Probably the number one issue among all those my patients
\nhave when they first come to see me is something involving
\nfood: allergies with physical and\/or mental symptoms,
\nreflux, digestion and absorption problems, elimination
\nproblems, weight problems, autoimmune disease secondary to
\nfood reactions.<\/p>\n
It seems that in the USA we have a national obsession, not
\nmuch different from Wallace Wattles’ over 100 years ago,
\nabout what’s wrong with the way we or other people eat. <\/p>\n
All the medical and scientific “shoulds” about food seem
\nso much at odds with what we feel tempted to eat, that
\nmost of us seem to live with quite a bit of mental
\nconflict.<\/p>\n
How can we trust any sort of inner spiritual guidance
\nabout food when we can’t feel the difference between a
\ncraving and an inspiration, and can’t set aside all our
\nmodern education about how we should eat?<\/p>\n
It occurs to me that most of the stress about food is
\nbased on the rarely questioned assumption that what
\nmatters most to your health lies in the physical realm.<\/p>\n
With this assumption, the purpose of being spiritually
\nguided would be to know what to DO in the physical realm.<\/p>\n
Let’s take a moment and view the question of “what should
\nI eat?” from the perspective that what’s best for your
\nhealth is what feels the least stressful.<\/p>\n
To me, the very question of “What should I eat?” is often
\nstressful, because the apparent answer is both unclear and
\nso often at odds with my desires.<\/p>\n
Let’s try this question of what’s less stressful: <\/p>\n
the belief that 99% of your health is a result of your
\nhappiness and only 1% the result of your actions, <\/p>\n
or… <\/p>\n
the belief that 99% of your health is the result of
\nyour actions, and only 1% is the result of your happiness.<\/p>\n
Hmmmm.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, it’s easier to eat my vegetables than to feel
\nhappy, and I want to believe that my vegetables are
\nenough–which then makes me feel better. I can use my love
\nof vegetables and eating them to feel happy after all–
\nbecause I believe I’m doing what’s best for my health.<\/p>\n
But then, what if there aren’t any vegetables around? Or,
\nthe ones available aren’t organic, or aren’t the ones I
\nlike? Then that belief about the importance of my actions
\nmakes me unhappy and stressed.<\/p>\n
If, on the other hand, I believe that my mood is
\nexponentially more important than my actions in creating
\nhealth, then I have much less need to control my
\ncircumstances. I can use any means to feel better, not
\nlimited to vegetables.<\/p>\n
Then, the goal isn’t eating vegetables for health. It’s
\nfeeling happy for health.<\/p>\n
This brings us to the questionable goal of being healthy.<\/p>\n
If I believe my health is my responsibility and the marker
\nof my success, I feel stressed. After all, I can’t control
\nmost things about my body, and there’s a 100% chance that
\nI will sooner or later leave it behind. In the process, my
\nheart will stop beating, and all my body functions except
\ndisintegration and deterioration will also cease. <\/p>\n
In the medical world, the term applied to each organ in
\nthis process is “failure.” “Death” is also usually viewed
\nas failure by the doctors, hospital, and patient.<\/p>\n
Hmmmm.<\/p>\n
If, on the other hand, I believe my health is the side
\neffect of my happiness, and my happiness is the side
\neffect of my choice of what thoughts, beliefs, and stories
\nI pay attention to and practice, then I relax.<\/p>\n
It’s okay if I don’t seem healthy right now, because
\nhealth is not my job. My job is to tend to my attention.
\nI can’t “make” myself feel happy when I’m not. But I CAN
\nturn my attention to the thoughts, beliefs, and stories I
\nchoose, and experience the resulting happiness.<\/p>\n
Now, where were we about food?<\/p>\n
Not the primary question any more, is it?<\/p>\n
But then, most of us do need to eat, so how do we decide?<\/p>\n
What I’ve found is that when I wait until I’m feeling
\nreally joyful to think about food, I can feel what sorts
\nof things support my body’s feeling of peace, contentment,
\nand satisfaction. Then I can use that knowledge to reduce
\nthe anxiety of decision-making when I don’t feel so joyful
\nand I forget the real take home point:<\/p>\n
Relax! Enjoy your precious life!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Probably the number one issue among all those my patients have when they first come to see me is something involving food: allergies with physical and\/or mental symptoms, reflux, digestion and absorption problems, elimination problems, weight problems, autoimmune disease secondary to food reactions. It seems that in the USA we have a national obsession, not… Continue reading Food Freedom<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,3],"tags":[26,47,20,4,5,29],"class_list":["post-1087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","category-health-healing","tag-eating","tag-food","tag-happiness","tag-healthy","tag-life","tag-peace","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1087"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1088,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087\/revisions\/1088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/happyhealthsystem.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}