When I was a teenager, I remember stopping at a convenience store, purchasing a box of six old fashioned doughnuts and then eating four of them in a row. It seems I was able to burn them off fairly quickly because my metabolism was moving quite fast, but I’m not convinced I was doing my body any favors with the processed sugar and bleached flour.
I look back with amazement at what my body could process in my younger years that it completely rejects now. My diet started changing the day I went to a lecture by a chiropractor that talked about the amount of sugar in our processed foods and the physical affects of addiction to sugar.
For me, the self-healing journey began with understanding the stress and danger I was creating for my body. At the rate I was going I could expect to be sick most of the time, due to a depleted immune system, and I could look forward to a short life.
I really like this video by Dr. Vaughn from Spirit of Health, with information very similar to what I heard many years ago. Dr. Vaughn talks about sugar being as addictive as cocaine and how sugar and high fat foods affect the brain. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fl7BgF8OI0&feature=related
Just recently, I completed a mold and fungus cleanse for my body. Molds and fungus feed on sugar, and although I have been eating healthier, natural sugars, I was eating too much of them. So once again, there I was face to face with my favorite addiction.
Whether it is salty, fried foods you are craving or foods with sugar in them, you are going to start the holistic healing journey of getting off the foods when you acknowledge that you are probably physically addicted, and like most addictions, you are probably going to find there is an emotional need you are trying meet through food.
In order to address emotional needs, it helps to identify what they are and choose to meet them in new and healthier ways. If you are like me, craving sweets is about craving more sweetness in your life.
I have a really good and happy life, so uncovering what sweetness I was looking for this time around was a real challenge. Finally, what I discovered was that I wanted to experience every day as a sweet indulgence of life. I wanted to breathe in the wonders of creation and enjoy what every moment of every day was offering me.
So when I started the cleanse, I made a commitment to stay on that diet diligently for one month, while also increasing my experience of a sweet life by integrating the sweetness I experience in meditation into my daily activities. I encouraged myself to be grateful throughout the day over every, tiny, little thing.
Sugars temporarily boost energy, so I held an intention in my meditation practice to welcome in light and energy before I ended each morning’s meditation. In that way, I no longer looked for dramatic boosts of energy from my food. When I started to feel sluggish, I meditated instead of reaching for something sweet.
How will you identify the emotional need behind your addiction? Ask yourself this question, “What feeling am I looking forward to experiencing after I eat this particular food?”
The feeling is the motivator, so once you identify the feeling, you now have a clue about what need longs to be met. Decide on new ways you can meet the need(s), put those new practices into action, and you are on your way to overcoming the emotional ties behind your physical addiction.
With dedication to the emotional work, you are giving yourself a platform for addressing the physical nature of the addiction with greater success. For example, as I met my desire for a life of sweetness and greater energy, I found it easier to remain on my cleansing diet. When my body was clear, the cravings disappeared altogether.
There is one more thing about letting go of an addiction that I have discovered. It helps to know that what you ultimately want is worth the sacrifice and the effort. The thing about addictions is that you are chasing a substitute for what you really want. As long as you accept the substitute, you never get the true satisfaction you desire.
Whatever your true desire might be, you deserve for that need to be fulfilled so that you can enjoy your life to its utmost.
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Misa, I am interested in finding out more information about the mold and fungus cleanse. I have attempted to remove sugar from my diet on numerous occasions. I am successful until some event comes along that sends me on an emotional eating binge. I love the idea of incorporating sweetness through meditation. Thank you for sharing this article.
Claire, what beautiful insight you have about your process. I’m glad sweetness through meditation might be helpful for you. My whole life has become blessed by that one simple insight. The cleanse I did to eliminate mold and fungus was recommended to me by Trish Watson, a bio-feedback technician in Denver, and created specifically for my body. Of course, like most cleansing diets for mold and fungus, I removed sugars, except those found in grains. That included no corn, fruit, or processed sugars. I also eliminated coffee and all alcohol. I’m gluten free, so I wasn’t eating wheat either. I ate lots of veggies, and some nuts and grains. Carnivores can also eat meat. This is the perfect time of year to cleanse because so many fresh, organic vegetables are available. She also suggested homeopathic remedies for killing the mold and fungus (very important part of the process) and re-tested me after one month on the regime. It took 2 months total to finally become clear. I was very dedicated because I wanted to be able to have something sweet once in a while without wreaking havoc on my body. I created lots of space to tend to my inner healing, so that I wouldn’t become triggered in the outer world. That one is the big challenge, but worth every ounce of energy!
Misa
What you say is quite true. But my issue is I eat junk and waste money to numb the pain of from childhood emotional abuse and rejection, loneliness, insecurity and seeing no way out of the deep hole. Something has to fill the emptiness. I am working on these aspects but it's so challenging to feel the everyday emptiness and lack and still live.
Shani
Shani, You have such a clear insight here. I've had my ways of numbing the pain too. One day in tears, I told my therapist I just wanted to be held. She told me I could hold myself, but I only shook my head. Though I didn't think I could do it, I honestly could hardly feel it when anyone else held me. So even though I had initially resisted her suggestion, I literally began holding my arms around myself. If a pillow was near, I held it and I rocked and cried holding myself in my own compassion, until the pain subsided. Years later, I was given the Creation Meditation, and ancient Native practice that begins in self-compassion, and there is a link to it in this article. You can fill the hole. The way lives inside of you. It takes great courage, but your love is more vast than you may realize. Holding you in my love, Misa
Misa, to me, your article points to how much thought plays a role to influence the physical condition. Over the last few years, I've realized how thoughts of not wanting to live and that life is a struggle manifested into symptoms of RA disease for me. My body was under constant stress physically due to a very poor diet and emotionally, due to chronic stress. I'm really noticing how everything in my reality or perception seems to come down to thought/feeling.
So, I'm working through these thoughts/feelings of not wanting to live and life is a struggle to identify the origin, but I have this idea that maybe I came in with them and I'm also thinking that these thoughts/feelings are a universal archetype that I got stuck in for whatever reason, hopefully for transcendence.
Thanks for the article on junk food because it gives me another area to notice how thought/emotion comes into play.
Marianne, Yes, I have definitely found emotions and beliefs to be driving force behind the illnesses I have experienced. It seems for me that the more chronic the condition, the more I am being driven by underlying causes that have been at play for quite some times. Not wanting to live is such a powerful feeling and I spent a lot of years denying that one. Kudos to you for acknowledging it! Such deep depression may very well come from a shared archetypal root because so many of us experience the longing to escape "permanently." As you already know, once we tell ourselves the truth about how we are feeling and experiencing, we can discover whether or not it is actually death calling to us or life itself asking us to notice what is limiting us (from the inside). I honor you for your courage in being so deeply truthful with yourself. Very powerful!