Our essence – sugar laced or Soulful?
PRINT PAGE
Our essence – sugar laced or Soulful?
We live in a self-gratifying world where we have easy access to almost whatever our heart (or mind) desires. Likewise, whatever our taste buds desire is nowadays within easy reach of our fingertips.
If we feel like cake, we can find cake and can eagerly eat cake. On any given day (most days for many), if we feel the urge to satisfy our ‘sweet tooth’ and sugar cravings, there are oodles of options from the bulging check-out counters of any grocery and convenience store, supermarket or petrol station.
Where I work there is a famous ‘Candyland’ area, which is frequented by staff members from different floors and divisions. An impressive set up of chocolate bars and other treats awaits us and we don’t even have to cough up a coin on the spot; we simply use the ‘honesty’ system and record an IOU – the perfect setup, without any barriers of access.
Yet how ‘honest’ are we truly being with ourselves when we identify as having a sweet tooth? Or when we find ourselves reaching for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up having come to a grinding halt against the 3pm wall.
Where dessert was once something of a ‘special’ occasion, we now live in a culture where every occasion is deserving of the decadence of dessert or a sweet treat of some description. A usual nightly treat to keep the kids happy and to offer ourselves the ‘reward’ we so often seek. Deserving of dessert certainly has its irony.
But at what point did we disconnect from the fact that we are sweet enough without the need to trash ourselves with a poison that has a more far-reaching ill effect on the body and being than we care to admit?
We don’t need scientific proof of this. I have used my own body as a science experiment and have experienced and discovered – more times than I care to admit – the knock-on harmful effects and consequences of choosing to pollute myself with the likes of chocolate, muffins, dessert, cake and basically any sugar loaded product (including maple syrup, honey, dairy and gluten free).
Post-indulgence it is not uncommon to groan and moan about the physical effects of how full, bloated, tired, and also regretful and guilty one may feel, but we seldom, if at all, talk about how our mental wellbeing copes, and how this then plays out in the rest of our day.
Some of the symptoms experienced post a chocolate/sugar/dessert indulgence include:
- Anxiousness
- Stress
- Negative thoughts
- Depression
- Lack of focus
- Self-criticism
- Raciness
- Overwhelm
These feelings of dis-ease often lead to further harmful choices, at times fostering a more insidious and seemingly out of control binge eating behaviour to bury myself deeper and further away from what I was trying to avoid in the first place. I would often be so out of whack that the sugar would falsely lead me to think I was not tired, and totally wired I would stay up much later than my body would naturally want to, off-setting me for the next day. And so, the cycle would repeat, not to mention the sugar hangover that would rudely welcome me when I woke, causing me to snooze through my alarm, get up late and rush into the day, all the while trying my best to maintain a veneer of fake calm and togetherness.
Such is the evil of how sugar nudges us, artificially raising our energy levels, attacking our nervous system and completely disconnecting us from our natural state.
We become compromised. It robs us of our natural vitality and ability to read life, to navigate our day, relate to and to be open with the people around us. For many, this becomes our normal. It may sound like I’m referring to a hard drug, but that is what sugar is and science has shown that sugar activates the same area of the brain as does cocaine, giving a dopamine hit that we constantly crave to top up[1].
Where our initial intention of choosing to eat a sugar-laden treat may be to join in or be part of a ‘celebration’ or custom, there is also a deeper energetic outplay and an avoidance of feeling, whether it be an issue, emotion or uncomfortable situation. We inadvertently end up putting ourselves into a much lesser state of being.
Our body and its particles are designed to be in sync with our being. Our being is designed to be in sync and aligned to a divine intelligence – our Soul – which is already everything. The Soul certainly doesn’t need to be sweetened.
When we pollute our body and thereby our essence, we are unable to feel that deeper and grander aspect of us. We open the door to an array of unwanted behaviours, thoughts and ill mental health, which has a direct impact on the way we feel about ourselves, our view of the world and our relationships with others.
We deserve to experience the sweetness of life free from a poison that doesn’t celebrate or confirm our true nature.
References
Filed under
