Rather than being taught how to listen to and honor your body’s messages with discernment, you have most likely been taught to seek mastery over your body through controlling things such as the amount of food consumed, the intensity of exercise, and your dress size. In some circles, this is even painted in religious language and made to seem pious— as though achieving dominance over your physical self indicates some kind of spiritual gift. But this mastery mindset separates the divinely intertwined parts of yourself. If you are seeking to dominate your body, there is no way to hear and trust the messages she is trying to send you. Your body is not something separate from you for you to control.
Your brain was not created to dominate your body, but to live together in a harmonious relationship. Trusting your body will teach you something about trusting yourself. When you practice deep listening within your body, you will begin to learn how to listen deeply to your truest self, too. Everything is connected. There is no separation within the parts of God’s own self, and there need not be any separation in you, either. This is one mysterious way you embody the image of God.
—from Luminous: A 30-Day Journal for Accepting Your Body, Honoring Your Soul,
and Finding Your Joy by Shannon K. Evans
//Franciscan Media//