Some weeks, loving your body doesn’t look like kale smoothies or a gym membership. Sometimes it looks like a pause.
At the beginning of this year, I took a sabbatical. I stepped down from all the boards I was serving on. For the first time in years, I chose rest before crisis. It was a radical choice for me — personal, political, ancestral. Because for so many of us, rest is resistance.
This week, I centered loving-kindness for my body by leaning into ritual. An “everything shower” that became an at-home spa day. I brought my senses back to life: eucalyptus sprays, exfoliation, oils, waxes. By the time I dusted powder on my skin and misted perfume, I felt reset. Ready for whatever the world might bring next.
Science tells us self-compassion shifts how we feel about ourselves. But I didn’t learn this from a study. I learned it from watching the women in my family.
I remember my mom getting ready — hours spent at her vanity, the scents of Clinique Aromatics or Chanel No. 5 drifting through the hallway, jewelry that always sparkled. My grandmother with her Oil of Olay cream and the rhythmic sound of her sewing machine pedal. Beauty, for them, wasn’t frivolous. It was art. Expression. Sacred ritual.
That legacy taught me to see my body not as a project to be fixed but as a canvas to honor. Even at my heaviest weight — after gaining and losing 100 pounds twice — I can still choose kindness toward the body I have today.
This week reminded me: when I treat myself with compassion, I have more to offer others. Loving-kindness isn’t selfish. It spills over. It sustains everyone it touches.
Next week’s card is Signs of Aging. Natural timing, after spending a week remembering how to love the body I’m in.
🔗 Watch how this played out in real time on TikTok, original entry July 28th:
👉 Mindfulness in the Middle Series
These are practices I use in my own life. They're not therapy or medical advice. If you're in crisis, call or text 988.