The Body Warrior Pledge

Since I don’t have A Body Warrior to Meet for the week (want to be a Body Warrior?), we’ll all have to be today’s Body Warrior(s)! Below I’ve started a Body Warrior pledge, and I want you to sign it—and offer any of your own mantras. You can sign off on it by hitting the comment bar and adding your name (feel free to sign off with your web-name, too). If you have any mantras you want to add to the pledge, just put it your comment box with your signed name.  On March 3, I’ll enter each pledge participant’s name into a drawing for an autographed copy of Hijas (for you or someone you love). Feel free to send the pledge on to your loved ones!     

The Body Warrior Pledge

Because I understand that my love and respect for my body are metaphors of my love and respect for my self and soul, I pledge to do the following:

To stop berating my body and to begin celebrating the vessel that I have been given.  I will remember the amazing things my body has given me: the ability to experience the world with a breadth of senses, the ability to perceive and express love, the ability to comfort and soothe, and the ability to fight, provide, and care for humanity. 

To understand that my body is an opportunity not a scapegoat. 

To be the primary source of my confidence.  I will not rely on or wait for others to define my worth.

To let envy dissipate and allow admiration to be a source of compassion by offering compliments to others.

To gently but firmly stand up for myself when someone says to me (or I say to myself) something harmful.        

To change the inner-monologue in my head to one that sees possibility not problems, potential not shortcomings, blessings not imperfections. 

To give my body the things that it needs to do its work well:  plenty of water, ample movement, stretches, rest, and good nutrition, and to limit or eliminate the things that do not nurture my body.   

To see exercise as a way to improve my internal health and strength instead of a way to fight or control my body. 

To understand that my weight is not good or bad.  It is just a number, and I am only good.   

To love my body and my self today.  I do not have to weigh ten pounds less, have longer hair, or to have my degree in my hand to have worth.  I have worth just as I am, and I embrace that power. 

To recognize my body’s strengths.     

To no longer put off the things that I wish to experience because I am waiting to do them in a different body.

 To understand that a body, just like a personality, is like a fingerprint: a wonderful embodiment of my uniqueness.