Eat to Nourish, Not To Feed (Or How To Satisfy Your Deeper Hunger)

Enlightened Masters have a way of speaking on many levels at once. There's the message you hear with your ears at the moment, and then there's the deeper wisdom that unfolds later when your awareness has evolved and you're ready to understand what else the message was about. Some time ago in enlightenment school (mystery school or wisdom school if you prefer), our Teacher gave us what I thought was a simple yet radical lesson in bringing true health consciousness to our eating habits and to the dinner table. But just the other day, I'm at the computer, and all of a sudden I became aware that there was a hidden teaching in there about tending to deeper needs of the soul.

"Eat to nourish, not to feed," is what our Teacher advised. Many of us are in the habit of appeasing our appetites with only a secondary concern (if any) for true nourishment. And yes, the bowl of peanut butter puffs I was just shoveling into my mouth was supposedly organic and healthy. But really, who buys peanut butter puffs but for the taste? The impulse (or maybe it's the conditioning) to indulge in tasty treats doesn't end with physical hunger. We often engage in this same behavior to satisfy our appetites for other things from sex, to success, to acceptance, and even spiritual power. And in our desire to feed this appetite, we may run from one relationship to the next, one seminar to another, or from business venture to business venture, for example. But an hour later, we're hungry again so to speak. Why? Without a conscious choice to nourish the true need behind our appetite, our feeding frenzies tend to leave us feeling full of junk, empty, or both. When we chase fulfillment in this way, every step toward it seems to kick it away, like a small child trying to walk up on a beach ball.

If you really think about it, though...if you really think about hunger, we don't get hungry just because we need nourishment. Hunger arises when your nourishment has been neglected for too long, and the resulting imbalance has become too great--perhaps even unbearable. So hunger then is more like a desperate inner cry for something--anything--to fill you up and keep you going. This is when we become most vulnerable to "feeding" or "binging" indiscriminately on just about anything. Any snack, any relationship, any job, any attention, any distraction will do to tide you over--and keep you asleep to the truth of yourself.

True nourishment sustains us at the level of mind, body and spirit simultaneously. It takes less food to fulfill and sustain me throughout the day, for example, when the food I eat is wholly nutritious. My intuitive abilities are naturally strengthened as well, the more nutritious my diet. Likewise, when we are engaged in activities that fulfill us deep within our soul, the body and the mind also benefit. We don't just keep going, we thrive.

So if you want to bring greater nourishment and fulfillment to your life, take a good look at what you're hungry for--and when you tend to be hungriest for it. Whatever it is, be it recognition, success, love, chocolate, etc., know that underneath it lies a deeper need that you must nourish. Perhaps it is a need for greater openness, honesty, forgiveness, or confidence somewhere in your being. Or maybe it is a need for good old-fashioned patience, practice or discipline. Once the need in nourished, the hunger disappears.

So here are some exercises you can try to help:

Exercises

1. Examine your deeper need closely through mindfulness, meditation, journaling or whatever your enlightenment tool of choice--and then seek to nourish it. To examine, in this case, does not mean to psychoanalyze. It means to observe yourself. It means to watch your patterns in action. It means to put space between yourself and your unconscious reaction, so that awareness has an opportunity to arise there.
2. Fast or abstain from your feeding habit for a short period. Even as few as 12 hours can greatly reduce an out-of-control appetite, especially if you break the fast with a more nourishing course of action. So, if this were food, you'd break your fast with something really nutritious and energized. If you had been abstaining from a television overdose, you might break the fast with doing something creative or athletic, for example. Engaging in purifying breath techniques or a centering meditation at both the start and end of this period can greatly enhance the shift of inner power. You'll likely have to do this process multiple times to retrain your energy.
3. If you have the Self Mastery & Fulfillment Workbook:
   • Use the Inner Power Mapping technique to help uncover the root of your hunger and how to nourish the underlying need.
   • Follow up by doing the personal workshop on Desire (Journey XII in the book).