Spiritual Belly

I'm writing this post a day late. Work commitments were pressing and life got busy. However, better late than never, right? Actually, this highlights an issue I personally struggle with. All or nothing thinking. Either everything goes according to the plan I've made or it all gets chucked out the window. Diets, workout routines, new habits. In reality, growth is never a straight line. It twists and turns, goes up and down, tmakes wo steps forward and one step back. The important thing is the mindset. Are you committed to making progress on your goal, no matter how small? Are you willing to pick yourself up when you fail, no matter what? As long as we are breathing, we have the opportunity to make strides towards our goal. Mine is weight loss, but I see weight loss as a metaphor. I'm learning how to grow my soul. How to grow resilience and learn how to do tough things. So, while my week didn't totally go according to plan, I still learned something in the process. Keep p...

This week we had some Mormon missionaries visit our house. Now, I come from an evangelical background which taught that Mormons are a cult of Christianity and their theology deviates enough that we can't call them true Christians. We had an obligation to proselytize them to come out of their belief system and step into ours. I would feel nervous talking to them. I felt like I had to criticize their organization while defending what I believed. Being non-confrontational, it was very difficult for me to step into this role. Fast-forward past the deconstruction of my orthodox Christian faith and now I have a much different perspective. I now believe in a concept called universalism, which basically affirms that everyone will eventually find themselves back into an unconditional loving relationship with God (Source, the Universe, the Light... fill in your favorite term). I can respect anyone's journey and rest assured that they're in good hands. I have no need to get another pe...

I love the yin-yang symbol. The depiction of black chasing white and white chasing black in an endless cycle. To me, this is a perfect metaphor for life. We divide ourselves up into good guys and bad guys and have it out with the other team. Funny both sides claim goodness is on their side, while the other side is leading us to ruin. It's tribal and primitive thinking, which, to be fair, is very expected given where we come from. We've evolved to survive and, because we are a social species, our survival depended on our group survival. When food was scarce and another tribe was nearby, you had to fight to make sure your tribe was the one that made it. Now, we live in an age of abundance. We have so much food, you are more likely to die from overconsuming versus underconsuming. And yet, with this abundance, we still maintain our tribal thinking and go to war with those outside our tribe, fighting not for food, but for power. The ability to dictate how society should function. By...

As I was finishing the last of the Christmas cookies, I couldn't help but think, "Well, I'm glad THAT'S over." It's so funny in our culture how we have access to all these yummy foods, yet I feel guilty when I partake. I think this stems from what I perceive is a lack of self-control. Now I know this is the modus operandi for diet culture. You swear off treats, deprive yourself, only to give in a few weeks later and binge ALL the foods. I've lived that over and over again. And I'm tired of it. I was speaking with my therapist about self-control as it relates to food. I can get rather hard on myself and see my eating habits as a sign of weakness. She disagrees. To her, we are reaping the exact result we would expect for our culture. We are biologically wired to seek out food, especially sweet and fatty foods. When you lived on the plains and didn't know where your next meal was coming, you ate as much as you could, as often as you could. We don'...