Is It Vanity to Care About Your Body? Faith and Fitness

If you feel guilty for wanting a better body, if you feel a little bad about your “vanity,” this one's for you. Let's talk about it.

You're a soul. A spark of divine creation, living in a temple, and that temple is your body. It was given to you for this lifetime. How lucky are you to get one of those?

Taking care of what you were given is not a sin. Ruining it is.

Your body is a gift

Think about it. You could have been a tree, stuck in one spot for hundreds of years, swatting at the neighbour you can't stand every time the breeze goes by. You could have been a squirrel, spending your whole day on “where are my nuts?” Instead you got a body. You're a human. That's starting off pretty strong.

Stewarding the gift

For me, faith means I'm one with God. Not taking His place: I just understand my power and co-creation. And when you understand your power, you see that you're stewarding something. You've been given a gift by God. There's nothing wrong with caring for it.

You've been given a space to live, nature, your body, the people around you. Look at it like that. If you're grateful for something and you love it, you take care of it.

When people project

Some people have these misconstrued ideas, and they project them onto you. Let them. It's like a toddler throwing up everywhere: you're not going to shove it back in. You just step away, because that energy is hard to be around and we don't want it near us. If they don't see it the same way, that's fine. There's nothing you can do to fix that for them.

Caring is not a sin

Let's put it in perspective. You're not out harming anyone. All you want is to take care of something you were given, and you want it to look nice. That is not a sin.

The sin is ruining it. The sin is disregarding it. The sin is not being grateful. So walk in gratitude for the body you get to live in.

Look at your beliefs

It's worth taking a minute to journal and figure out what actually comes up for you when you want a better body. For me, this goes back to belief work and ThetaHealing. There are levels where you hit a glass ceiling, and you can't get past it until you look at what's underneath.

Most of us can think of a few times we felt the judgment, the shame, the criticism, and where it came from. Think back to your childhood. And it's not only your own story: you live on a planet with everyone else's energy, and some of it comes in too. You don't have to let it take over your day. You just have to be honest that it's there.

Three stages of healing

I think of it in three stages. First: you don't notice, so you don't care. Second: you notice, and you care. Third: you notice, you care, with love, and it doesn't bother you.

That middle stage is the uncomfortable one. It's where you start to own all of it, and it's also the part that does the healing. You can pull a sheet over your head and say “not me, not today.” That's your choice. But if you want a great life, the one you want is on the other side of that discomfort. Not with the people who stay stuck.

I was totally stuck in some areas. In some parts of my life, I still am. That's part of it. But I don't have to stay where I am, I don't have to pretend I like things I don't, and I don't have to be ungrateful to move forward.

Many truths at once

When you get to that third stage, you'll have to hold a lot of truths at the same time. You'll need octopus arms. Picture a room with a bed, blankets, a nightstand with plants on it, an LED light, books in every colour, and someone with pink nails sitting in the middle of it. All of that is true at once. Is there a lot going on? Yes.

A lot of us were raised to see everything in black and white. It's not. There are colours everywhere. There's chaos. Welcome to life. When you stop slicing off the one piece you agree with and ignoring the rest, you stay connected to what actually matters.

So, is it vanity?

Here's the point, and it wasn't really a tangent: once you can hold all those truths, you can take care of yourself, love yourself, love other people, be pretty, have taste, have style. None of that disrespects anyone. None of it is aimed at anyone. It's all for you. People make it about them because, in black and white, everything is about them.

So no, you're not being vain. You're taking care of yourself. You're stewarding what you have. You're talking to God.

No, you're not being vain. You're stewarding what you were given.

Steward your words too

It's not just about being pretty. It all matters. Your energy matters. Your heart matters. Your tongue and your mind are to be stewarded too.

And when someone comes at you with judgment about your vanity? They're pointing at the mud on your hands while tracking mud everywhere with their shoes. Just because it's on a different part doesn't make one right and one wrong.

What the real sin is

Taking care of the things God gave you is not a sin. Not taking care of them, and listening to people who want you to neglect yours the way they neglect theirs: that's the real sin. Let's get our heads on straight and move in the right direction. Let's go.

Want more on faith and training? Start with Faith and Fitness: When Your Workouts Feel Lukewarm.