Give me my treats!
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Give me my treats!
When it comes to food and drinks, we LOVE our treats. If in any doubt about this statement, notice how wild our thoughts become when we think we are going to miss out on having them for one reason or another!
We feel entitled to our treats and anything that gets in the way is often met with frustration, irritation, anger, or even with indignant rage and tantrums due to a sense of deprivation at the far end of the spectrum. We put an enormous amount of energy into making sure we get our treats despite often having the best of intentions that we aren’t going to indulge or binge again for one reason or another. How often have we said to ourselves that we’ll only have one or a small amount but find ourselves devouring the whole packet!
We promise ourselves we won’t do it again, only to find that often sooner rather than later we are repeating the very thing we swore we wouldn’t do. It’s like we get fed the ‘I need/deserve a treat’ thought and then it is game over from there and we become solely focussed on satisfying that urge and on telling ourselves that we will worry about the consequences later.
Western countries are experiencing obesity problems on a scale never seen before and global rates of diabetes and heart disease are through the roof, but still we ignore the messages and search for new ways to still be able to have our treats. Such is the level of devotion to having access to our ‘goodies’ that we try and manipulate food so that we don’t have to change our lifestyles and diets. It’s not just traditional coffee, tea, pizza and a few different flavours of ice cream that will fill the urge for a drinkable or edible reward these days. We keep demanding something new and especially that it will act as a substitute if we have serious food allergies and simply can’t indulge in the way we want to.
Food intolerances and allergies are affecting an increasing number of people and on hearing this news, I’ve found most people are glad on the one hand that their symptoms have a known cause, but on the other hand there is commonly a sense of resentment because it is asking for a change in diet and people feel deprived. Everyone else is able to enjoy their snacks and junk food, so it doesn’t seem fair that they should have to miss out.
Instead of taking note of what their bodies are showing them, people often expect the pharmacological world to come up with a solution so that they don’t have to go without.
Of course, where there is demand a supplier will soon follow and craft something that will appeal to the minds and taste buds of many willing buyers. Treats have become even more sugar and fat laden than ever before, but we can’t blame the supplier as they are only meeting the demand and it is the consumer who will ultimately decide which brands and items continue and which ones fall by the wayside.
As consumers we have let it be known loud and clear that we still want our treats, so the suppliers continue to create new varieties of food and drinks to tempt buyers, while watching their bank accounts grow. Quite frankly, a very comfortable arrangement exists between the buyer and the seller when it comes to treats which very few are questioning as they aren’t wanting to disturb the status quo.
The demand for items that can be catergorised as health foods has created a thriving worldwide market for foods and drinks that can also fall into the treat bracket. What’s fascinating is the way consumers have jumped onto the idea that if an item is organic, natural or gluten and dairy free etc. then it is automatically healthy and therefore people can indulge as much as they like.
The packaging and the way the item is marketed encourages consumers to drink or eat the product as much and as often as they like, as it’s justified by the fact that the label says that the item contains all natural ingredients, or has substitutes for the ingredients commonly related to intolerances or allergies. Yet often these items are crammed with sugar and or salt and in fact are no healthier for us than if we consumed the generic product!
We don’t want anything to challenge this perfect picture that what we are eating and drinking is good for us, but is that what our bodies are telling us?
If we dared to check in with our body, what would it say about the bloating, the nervous energy that has us running around in drive and constant movement and/ or the dulled down lethargy and feelings of exhaustion we have been experiencing, or the extra kilos that keep piling on that we have been battling to lose for days, months or years?
What is our body telling us about the connection between our diet and the endocrine, irritable bowel, diabetes, cardiac, arthritic and or kidney conditions that we may be experiencing? We know that at a symptom level, these forms of ill health cause discomfort, pain and loss of functioning, but what else is being communicated to us?
Too often we choose to turn a blind eye because we enjoy our treats and don’t want anything to interfere with us having our rewards when we want them. But the truth still doesn’t change no matter how much we can twist and bend the facts to suit our desires.
We will always have free will to decide what we do and don’t eat and drink, but it doesn’t change the bottom line that our bodies will give us honest feedback about the consequences of our choices. If we choose to reinterpret the messages, then that is up to us, but our bodies will still be keeping the score and one day we will be called upon to pay the bill.
