Part IV · The Everyday Crown
CHAPTER 17Your Body Deserves Respect
Body image · Movement · Rest · Aging with dignity
Your body has carried you through everything on your list. It has been through work, maybe childbirth, illness, grief, and years of getting up when it did not want to. Talk to it like it is on your team, because it is.
Respect looks like sleep, water, movement you can sustain, food that actually feeds you, and check-ups with people qualified to advise you. Nothing here is medical advice — for your health questions, ask your own clinician.
Keep these
- “Your body is not a project to fix. It is a home to maintain.”
- “Movement you enjoy beats a plan you dread.”
- “Aging is the reward, not the failure.”
Practical steps
- Walk ten minutes a day and let that count.
- Pick one meal to make consistently nourishing rather than overhauling everything.
- Keep the appointment. Ask the question you're embarrassed to ask.
- Get rid of the clothes that exist to punish you.
Crown Work
Crown Work — Your Body Deserves Respect
Ten prompts, written for this chapter. Write by hand if you can — the slower pace tends to tell the truth faster.
- 01
What I Realized
What has your body done for you that you have never thanked it for?
- 02
What I Need to Release
Whose voice is in your head when you criticize your appearance?
- 03
What I Need to Protect
What part of your health needs guarding this season?
- 04
What I Want
How do you want to feel in your body six months from now?
- 05
What I Am Afraid Of
What are you afraid of about getting older?
- 06
What I Can Control
Name three physical habits fully within your control.
- 07
One Conversation I Need to Have
What health conversation do you need to have with a professional?
- 08
One Boundary I Need to Set
What comment about your body will you no longer accept from anyone?
- 09
One Thing I Will Do for Myself
Do one kind physical thing today: water, a nap, a stretch, a walk.
- 10
My Crown Commitment
Finish this: I will speak about my body as…