Does it really matter what we consume if we are going to die anyway? Really? If I want to enjoy my life then I should eat what I want to eat and drink what I want to drink and consume what I want to consume. I mean what does it matter if we all end up 6 feet under, or cremated, or turned into a tree or diamond or whatever people are doing with their bodies these days. If all this hard work in clean eating and living only gets us a couple more years, then forget it I will party hardy! Dead is dead — so lets eat, drink, and be merry!
I felt this way for the majority of my 32 years. I did a lot of damage to my body with the way I was eating, drinking, smoking, thinking, feeling, etc. I had a lot of fun — or what I thought was fun anyhow — as much fun as waking up and feeling hungover and worthless is. But like a cold blooded animal that doesn’t realize the slowly rising temperature of the pot of water it is in (until its too late) I was not aware of the damage I was doing, and I was not aware of just how horrible those things were making me feel. I wouldn’t wish for those years back as they have lead me to where I am now and I wouldn’t say I regret the damage I did or I wouldn’t be who I am today. Fortunately, I am not a frog in a boiling pot of water and my damaging behaviors did not result in severe illness or death (although if I kept it up it would have). The water was getting dangerously hot and I felt stuck enough in my behavior and in my body to realize that change had to occur or I would remain where I was and my health would continue to decline — an idea I was beginning to dislike.
So, eventually, I started to make changes. Some small, some larger. Some changes I crept up on timidly, dipping my toes in, and others I tripped and fell right into. In either case I had the realization of the interconnectedness of the physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional bodies. Gah! Here we go, another hippy talking about holism. Well, yes. This is not a new concept and there is a darn good reason the concept keeps circulating —its true! I discovered that what I put in my body does in fact directly impact my clarity of mind and the way I feel physically, which in turn effects the way I show up emotionally. What’s more is that I wasn’t able to make any of the physical changes until I had first dealt with the underlying emotional blocks.
We all have blocks or limiting beliefs about ourselves, we then make choices from a blocked space, the choices keep us feeling physically poor, mentally unclear, emotionally unhealthy, and often reinforce our limiting beliefs — rinse, wash, repeat. This vicious cycle is difficult to break by simply trying a new diet or exercising more. Often such forced behaviors are hard to stick to because the underlying belief systems continue to limit the individual from true transformation. Or, the new seemingly healthy behavior is yet another way dealing with a limiting belief. These beliefs are central to the way someone shows up in the world. The tentacles of each belief reaching out and touching almost every area of life. A core belief will not just effect what you put in your body but what comes out – the way you show up at work, in your relationships, the way you communicate, darn near everything. Work on the core belief and the tentacles will slowly disappear. Change is bound to follow.
Working at uprooting my core beliefs allowed me to make choices that further helped me to do this work. The choices supported a physical, mental, and emotional clarity that furthered the uprooting of my faulty beliefs. The effect is synergistic and lasting. Eating, drinking, and merry making looks and feels a little different now. It is done with a different purpose, with a knowing that it matters — and if feels a whole lot better.
Author: Rebecca deVries is a registered nurse and student at the Naturopathic Institute. She currently interns at Continuum Healing.
Photo source: Creative Commons