than it just being something that takes me from A to B.

271. Great title Henrietta, learning to have a relationship with the body is key to everything we do whether it is sport or study. I find it amazing how many different ways we abuse the body and how willing it is to repair it’s self from the things we do to it. In my 20s and 30’s I rode horses and I had some crashing falls that were similar to car crashes without the protection of the body of the car, yet I continued to ride, annoyed that my body was not able to do all that I needed it to do. Looking back it was incredibly abusive to my body but that was because I saw my body as a functioning tool and didn’t appreciate it’s magnificence in any way.

272. “it is the body (and not the mind) that is our means of connecting to our Soul, and this is the blessing: to care deeply for the bridge that allows the Truth to be accessed and then lived.” This is beautiful reminder of the truth of the body and exposes all that we are prepared to dismiss or avoiding when we stay in the abusive behaviours and patterns.

273. Wow. An incredible turnaround of a most fundamental relationship. Beautifully shared.

274. It’s strange that we literally have to train ourselves to take care of the body. Most of us are so separated from it that we do not realise or admit that we are abusing it. It’s such a common thing to push and to strain and literally force the body into doing what we want it to do, and we do not stop to consider that we might want to listen to it and honour it. This is the kind of education we need, as when we do start to honour the body and its messages our whole life starts to change and we can feel completely amazing.

275. When we fight the wisdom that our body is offering us, we take a long and difficult path…but how simple is it to realise this and to change the course by listening to the body first and foremost and then learning to honour what it is telling us. A two step process always.

276. It has amazed me how many ways there are to abuse our bodies, some of them obviously damaging like drinking copious amounts of alcohol and others far more subtle like putting off going to the toilet. For me it has been the subtler ones that have been challenging to clock and to change but these are the initial building blocks in the foundation of self-abuse that the bigger forms of abuse are built on. These days I come back to the fact that my body is very precious and very breakable and it is up to me to ensure that the way I treat it is the way I would treat a beautiful new born baby.

277. I used to think I was super healthy, over exercising, working hard, and pushing myself nearly all of the time, but underneath all that frantic activity my body was depleted and exhausted. I feel like a lot of people live like this; pushing ourselves and propping ourselves up with stimulating foods and activities so that we never have to truly stop and feel what we’re doing to ourselves.
     That pattern of pushing myself is still around, but the more I focus on making choices that really support and honour my body, the more the pushing on through really stands out, and the less inclined I am to do this- it just doesn’t feel good.

     When I really go for it on the self care front and commit to looking after myself with deep care and a loving quality, it affects everything I do, and everything around me. I have this feeling of steadiness and solidity, and can feel what to do and when to do it much more clearly.

278. I felt exhausted just reading about your life! What I can feel (because I know it from how I have lived) is the constant drive in life to do things, achieve things, ‘whats the next thing to do’ this is exhausting and as you share completely overrides the body including how we approach sport. It is clear to me that we need to throw away all the pictures, ideals and beliefs of what health is as this is not true health at all. Your blog also supported me and probably many others see just how much our body is a vehicle and needs to be cared for, loved and cherished.

279. It’s great when we recognise that we are putting pressure on ourselves because then there is a chance to back off and give ourselves space. We tend to think pressure is coming from the outside and that is what we have to tackle but in truth that is what we have to observe and understand in order to come from a pure place inside and respond.

280. What you described about your life beforehand is everything we consider ‘success’ to be; physical fitness, intelligence, studying, having a job and so forth, but as you shared there is a whole other dimension of emotions, feelings and self-value (or lack of) that we neglect to prioritise for us and for others. Sometimes one of the most loving and honouring things we can do is to take a stop moment and reflect on what our life is truly like.

281. Generally most of us take our bodies for granted and use them for whatever we want and it is not until we have an accident or an illness that we really take notice of how amazing our bodies are and then learn the care and gentleness needed to guide this wonderful thing through a long healthy life.

