‘All living things need food, water and air to survive.’
This is one of the first lessons that we were given in life.
‘Your diet should include three balanced meals a day, in order for you to grow, fight diseases and stay alive.’
These are undisputed scientific facts, vital for our ‘survival.’
But…we need a lot more than food to feel ‘alive.’
Health and fitness, nutrition and medication, diseases and their cures…trillions of dollars, a century worth of Human Resource, research and technology, have all been successfully employed in the better understanding of the human body.
And studying it is no small feat, being a limitless science. To their credit, they’ve amassed a lot of information and life saving treatments for the complexities of the human body, that allows us to survive in the physical sense on planet earth…and for that, mankind is grateful.
But have we all fallen short in understanding the requirements for our best quality of living?
Human beings are not one dimensional!
We do not identify with just our bodies…but also with our minds. Science calls this ‘dualism.’
Which means we are a body with a mind.
I’d go a step further to say, we are an amalgamation of our body, mind and soul.
So it makes me wonder, if we are so much more than just an outer shell, why then, have we been taught to feed just one part of us everyday?!
In terms that today’s generation would understand better, so far, we have only been given a tutorial on the repair and maintenance of our hardware.
Our software and battery have been grossly neglected!
As a result, I believe, we are living in a time of:
Physical obsession
Mental obesity and
Spiritual starvation
Part I
Physical obsession:
Enough has been said, about the physical body. What more could I possibly add?
However my theory is related to the workings of our digestive system.
In a nutshell, we have all learnt that:
1. various organs, hormones, enzymes, fluids, etc. are dedicated towards the digestion of the food we eat.
2.This is then converted into the energy required by our cells for the functioning of our bodies.
3.However if the energy is not burnt through activity or exercise, it gets converted into, and stored as, fat.
Part II
Mental Obesity:
Now let us for a minute, apply the same template to our minds. Would it really be so beyond the realm of our imagination, if we presumed that just like the extremely intricate and efficient digestive system that has been designed for our body, there might be one for our minds as well?
1.Knowledge is the food of the mind.
So we consume information that our minds process.
2.Let’s imagine our brain cells are now energised and this energy is fueling our thinking faculties, and our imagination.
3.This is the exercise for the brain!
And here lies the problem. When we, as adults, have not been instructed to channelise our imagination properly, this excess energy gets converted into the mental equivalent of fat…
WORRY!
Never before has the human mind been privy to such an information overload, as in today’s world. We are constantly consuming knowledge in the form of books, movies, shows, social media, whatsapp, the news, and the Internet.
Some of it is nutritious…but most of it is the equivalent of junk food for the brain, that is being force fed to us one Whatsapp forward at a time.
The information that enters our brain is no longer restricted to our immediate surroundings but has expanded to include the entire global community, most of which has no actual bearing on our lives. We sit in our homes and see pictures of the food someone has eaten in Belarus, or watch videos of a stranger’s adorable baby in Boston. But worse, we get to witness some highly sensitive and grim scenarios too.
We all know what happens to our body in the absence of a nutritious diet, fixed meal times or lack of exercise.
If we assume that a similar process is going on in our minds, (and we have no reason not to), then the result is obvious.
An increasing number of people find themselves constantly anxious and worried about all the potential situations that may or may not happen to them, based on the unfortunate experiences of complete strangers, that they never would have even heard about, before the advent of the internet.
Information overload is the obesity of the brain and worry is the mind’s version of vomiting. Day after day, every single day!
But since experts in any field haven’t explained this digestive process of the brain to us yet, the cycle continues and compounds until it is too late, and mental health becomes an extreme cause of concern.
So what is the remedy for this?
I recently noticed that whenever somebody phoned me, and initiated our conversation with the universally accepted,
“what are you doing?”
If, at that moment I was doing any of the following:
humming, scribbling, doodling, folding paper into no shape in particular, strolling on a patch of grass, daydreaming as I aimlessly wandered around my space, listening to music, dancing, writing, reading or the like…my immediate response would be,
“Nothing!”
However the same would not be true if I were at work, running an errand, or in the company of other people.
