Sweetness – the key to sugar addiction
PRINT PAGE
Sweetness – the key to sugar addiction
Sugar consumption in the world has skyrocketed in the last 50 years and as a result we are seeing the effects on our bodies with rising levels of diabetes, obesity and other conditions.
It is clear that refined sugar is toxic to the human body – so why do we keep consuming it? Is it just the fault of the food industry or are they just giving us what we are asking for? Let’s face it, we choose the food we eat – no one forces it down our throats!
Why are we looking for the sweet treat, the reward, the energy booster, the stimulation?
Why are we seemingly so in need of energy boosters?
If we expend or lose energy, then on one level it makes sense that we would need to replace energy – so it is really just as simple as looking at how we are living, how we are getting depleted or losing energy.
Our fast–paced lifestyles – always being on the go, always doing, never stopping – have led us to be exhausted or, in other words, depleted of energy. When we are exhausted, we look for an energy booster in the form of sugar to give us a lift. Whilst that seems to work for a while, it ultimately actually drains us further and so the cycle begins again. We end up stuck in an ever-repeating cycle of exhaustion and energy booster or stimulation, rather than addressing the root cause of the exhaustion and perhaps making a different, more healthy choice – like going to bed earlier!
We get exhausted not just through late nights and lack of sleep however, but also by how we are in our day-to-day interactions and relationships and the choices we make. For example, getting emotional, taking on other people’s issues, holding back from speaking what is true for us – all of these and more can deplete our energy and result in our feeling tired, depleted, drained and exhausted. We can end up feeling like our day has not been enough. We are not fulfilled by it and so we seek the sweet treat at the end of the day, as our day has not been sweet enough.
So how can we overcome our addiction to sugar and bring sweetness to our day that is sugar-free?
There are practical steps we can take like:
-
Going to bed early and getting a good night’s sleep
-
Cut down or stop our intake of refined sugars – as that only feeds the addictive cycle
-
Take time to rest or stop during the day and check in with how you are feeling
-
Be willing to not hold back and speak what is true for you
-
Gentle Breath Meditation®TM to reconnect you to your centre and give you a marker to feel any reactions arising in the body and deal with them before they get out of hand
-
Practise being present in all activities so that you know everything you did was done with a specific quality as you were there doing it
-
Appreciate yourself and what you bring to the world – knowing only you can bring it in your own unique, sweet way
In doing so, we begin to live in a way where we are less drained and depleted by the everyday living of life. We realise in fact that we have abundant energy to do all that is there to be done. And if we do feel that depletion or exhaustion creeping back in, we have the tools to address it.
This is not an overnight fix, but requires us to deliberately and consciously choose to make choices that are honouring of ourselves and the fact that we are already sweet enough. Life’s hurts and traumas often lead us to becoming hard or tough as a way to cope and we can forget that we have this inner sweetness, or even feel repulsion at the idea of it!
But when we reconnect to our own sweetness, the need for the hardness or toughness just melts away, and with it the need for artificial sweeteners like sugar. We get to feel how harming sugar is and how it actually takes us away from the true sweetness we are.
We also come to realise the true sweetness of living life in a way where we bring all of us to everything we do – and it is totally sugar-free!
Filed under
Exhaustion, Fatigue, Healthy diet, Sleep, Caffeine, Sugar, Work stress, Work life balance