282. “Essentially, I got to realise that I was living through my mind only at the expense of my body and not really embracing this body as Me, or even a part of me!”
     Henrietta i can so relate to what you have shared, for this lack of relationship with our own bodies has such an impact on how we relate to others. Today i see that all of my past relationships were tainted by expectations and demands due to my own lack of self regard & love.

283. Thank you for sharing Henrietta, great blog. I love how you say about our bodies that ‘to care deeply for the bridge that allows the Truth to be accessed and then lived’ allows the Soul to come through and be with us. The more we bludgeon our bodies the less access we give our Soul. So we could say say do we choice Soul or not – the choice is always ours.

284. This is what I love about the Ageless Wisdom because it reminds us that in order to truly understand our relationship with our body we need to have an understanding of what is going on ‘behind the scenes’. If our physical body is the vehicle, then there are two drivers that can potentially steer us – our spirit or our Soul.

     The Soul, which is a body of pure love, will always move the physical form in respect to the greater all that it belongs to. That is, it will not move it in a way that creates tension in or to this vehicle or anyone else’s vehicle, as it is governed by the qualities of love, truth, harmony, stillness and joy.

     On the other hand and in striking contrast, when the spirit gets behind the wheel it will move the physical apparatus in a very discordant and dishonouring manner because it is the part of us that has separated from the love and light of the Soul and in this contracted state it chooses to indulge in temporal excesses because it knows it is immortal and will get ‘another one’ when this body is used up.

     At any one moment we all have the innate ability to discern who exactly is in the driver’s seat if we are willing to embrace this awareness and not shut it down.

     1. Well summed up. Maybe the question to ask ourselves is who’s holding the keys?

285. We have developed a very narrow definition of what it means to abuse the body and yet what you share here Henrietta paints a much broader scope under the umbrella of “fitness”, but it feels punishing. To redefine abuse as anything which is not loving or nurturing supports by setting a standard and as you share, should we fall below it, we have a clear marker from which to observe our choices to make some refinements.

286. Thanks, Henrietta, for sharing your journey of return back into a loving relationship with your body. I too have come to know that our bodies are the gateway to the soul, and that what we seek is within us and not outside of us.

287. I feel very blessed that my body is still functioning the way it is after the abuse I have given it with drink, drugs, over working and excessive sport. It made no sense what I was doing, on the one hand I would party hard and then in the next moment I would be wanting to detox, eating healthy food and doing yoga or what I thought was healthy. None of it involved listening to my body, I overrode the loud and clear messages from hangovers and carried on with a life I knew I didn’t like living whilst searching for something more. It wasn’t until finding the Ageless Wisdom that things started to change and over time I learnt to trust my body and feel that abuse no longer has a place in my life in any form, this is taking time to unravel as the more I say no to abuse the more I see areas where I still allow abuse even if this is on a very subtle level.

288. I like how you describe the body as a tool, it makes so clear all the work it is doing day in day out and how important it is to take good care of it in order to do its work well. Simple and practical, something we all ought to learn when little to then build a foundation of love and care towards and with our body that can deepen with every year more.

289. Henrietta what I noticed was all the qualifications you have BNat, BBio, MApplSciEcol, EPA, ATMS, ANTA and yet you are honest enough to admit these are nothing in comparison to building a relationship with your body; thanks to meeting Serge Benhayon and partaking in the Esoteric healing modalities he brought through.
     What we are all re discovering through the teachings of Universal Medicine is that our entire bodies are intelligent not just our minds.

290. “… there are a multitude of other ways to abuse the body whilst making it look like you are doing the ‘right’ thing.” Thank you Henrietta for exposing the insidious ways we trick our selves in to thinking we are caring for our selves and our fitness but are in fact doing the same amount of damage as some one who abuses them selves with alcohol and drugs. What an amazing transformation this must have been to come home to the truth that our bodies are immensely powerful, precious and sensitive tools that deserve deeply caring from, a core teaching of the Ageless Wisdom that Universal Medicine consistently delivers.

