Your Body is Your Temple

Being told in RE classes, ‘back in the day’ (or in the olden days as my children remind me) that “Your body is your temple”, I believed that the nuns were instilling in us the importance of keeping your body ‘pure’ with the avoidance of promiscuity. That befitted the Catholic Young Ladies College of the day.

Purity or promiscuity aside, my belief for many years was that far from being a temple, my body was my slave. I could direct and drive my body however I wished in order to achieve my goals, of which I had many. It was my body’s job to be instructed by my mind and my willpower to achieve my goals, and what a wonderful slave it was! It delivered so much!

My body could provide energy for juggling so many things at the same time; at its best this included raising four children, full-time professional work, undertaking further study through distance education, building a home and managing a rural property without the luxury of town power and water.

At this stage in my life the concept of time-out was not part of my vocabulary as many working mums will also understand. Sitting down was considered time wasting, and in such times my mind would already be planning the next activity. Taking it easy simply produced impatience as there was always so much to do and I was dying to get onto the next task!

Little did I know at that time that driving my body like this was akin to self-abuse.

Eventually my body responded in a form of shutting down its energy supply, and recovery has been an amazing journey of self discovery, bringing me back to the lesson that the nuns taught me in school that my body is a temple.

Whether or not it is for reasons of purity of living that our bodies should be regarded as our temples, it is indisputable that your body is the only home for your soul on earth. So what sort of a home would you want for your soul, or for that part of yourself which is intangible, but is essentially, and the ultimate You? Whatever word you give to this part of you – soul, spirit, essence – it deserves the finest of temples.

No matter what your state of health may be, when you become mindful that your body is the home for your soul on earth, you are more likely to reverence your body, listen to its messages and respect its limitations.