Women Food and God Part 1

When I read or hear tales about heaven or life beyond earth, the single common thread in all of them is LOVE IS ALL THERE IS and all you have to do is believe it and feel it in the NOW.

Honestly, I am both super relieved and annoyed to get this info.

So glad to hear again and again that Love is our only reality and that we have it upside down on earth. I can breathe a little more easily, have a second small piece of Chakra Minty Loco dessert.

But when I am in the middle of life, inhabiting all sorts of messy feelings and not knowing what or how or why or when or where, I don’t have a damn clue what Love looks like in that moment.

I want to escape into something familiar and comforting. Like Chakra Minty Loco. Aren’t you thrilled you’re not the only one?

How we approach food reflects our deep core beliefs about ourselves and life, says Geneen Roth who has been through it all when it comes to food and addictions.

At this trigger point, Geneen might say we have two options. We can get right into our compulsive, “gets me nowhere” patterns which include going for food. Or we can do something different by being inquisitive about what is happening.

The Inquiry

In one step of the Inquiry, you don’t assume that you know what you need to do or where you need to go. You become curious  about feelings and sensations. You listen to your body. You stop bossing yourself around.

You locate the feelings more precisely in your body. Do they have shapes? Colours?

What you’re feeling is pain from the past that has been frozen in your body and needs to surface in order to be dissolved.

Perhaps something happened when you were younger that created a false belief within you that life was not safe or it was not okay to be who you are.

So you turned towards food to suppress all your feelings and get your comfort needs met. Except that the comfort is short lived because the false belief that life is not safe is still there, blocking you from the eternal, everlasting Truth.

Give these feelings space without making a mental story of them. Allow them to be there with openness, curiosity. You won’t fall apart or die from feeling. Promise (Geneen’s word, not mine).

See if the compulsiveness loses its hold, even if just for a nano second.

Something fresh, unrelated to your past pain or old beliefs, has interrupted your pattern, and that is enough.

Build trust in this Space

You may still go for the food, but maybe you’ll eat three chips instead of 10. Because that space has shown you that there’s something bigger than pain. Something you can’t put your finger on or trust yet, but you somehow sense that it may be your way through this madness.

Or you may do nothing and feel all the seemingly endless pain, while trusting Geneen’s faith that eventually those feelings will transform and you find yourself aligned with beauty, delight and love – in other words God.

We want that don’t we? Apparently we are all that.

I’m in the trusting Geneen phase. I’m feeling all the stuff. Watching my mind/false beliefs erupt with blockbuster horror stories and fearful dramas because I’m choosing not to believe it as much as I used to.

I’m learning to eat only when I’m hungry and to stop when I’m full (on a good day). I eat without distractions – the Bachelorette can wait 10 mins – and try to be present for every bite, which only illuminates how crazy my mind is.

Most of all, and even more so after reading Geneen’s incredible book, I come back to my meditation day after day no matter what storms or joys are taking place inside of me. Because I know that freedom lies in that quiet space and if Geneen can discover joy through it, so can we.

I would love to know what you’re thinking/feeling – if you’d like to share.

Portrait credit: Oprah.com