Love Your Body

My dad made my sister and me jog when we were little, so I wasn't a stranger to running.  In fact, I recall being a freshman in high school and mentioning in passing a 5k I'd run that weekend in under 24 minutes.  An upperclassman overheard and said, "hey, that's pretty good...you should try out for cross country!"  I knew him to be a fast runner so was honored he'd say that.  I found out later the slowest runner on the team ran 21 minutes for a 3.8-miler, and a 5k is 3.1 miles so I was pretty far away from being good enough for the team.  But this upperclassman was being charitable and inclusive. 

Anyway, I remember him saying something else to me, half-jokingly but half-seriously, which was "you kind of have to hate your body a little to love cross-country."  I say half-jokingly because he meant it as a positive thing even though you could take it as a horrifying statement.  But, so many years later, I remember and can appreciate the sentiment, especially as I am now at the age where any run of any length and pace engenders the sort of pain that you learn to love only to the extent that you're willing to punish your body at least a little bit.

But, walk back that original statement for a sec.  Do you have to hate your body to love distance running?  I do think there is something about leaning into what I'll call "the good pain," which is that sweet achiness you feel when you're pounding out the miles.  It would take a monk to just tolerate the pain of running just to get the benefits of running.  Runner's high and being in shape can only take you so far, especially when you get to my age, so maybe that upperclassman was right that you have to hate your body at least a little in order to subject it to "the good pain."

But obviously that can be a pretty awful way of approaching whether and how hard to run.  It is a good thing to be able to gut through something uncomfortable for the benefits on the other side; why, much of life is about this very discipline.  And of course there is a difference between "sweet achiness" and "good pain" on the one hand, and running yourself into and through an injury on the other. 

Still, the fact remains that in order to love your body, you do have to endure some pain, and more so you have to love the pain at least a little.  There's a metaphor here for life and suffering.  Pain is often a necessary portal to progress.  And you can learn to love the pain itself, and your body in the midst of it, rather than loving the pain because you hate your body.

Body image is a fraught issue for many people, and I hope nothing I've written above is unhelpful or triggering for anyone.  The fact of the matter is, no matter what your relationship to your body, you ought to love it.  And while there is bad pain, there can also be good pain.  But it starts with the foundation of loving your body.