291. ‘…as I began to develop this relationship with myself, I came to realise that there are a multitude of other ways to abuse the body whilst making it look like you are doing the ‘right’ thing.’ So true, Henrietta. How we choose to care for ourselves is very important in terms of what we choose to do, but the quality with which we do things is equally important. We can still bash ourselves if we are applying body lotion in complete dis-regard and dis-connection with ourselves. There will be a harshness to our touch as opposed to our natural loving gentleness.

292. I have taken my body so much for granted and never stopped to consider it needed great care and attention and looking after. I have run it into the ground, overworked it, exhausted it, pushed it, made it run on nervousness and anxiousness, overfed it with junk food, not exercised it or rested it well. Then I have wondered why I have found it difficult to feel great about life. Looking after my body, really has been the key to turning my life around.

293. ” I have come to realise that it is the body (and not the mind) that is our means of connecting to our Soul,” Yes, yes. Connecting with my body enables me to connect with the divine – because of the divine particles we are made from.

294. ‘This has been my approach for a long time – a resentment of my body for not fitting a picture that I have had of how I should be’ – oh my goodness, I wonder how many of us are not guilty of this in some way. I have always been so critical of my body for not fitting a picture of how I’ve wanted it to be. How shallow, that I only ever considered how my body looked without even stopping to appreciate the unfathomable complexity that was going on internally just to allow me to stay in good health, let alone the amazing wisdom that was constantly being shared with me, if only I hadn’t been too arrogant to listen.

295. “I got to realise that I was living through my mind only at the expense of my body and not really embracing this body as Me, or even a part of me!.” This was me too Henrietta. Attending Universal Medicine presentations and then having Esoteric healing modalities has literally changed my life. I now inhabit my body and can receive its messages!

296. The body holds volumes of wisdom and speaks to us quietly and loudly sometimes to make us hear. A constant and faithful wise friend, we do well to respect it, listen and learn.

297. For a long time I too thought I was caring for my body going through different diets until I realise that it wasn’t working. Have you heard of the saying “Everything in moderation” well, that doesn’t work either! Readjusting is a constant exercise where we learn to know the body by listening to it and it is a constant learning. The obvious poisons are not part of my life anymore (alcohol, cigarettes, sugar, Cafein, gluten, lactose…) but the less obvious poison which are harder to detect are still creeping in (being racy, even though it looks like the food quantities are ok on a human level, I am still eating more that what my body truly needs and this from not connecting to myself enough. Daydreaming and staying too long on social media) this usually translate into my body by being over tired.

298. Henrietta, what you share is crazy, but true. it is hard to understand the degree of disregard and abuse we heap on our bodies knowing it is the very vehicle that carries us through life. To not be aware the body we inhabit is a sacred vessel is at the heart of problem. Only when we treasure our body as the divine vessels it is, can we begin to love, nourish and support it in every activity we choose to do.

299. It is amazing the changes that happen to our body when we get back in the driver’s seat of our life rather than being driven.

300. I know the feeling of being back at square one with the relationship I have with my body but as you say it is not really the whole truth. This way of thinking might also be a left over from how we have been raised and educated in life – that it is a linear process and when you feel more self-abuse against your body again it means you have dropped off the ladder so to speak. But life is not linear and the more aware we become of our body the more we feel and the more we also feel what is abusive to ourselves.

     1. The more we honour our body, the more refined our senses become. To lovingly acknowledge a pattern that we think we have passed, when actually it is simply being revealed at a deeper more insidious level in our body is truly loving of ones self and all others equally. As to live in the healing this offers is to live as a loving reflection for all others to see.

301. When the abuse is laid out in writing, it becomes more apparent as to the many ways we abuse our bodies and all in the name of fitness and academia to mention only two.

302. Thank you Henrietta for such a beautiful article, especially the part about seeing how abusive behaviours do not go away overnight, that there is no quick fix for age-old patterns, but that it is possible to diligently apply oneself to the art of understanding and to bring about change in this way.

303. Henrietta this is a great story about making the distinction of what abuse is via the quality we do something/anything in. The quality of the quality is what determines whether we go on to either abuse or to love our body.. and it’s a quality that is forever changing or refining too in accordance to our choices about how we live life.

