So many of us today are conditioned to think that our bodies need to look a certain way. We accept societal standards about body image and start hammering away at ourselves. We adopt restrictive diets and intense exercise regimes that often lead to injury and emotional isolation. Why are we so hard on ourselves?

Do we punish ourselves for merely being alive? And what if the need for punishment was an illusion? WE ARE NOT GUILTY. Not guilty for taking up space on this planet. Not guilty for having eaten that box of chocolate. And not guilty for whatever it is we are trying to silence by pushing that chocolate down our throats in the first place. Not guilty, regardless of our seemingly damaged sense of self.

If you are reading this and thoughts of aggression arise toward those who have seemingly damaged you, breathe, THEY ARE NOT GUILTY EITHER. Nothing and no one is. It is impossible to make a permanent mistake in an impermanent world. Eternal condemnation is out of the question. The decision to experience suffering is made in the mind, the mind alone.

… The ego believes that by punishing itself it will mitigate the punishment of God. Yet even in this it is arrogant. It attributes to God a punishing intent, and then takes this intent as its own prerogative.

A Course in Miracles

Is it possible that our suffering, be it labeled as obesity, heart condition, depression, or squeaky knees, is not a physical process, but a mental one? And if in our mind we accepted our own innocence and released the need for punishment, what would there be left?

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