on November 8, 2014in Weight Losstags: conscious eating, emotional eating, food, happiness, joy, pain, pleasure
Does food make you happy?
The real question is this: CAN food make you happy?
Well, let’s look at this logically.
How much food have you eaten since you were born?
Maybe tons of food? From breastmilk, to milk, tons of cereal growing up; breads, juices, snacks; pounds and pounds of chips and crackers. How much sweets have you eaten since you were born? Sodas, Kool-aide/sugar drinks/lemonade? 50, 100 pounds of sugar, candy, chocolate, brownies, and cookies? How much ice cream? Maybe another 100 pounds? or more?! How about meat? How much chicken, steaks, and hamburgers have you eaten since you were born? LOL, a lot, I know! I know I have!
So, are you happy yet? ? ? ? ?
OK, let’s go to more luxurious foods. How many times have you said to yourself, “Oh, I want to eat at so-and-so restaurant or fast food place”? How many times did you follow your craving, since you were born? Say, 10 times? No, maybe 100 times, or 2 or 300 times. Maybe it’s fast food, or maybe it’s something really nice like sushi, expensive steak, or lobster. At least 50 times since you were born, I’m sure.
So, are you happy? ? ? ? ? ?
WHAT HAPPENED?!?!?!?!?!
You wanted to eat something, or eat at a specific restaurant, or have a special meal or special dessert. If you wanted it, you had it somewhere in your mind that if you followed that urge, and ate that food or ate at that place, that you would become happy- or at least a little bit happier than you were to begin with.
So, are you happier today than you were when you were born?
Did all that eating affect your state of happiness?
Ok, ok- I know- the food tastes good, and so you think you were happier while you were eating it. Well, here we need to clearly separate the myths of pleasure and happiness.
Pleasure vs Happiness
Pleasure is some positive feeling or sensation in the body or mind. Happiness is a deep seated sense of joy that originates in the heart and the soul.
The easiest way to understand the difference is by asking whether whatever experience you’re having is bringing a temporary pleasurable feeling that is associated with a painful opposite, or is it bringing you a permanent sense of joy with no opposite that you might remember on your death-bed.
For example, when you pay full attention to another human being and give them a hug, you will feel a sense of joy in your heart. You will remember it, also. It stamps your soul, and the Love that you felt becomes a permanent part of your soul. It’s not erased. And there’s no opposite feeling.
On the other hand, when you eat some french fries, it tastes good, you feel good, and then later on you get hungry again. Pain of hunger, pleasure of eating, pain of hunger, pleasure of eating. Endless pleasure/pain cycle. Not memorable to the soul.
Conclusion?
I think we all know that food simply can not make us happy. Temporary pleasure, yes. But not happiness.
So why bother?
Well, as the old adage goes, “Eat to live, don’t live to eat.” When you eat foods that nourish your body and your soul, in amounts that are necessary for your well-being, then you feel the inherent pleasurableness of life throughout your body. You enjoy it with Love, without the rebellion of drowning your emotions with food. You enjoy it in relationship to the food, and to the Life Force, and to others.
Happiness comes from only One Source, the Divine.
By becoming more aware of the Divine in your body and mind, you will overcome the false idea that food could ever make you happy. And that is the beginning of freedom from food’s emotional grasp of you.
Comment below, I’d love to hear from you!
Oh- and how do you become more aware of the Divine in your body and mind? Start with my new program, here.
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With great love,
Dr. Moses.