LISTEN TO YOUR GUT

Hearing your Teddy Bear Belly through the Mind-field of Dietary Doctrines

When my stomach is most happy it reminds me of a TEDDY BEAR BELLY. Lovely and round. Hanging out in a relaxed manner. Empty pockets between the stuffing, allowing for intuition and guidance to appear.

But with the overload of DOGMATIC FOOD ADVICE, we seldom hear what our bodies are truly asking for. Cooking shows, cookbooks, food blogs. Restaurants and cafes on every corner of Melbourne. Our obsession with food is sky high. Of course there is much to love about food. As a good friend pointed out “we have a mouth”, so we need to figure out what to put in it. And it’s pleasurable for a reason. But why so much emphasis? What of the other pleasures in life, like learning about the universe. Or are people not having enough sex?! Perhaps we are too time poor to sit under a tree and rejoice in the blossoming season.

The aim of food advice is trying to achieve a balance or “middle way”. But if we are so strict on these boundaries we become stuck. Life is irregular in nature. The breath is not naturally the same tempo. A tightrope walker may lean out of center one way to re-establish balance. But the mind tries so hard to control. If I eat this, cut this, do this, I will be balanced. Um…i don’t think so. Let’s allow ourselves to swing in and out of this “perfect balance” and RID OUR MIND OF CONCEPTS.

Food is also just plain old fuel. The head-wreck is trying to find the most functional food that we can also enjoy. The truth is, WE CAN GET BENEFIT FROM ANYTHING WE CONSUME, depending on our attitude. If we have a policeman like mind that says, “this food is bad”, or if we feel guilty when consuming, we block any available nourishment. Have you ever had something “bad”, that has made you feel a million bucks without any detrimental effects.

Recently I felt alive after having a coffee and a piece of cake. Through NON-JUDGEMENT and free-flowing satisfaction, i was nourished by something i previously had thought of as “bad”. My body also tells me it now “loves” leafy greens. I am feeling more nourished from these beauties than ever before. A different effect from my repulsion to greens as a child.

So what would your belly say if you were to have a conversation with it? “Please don’t keep eating, when i have CLEARLY had enough”, Or “water, water, we love water”.

Whatever the case it’s time to let go of mind control and start choosing in each moment with our teddy bear bellies.