body image

Looking Fit

What does a fit person look like?

You. A fit person looks like you. Because what you look like and what you can do are two separate things.

Consider a friend, perhaps one who is the same age as you—what’s something you can both do? Maybe together you’ve run a local race, or moved one of you into a new apartment, or snowshoed to a backcountry cabin. We’ve established that you’re both fit to do this. But do you look the same?

You can look different than the person next to you and yet be fit for the same activities. There’s more than one form possible for each function.

What I looked like at 20 is different from how I look at 40 and will be different from how I’ll look at 60 or 80. In all cases, my body was/is/will be able (I hope) to go for a hike, push furniture around, and lift the Thanksgiving turkey-for-twelve out of the oven. Four different looks, but capable of the same functions.

Now, not only is there more than one form possible that is fit for a function, there are also many functions—activities, sports, general life requirements. (And thank goodness for that, because it’s what makes life interesting.) Think of all the things you’re capable of doing, right now, in the body you inhabit. Maybe you take care of other people, or cart around pea gravel, or travel, or play hockey, or you are growing a human—while also doing all the other things!

If you’re doing it, you’re fit for it, which means a fit person looks like you.

Of course, it may be that you look different from your friend and you are each capable of different things. That’s good news. A diversified skill set is what will carry your team through to the next round. You need those people, and they need you.

We are fit for many things, and we look only like ourselves.

First published July 31, 2019, Instagram (@shanajstone) and Facebook.

Your Now Body

Before and after are realms for the mind. For the body, there is only now.

You don’t exist in the before. Yes, you were alive yesterday, and fifteen years ago, and every day from the day you were born, all of which are part of the past. But each of those moments had its own now, and your bodily experience of those moments happened as now moments. The mind can return to them in memory, but your body cannot. Your body is physically anchored here, today, now.

You also don’t exist in the after. How can you? It hasn’t happened yet. You might be striving for something, working towards a future state of physical being or competence, sure. It will be exciting to get there. But though your mind can imagine it and plan for it, execution happens in the now. Here today, you can’t do tomorrow’s training or next week’s recovery. Your mind can plot ahead, but your body remains here. Now.

Perhaps you have a moment in time that your mind holds close, a time when you thought/think your body was/will be optimal in some way. This time could be a few years ago, or in your future. You may think of this as your used-to-be body or your after-body. It may represent what you perceive to be a source of happiness.

I get it—this image of your body that your mind has latched onto may have been/may be the result of a lot of hard work (or youth, or genetics, or circumstance). But the problem with a used-to-be body or an after-body that you’ve put on a pedestal is any day that comes after that fixed moment. The problem is the near certainty of change, which is the hallmark of passing time.

When we hold on tight to a particular image of ourselves, one from our past, we create a hostile environment for our current body. In this environment, who we are now is no longer enough. And when we idolize a particular self-image that hasn’t yet come into being, anything short of that image—in other words, who we are now—isn’t yet worthy.

Since it’s not possible to live physically in the past or the future, the present moment is everything we have. We are always in it. Your body, even as it changes over time, will always be your now body.

So what would happen if we chose to appreciate our bodies today? If you see your body as a source of happiness, whether from how it looks or how it functions, appreciating your body now opens a path to that feeling that you can access every damn day.

Your now body is right here, right now, waiting for you.

First published July 24, 2019, Instagram (@shanajstone) and Facebook.