We are often very harsh on our own bodies.
You complain that it's not thin enough, not pretty enough, not young enough. You complain that it aches and hurts here and there, and isn't obedient enough. When it's tired, you force it to keep going; when it hurts, you blame it for being weak; when you look in the mirror, you nitpick every imperfection.
We may be very tolerant of others, but we are often like a harsh boss to our own bodies, with only demands and dissatisfaction, and very little gratitude and tenderness.
But have you ever thought that this body has actually been silently and faithfully accompanying you through life until now?
We've been fighting our bodies.
To be honest, many people's relationship with their bodies is actually one of conflict.
We ignore it. It signals fatigue, and we press it down with coffee and keep brewing. It complains of sourness and pain, and we get annoyed, taking a painkiller to shut it up. It needs rest, but we think stopping is a waste of time.
We criticize it. Standing in front of the mirror, what we often see is not "this body has taken me through so much", but rather "why is my stomach like this, why is my posture so bad, why am I getting old again".
We push it. When exercising, we feel we have to push ourselves to the limit, and we feel that if we don't feel pain or fatigue, we haven't tried hard enough. It's as if the body is something that needs to be conquered and whipped into action.
In such a relationship, the body becomes an object of our constant demands and dissatisfaction, yet we rarely truly listen. And what happens to the body that lives under this treatment for a long time? It becomes increasingly tense, increasingly silent, and increasingly like a stranger who has grown distant from us.
Your body is always giving back to you.
Stop and think about how much this body has done for you.
It allows you to get up in the morning, walk, and hug your loved ones. It allows you to taste food, hear your favorite music, and see the light outside your window. It works hard to repair when you stay up late, fights back when you're sick, and maintains your heartbeat, breathing, digestion, and all those other things that sustain your life without you even noticing.
It never goes on strike. Even if you dislike it, ignore it, or pressure it, it still does its best to support you and carry you through each day.
Those aches, pains, and weariness aren't actually the body working against you. They're its way of speaking, its cry for help, its only way of telling you: I need your attention, I need to be treated well.
But often, we either can't hear it, or we don't want to hear it.
Chanrou is a practice of reconciling with the body.
This is what makes Chanrou so different. From beginning to end, it demonstrates a gentle way of treating the body.
It listens, it doesn't command.
Chanrou doesn't tell your body "to a certain extent." It starts from your current state, asks you what you feel, and respects your body's condition today. It teaches you to listen to your body's signals, instead of suppressing or ignoring them. This process of listening is itself a long-lost form of gentleness.
It doesn't force, but invites.
Chanrou doesn't conquer the body through pain and drills. It uses gentle, flowing movements to invite the body to slowly open and change. It believes that the body doesn't need to be forced to improve; it needs to be understood and treated kindly.
It makes you feel again, rather than criticize.
In Chanrou, your relationship with your body changes from "criticizing it with your eyes" to "understanding it with your feelings." You begin to feel how your breath flows, how your spine extends, and the comfort of letting go in certain areas. This feeling replaces the criticism in front of the mirror. You no longer just judge your body's appearance, but re-enter your body and feel its presence.
It makes you grateful again.
When you rediscover your body's power through gentle touch, feeling how coordinated, powerful, and beautifully it can move, a sense of gratitude will slowly arise. You will begin to appreciate your body, rather than simply criticizing it.
Treating your body gently will change more than just your physical body.
When you start treating your body gently, something deeper will happen.
Your relationship with yourself has also changed.
Because the body is not something separate from "you." It is you. How you treat your body is, in a sense, how you treat yourself.
A person who constantly dislikes, pressures, and neglects their own body is often internally harsh, dissatisfied, and fierce towards themselves. But when you learn to treat your body gently, listen to it, treat it kindly, and thank it, that gentleness will slowly flow back into your inner self, allowing you to be more considerate, accepting, and kind to yourself.
Treating your body gently is actually a practice of treating yourself gently. And this practice will permeate every aspect of your interactions with yourself.
Starting today, be kinder to it.
You don't need to wait until a certain day to start taking good care of your body.
You can start with small things. When you're tired, allow yourself to rest instead of pushing yourself. When you feel soreness, listen to it as a message from your body instead of trying to suppress it in frustration. When you look in the mirror, try to see everything your body has taken you through, not just its imperfections. When you move, treat it kindly, not torment it.
This body will accompany you throughout your life. It is the only thing you truly possess, and the only thing you can never return.
How you treat it determines the kind of relationship you will have and live together for the next few decades.
