Honeyanne

what's your comfort food?

    

(Tee hee - did you see how I used a play on words with "comfort food" and pictures of my little Comfort eating? Isn't that great?  I'm just so witty sometimes I scare myself. Ahem. Anyway...)

Ah, yes.  Comfort food.  My best friend and my worst enemy.  Too much of a good thing is, well, a lot of something good, which is good right? It feels that way at the moment but eventually it catches up with me, I am finding, which is not - um - good.

Moderation in all things.  Moderation is the name of the game.  Often, when I am unsure exactly what a word means I go to the synonyms to clarify.  Here are a bunch of synonyms for moderation:

• balance
• calmness
• composure
• constraint
• patience
• poise
• quiet
• restraint
• sobriety
• steadiness
• toleration

Hmmm...interesting, especially in connection with comfort food because, I am trying to achieve a sense of balance, quiet, restraint, self toleration etc. when I turn to food for comfort.  Can I use food to achieve this? 

Just for fun, lets look at some of the antonymns of moderation:

• indulgence
• intensity
• outrageousness
• severity
• unlimitedness
• violence
• wildness

Violence?  Really?  Can eating be a violent thing we do to ourselves?  I've heard of this before actually.  Let us suppose over doing it on the kraft dinner, cookies, Haagen Daz or whatever food you go to for comfort, is an act of violence on yourself.  Haagen Daz is not the evil here - it's the outrageousness of the indulgence which is the evil.  Too much of a good thing is violent.  Hmmm, when I consider it in these terms everything changes.

When I turn to food for comfort it is usually because I am lacking something - I'm bored or sad or worried or mad.  Sometimes I am celebrating too. If I turn to food in moderation to comfort myself, can I assume I will experience a sense of quiet, calmness or balance?  That is the hope, isn't it?  Why do we get up in arms about comfort food as an enemy.  It isn't.  Food is our friend.  It is unrestrained appetite which is our enemy. 

I don't know, maybe I'm way off here.  I think I need to study the topic more but the pictures are cute so at least this blog entry has that in it's favor.

Leave a comment if you have any insights on the topic of moderation and food...

set sail...

I've been reading As A Man Thinketh by James Allen. I usually read it every year. This book, simplified in my own words, explains how thoughts are extremely powerful and important in a person's life.

The other day I watched Inception staring Leonardo DiCaprio. There were 3 lines in that movie which stood out to me - kind of grabbed hold of me.

"An idea. Resilient. Highly Contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate."

"The seed that we plant in this man's mind will grow into an idea. This idea will define him. It may come to change...well, it may come to change everything about him."

"An idea is like a virus, resilient, highly contagious and the smallest seed of an idea can grow. It can grow to define or destroy you."

These little lines in a movie, crammed full of car chases and explosions, started to mix with the lines in As A Man Thinketh. I started to really wonder what one idea has taken root in my mind. What one idea is growing in there and defining me?

I searched my mind and, to my upset, found an idea which has been growing for a very long time.

I can't.

There it was. I could see how it has defined my life in so many ways. "Holy crap!" thought I (please excuse my potty-mouth). This one little thought, contagious and resilient has taken hold of me and has held me back for most of my life.

But also, as I examined my mind a little further, I found another idea that had been growing and weaving it's way up and around the dense thicket of the first idea.

I can.

Of all the things I have accomplished in my life, this idea has been the catalyst and the hope.

I realize how I need to nurture this little idea that has taken root in my mind. I need to tend it and feed it and water it and encourage it and shelter it. It's quality of life matters more than anything else.

The power of one idea - no matter how tiny - can grow until it changes everything. It can define not only myself but the world around me. We've seen that happen over and over in history. One idea can define a whole nation. Such a thought is worth nurturing, don't you agree?

I am discovering how subtly an idea starts in the mind. We can be nurturing it for a life time without even being aware it's there. Once we start to awake to the ideas, we can nourish and encourage what is right and empowering and reject those ideas which are base and damaging. We can resist the low notion and turn our gaze to more nobler ideas.

My dear friend Amber sent me this quote once. She was longing to cast off and explore her potential and find adventure and meaning in her life. As I think on this quote, I too long for distant shores. I long for the sea of possibilities in myself. But something often holds me back and these past few weeks I've been able to explore what it has been.

I challenge you, dear reader, to search inward and see just what ideas are defining you...happy sailing!