304. When we stop and actually begin listening to the body, this is the beginning of the re-connecting to and forever deepening our relationship with it – the insidious forms of abuse we inflict upon ourselves are thus exposed for healing.
     “over time I have come to realise that the body is a tool, but a very precious one… one not to be abused, but instead used ever so lovingly to express that which lies deep within us all, our essence”.

305. When you look at the way we relate to other countries and people, trying to smash them into submission to go ‘our way’, is it any wonder that we treat our body the same way? Whatever you think it’s clear beyond doubt that this bullying method just doesn’t work.

     1. Try as I might (and I have many a times) to bully the body into doing things ‘my way’ that way can only be tolerated for so long before the body corrects me.

        1. Thats where self-responsibility, as much as it might kill a part of us to do so, is actually a very healthy thing to engage in. For the health of our bodies and relationships.

306. The more loving we become, the more we get to realise just how much we have abused ourselves. Things which we used to think are a good thing to do, get shown up for their damaging effects on our vehicle.

307. In my opinion, to champion abuse has to be the greatest form of abuse eg. When we win a race or game, we say ‘well done’, when we pass an exam we congratulate but the way we won the race or achieved the grade is never taken into consideration. We don’t care so long as we win or get what we want and often it is at the expense of another.

     1. Yeah this is so true. It’s kind of a win at any expense attitude. Doesn’t matter what you’ve done to your body (or others), but it’s finishing/winning/passing/etc that gets the attention and recognition.

308. “so, very often I will find myself feeling like I am back to square one – abusing my body again but in this I am realising the more insidious ways that I have placed pressure upon myself, or demands on myself etc. ” So poignant Henrietta, yesterday I overate and and ate in a rushed way – and why – because I was tired after a super busy day the day before and instead of resting I pushed through – if we want to get our eating habits right a diet of self love is all one requires.

309. “I began to understand how I was putting huge amounts of pressure upon myself, how hard I was on myself and how many demands I placed upon myself and my body!” Henrietta, I could feel after reading this that perhaps there is a connection between putting yourself in situations where there was immense pressure on you (as in the University experiences you shared) all the time and your statement about having a resentment for your body years ago. In other words, if we make choices to engage in activities that put tremendous mental pressures on us to perform, (such as needing to get high grades or get kicked out of the country) this is a sure way to potentially avoid feeling your body and being present with it, as the lack of acceptance and resentment pull you away from the wisdom it is trying to communicate (i.e..- the bronchitis, glandular fever, etc. you experienced).

     1. Spot on Michael – we can push ourselves so as not to feel that there is another way to be with ourselves. And this comes very much from a stubbornness that can be quite ingrained (and I speak from my own experience) that then gets in the way of the wisdom we all have access to!

310. Was the same Henrietta not speaking up about what I was going through when I was younger because I felt it would be a burden to others. As I change this pattern and let people know what I’m going through I see many opportunities to receive and share love and to deepen my relationships.

311. Humanity’s long held beliefs are completely smashed in this article. To work, study, play sport etc at the expense of the body we live in will invariably bring harmful affects to it. Yet this is exactly how we live as a whole. If, however we begin to honour, Love, support and care for our body, we can and do, with ease, complete many tasks without the exhaustion and draining that many today believe is normal.

312. Whenever I feel I want to push myself to meet life’s demands I realise how precious this body is and I start care for it deeply.

313. I too took competitive sport from a very young age, my dad was ’proud’ of me every time I won a tennis tournament. So you can imagine how much I pushed my body to win as I so wanted his praise. We are enabling our children to harm themselves when we recognize and praise them for what they do rather then simply appreciate them for who they innately are.

314. Abuse of our body can come in the subtlest of ways as we are forever deepening our connection with the one thing that is our bridge, our salvation and faithful barometer of what is really going on.

315. A shift from ‘quantity’ to ‘quality’ is something that we do not allow as it does not bring the appreciation or recognition of the outer yet it does confirm and respond in depth the truth of who you truly are. This exposes our need and attachment to being approved of and how we can choose to be irresponsible and seemingly get away with it.

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