One of the BIGGEST ideas Western Society shoved down your throat was that ONE teacher will tell you THE WAY. That is not accurate or of service to you. Everybody is right. So pick the best fruit from everyone’s plate and leave the parsley.
EXAMPLE: INTUITIVE EATING
I have a client right now beginning her intuitive eating journey. She told me that she’s been consuming tons and tons of media about it, and all of these people- RD’s even- say that if ANYONE tells you to restrict ANYTHING on an intuitive eating journey, that’s diet culture.
WELL. That’s TRUE.
However, if a person has only consumed Pop-Tarts and McDonald’s in their entire lives when they go to intuitively eat, they’re going to crave Pop-Tarts and McDonald’s. When their bodies want protein, they’ll reach for chicken nuggets, and when they need carbs/sugar, they’ll reach for Pop-Tarts. And yes, that’s intuitive eating. Their brains have not learned to translate the “I need glucose” to anything but a Pop-Tart because the brain has no frame of reference outside of a Pop-Tart.
We receive intuition all the time from our bodies, and the brain translates those messages to us based on its knowledge base.
However, a Pop-Tart is a processed food that will outlast the apocalypse. It isn’t the best thing for us to put into our bodies. It’s got an ingredient list longer than the declaration of independence. It causes inflammation and contributes to obesity and cancer and all of those OTHER THINGS that medical professionals talk about.
So, who’s right? Everybody.
Processed foods do cause obesity and cancer and inflammation. And also, you shouldn’t restrict food when you intuitively eat. Both correct.
So how do we balance? We subscribe to the idea that everybody is right and we widen our palates to include new, non-processed foods. It is even VERY beneficial to get rid of processed foods completely, JUST SO your body can have an adjustment period and LEARN to crave the new foods.
Once your body does the required learning, when you go to intuitively eat, your body likely will crave the non-processed food more than the processed. Because your BODY will recognize where it gets the nutrients and your brain will translate that message to “you want salmon for dinner.”
Everything in our world is paradoxical, right down to our being itself.
I’ll never forget when I read the words from the brilliant Simone Seol “the capacity to hold a paradox is the sign of a grown-up mind.”
So, so right.
I didn’t eat sugar or processed food for a LONG time while my body went through its re-learning phase. And then, I started slowly bringing those things back in. NOW, there is no way in hell my body would allow me to eat a Pop-Tart diet. It would make me ill.
There was a time recently when I had a box of Trader Joe’s PB&J bars sitting there (processed and sweet) and literally just stared at them, starving. My body said “Andrea please go eat some red meat,” and my brain KNEW that eating those bars would not make me less hungry.
Your brain (a computer) can only run the applications it has installed. Everybody is right. Install more applications.
When you want to transform something, know that there is not one solid idea. Everyone will feed you brilliance, and you have to select and choose what pieces fit into the puzzle. Follow the white rabbit.
Remember, Yin and Yang?
Our feminine is our flow- it’s how we flow along with Tao. Our feminine is necessary for us to be aligned. The masculine is the disciplined do-er, also necessary. My feminine gives me the inspiration to write these emails. My masculine sits my ass down and writes them a few times a week, and writes them with pig-headed discipline. (Grabbed that phrase from a book I’m reading currently.)
Transformation isn’t hard. It is hard when you rely on one teacher for one message. Triangulation of methods brings us a greater understanding in research. Why wouldn’t that work with our bodies? And everything else in life.
Food for thought.
