Why do you eat what you eat? This question crosses my mind often… especially as I find myself wandering into the kitchen, pulling out the almond butter and snacking straight from jar. :) Why is it I’m drawn, conscious or not, to certain foods, even when I know they aren’t the best choice? My contemplations have uncovered the top 4 reasons or motivating factors behind our choices of what to eat. Ready for the count down… drum roll please…..
1. Our taste buds are like trained little umpa lumpas. Deeply conditioned and lovers of habit. As routine as the thoughts that we habitually identify ourselves with, our taste buds, if given the chance are just as predictable.
2. To look good. Let’s face it, particularly for women our desire to been seen as beautiful definitely has some weight in our food choices.
3. Health. Many people are becoming more in tuned with health, more aware of food allergies and sensitivities and are choosing to eat foods that promote physical wellness.
4. Balance. Our bodies naturally crave foods in attempt to balance out our energetics. Because of this natural inclination it is important to listen to our bodies, but it’s only as effective as our ability to discern our wholesome cravings from our self sabotaging ones.
Does something seem wrong to you about this list? At first glance it seems right on, like these are valid reasons and certainly relatable truths as to why we eat what we eat, but they seem to lack depth don’t you think? I mean, from a relative perspective it makes sense that we are creatures of habit, that we’re addicted to our own self image and health. But really, where are those concerns going to take us? The same place they’ve been taking us for the past several decades, nowhere! I mean not really. Sure we’ve come a long way in understanding how food affects our body, and while there will always be more to learn in that department, how does it really help us take the next quantum leap in our development? Where our attention is, is where we end up going. When we focus on the bio-medical, health and self conscious, habitual way of eating, our attention is looking inward to our seemingly never ending microscopic functioning’s of ourselves and life. But if we never take the time to direct our attention the other way, outward to those around us, to our city, our country, the world and even to the interior and exterior of the Kosmos, then what good is knowing the minute functions of the body really going to do us?
So, consider this. What if the top reason for eating was Sensitivity? By sensitivity I don’t mean food allergies, I mean eating for the purpose of increasing our perception. For raising our capacity for deeper levels of awareness. What if we choose to eat for Spirit, for consciousness, for the purpose of increasing our ability to Give and be present? Don’t you think that would flip everything around? Our attention would be simultaneously looking inward and outward. Inward because we would be more conscious about the foods that we did choose to eat, knowing how they would affect us physically, psychologically, emotionally, energetically, and spiritually. We would choose to eat them because we would intuit the need for them, and know that their virtues would become one with our virtues.
I know this sounds abstract at first. But I urge you to give it some thought, and not only that, try it out, after all we are talking about food! Set a goal for a week of Sensitive eating. Increase your live foods such as sauerkraut, or other cultured veggies, and raw or lightly cooked veggies. Consciously leave out foods that are heavy and harder to digest, like sugary foods, animal products and dairy. Choose foods because they look and feel energetically vibrant to you. Pay attention to what you eat and how it influences you. And remember, it isn’t about reaching a specific end as much as it is about the process itself. The motive for eating Sensitively is pure. While the goal is to increase our capacity for consciousness, it isn’t a goal that can never be reached as an end point. Rather it becomes actualized in the moment, and every moment, that we make the conscious choice to eat in this way.
Striving for a more wholesome relationship to food and life is not something we have to do alone. In fact we’ve found it to be much more profound when people with these shared intentions come together, which is exactly what the Eating for Evolution community is dedicated to. We hope to see you there!
Eyes on the horizon,
Amber
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