In the last blog, I talked about how food often represents something besides just food.  We’re not always aware of this.  For example, people may say “I love food.”  But is it really food that they love or that food represents someone in their lives who was loving and may have cooked that particular food.  For me, my grandmother represented love in my life as a child.  She just happened to be a “home economics” major in college and an excellent cook.  Certain foods evoke a memory of my grandmother and when I am faced with these foods, I feel like I’m 7 years old, sitting at the formica table in my grandma’s kitchen.  I can see her standing at the stove with an apron on, her hair tied up in a knot.  I can imaging the softness of her hand as she hands me the strawberry shortcake.  And I feel at home and loved.  All that from a piece of strawberry shortcake. (more…)

If you have used food to medicate your feelings or if your extra weight helps you feel safe, then

you are using food as a metaphor. A metaphor describes one thing as if it were something else.

Saying that “food is love” is an example of how we use food as a metaphor. You may think that

you love food when in fact food is actually filling an unmet need in your life – now or in the past -

for love, safety, joy or other basic needs. (more…)

I used to believe that we must choose between science and reason on one hand, and spirituality on the other, in how we lead our lives.  Now I consider this a false choice.  We can recover the sense of sacredness, not just in science, but in perhaps every area of life.

Larry Dossey, MD

The quote above was written by Dr. Dossey who is a pioneer in alternative medicine.  When it comes to eating disorders, it has long been my belief, which I wrote about in “Healing Body, Mind and Spirit” that eating disorders and addictions are about spiritual pain.  When a person with an eating disorder goes through treatment, the deepest level of recovery is found on the spiritual level.  It doesn’t have to be with religion or even spirituality.  It’s about that sense of sacredness.  Food and eating become sacred.  The body is no long the enemy; a new reverence is developed towards the inner workings of the body.  Relationships as well can become sacred.

Once behaviors are no longer the focus and you become more aware of your emotions and how to manage them, then the real work takes place.  The first step of that deeper work is reconnecting mind and body and learning to nurture and appreciate all the body does for us on a moment by moment basis – digesting whatever we put into it; sending nutrients in our cells to all parts of the body; continuing to breathe.

Becoming more connected with the body is the beginning of becoming more connected with nature, people in our lives and the environment we live in.

Spirituality has many different meanings.  A sense of awe is to be cultivated as part of recovery as is a sense of the sacred.  They provide the anchor for sacredness in your recovery.

The recent crisis in the Gulf brought to mind, as I’m sure it has for many, how we take care of our home.  The earth, our terrestrial home is under siege and it is heartbreaking to watch the damage she is suffering.  We can use this macro lesson in caring for our home to bring to our awareness how important it is to take care of another home – our bodies.  When we abuse the earth or don’t take proper care of the earth – there are consequences – some greater than others.  when we abuse our bodies, the same applies.

Most of us don’t think of our bodies as our home but in fact they are.  We get one body at birth. We live in that body-home until we die.  The food we eat, whether or not we are active, how we nourish our bodies in general will have consequences.  If we smoke, we damage our hearts and lungs.  When we eat foods that are highly processed, we send out inflammatory cells to all parts of the body which over time cause wear and tear on the body organs.

As we look at the disaster being played out on our TVs in the news, I wonder what headline news it would take to get all of us to take our body health as seriously.  While the media is churning out more and more studies about how “bad” obesity is, we forget that scare tactics never work.  We must all refocus what has been called the war on obesity into a partnership to put health first, then weight. If we saw ourselves in the same light that we see the poor creatures of the sea; if our hearts would open to our own need for caring, then perhaps changing how we treat ourselves, our bodies would make sense. Because, to me, it doesn’t make the most sense that we try to get everyone to “just be thin.”  There are many thin people who are unhealthy.  So thin is definitely NOT the answer.

But anyone who takes care of themselves, who views their bodies as their friend, not adversary, who is a good steward of this home will be as healthy as humanly possible.  Perhaps BP’s oil spill and the crisis in the gulf can serve as a wake up call for us all to take care of all the homes under our guardianship – from our bodies to the earth itself.