Alex Grey

How far from perfect are we willing to move?  How far from this moment are we willing to wander?  What is it that we are seeking?  Will we ever find it, and if not, is it worth risking everything we have in order to search for it?  

Questions like these have been slipping past my minds barricade, stealing the focus of my attention the past few weeks.  It all started at a meditation retreat I attended the beginning of June, where 20 others or so and I came together to explore meditation in an evolutionary context.  While the entire experience was completely fascinating, one of the biggest gems I derived from it was realizing how far from perfect I wander.   I shared with the group my experience of being in complete bliss.  I was paying complete attention and yet had no relationship to my thoughts or feelings. That is until the thought that “I must not be doing it right” breezed in.  It immediately caught my attention and as it did so I moved from the perfect state of bliss in search of what was “right.”  It wasn’t until a few weeks later that I realized this wandering from “perfect,” didn’t only happen on the cushion, but off as well.  I’ve found that I often stray from where I am in search of something more- some ideal that somewhere along the way I picked up and came to believe was either true, real or best.

Recently I took a trip back to my original home town and one thing that struck me most was the observation that everyone is seeking something.  That everyone seems to be somehow “incomplete” without this one magical “missing” element.  “If only I lived here…” “if only I looked like this….”  “If only it weren’t for this…” fill in the blank with whatever you want, there wasn’t one person that seemed to be completely complete just the way they were and “where” they are at in life, myself included.  I found myself wondering about the relationship between development and striving to be higher and closer to “perfection” and recognizing that we are already complete and whole right now.  It’s like change is inevitable but development is entirely optional, and in my opinion, it is the highest value to be held.  However, how can we be anything but whole, perfect and complete right now?  While I am still working this one over in my contemplation my thoughts on it now are that the relationship between these two are that they are one and the same.   Paradoxical I know.

Perhaps the more important question isn’t about the relationship between the two, but the context and motivation in which the developmental striving arises from.  Here me out:  What if the motivation to move from the place we are standing right now is to further develop and mature our morals?  Compare that to the desire to be more “fulfilled” by something.  To at least temporarily, satisfy our own existential tension’s craving by “feeding” it with something.  

So, what’s food got to do with it?  Another observation I’ve made of myself and others is that it seems to be a tendency for us human creatures to soothe our existential tensions, to lighten our own shadow of uneasiness, with food and drink (whether it be decreasing or increasing).  The trouble is, of course that it doesn’t work.  If anything it provides a temporary relief that we mistake as an indication of being on the right track, therefore we continue the behavior turning it into a consuming habit. And as we all know, habits are hard to break, particularly when they involve our biochemistry.   So, in context of food, the question how far are you willing to step away from perfect?  Is answered by the choices we make with food, the motivation we have when eating and the desire craving to have filled.  Next time you take your bite, ask yourself this:  what part of me is really hungry?  You might be surprised to find out what the answer is.

- Amber

I was flying several weeks back and a commercial came on the little monitor that was convienetly mounted just in front of my face. The eye abducting media was swift and colorful… there was a man running through this obsticale and that hurdal to ultimatly get to his destination which was an airplane seat (much like the one I was sitting it). He landed in the seat and, of course, after all of that hurdle jumping you can imagine that he was hungry… so he pushes a button and magically a quick and processed snack food arrived. Then you hear, “Hungry.. we’ve got a button for that.”

Have we evolved?

It’s funny, because on many levels we have evolved, and yet when it comes to things like food and sex, we want it and we want it now! We don’t want to think about it (generally speaking), and we don’t really want to be responsible for it.. preferring to explain our actions away to subtle or not so subtle “forces of nature.”

Is there hope for life beyond the “quick fix” mentality and cultural conditioning?

Hearing that phrase “we’ve got a button for that” really pushed my buttons! But when I stepped back I could see that my desire for that “quick fix,” to whatever it might be, is strong and deep. It’s indeed a part of each one of us… part of the conditioning of modern culture. And the fact is we live in busy times and there seems to be more and more “need” for convenience. So what is the answer… more “buttons?”

What is the true price of convenience?

I think the question is, what is true price of denial? I can see in my own experience that to the degree that I avoid facing into the consequences of my actions I suffer on a soul level. I have seen too much to turn my back on. I know too much about the consequences of “bad” (and terribly convenient food) food over time; both for individuals, culture, and the environment. Does this mean I never eat cookies! Of course not. What I am getting at is this…

From a bigger perspective, being responsible is the most convenient thing that one can do

Convenience is defined as “fitness or suitability for performing an action or fulfilling a requirement.”

Despite some of the negative aspects of humanity, life is fundamentally positive and as humans Being, we have a tremendous capacity to self reflect, create, and innovate. Indeed we are “suitable” for tremendous conscious evolution should we choose it. So the point is keep moving ahead, really take life in, and care enough to evolve our choices to match the reality of our cognitive sophistication.

