Our Bodies - The Temple with a Story

​ARCHAEOLOGICAL REMINISCENCE OF MILLET'S ANGELUS

OUR BODIES  - THE TEMPLE WITH A STORY - ANCA UNGUREANU

​My body…your body….the human body in general. Let’s reflect about our relationship with our bodies for a minute or even for a few seconds. What crosses your mind when you think about your body? What are the first words or images which come to your mind when you think about your body? Some people might think first about its aesthetics, about the way they look, others about its functionality and physiology, and some others might recall recent or older memories … Some people might even feel certain sensations or emotions associated with it. Whatever crosses your mind, that’s only a drop in the ocean of what our bodies represent to us, on many different layers. 

The Temple: Its story
The relationship that we have with our own body often tells the story of different relationships that we’ve had in our lives. We carry in our body the life experiences we’ve had and of those that we are now experiencing. Our bodies keep the memory of the first caresses, of the hugs and kisses, of the love and care we have received from our mother s or other first caregivers, of people's expectations, of our deep wounds and scars, of the beautiful, encouraging and supportive words we’ve been told or on the contrary, of those discouraging, humiliating and sometimes terrifying words which still haunt us. Hopes and dreams and even romantic and sexual relationships are all engraved in the memory of the body. The experience of a successful pregnancy or of a lost baby, the signs of the implacable time- they are all kept in the massive database that our brain and body can store. 

​Some memories are even older than us. Think only of one’s pleasure in gazing at a fire, or of one’s deep relaxation in nature, or of people’s attraction towards natural elements…these are undoubtable remnants of the ancestral memories that the human body and mind have carried from the beginning of the world. Primitive and unconscious memories dating far away in time, or more recent experiences from one’s life development, are all well encrypted in our bodies.  

​It's at the conjunction of all these multiple factors - early life interactions, sensory and motor experiences, socio-cultural expectations and medical conditions – where our body image is born.  Therefore, the mental image that we have about our own bodies goes far beyond the weight and height, shape and size, and far beyond physical appearance. Our body is like a sacred temple which keeps safe - but in some ways also trapped - the most profound experiences of our lives, our feelings and emotions together with all the physical movements we’ve learned throughout time.

It's often the body that tells a person’s story where words fail to find their way through. Unfortunately, sometimes the story is one of neglect, rejection, trauma, abuse or just of a complex past or actual relationship. These stories often take the shape of a very conflictual relationship with food and/or even with exercise. Restrictive eating, binge eating, purging or exercising in excess as a compensatory method for each calorie consumed, or even building muscle mass as an excessive preoccupation, are only a few facets of one´s deeper feelings. Our painful experiences sometimes find an expression through a psychosomatic manifestation, a condition without a medical explanation, through an extreme discontent with parts of our body or even through self-harm. Through abandonment in excessive work or total neglect.

Healing the Temple
Whatever experiences we might carry with us in our bodies, there‘s always the possibility to improve the relationship that we have with it. At times, the healing comes through movement, through speech, through touch, through nourishing foods, through mindfulness, through rest. Sometimes experiencing affection and new healthy relational dynamics gives us that sense of higher confidence. Exploring our sexuality and sensual pleasures redefines the way we see ourselves, even from a physical point of view, but this too can become an addiction. It is no coincidence that a lot of people feel more attractive when they are in love, as the beloved ones act as mirrors of our most beautiful parts. In this sense, choosing carefully in what mirror you want to be reflected in is profoundly nourishing.

Our body is the temple of life itself: past, present and future, and that’s good enough reason to want to live happier and more at ease in our body. When the functions of the body cease, life itself stops. As long as we are still alive, we have millions of reasons to want a healthier and more sacred relationship with our own temple.