Welcome to the Infinitely Precious Podcast produced by Infinitely Precious LLC. Your host is James Henry. Remember, you are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are.

Hello, beloved. It's me, James, And I'm so glad to be able to be your companion and you be mine on this journey of life that we're on together. And speaking of companions, what I've been thinking about recently, what arose for me particularly yesterday, and I decided I would talk about this week, is treating our bodies as if they're companions, not just tools. And I wanna say a little bit about what I mean by that. I think sometimes, for instance, let me just tell a story because it was yesterday.

Yesterday morning, I ran into a number of speed bumps, so to speak, when I was in the office doing some work. One of which, you know, I have to order about $4,000 worth of gift cards every month that we distribute to families with food insecurity in the Falls Church, Virginia area. And I was trying to put the order in and I kept running into issues. And it kept coming back and it wanted me to fill in another box and then something was wrong. And then there were limits on things and it became frustrating.

And it was sometime after noon, probably around one and normally I don't make it home for lunch until about two. I come home at between 01:30 and two and that's usually a good time for me to have my lunch. But yesterday, my body was trying to tell me something different. That because of the nature of the breakfast perhaps, yesterday morning it was Greek yogurt as opposed to cheesy omelet that I had reached the end of my food capacity. And my body was trying to tell me that and my mind was pushing through.

My mind was, my consciousness was saying, we can keep going. We can keep pressing. We can eat when we normally do. We can eat when my mind says that it's okay. So instead of letting the body tell me what I needed and listening to it and trusting it because it's been my companion for my whole life, I decided I could override what it was saying to me.

And what it meant was I became irritated. The irritation was rising not so much because this wasn't a challenge I have faced before and not been irritated about it, but because I was hungry. And moving beyond hungry to hangry. And my body was trying to say that and I wasn't listening. I was deciding I could do what I wanted to do as if the I was separate from this whole picture.

If I treated the body like a companion then I would listen to what the body had to say. I would notice for instance when I am in a stressful situation the tenseness that might appear in my shoulders or the tightness in my gut when I'm concerned about something, the way that my facial muscles might feel when I can begin to feel sad about something or angry at the clenching of the jaw, the clenching of the fist, those things give me a little signal. This body is a companion in experiencing the world in which I live. For me, all five of my senses still pretty much work. So, I mean, my eyes can see, I wear glasses, they're not quite as good, but I can see.

My ears aren't quite as good, but I can hear. I can touch and feel things with my skin. I can smell the aroma of fresh cut grass, of new flowers in the garden, of trash that needs to be taken out. And I can taste the goodness that comes to me in a variety of flavors in my life. All of those work together.

All of those senses speak to me as a companion of what it's like to experience, to be part of an ongoing world, an infinite world, and as part of it, I get to experience in my own body, in this body, what the world is like, as I am part of that same world. It's powerful. This morning we were sitting in early this afternoon actually and we were sitting in staff meeting and what should pop out from a bush near the corner staff conference room where we sit to have staff meeting today, but first a doe and right behind her her fawn. Little bright white spots, very tiny, so relatively newborn in the world, and it was just amazing to experience the ongoing power of life. It was overwhelming, and all of those experiences are part of being alive.

You know, it was so positive and overwhelming that Katie across the table from me who was looking out the window and I was looking in the opposite direction, know, had an exclamation, oh my goodness, isn't that beautiful? And it was, it was a deer and then her fawn right there, right there after her. Those experiences are allowed, are possible because of this companion that walks with us every single part of the day. In fact, without it, we don't walk. Now, not everyone in the world can do all the things.

Not all of us have the same abilities. But every single one of the senses we do have, each one of them becomes the companion and the way that we experience our lives if we're really present. If we're paying attention to this companion, it will tell us when we're starting to get annoyed, when we're starting to get tense, even when the mind is saying we can push through this, we can overcome this. I'm thirsty, you know, the body is beginning to make all of the appropriate statements to us about how thirsty we might be. You know, we get that sensation that we need to be, drinking some water, something, but we're like, no, I'm in the middle of something now.

I'm going to focus on that. The body keeps reminding us. We think we can delay things that we're in control. It's that part of that imagination we have imagining we're in control of the world in which we live, but the body helps us to experience and protects us against doing things that are harmful to us. Hydration is very important.

Eating on a regular basis is also important. Stopping and smelling the roses sometimes is important just to slow down enough and our body will tell us when we need to slow down. How many of you, how many of us, including me, you know have come to the end of a long hard day. It might have been emotionally straining, it might have been physically straining, might have been both, mentally straining and you just feel the weariness in your body and your body is the companion that is saying to you, what you need now is rest. Don't think you can go out and push beyond.

It's not about pushing beyond the boundaries. We have idolized in the modern world this idea of willpower, of being mind over matter, will over body, if you will. And that will over the body, You know, there are times when we have to push through. Somebody really needs us. We have to really get from where we are to somewhere else.

There's something that really needs to be done and we have to push through. But when we make it a habit, we stop listening to the signals that our companion, the body, gives us and we miss out on fully experiencing the life the way it is. We miss that gentle breeze that crosses our face and reminds us of spirit. We miss the sound in the morning because we're too busy clanking dishes in the kitchen. We miss the sound of the birds now that it's here in the Northern Hemisphere.

It's springtime passing from springtime almost into summertime. And as we listen outside, we hear the birds singing. And if you notice, if you listen, there are different birds with different songs, each saying their own thing, doing their own thing as they reach out. If you live anywhere near ponds or bodies of water and you're it's a spring, early spring, mid spring, even into the summertime, I have heard singing of the frogs as they're attracting a mate, calling out to each other. These are all just beautiful signs.

Our eyes can look up at the sky and in spite of the light pollution in some of the more densely populated areas, can see some of the stars and be amazed by them. Our hands can feel and touch other human beings holding hands in gentle, positive ways. There are so many ways this body is our companion, not just a tool to get us through to the next thing. So I wonder if we might be challenged as we enter this week after this Infinitely Precious podcast to treat our body as what it is, infinitely precious, unconditionally loved for the gift it is to us. If we could treat the body in the way we are meant to treat our entire selves, which includes the mind, the body, the spirit, the emotions, all of those pieces that make us who we are.

There's always that invitation. Remember friend, no matter how you treat that companion of yours, the body, that you are infinitely precious. You are unconditionally loved for the gift you already are. Thanks so much for joining me for this week's Infinitely Precious Podcast. If it's been meaningful to you I encourage you to share it with others.

You know, it's reshareable and let other people know about it if it's been helpful to you. You can always email me, jamesinfinitelyprecious dot org. Glad to receive your email and glad to talk about a topic perhaps you have for me or any other response you might have. Again, so thankful you joined me today. Until the next time.