Rediscovering Relationships with Our Bodies: Learning to Love Our Physical Self
by: mike morse, 4/23/2021
For most of my adolescent and adult life, I’ve been impressed and intrigued by the abundant functionality of the human body. Recent estimates say the average person has 30 trillion (30,000,000,000,000) human cells in their body; shockingly, our bodies are composed of just as many, if not even more, bacteria cells than human cells, bringing our total cell count closer to 60 trillion cells (as a lower end estimate). This excessive number of cells is further complicated by the 200 unique types of cells that make up the human body (i.e. red blood cells, neurons, fat cells). Our cells even intuitively know when their life cycle is over, and they partake in a process known as apoptosis, aka programmed cell death. Beyond the mere number of cells that build up our bodies, I’ve been in awe regarding the multiplex systems that keep us alive. Not only do we have unique systems with specific functions (i.e. the digestive system, the urinary system, and the respiratory system), but these individual systems have also learned to communicate with each other (such as the neuro-muscular system interactions). While most of my educational background regarding the human body was focused on gaining specialized knowledge about the different systems, I’ve learned that it is essential to recognize and understand the interconnectedness of all the body’s systems in order to nurture and build a healthy relationship with our physical self.
When we think about the roles of our physical body, some of the most obvious answers that come to mind include digesting food/nutrients, circulating blood, or processing oxygen. We often forget to include functions such as processing and communicating sensory information, immune (self-healing) responses, or the limits our physical body provide to our mental self. As a whole, our body’s primary role is maintaining homeostasis; our body systems work together to maintain an internal balance to keep us alive. Our body knows itself better than our conscious mind does; the body has developed extensive communication mechanisms (such as the endocrine system and electrochemical neurotransmitters) to monitor and quickly react to physiological problems. Sometimes, our minds and our bodies are not in alignment with regards to their needs. For example, your body might give you signs of being hungry, but for whatever circumstance you are unable to eat at that time; your mind (similarly to the cliche mind over matter) ignores your body’s instructions to eat through conscious redirection of your thoughts. Another example would be a teenager who disregards their body’s desire for sleep and instead stays up late into the night to engage with friends online; the physical body’s need for rest is put aside for the teen’s mental drive for socializing. This begins to illustrate how psychological and social, in addition to purely biological, influences can impact the physical body.
Since modern humans live in a social world, our physical body not only represents our biological makeup, but can also reflect the social environment in which we live. It is widely accepted that social influences can impact a person’s behavior; they can also affect our physical body. As Tess and I discussed in our podcast episode ‘A Discussion on Trauma’, trauma can literally rewire our brains and bodies. The book we referenced in the episode, The Body Keeps the Score, discusses the ways in which we can heal through understanding how our mind, brain, and body hold and process trauma. Some of the biological implications of trauma include heightened cortisol (stress) responses, decreased declarative memory capacity, and overwhelmed processing abilities. In order to protect ourselves, our brains undergo a lifelong process labeled neurogenesis; brain cells are born and rewired throughout our entire lives. Although most cell development and differentiation occurs prenatally, our bodies’ abilities for later-in-life neurogenesis reflects the relationship between the physical and mental self; as we go through life experiences, our brain changes to allow for lifelong learning and healing. Our social environment also shapes the ways in which our bodies exist; societies that center physical activity and thinness as the ideal body states leave little space for the existence of bodies of different sizes or with mobility limits. I want to emphasize here the various influences that we integrate within our physical selves. We are not merely genetic translations; we are an embodiment of our experiences and environments.
Throughout most of my life, I have been on a journey to find love for my body. As a young, chubby preteen, my relationship with my body was regularly negatively impacted by messages I internalized from family, medical professionals, and media; I was led to believe I was inherently flawed due to the size of my clothes and the high number I scored on the outdated BMI (body mass index) scale. Too often, fat people in America have become the image of unhealthiness — an exemplar of what bodies are not meant to look like. This bias, named fatphobia, has had results ranging from improper medical care (leading to premature death) to discrimination in school environments, to give a few examples. Recently, there has been a movement to unlearn fatphobia and to reclaim the word ‘fat’ as a loving descriptor for our bodies, as opposed to a word intended for harm. For further reading on fatphobia, I greatly respect, and have learned a lot from, nonbinary abolitionist and organizer Da’Shaun Harrison, who speaks and writes on the intersections of race, sexuality, gender, class, religion, disabilities, and fatness. I also came across (and loved!) this article by Sherronda Brown that discusses the love, care, and support fat people deserve to experience for our bodies. Our bodies provide protection and shelter for our minds and our souls; our bodies need nourishment and unconditional love. By rebuilding a relationship of love and care with our physical selves, we can also learn to become forgiving of the ways in which we are critical towards our bodies. Rather than comparing the ways in which we are physically different from each other, we can instead nurture the body that loves and empowers us.
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