How to Accept Your Body and Show it Gratitude

<p>It's Thanksgiving week here in the US, and that always brings up the topic of gratitude.  Last season at this time, I did an episode called <a href= "https://www.drkimdaniels.com/podcast/43">"Giving Thanks for Two Things We Love to Hate"</a> (the two things being our body and our emotional eating behaviors), and this season I'm doing something similar.  But this time, I'm just focusing on giving thanks to your body.</p> <p>Since most of us tend to be at least mildly critical of our bodies, I think there's always a need for talking about showing them gratitude.  My guess is, even if you listened to last year's podcast and dozens of others just like it, you didn't do a complete 180 on how you feel about your body (but if you did, woo-hoo!).  </p> <p>The feelings and beliefs our parts carry about our bodies <em>run deep</em>.  And since we've all grown-up with a barrage of messages teaching us to hate our bodies, I think we need a barrage of messages teaching us how to accept them.  </p> <p>And part of acceptance is gratitude.</p> <p>Since I like to try to sound intelligent, I googled the word gratitude so that I could quote the exact meaning.  Here it is:  "the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness." </p> <p>I have to say, I didn't think that the Oxford dictionary would include the word kindness when it defined gratitude, but I love that it did.  So in addition to showing your body acceptance and gratitude, let's add kindness in there too.  </p> <p>It sounds so simple doesn't it?  Maybe it can be.</p> <p>On this week's podcast, we're talking about how to show your body gratitude. And that doesn't mean standing in front of the mirror and saying things that you know you're <em>supposed</em> to say to yourself but that you don't mean.  There's nothing about that that's helpful.  </p> <p>Instead, we're talking about how to truly show your body some gratitude.  And we're checking in with our parts while we're doing it.</p> <p>All bodies deserve respect, gratitude, accept