Lately, I’ve been contemplating the cycles our bodies crave. Cycles of rest and effort, stress and recovery, hunger and satiation, energy and exhaustion, joy and grief. Cycles we so often ignore and override in our attempts to be non-human machines of productivity, efficiency, and sculpted marble.

For some of us, we are in bodies that are exploited, oppressed, traumatized, and stigmatized which means our survival may require us to ignore the needs of our body for rest and slowness in service to safety and shelter.

For others, we’ve been indoctrinated into a system of busyness and perfectionism. A system that tells us to always be trying, no pain no gain, to fear being seen as “lazy” or “useless”. We are told to do more with less, but to smile and make it look sexy. All while ignoring and overriding these fleshy, messy, wise bodies of ours.

When I think about being in right relationship with myself, with people I love, with the communities I’m in, with planet earth, I know that means honoring the cycles and rhythms of body, seasons, and moving at the speed of trust. All things that run directly counter to these stories we carry around what it takes to be successful, to be worthy, to be wanted.

We deserve to rest. We deserve to feel good. We deserve to say no. We deserve to eat things that are tasty and nourish us. We deserve to slow down, even if that means looking “lazy” or “unproductive” to others. Because these bodies of ours are tender and beautiful and so very very wise.

What would it mean to listen more closely? To allow for the ebbs and flows instead of insisting on always being the same relentless machine? What would mean, instead, to orient towards thriving, towards nourishment, towards increasing your relationship with your own humanity and the humanity of those around you?