How to Care for Your Body (Ep. 8)

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For the first 18 years of your life, your parents were responsible for ensuring that you had adequate food, clothes and shelter. Once you reach adulthood, it’s you, not your parents, who hold this responsibility. But unless we’ve been show how to perform acts of self-care, and why we need to, they often elude us. In this episode, we endeavour to remedy this gap:

• We have a duty to care for our physical bodies, as the stewards of our own lives. We should treat ourselves with at least the same level of care and compassion as we would a pet.
• Exercise is a fundamental human need, like sleep, food and water. Lack of exercise always leads to poor health outcomes over time.
• Our minds and bodies are interconnected, and our mental attitudes affect our physical healing and well-being. Self-compassion is important when recovering from any kind of illness or injury.
• Aging is natural and inevitable. We can age gracefully by focusing on cultivating inner qualities and continuing to care for our physical needs appropriately for our stage of life.
• Maladaptive behaviors may be attempts to meet needs in unhealthy ways. With self-care and self-love, we can update our approaches over time.
• Life persists through adaptation. We can find ways to live fully even with physical challenges or disability.
• While professionals can help with diagnosis and treatment, we are responsible for our own pursuit of health and happiness on a daily basis.
• Self-care requires both knowledge of what to do and intrinsic motivation from self-love. Without the love factor, knowledge does not translate into action.
• Whether or not it happens, we should plan to live into our 80s and beyond to consider both short and long-term impacts.
• Balance is key. We can take chances while young to avoid regrets later, while also caring for ongoing health through daily habits.

00:00 – Introduction
01:06 – Why bother with self-care?
05:30 – Create the right conditions for your body’s healing and growth
10:06 – Give yourself enough, but not too much of what you need (quality over quantity)
12:37 – Your needs are not luxuries
13:29 – Healing is inevitable
17:41 – Care for your sick or injured body as you would another’s
20:07 – Accept your aging gracefully
26:22 – You should outsource diagnosis and treatment, but you can’t outsource a focus on living a happy life
29:49 – Plan to live 80+ years
35:04 – Outro

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