Health & Fitness | Body & Torah

Many of us deal with undesevered guilt/shame when we are good to ourselves. We may do the basics re hygeine and cleanliness, even look fit, stay fit but there is more to care for our body, mind, and soul.
Hashem wants us to care for ourselves. A gift for me was when i was told the best prayer re our lives, health is when we pray for ourselves. i had been taught otherwise, and felt guilty or selfish if i prayed for myself. So if you deal with some of these issues, i hope what i wrote and the text from Sefaria helps.

פרשת מסעי, In this portion the Torah discusses matters that help perfect one's body. The body viewed as the sheath of the soul, has also been created in the image of G'd (Genesis 1,27). This is why if someone kills another creature created in G'd's image he himself will be killed as an appropriate act of retribution. By his deed he has separated a soul from its body, (sheath), hence his own soul will be separated from its body
From Sefaria

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Body Image by Rabbi Marina Yergin

RABBI ELYSE GOLDSTEIN [Author, director of Kollel- The Adult Centre for Liberal Jewish Learning, Toronto, ON]... Shmirat HaGuf - taking care of your body - is viewed as a spiritual as well as a physical act. The wellbeing of the body has to be maintained as the vessel of the soul, the repository of that which most closely connects us with God. Our body is a gift from God, a divine creation which is to be respected, cherished and cared for as long as we are in this world. With awareness of Shmirat HaGuf, even the simplest activities, such as eating, walking, or washing one’s hands, become acts of holiness.