Mind States
Digesting Life
by Vaishali
According to many Eastern systems of self-healing, our bodies are an aggregate of different types of digestive intelligences. For example, our eyes digest light waves so that we can make perceptual sense of our world. Our ears digest sound waves so that we may enjoy our favorite music. When we touch one another, our hands digest intimate contact through the tactile feeling feedback system. There is a reason for this conglomerate of digestive efforts. It is because, as the philosophers of the East say, everything we encounter is a form of food. We are literally digesting our lives.
So let’s eat! But first, we have to be able to swallow our food. Then we need to be able to stomach it. Once we’ve got that down, we need to pull from our food what enhances us and makes us stronger, more loving and more balanced individuals. Finally, we need to recognize and release the waste in our lives—and let it go.
By looking at the Eastern self-healing philosophies, we can understand that our thoughts, emotions, perceptions and experiences travel through our digestive tract in a fashion that is identical to the food we eat. How much of what we give our attention to, and how much of what we feel about life, can we really swallow, stomach, and convert into life-sustaining energy? Metaphorically speaking, some things can be really hard to swallow, and even harder to stomach.
Are we simply eating crap, thinking there is something of value in it for us? Maybe if we use some seasoning and disguise the taste, our bodies won’t notice. Think again. If what we give our attention to is limiting, then there’s nothing there that is useful for us. How do we assure there is value in the food we eat? And, if we do become bloated and constipated by overindulgence in toxic waste, how do we find the emotional, psychological, experiential and perceptual “Ex-Lax” needed to inspire us to let go of our energetic fecal matter? The toughest part of the human experience is recognizing what is useless in our lives and discarding it completely.
We can get rid of what is not serving us through awareness. When we find ourselves giving our attention to worry, or to some other inner dialogue about how we do not have enough time, love, money or opportunity, do we consider its nutrient-to-waste ratio, or do we just shove it down our mouths like a 99 cent taco? The best way to “not partake of the crap” is to ask yourself if what you are giving your attention to looks, sounds, tastes, smells or feels limiting. If the answer is yes, then the healthy digestive answer would be to take that item off your diet. Do not give what is limiting to you your attention, unless you want to feed yourself noxious, meaningless, “Mean Cuisine.” The concept of digestion as metaphor brings a whole new meaning to the term “junk food.”
So, if you find yourself consuming mass quantities of negativity in the same way that the Coneheads consumed beer and chips, there is a digestive remedy. Stop! Recognize what you are giving your attention to, and then choose something else. When you give your attention to what is limitless, the emotional, mental and physical bodies will immediately recognize what needs to be discarded and what needs to be taken in deeper to sustain life.
Ever wonder why the body holds on to some forms of waste and toxins and releases others? Or why some people can eat foods that make others ill? How well our bodies are (or are not) digesting food is a reflection of how well we are digesting our lives in terms of our thoughts, emotions, experiences and perceptions. We can become aware of what our unconscious issues are by examining what the digestive process is reflecting back to us. Notice where in your body you feel you have stuffed something you do not trust emotionally or mentally. What toxic energy are you holding onto that your body, by way of dis-ease, is reflecting back to you?
In the West, we define digestion as starting with the mouth, chewing and mixing with saliva, then swallowing. The Eastern systems of self-healing take another view. They say that digestion starts when you see the food, when you smell the food and when you touch it with your fingers. How many times have you driven to the grocery store when you were not hungry? Then, as you walked up and down the isles, touching the fruits and veggies, you found yourself ready to eat everything in your shopping cart? Digestion starts at any level that involves the five senses.
In the same way that the brain digests our thoughts and beliefs, and the nervous system digests what we feel on a tactile level, our internal organs, in addition to having a physical function, also digest our emotions. According to Eastern systems of medicine, each internal organ has a specific, emotional “food digestive/transformative process.” For example, the spleen, stomach and pancreas digest anxiety, worry, and nervousness. That is why we get “butterflies” in the stomach when anticipating or perceiving something. The liver and gallbladder take on anger, rage, envy, and frustration. The heart and small intestines digest impatience and the kidneys and bladder deal with fear and terror. The lungs and large intestines have the task of breaking down loneliness, sadness and grief, as well as low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness.
Digestion does not stop there. To the Eastern systems of self-healing, respiration is one of our most profound digestive functions. How can that be? The breath goes in, the breath goes out. What is so complicated about that? For starters, most people are not breathing the way their bodies were designed to. Ever watch how babies breathe? Their lower abdomen expands on the inhale. Their chest moves last and moves the least. When a baby has an emotional moment, they experience it, then they let it go; a baby can go from crying to laughing in about 60 seconds flat. Babies digest the emotion, experience, and perception, release it, and find themselves available for the next round. Ever examine how you are breathing? I bet dollars to donuts, no pun intended, that your chest moves first and most dramatically, and your lower abdomen moves last and least. Do you ever experience something and cannot seem to let it go? How you breathe is playing a part in this digestive Groundhog Day scenario.
So how come we start out functioning correctly as babies, and end up ass backwards? The answer: the diaphragm. The diaphragm is a large muscle that literally cuts your body into two halves at the lower rib cage. When the diaphragm moves down on the inhale, the emotional digestive mechanism is turned on, just as we see in babies. When the diaphragm moves up on the inhale, the exact opposite to how we are designed to function, it causes the chest to move first, and the emotional digestive mechanism gets turned off. Babies breathe the way we are all designed to breathe to because they do not give their attention to limiting ideas about themselves or life. Babies gradually learn to do this from the world around them. They watch others not digesting their lives and they witness others not breathing correctly. Babies watch, learn and mimic; they take it all in, for better or worse. As the child learns to give his or her attention to limiting things and as they progress in repressing their emotions and fears, the diaphragm gradually inverts its natural movement. Viola, the undigested life begins. This is one of the many reasons Eastern forms of meditation emphasize focusing on the breath. Breathing correctly and deeply detoxifies you physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. Guess what? Correct breathing is not just for babies anymore!
Digesting our lives involves a deep connection to our awareness. What are we giving our attention to? Is it something unlimited, something we can swallow and stomach on every level? Or are we feeding ourselves intellectual and perceptual toxins? Consider what you feed yourself. Examine if you are breathing completely and deeply enough to activate your emotional digestive system. And the next time you find yourself hungry for any aspect of life, take a deep breath, focus on what is most life-enhancing, and be sure and read the menu first. Assess your choices. Most of all, try not to eat what’s sitting out back in the garbage cans. But if you do, learn to let it go!
Vaishali is the author of You Are What You Love and hosts her own weekly web-cast of the same name on www.contacttalkradio.com. She is a monthly guest host on “Seeing Beyond,” a KEST 1450 AM radio show in San Francisco. Her articles have been published in magazines nationwide. To learn more, please visit www.purplev.com