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Week Five - Body of Thanks
Hello again, dear one! This week, we set the intention of practicing gratitude in a way that challenges most of us. This week, we give thanks for our body.

Stepping into this arena is a way to flex our growing gratitude muscles. For many of us, the relationship we have with our body is a difficult one. We measure ourselves upon a standard of beauty and health that isn't necessarily our own, treating it as something that needs to be tamed and re-shaped.  Re-writing our relationship with the body in healthy and loving terms begins with expressing gratitude for the extraordinary service it provides us in every single moment of our lifetime. Acceptance and gratitude for the body, as it is, are crucial steps in healing the deep emotional wounds our body has suffered.
Have you thanked your body today?
  • Breath is the body's built-in master teacher. It is the connection between body and mind, the path by which we can understand the influence of one on the other. 
  • There is extraordinary wisdom stored in the body. Our task is to learn to understand its more subtle, nuanced way of communicating. 
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  • The body is the vehicle through which all experiences are possible. 
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  • Coming to loving terms with the vessel you are means practicing gratitude for the body in both thought and in action. What does this look like for you?
 
  • We can learn from the wisdom of animals and their relationship with their bodies. Worthiness is not tied to physical image. There is great joy found through the body when it is experienced freely.
Next Steps: Turn to the Week Five Introduction on workbook page 59.
Guided Meditation - Connecting to the Wise Body
Before you start this guided meditation, take a few moments to turn to page 62 in your workbook and fill out the 'Before' section of Worksheet 28. You will need about ten minutes to listen to the audio and some time afterward for any reflections based on the experience. Remember to put away the distractions, give yourself plenty of time, and breathe!
Next Steps: Complete worksheet 28 and whenever you are ready, watch this week's 'Going Deeper' video in the section below.  As always, if this meditation resonated with you, feel free to revisit it as often as you would like.
Going Deeper
Find a time when you are not rushed to watch this 'Going Deeper' video. With equal doses of light-heartedness and powerful truth, Jules Davis Blaine invites us to establish a deeply trusting and emotional relationship with the wisdom of our body. Listen with an open heart and mind and allow the weight of the truth offered here to travel with you this week and beyond. 
Jules Davis Blaine, Kitchen Healer, on our body stories.
We forget that we have bodies. We forget that our bodies have stories that have wisdom. 

Jules Blaine Davis is a mother of two, an artist in many realms and a kitchen healer. She has been nourishing women around a table or a wood board for over a decade. Her work as a healer guides women and families to unravel their stories, let go of the old stories that do not serve and lean into living a life that is lighter, loving and deeply nourishing. Jules believes in tending to the wisdom of our bodies so we can rewrite a new body story — individually and collectively! 
Next Steps: After watching this video, turn to this week's Mini Challenge found on page 63 in the workbook. If you're in need of some uplifting words and perspectives on gratitude, keep scrolling to check out the pick-me-ups below.
Mid-Week Pick-Me-Up
Uplifting messages related directly, or indirectly, to gratitude. Just positive things.
Marta Gonzalez was a Prima Ballerina with the New York Ballet in the 60's. She now suffers from the debilitating effect of Alzheimer's. 

And yet, when she hears music deeply familiar to her, she comes to life! Deep memories are stored in the body and reside there, even when the mind no longer reigns supreme.

Wisdom resides deep in the body as well. It is a kind of wisdom utterly separate from the dictates of the mind and equally dignified.
LAKOTA PRAYER​

​Wakan Tanka, Great Mystery,
teach me how to trust
my heart,
my mind,
my intuition,
my inner knowing,
the senses of my body,
the blessings of my spirit.
Teach me to trust these things
so that I may enter my Sacred Space
and love beyond my fear,
and thus Walk in Balance
with the passing of each glorious Sun.
DEAR BODY
by Tiffany Moule

Dear body,

I'm sorry for the hurtful things I've said,
you are always there, protecting and nourishing me.
I'm sorry for all the times I judged you,
how I've always tried to change or alter you rather
than understand and respect you.
I'm sorry for punishing you even though all you wanted was to be fed and healthy.
Dear body, thank you for loving me even when I
didn't love you back.
I promise that from today on, I will listen and act
with love, and nourish you because I love 
and respect you.
Dear body, thank you.
Guided Meditation - Sunday Night Release and Re-Center
Before you start this guided meditation, take a few moments to turn to page 67 in your workbook and fill out the 'Before' section of Worksheet 30. You will need about ten minutes to listen to the audio and some time afterward for any reflections based on the experience. Remember to put away the distractions, give yourself plenty of time, and breathe!
Next Steps: Complete Worksheet 30 and sometime between now and the start of your next week, turn to the end-of-the-week reflections in Worksheet 31 found on page 68 in your workbook. If this meditation resonated with you, feel free to revisit it as often as you would like. ​​