Journal January Entry 12: Body

Journal January — Day 12

Prompt: Write a letter to your body — no fixing, no criticizing. Just listening.

Dear body,

I’m writing to you without an agenda. No goals. No plans. No quiet list of things I think you should be doing differently. Just to be with you for a moment and actually listen.

You have carried me through every version of my life, even the ones I didn’t yet know how to care for you properly. You held stress I didn’t have language for. You absorbed tension I thought was normal. You learned to brace when I didn’t feel safe, and to soften when I finally did.

I see that now.

There were times I treated you like something to manage. Something to control. Something that needed to be disciplined into compliance. I mistook endurance for health and silence for strength. Through it all, you kept showing up for me anyway.

You told me things long before my mind was ready to hear them. You spoke in tight shoulders, shallow breaths, restless sleep. You asked for rest. For movement that felt kind instead of punishing. For food that nourished instead of negotiated.

I didn’t always listen.

But I’m listening now.

I notice how you respond when I choose consistency over intensity. How you relax when my days have rhythm. How you trust me more when I stop pushing and start supporting. I feel it in the way my breath deepens, the way my thoughts slow, the way presence returns.

You don’t ask for perfection. You ask for attention.

So I’m here. Paying attention. Thanking you for your patience. For your resilience. For your quiet loyalty.

I don’t need to fix you. I don’t need to reshape you. I don’t need to prove anything through you.

I just need to live in you — fully, respectfully, and with care.

I promise to keep listening.

With gratitude,
Me