I TRUST MY BODY is a mantra that first dropped into my conscious mind while I was recovering from an eating disorder at the very, very tender age of nineteen. I couldn’t have healed in the way that I did without these powerful words. I give this mantra credit for helping me make big decisions like leaving Corporate America in the early 2000s in pursuit of yoga; for the courage to travel around the world as a solo backpacker in my early 30s and even for helping me choose Grenada as my new home while the pandemic rocked the world. This mantra always ignites my intuition while calming my worries and doubts so I can better navigate life with confidence and hope.
As I prepare to give birth in the coming months, best believe I will hold these words close if and when my mind wants to give up or if there is any medical intervention that attempts to disconnect me from my body’s wisdom.
As of late I think about the medical care system and in particular (and for obvious reasons) labor and delivery in America. Too many of us have been trained to trust the doctor more than we trust ourselves. Too many women, black women in particular have died after giving birth because the doctor took ownership of their bodies. Medical racism is prevalent and at its core is designed to disembody and disempower. Imagine if we reversed this by unapologetically believing in what our bodies were telling us, demanding quality prenatal and postpartum care while holding doctors and nurses accountable for malpractice. Whew! That’s a heavy topic so let me digress. Moral of this tangent is, imma use this mantra while giving birth because it is magical, embodying and and always empowering. And I am also using it right now as I grow an entire human. I trust my body.
Let’s pause to just breathe.
Take a deep breath in through the nostrils…hold it gently for a moment…when you are ready, exhale the breath out through the nostrils. Repeat and then repeat again.
We live in a world where our bodies are constantly being policed. The body is political. The body is profitable. The body is exploitable. The body is a tool. It is up to us to always find our way back home to Self so that the systems at play, try as they might cannot touch the most valuable and magical asset that we have. Our very wise and very powerful bodies!
May this mantra become a staple in your own personal practice, supporting you whenever you are in need of reconnecting to yourself and your truth.
Together we rise!
P.S. You may notice that I use the words affirmation and mantra interchangeably during the meditation. One could argue that these words have two very different meanings so I will leave definitions below and you can choose which best aligns. Also apologies for the lil audio glitches. It’s a practice of being imperfect and to share anyway.
Affirmation: a statement or proposition that is declared to be true.
Mantra: A word or sound that is believed to have a special spiritual power; (originally in Hinduism and Buddhism) a word or sound repeated to aid concentration in meditation.
I Trust My Body