Personal Meditation No. 163

“It may not be your fault but it is still your problem.”

Embrace the Within.

Our brains love sugar and salt. And during this cold and dark time of the year, our bodies want to pack on the added layers. Food companies make certain to market foods that hit our sugary and salty receptors. Hooking us on eating things based on a biological process that was beneficial hundreds of years ago BUT today is a detriment to our health.

None of this is your fault. You didn’t create your body with this biological impulse. You didn’t take advantage of that biological impulse to sell processed food. BUT it is still our problem. The problem is not going away and the problem is not going to get easier to fix.

BUT, you can change the way you address the problem by thinking about the problem and critically approaching how to solve that problem. The fact that despite all the amazing advances in medicine and health that Americans are the unhealthiest they have ever been metabolically is disturbing. Obesity is an epidemic that fuels many other problems in American society.

Talking healthy eating is not attractive. Sometimes even advocating for healthy eating is considered shaming. And it is everyone’s choice to eat whatever they want. Just know that your body is fueled by what you choose to use to fuel your body. Your brain, your heart, your lungs, your liver, your kidneys, everything is affected by the fuel you choose.

Folks like to look for an easy way to get around the simple choices of what they’re putting into their bodies. They look to exercise, to pills, to surgeries, to any alternative that does not involve changing their diet. It’s human nature to just want the easy way out of the problem.

BUT, the easiest way out is changing how you eat. It gets no simpler than just buying better food. When I quit smoking, I had to change my routine in order to stop buying cigarettes. It is really difficult to smoke cigarettes if you don’t have any cigarettes. It is equally difficult to eat bad food if you don’t buy it. Both cigarettes and bad food are addictive. They light up the pleasure centers of the brain. And they are both poor choices that we can easily choose to change.

There are a lot of problems out there in the world today. Most of them can get changed from changing ourselves. We are not going to help anyone if we’re a mess. So, I encourage you to consider looking at when and what and why you’re eating. Critically looking at our eating habits is a first great step toward getting mentally and physically healthy. Give it a try and see how much better you feel about yourself, about your journey, about your life?

Have the day you want. I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #MyBodyMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain

Personal Meditation No. 162

“You are not making people angry by your choices. You can only make yourself something.”

Embrace the Within.

You cannot change anyone or make them do anything they do not choose. I think that is what is most frightening about mass genocide, psychological studies, road rage, military recruitment, law enforcement, government service, and any other behavior that we might look down our noses toward and believe, “I would never do something that despicable and vile.” Yet the history of humanity and the study of humanity is a lot of despicable and vile things being done by ordinary, basic people. The frightening thing about the atrocities of human history is that the folks that do these things are quite unremarkable and ordinary.

I get into conversations about human behavior all the time. And I do not make any excuses for why people act the way they do. It is all owned by the person choosing the behavior BUT I do not find myself believing that I am any better or smarter or different than folks that choose to act in unhealthy ways. Hell, I am not making the best and healthiest decisions all day long. Chocolate chip cookies, Phish Food ice cream, and Snicker bars are more my vices than violence and genocide BUT I am not going to pretend that there are not poor choices being made in my life as well. My poor choices mainly affect my personal health and not the lives of other people.

Choosing to be angry is also a choice I get to make. I can find fault for people with their actions and totally overlook my own faults or I can practice a little grace and empathy and recognize that folks are not great at making the best choices at all times. On my libertarian journey, I usually get blasted by statists in wanting people to make their own choices despite the outcomes. I get told that I don’t care about people, that I am selfish, and that I live in a utopian dream. BUT folks make their own choices every day. And those choices are typically motivated by some of the worst reasons especially when folks get caught up in their emotional responses. I have it happen to me as well. I get defensive when I feel under attack. I lash out unfairly at times. I also get to pause and then act and that is one of the things I am slowly working on during these days. Taking the moment between stimulus and response to think. And that thinking has helped me communicate my thoughts rather than communicate my emotions. Feelings are important. Feelings run a lot of what we think and do BUT taking that second to pause and reflect before acting can give some clarity as to what I want to communicate. Do I want to communicate rage or calm? That is my choice.

So, worry less about how your actions are going to affect others and concern yourself more with how your actions are going to affect you? What kind of life do you want to live? What kind of life do you want to model? What is your purpose for acting?

Have the day you want. I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #MyBodyMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain