{"id":3449,"date":"2025-08-26T11:01:57","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T08:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.graceful.co.ke\/?p=3449"},"modified":"2025-08-26T11:01:57","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T08:01:57","slug":"my-body-has-always-been-on-my-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.graceful.co.ke\/?p=3449","title":{"rendered":"My Body Has Always Been on My Side"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There was a time I believed my body was the problem. Too big. Too soft. Too different from what I was told it <em>should<\/em> be. I treated it like something to fix, to battle, to hide. But when I really started listening\u2014when I stopped trying to punish it into submission\u2014I saw something else. I saw a body that never gave up on me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through every heartbreak, it kept breathing. Through sleepless nights and long, aching days, it carried me. It learned how to survive grief, adapt to stress, recover from illness, even when I gave it nothing but criticism. Every stretch mark, every roll, every scar\u2014these weren\u2019t signs of failure. They were reminders of how hard my body has worked to protect me, to heal, to keep going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This body has been my companion in every memory\u2014walking into new beginnings, holding children close, dancing in my kitchen, crying on bathroom floors. It\u2019s never been the enemy. It\u2019s been the vessel of my becoming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So I\u2019ve stopped asking it to shrink. I\u2019ve stopped demanding it look like someone else\u2019s idea of worth. I honour it now. Feed it. Rest it. Move it not to punish, but to celebrate. I thank it, out loud, for sticking with me when I didn\u2019t know how to be kind to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This body is mine. Not a project. Not a problem. An ally. Always.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There was a time I believed my body was the problem. Too big. Too soft. Too different from what I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5,6,2,7,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-home-in-my-body","category-coming-back-to-myself","category-life-and-livelihood","category-love-redefined","category-notes-from-life","category-raising-humans","category-the-quiet-bloom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.graceful.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.graceful.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.graceful.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.graceful.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.graceful.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.graceful.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3449\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.graceful.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.graceful.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.graceful.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}