Knowing this, why do so many of us go to such lengths to continue on with our usual lifestyles and resist change? Perhaps we put in more effort here and there, but we all know that it’s quite common for those changes to be short lived and we fall back into our old patterns again. We may view ourselves as responsible human beings, however if we stand back and observe what is happening here we can see that we simply don’t want to look past the quick fix and consider what is driving our behaviour.
Part of the problem is that it is a global phenomenon and not just happening in a few isolated pockets so our behaviour is seen as very normal and is condoned where ever we go.
"Funny, is it not, that we will enjoy the fact that we have the choice to – eat ice-cream, chocolate, cheese, dairy, gluten, sugar in its many forms, act lovelessly with each other, hold on to anger or choose stress as a form of motivation, indulge in the dramas of others or worse interfere in them, allow abuse, allow corruption etc, but, when we get ill, in the many and correct forms that it comes to us to help us evolve from such choices, we adopt the attitude that it is not our own doing, that it was not our choice to live so uncaring and hence the loveless lifestyle that did it but the unlucky gene you carry that caused it all. Fate, bad luck and your gene pool are the perfect excuses for the utterly senseless and body, health and evolution neglectful manner and absolute irresponsibility we choose to carry on with and make human life seem normal to.
Serge Benhayon Esoteric Teachings & Revelations Volume II, ed 1, p 207
Yes, it is only funny at the beginning and in the midst of the indulgent and loveless choices, gorging on whatever food, carrying on angry and uncaringly, bullying when needed and or cultivating emotions as required, but not ‘funny’ at all when the love that surrounds us brings on the necessary clearing and healing that we need in order to arrest the damage we bring to ourselves and to the space all around us by such energetically irresponsible and deliberately ignorant choices."
Could it be that we are being shown that our current model of life is not working and that we need to stop the momentum and re-evaluate our priorities and indeed, our whole understanding of our responsibilities and purpose in life?
Food is just one cog in a much bigger wheel, but we need to be prepared to take self-responsibility and search under the surface to see what is going on and how everything is interlinked. Where we start to do this deep dive is through connecting with our bodies – the very thing we have been bludgeoning to avoid being more aware. We may not feel ready to ‘open our emails’ in which case, life will go on the same as before. But for those who are curious to know more, they will discover that their bodies speak very loudly and that nothing is due to luck or co-incidence or genes.
To connect with our bodies we may use a Gentle Breath Meditation® or take notice of how our body feels as we go for a walk, when we brush our hair, or eat a meal more slowly. What we are doing here is shutting out the external noise and turning down the dial on the internal chatter that is running through our minds and instead feeling what is there in our essence, that core part inside each of us that knows everything about us and holds an intelligence that is way beyond what we can find on the internet or in any academic library.
The majority of us have lost touch with that beautiful part of ourselves but it’s worth the effort to re-establish the connection to our inner being. Our essence energetically speaks lovingly to us and if our intention is to honestly discover why we are hooked on our treats, we will be guided to the answers we are seeking.
It’s common to start out thinking that we can’t feel anything, but with commitment and practice we will find that it becomes easier over time and that bit by bit we notice the range of feelings and emotions that are constantly passing through us. When we are connected with our bodies we find that the quality of our thoughts change, and subsequently, with our essence guiding the way, things we have taken for granted can be understood in a different light. We still get to choose our next steps, but we are coming from a more holistic awareness of why we have landed where we are currently at and what needs to change.
It can be challenging to stay with what is revealed as we have all developed ways to hide from our hurts, but there comes a time when we decide that it’s not worth the price we pay when we go through day after day trying to measure up to the demands and expectations of the external world. Yes, we have gone along with the belief that shutting down or withdrawing is the safest way to protect ourselves, but the state of the world shows us that this experiment has been a massive failure.
We can’t stop the abuse, violence, oppression, greed, corruption and general lovelessness that exist on this planet overnight, but we can certainly take responsibility for ourselves as a starting point.
The demand for our treats would be one of the things that would disappear as we lost the appetite for anything that doesn’t nourish and lovingly support our body. Now that is the real treat our bodies are longing for!
"The best diet is known as the ‘evolutionary diet’. It is a way of living and eating by the true knowledge of your body, a constantly evolving wisdom that unfolds as you feel, observe, listen and adhere. It is not easy and it challenges the many ideals around food. But hey, who is to argue with one’s body (?) – it is, after all, the one that has to process all that we put in it."
Serge Benhayon Esoteric Teachings & Revelations Volume II, ed 1, p 387
Filed under
Bloating, Body awareness, Connection, Diets, Over eating
