Meeting your body

Your body is your temple. We are all stuck with our bodies for this life. Yet it is astonishing how little we know about it, how little we are aware of it, and how little we care about it. There are a lot of things we can do to honor this temple. One important part is to take care of it: eat healthy, and keep fit. You do not have to fulfil any ideal of beauty. You have to feel comfortable in your body, and your owe it and yourself the respect to take care of it.
A great way to increase your awareness of your body are relaxation techniques. It takes a lot more than a page of instructions to learn most of them. I will describe only a simple one. If you are interested in more, I suggest you either read additional literature or tke a course. Two well known relaxation techniques I know are autogenic training, where you use autosuggestion and awareness to relax your body, and progressive muscle relaxation, where you use alternating muscle tension and relaxation to induce relaxation. Another great option is Tai Chi, which is meditation in movement.

However, I want to present you with a simple exercise to increase body awareness and relaxation, one I call simply "awareness".
Lie on your back in a comfortable position. Make sure you are warm and comfortable. Take some deep breaths. Whenever you breath out, release all stress, all tension, all anxiety. Let go of the day, the anger, the emotions, with every exhale, and relax.
Then, move your attention to your toes. Feel your toes, be aware of them. How do they feel? How are they? Are they strained? If yes, allow them to relax. Feel the difference that makes.
Move on to your feet. How do they feel? Allow them to relax. Allow your feet to relax. Then move on to your ankles. Feel them, be aware of them, relax them if necessary. Move on to your calves, your knees, your tigh, your torso, step by step into your upper arms, your lower arms, your hands, your fingers, and then back up to you neck, your shoulders, you head and your face. Move your attention slowly through the whole of your body, and relax it.
Practise this – or another – relaxation technique until you can go through it and reach relaxation quickly. Tht will help you to know your body better, to relax it and to start into other exercises easier.