Buttons metaphor

The “button” seems to be a metaphor for a few things:

1. Obliteration: Blow it all up… “I don’t like those guys and we can’t figure out a way to work it out”

2. An attention getter: buzzz… “service please”

3. Quick fix maker: Push the button and receive instant gratification

4. Grandma: “Button up or you’ll catch cold”

The Evolutionary Button

I wonder what a button might represent in an evolutionary context? How about a a hybrid of the best of the above:

If we took as much responsibility as “grandma,” as much drive and focus as the “obliterator,” as much attentiveness as the “bell man” and mixed this with an intense passion to create the future NOW (the “quick fix” maker), then we’d have fantasticly worthy recipe for human character that could take humanity to places we could only imagine!

What does this have to do with food?

Humm.. good question . What I do know is that “how we do anything is how we do everything.” If what we choose to eat is based on quick fix values, then that is what we become (quick, easy, shallow, and empty of inherient nutrients). How about pushing an Evolutionary Button and seeing where we can go together!

~ Tiffany

While interest in the energetic properties of food doesn’t seem to be mainstream yet, the undercurrent of food, health and awareness is definitely full of leaders in the field who are interested in more than just the biochemical affect food has on the body.   In reading Steve Gagnes book, Food Energetics, I came across this one line that particularly struck my interest “The femininity of dairy products is undoubtedly one of its most appealing factors to humans.”  This sentenced triggered my curiosity, flooding my mind with all sorts of questions.  There is no doubt that our society loves dairy.  Now, whether it is for the femininity of it or not, I can’t say.  Many would say it has nothing to do with “femininity” and all to do with the proteins that mimic opiates in the body (this is called “molecular mimicry”) getting, in a sense high (this phenomena can also happen when consuming gluten).  But what I can say is that food affects us in ways our science labs haven’t been able to prove.  I know this from numerous personal experiences,  and I’m sure you do to, but for clarity’s sake I’ll share with you my most recent example.

I live in Seattle and this weekend was so fortunate to have out of town relatives come in for a visit.  We had a fantastic time touring the great city, catching all the main attractions, and in the midst of our exploring around town we ate out for several of our meals.  I usually avoid gluten and am a conscious-eating kind of girl, but since I don’t have a strong sensitivity to gluten and I was with seven others, we just did what was easiest. Probably no shock, but turns out the easiest food to get on the go is bread.  From sandwiches and burgers (veggie burgers mind you) to quick snacks, everything contained bread or bread-like particles (gluten & wheat). The result:  One extremely fatigued girl with an unhappy belly.  I experienced a dramatic change in how I emotionally and physically felt, and more importantly my own clarity.  What was even more shocking, was that as we reached day 3, I actually had a hard time remembering before this diet change.  It was like I knew I felt better off wheat and gluten, but I didn’t actually believe it.  Luckily my intellect and conviction pulled me through and as I bid farewell to my family I also said a not so sorrowful goodbye to bread, wheat and gluten.  Within the next day I no longer needed to remember if I felt better on a gluten free diet, I experienced it firsthand.

Moral of the story:  Deviating from our usual healthful diet for a short period of time is not always a bad thing.  It can show us just how powerful and controlling food is and remind us that there actually is a purpose in taking care  of ourselves.  Not only should we strive to be conscious eaters, but humble ones as well.  Changing one’s diet is one of the most challenging tasks we are faced with, because it is messing with our biochemistry, affecting our thought processes and emotional states. Basically, when we start tinkering with the diet we’re messing with our survival instincts, not matter how evolved we are.

So, are dairy products loved for their feminine essence? I can’t say.  What I can say is food certainly affects us in more profound ways than we typically recognize.  Next time you take a bite, ask yourself, just how far is this bite going to take me? and then check it out.  You might be surprised by the answer.

-Amber

I was talking with nutritionist Becky Hellerstein today and what came through so clear was this: Often times when our actions don’t line up with what we profess to believe in, we have not taken the time to really look at, and take responsibility for that lack of integrity. We continue to identify with the part of us that “intends” to do this or that, all the while our actual actions are moving us further away from the “intention” or ideal.

It would be good to start with defining what “intention” means. It terms of what we are looking into in EFE (Eating For Evolution), we’ll define intention as movement or action towards that which one “intends.” Its not just thought, its action.

So it really hit me,  if I intend to do something, then I am lining my actions up with that… or I have to face the fact that I really don’t “intend” what I thought after all.  It was actually liberating to face into this! It clears up confusion, and I can see that it is darn near impossible to truly move forward unless I acknowledge where I really am. This goes for our relationship with food, or anything else in life.

I left our conversation with an expanded perspective on my behavior, and a renewed motivation to face into the truth that can only be told by my actions.

~Tiffany