Spirit Banquet

Spirit Banquet

Every so often I like to think about the fact that we are made out of stardust. That’s a very profound notion to me, and a very romantic one. And by we, I mean everything.

Hand in hand with that, I like to think about the fact that we are all just molecules and atoms,  and some kind of stuff that holds it together. I like to think about how there is so much relative distance between those atoms in things we think of as solid.

That gets weird.  

I am a collection of molecules held together by some mysterious something.

One of the activities I enjoy pretty much every day is putting more molecules inside me, which my molecules do stuff to, and then I produce stuff made out of molecules. We call it The Digestive System. I think it’s hilarious.

So, when it comes to consuming food and drink, and other stuff,  we all have a lot of ideas. We have ideas about what is good or bad for us, and we often extend those ideas to others, too.

In a world where we may feel helpless, making food and beverage choices, drug and vitamin-type choices,  is a place where may feel like we feel we have some control. Or we may feel like we don’t.

How do I have the right diet? What sustains me? How do I transmute all I consume to nourishment?

Many of the results we think we are having from food and drink come about from our attitudes. It’s an interesting concept to try to get our heads wrapped around. I am nourished or sickened as I believe. And while there may be exceptions to that, it’s been my experience that it’s fundamentally true.

Why do I choose? What makes me wise? What makes me know me?

I love to think about Breatharians, who claim to draw all needed nourishment from the air. Or sages who live in caves and subsist on a few herbs, and maybe some tea.

I like to think that the mysterious stuff that holds my molecules together is related to spirit. I believe that spirit holds my essence in this collection of molecules, and that spirit is the bulk of what sustains me.

I have also come to believe that food doesn’t make us fat, and exercise doesn’t make us thin. Our relative sizes start in our minds, and manifest in the world. I’ve got stories.

So we can learn a lot about ourselves by looking at our patterns and notions around nourishment, sustenance, fitness, and physical being in general. We may have ideas that people who are of a certain weight and build have more value that people without that build. We may have judgments about their habits, or qualities. And whenever we find ourselves thinking “better than or less than someone else,” we know we have some inside work to do.

How have I changed from negative judgments around sustenance to knowing it’s all good?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2014 all rights reserved 03142014

If you like what you find here, please share or + it. Thanks, Why do you know you make a difference?

Eat It

Eat It

There are few topics outside of politics and religion that are as frothy with opinions as what we should and shouldn’t consume. We have rules galore. We have dictums. We have medical professionals declaiming with great pomp. Nutritionists contradict each other, Major corporations want to do things to it, Governments like to regulate it. Gluttons chew it, Breatharians eschew it. Heh.

Our nourishment comes more from our minds than our outside.

This is not a popular opinion.

I don’t expect you to just say, “ok,” but rather, I want you to think about what you think about food.

Victor Frankl, the psychologist and concentration camp survivor, talks about his bread and water diet, and how amazed he was that people didn’t get sicker because of it.

Some people can drink alcohol and never be affected.

Some people eat tiny portions and gain weight, other eat huge portions and stay slim.

What do you think about what you think about food and drink?

Do you think some food is good and some food is bad? Or maybe some things to drink are wholesome and others toxic? Do you think that your nourishment is contingent on what you get around? Or could something else be going on?

Breatharians claim to obtain all their nourishment through breath. Taoist masters of documented great age are observed consuming a few herbs and maybe some tea in a day. Religions have a wide variety of rules and restrictions.

“You are what you eat” is an old saw, but it might be more accurately stated as, “You are what you think about what you eat.” It’s not as pithy.

We all have stuff. Some of us have stuff around food or drink. Bringing those topics to the surface can be profoundly life changing for us.

Imagine how your life would feel if everything you consumed was for the sheer joy of it.

How do you feel when you feel beautiful and attractive right now?

How do you feel when you feel healthy and clean right now?

How do you feel when you transmute all you consume to nourishment?

If we think of all food and drink as neutral, what happens to our beliefs. So much else in the world is all about our attitude, our beliefs, our judgments, it’s easy to see how food and drink can fit in here, too.

How have I changed from feeling rigid in my ideas about consumption to knowing I am always sustained?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2013 all rights reserved 12182013

Food and Sex

Food and Sex

Two cards fell out from the Creative Questions deck this morning; Why am I sexual? and Why am I nourished? Food and Sex! Creative Questions can be so fun!

Except when they aren’t.

These are some big whammy cards for a lot of people. Matters of control and power get snarled up in both of these, often when we are pretty young, so that we don’t even remember what happened.

How do I enjoy my sexuality? Why do I enjoy feasting? What makes me innocent?

Things happen to us when we are small, some of them are traumatic. Sometimes, they are things  that are benign, but we misunderstand. Sometimes, they are done with our best interest at heart, but we are hurt or damaged by them. Sometimes they are simply bad things.

Then we grow up.

Once we are adults, we have a lot of choices to make.

I get to choose the quality of my life. I get to choose my world view. I get to choose whether I will spend my life reacting to things that happened in the mists of my time, or dump them, and respond to my life’s unfolding.

Sex and food. Drugs, liquor, work, video games, exercise, cleaning, meditation, TV, glamorizing, reading. The list is way more extensive, you may have different ones on your list. These are often referred to as soft addictions. These are things that suck up our time, helping us avoid making the choices that will bring us the life we want.

“Wait a minute!” I hear some of you say, “There are some good things on that list.”

Aren’t we supposed to exercise? Aren’t we supposed to meditate? Aren’t we suppose to clean, and read? All these things are good, when we use them lightly. When we use them to escape, when we use them for relief, when we go to them because we feel empty or scared or some other feeling we don’t like, then we are in soft addiction mode.

“Wait a minute!” I hear some of you say, “Isn’t relief a good thing, too?”

Relief is tricky. There is the relief we feel when the other shoe drops. There is the relief we feel when the check comes in the mail. There is the relief we feel when we remember that feeling bad is a habit based on negative thinking.

Then there is the relief we feel when the buzz starts.

So the question becomes this: Does this feeling of relief move me forward or hold me back?

When I choose to be a grownup, I choose to take responsibility for my well being. One of the ways I do that is to consciously choose how to spend my time.

Why could I enjoy my sexuality? Why could I transmute all I eat to nourishment?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2013 all rights reserved 11042013