05Mar

The sweetness of life


“The longing for sweets is really a yearning for love or “sweetness.”
― Marion Woodman

This quote from Marion Woodman, a Jungian psychologist, gives insight to how food cravings may work for some people. Since psychology was one of my majors in college, I am fascinated with how it inter-plays with human biology. I am firmly entrenched in the belief that our thoughts effect our bodies and our bodies effect our minds and thoughts. Just think, if every thought…every emotion which occurs inside of a person is a chemical signal, and that body must process each and every one, then why would this not be true? In my mind, it must be. Therefore, we must pay attention to our thoughts, our subsequent actions, and how they work together to develop patterns. These could be health building patterns, or health destroying patterns, but patterns nonetheless.

 

There are those who believe long term, chronic illness may be the result of long term negative thoughts. These people propose constantly participating in negative “self-talk” can activate illness or illness like conditions. While I do not suggest anyone forgo the consult and/or treatment of a medical doctor (as explained in earlier posts, etc), what does it hurt to incorporate looking at something like this? Nothing. It is always healthy to examine one’s own psyche in order to further one’s own development. And so….let’s look at the longing for sweets.

 

Losing the sweetness of life

How do we lose our sweetness of life? For one woman, it was the realization the fairy tale life in her dreams was not going to happen in real life. She had wanted to attend college; have some kids; be in a loving marriage; have a house in the country…all those things she had read about her icons doing and having. She ignored her inability to be flexible. She had no “go-with-the-flow” about her. When other males rejected her, she settled for the first one that would take her. He was a controlling, manipulative man who quickly turned the relationship into a dysfunctional passive-aggressive wasteland. Soon, she realized her dreams would never come true in this environment. Of course, by the time she realized it, she weighed 250 pounds (at 5 foot 3 inches tall); had blood sugar levels high enough to be classified as “pre-diabetic”; was consuming three to six sodas per day; and would not dare to sacrifice her king sized Reese cup each day. After all, chocolate is a great antioxidant, right?

Life had become a struggle. A struggle to be “allowed” to follow her heart; struggle to keep in contact with friends; struggle to get the housework done; and so forth and so on. She would describe this as, “feeling as though I must fight the heaviest tides, head-on, with the weight of the world strapped to my back.” The thought of trying to go back to a time where things seemed “sweet” or easy or had a feeling of potential, meant work. Work meant fighting against all those forces, including self-doubt; confidence in the face of condemnation; perseverance; and trusting others to be good people not intentionally causing harm to her.

A good….long…hard look at her life was in order. How many Reese cups did it take for her to feel as if her life were sweet enough? How many times did a bucket of ice cream substitute hugs? How many Hershey bars counteracted the sting of insults? You see, even though those negatives were always coming from those around her, her own self was telling her…reinforcing to her…she was nothing but a washed up fake. She may as well seek comfort in the one thing that has never failed her: SWEETS!

The results were half finished and now neglected projects; a closet full of too tight clothes; and even more sadness and grief. High blood pressure, low stamina and energy, headaches, exhaustion, and more physical ailments, all combined, just compounded the emotions. How does one recover from all of that?

 

Rediscovering the sweetness of balance

Even though the woman above is fictional, this type of thing happens every single day. Stories very similar, sometimes even more tragic, come across my desk. Individuals such as this, need help…assistance…coaching to get back up and get their lives back in order to find appreciation for those sweet things which make life what it is.

Where to begin?

The best place to begin is with the obvious. Physically, the hypothetical woman in the above tale, needs to address her physical symptoms of obesity and blood sugar balance. It is incredibly difficult to get up and move again after a sedentary life! Physical aids may help to give the mental aspect a boost in the proper direction.

If it were me, in this scenario, I would begin by directly lending support to my body’s ability to balance blood sugar. This may help to even out the energy supply, so to speak. I love using blends of herbs.

Blends are great for supplying all your needs, without sinking a large amount of money into individual products. They are premixed to deliver a cost efficient product.

I would look for a blend containing chromium, vanadium, cinnamon bark extract, fenugreek seeds, bitter melon fruit, gymnema leaves extract, nopal leaves and banaba leaf. Chromium and vanadium are two minerals shown to have positive effects on maintaining healthy blood sugar levels. Vanadium may have actions mimicking insulin and chromium is needed to get insulin into the body’s cells. The herbs I listed work in the following ways:

-Banaba, gynema, and bitter melon have been historically used to support glandular functioning. Research now supports this, and possibly points to a more specific target of action: the pancreas.

Multiple approaches

 

Then I would, personally, add a flower essence called to vent the grief in my life.There are flower essences out there which may lend emotional support to those feeling as if they are helpless to make change, therefore losing the “sweetness” from their lives. Most are formulated using the same methods set forth by Dr. Bach when he began making flower essences.

Smell the sweetness

 

I would also use various citrus essential oils to brighten and boost the mood. My two favorites for this are Pink Grapefruit and Blood Orange. Do not use oils derived synthetically nor diluted with synthetics. I like to use one of those citrus oils with blends containing other oils like Atlas cedar, Spruce, Ho Leaf, Blue Tansy, Frankincense, Chamomile. Or, at times,  I just use their various blends that already have pink grapefruit included. Since these are blends I like to have diffused throughout my home, I use them in diffusers, plug in “aroma balls,” in a small necklace pendent designed to carry essential oils, and I have even added them to lightweight, non-greasy oils like almond oil or sunflower oil, to massage onto my skin.

 

Talk yourself into finding the sweetness

If negative self-talk got you to this point, positive self-talk may help to bring you back away from this point. Affirmations to boost the ability to feel the sweetness include:

-The universe loves and supports me!

-I am surrounded by sweet love and tenderness!

 

All of these may have a positive impact on your mental outlook and you physical ability to find your sweetness in life!

Life really is sweet….enjoy it!

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