In studying how the body has been viewed over time, the following quote shocked me to attention:
“I am almost sitting on my body as if I were a horseman riding on a horse. I beat it or praise it, I feed and clean and nurse it when necessary. I urge it on without consulting it and I hold it back against its will. When my body-horse is well-behaved I generally ignore it, but when it gets unruly—which is all too often—I pull out the whip to beat it back into reasonable submission. … I no longer approach the world with my body but on my body. … My consciousness is almost exclusively head consciousness—I am head, but I own my body. The body is reduced from self to property, something which is ‘mine’ but not ‘me’. (by Ken Wilber in Watson, 1999, p134)
This quote makes clear the view of the body as a material object. It’s a brutal portrayal, but not far from the truth when considering how nurses keep pushing through pain without self-care of the body or the mind.
Clearly this philosophy and attitude towards the body has implications in caring for patients and their bodies.
But for today, Just Think about How You See and Treat Your Body ….
Do you treat your Body as a Horse?
Or
Do you treat your Body as a Temple?
Watson J. Postmodern Nursing and Beyond. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone; 1999.