Who told you you were naked?

"Who told you you were naked?"

So, there's this line in the bible where God asks the humans "who told you you were naked?"

If you know the story, they'd just listened to the snake & eaten the fruit they shouldn't have. And in that moment, they hid & realised they were naked and all of a sudden being naked was now shameful. They'd always been naked before this. But the only time they felt shame was when someone or something (in this case the snake) TOLD them to be ashamed of who they were.

What has this got to do with anything?

Well, have you ever wondered how we became ashamed of normal things? Things like cellulite and grey hairs and fat and farts. How we got to the point where going about our lives in our bodies means we carry shame and guilt about HOW we happen to exist on this planet in this moment in time.

Here's my current thought.

Someone tells us!

Someone tells us to be ashamed or guilty and in most cases, the 'someone' makes money off it in some way.

And we, the unexpecting humans, are suddenly burdened with an "issue" that never existed before but it's now our problem to "fix".

What if we were never told cellulite was bad or that aging was awful, or that we should be on a strict diet always? What if we were never told that our value was in the shape or look of our body? What if we weren't told that our worthiness was based on our productivity or being perfect.

What if we weren't told that we needed fixing and were allowed to just live?

I imagine, there would be a whole lot more space in our lives to adopt practices that truly serve us. We could discover who our truest, most aligned selves were. We could adopt behaviours like moving and eating and thinking in ways that actually contribute to our health as a whole person. And maybe our version of health & bodies & living & feeling well would be expansive and kind.

The beautiful thing is, I believe we can get there, it might be a daily practice for sure, but maybe it could start with just one question - who told me I was naked?

Just a thought.

*Thought inspired by Erwin McManus Book, The Artisan Soul.

Ps. Cellulite only became an "issue" when someone marketed it that way.