If I were running things, this is what I’d like to see: You, grateful, breathlessly full of love for your wonderful, hard-working body. I’d want you to lay flowers at an altar to the self daily and hold the energy of self love, body love for the entirety of your lives. I want a world full of people who do not disdain their creations. Yes, we absolutely do create our bodies down to the very molecules (with our thoughts and beliefs).

I want a world full of people who LOVE their journey here, who love the lessons that they have chosen, who love their bodies with such vigor that they feel holy, they act holy, they ARE holy. I want you to feel a love pulsing through you that only comes from deep recognition of your own grandeur, your light, your importance to all that is. I want you to be giddy upon awakening, happy, excited, and joyously thinking about all of the things that your body will do for you during the day. This is what I want.

Now, that is also what I imagine God/Goddess saying to us. In my belief system, we have a source energy that holds an image of us as perfect, no matter what we manifest, no matter what the construct. A source energy so loving that it gives us all of the tools that we need to be successful here, gives us free will, gives us perfect bodies, and then in total freedom, releases us to create and shape a life of our own choosing, but a Source that continually loves us inside and out and never waivers from that ideal no matter what choices we make. This is God/Goddess to me.

If I started a religion these would be the only “laws”: Love yourself in body, mind, and spirit and take ownership of your energy, thoughts, and emotions. That’s it. Can you imagine a world where people were taught in the light, not in the darkness? Can you imagine a world of people who love and worship their bodies for the miracles that they are? I can. How might it look?

Imagine this: A baby girl is lovingly sung to in her father’s arms. He knows that it is his primary job, for the first three years of this child’s life, to teach her that her body is perfect. Her soul is perfect. Her mind is perfect. He takes this job very seriously. He knows that it’s up to him to help her form the foundation to a healthy life, to “program” her body with abundance, love, acceptance, honor, and trust. He knows that she will base all other life experiences from this early foundation and if there are cracks in the foundation, it is his failing and she, along with the human community, will suffer.

The girl grows with no separation between her soul and her physical manifestation. She is solid. She is centered. She is whole. She loves her own mind, feelings, and body. She loves how her body serves her. She loves to think and to play and to feel. It never enters her mind to think of herself or other people as anything less than they are. She accepts other people because she was taught, rightly, to accept herself first. She watches people having emotions, making decisions, living their lives, and she grants them the same freedom that was granted to her from the beginning. She acts like a creator. She is a creator.

In this state of oneness, there is no need to act out, steal, lie, take advantage of other people, or fight with others, because she knows that she is not a victim of any circumstance. She has enough. She has herself. She has the knowledge that if she wants something, she’s but to program the universe to manifest what she wants. Not by taking something away from others, but by being aligned with her own desires and understanding the laws of this physical time/space. She knows that thoughts are things. Thoughts become physical objects. Thoughts always come true in one form or another. All she has to do is think about what she wants and then align with the desire, the feeling of that thing, and it will manifest. She trusts this process. She trusts her body. She trusts the universe.

This is possible. I will never waiver in my belief that mankind will someday get to this place, will prove the naysayers wrong, will realize our divinity and power, the holiness that is the human body and will move onto higher and higher levels of advancement and spirituality. Call me “pie-in-the-sky” or a silly dreamer, but I know mankind is good at its core. We will figure this out. Until then, I’ll be here, reminding you all to lovingly fight for body acceptance until you learn to love it, all of it. Toward that end, I have a GREAT IDEA!

Create an alter to your body

For many years, I’ve kept some kind of altar in my home. Sometimes, the altar was for a lost pet or a sweet place at which I could sit and meditate (not very well, mind you, because meditation doesn’t really work well for me). Sometimes, the altar was a place where I gathered various photos, objects, and rocks that I love in order to do nothing else but look at them. Sometimes, my altar is outside in my yard or a sacred spot that I hike to and sit in for a while, like the Amitabha Stupa here in Sedona.

My current, simple altar.

At any rate, an altar, as you smart body-lovers know is a highly personal place that can help us focus or dream or simply be. It can also be a very public structure that lots of people visit to pray or meditate. Either way, it occurred to me that since we humans are programmed to worship things and erect monuments (big and small) to things that we admire or exalt, why not make an altar to our own bodies?

Making an altar to your body, especially if you have “issues” with your physical form, is a great way to get more comfortable with it, to focus on the positives, and turn your mind toward that which works instead of concentrating so heartily on stuff that displeases you.

Making a personal altar is pretty easy. Here are some tips:

• Pick a spot that you revere or feel safe in and make it a spot that’s easy to visit; the key here is repetition. The more you view this wonderful altar to your body, the better it works for you. Got a spot in mind? Good!
• If your altar is indoors and it feels right to do, pepper your altar with photos of yourself from when you were happy, feeling good, laughing, goofing off, or just feeling really content. Try to pick photos of you that you like but that won’t make you feel bad for no longer “being that thin” or “looking that good”. The idea is to get used to looking at your body as it is now and appreciating aspects of it that please you. If all you can muster is a weak “Well, I like my wrists,” good! Use it. Take a photo of your wonderful wrists and pop it into your sacred space. The more you do this and concentrate on at least one aspect of your body that you like, the better.
• Try putting colored stones, figurines, or other small art objects in your altar space. Bring in objects that you find pleasing and which remind you of health, vigor, and well-being. I sometimes prop up various Tarot cards that remind me of things on which I hope to concentrate or am currently working. I also place stones from the yard, crystals, images of Archangels and I almost always have a small Buddha statue there.
• Write a loving letter to your body, praising him or her, and remarking on all the ways that your body helps you be here. Cite every pleasing aspect you can summon, read the letter out loud to your body, then place the sacred writing in your altar area to be infused with the energy from your stones and art objects. Read the letter out loud to your body once per day. This totally elevates your mood and gets loving thoughts and energy into your aura and subconscious.

What about you? Do you have an altar? Do think you’d like to make an altar to your body? What will your altar contain? Please share your thoughts on this and let me know if you have any more tips for readers to try. So, let’s do this! Let’s make an altar to the body and worship at it. Love you guys. All of you. 🙂