I would then most readily supply the details with a hint of pride.
Sounds familiar?!
Over the years our competitive, ambitious, success-chasing and productivity-driven society has brainwashed our minds so, so brutally that we are hardwired to believe that the things that give us simple pleasures…amount to nothing!
Instead we have been conditioned to demand productivity and usefulness from ourselves at all times, to the point of feeling guilty when we are not.
The creators of languages did us all a great disservice by adding the criminally inaccurate prefix, ‘extra’ to the word curricular, thereby relegating their importance to the ‘hobbies & interests’ column on any standard issue form.
Found somewhere above
‘identification mark if any’
and much below
‘occupation and education’.
In the process we started to think of our hobbies and interests as unimportant, since a very young age.
But the older I got, the more I realised how very distant from the truth this is.
Our hobbies and interests are not ‘extra’….
they are essentials!
Ironically, the world view towards them did change, once the realisation set in that they can also lucratively fit into the occupation section for many. Or at the very least, successfully embellish a resumè. And this has led us to a fresh mania…taking every enjoyable activity to the next level, competitively.
Today even when we are being creative, it’s only for projection; in order to satisfy our hunger for economic success & egoistic stature on social media…chasing the imaginary currency of a million followers.
Imagine instead, we were taught since childhood, that an integral part of the digestion process of the mind is its mandatory exercise, by the seemingly unproductive idling away of 5-10 minutes at a time.
Sing to your heart’s content.
Draw out your emotions.
Write out your feelings.
(Without the desire to exhibit or share)
If only we were instructed to simply engage our sense organs, the way we used to when we knew better, when we were children…with colouring books and puzzles and clay…When we knew how to keep our minds occupied in some mechanical task..so that it was free to soar and daydream.
Then there would be no excess imagination leftover to predict fictitious worst case scenarios and cause unnecessary worry.
Part III
Spiritual Starvation:
Then comes our third dimension, and the diet we need…for our soul! This is a tricky one to agree upon, because spirituality and religion have become intertwined so deeply that it’s complicated to separate the two. And separate we must, if we want a well-fed soul not being neglected and starved.
No matter where we believe we come from or where we go once we die, I think everyone agrees that we all do, in fact, have a soul.
It loosely translates to our spirit, our personality, that spark within us, which actually is the essence of us.
We are neither the body that houses and protects us, nor the mind that speaks to us, instructs us, and helps us maneuver the physical world.
But so consumed are we in the trappings of the former two, that we forget completely about who we really are.
The one whom we bury so deep, because it holds our secrets, is often the one that we forget to meet.
It’s like having a treasure. That knows the answers to all of life’s questions, since before our mind and body even came into being.
Yet we don’t connect with it everyday, because it takes a lot more effort to find it. It isn’t noisy and vocal in its demands from us, like the mind and body are. The soul is the silent spectator. The one who has witnessed our many lives, in many bodies, I believe.
So what then is the diet for the soul?
I would assume, since it’s made of energy, our soul also feeds on it.
It absorbs the energy of every single place, event and person we meet. Its like your aura flowing into mine wordlessly, when we interact…like the blending of colours.
And then I carry it further, to blend into the next person I meet. We each leave an impression on the other, no matter how briefly we cross paths. Without realising it, we never meet anyone with an emotionally clean slate.
It is no wonder that sometimes we are exhausted even though we eat and sleep well. Or snap at someone we love for no apparent reason.
Or sometimes we experience an unexplained exhilaration, like when we are at a concert, game or a music festival.
It is no wonder that the wise have told us time and time again, to surround ourselves with positivity, with things we love to do, to recharge in nature and with creativity.
And especially, to surround ourselves with people who feel positive, like sunshine. Those who leave us with a smile on our lips, and a spring in our step.
This need not mean that they’re unnaturally happy all of the time, or conversations with them are superficial.
On the contrary, you can discuss anything with them, but you know they mean well for you and more importantly, they mean well for themselves.
You cannot heal someone who enjoys being ill. People who look for burdens to carry and aren’t willing to shed their load.
However their burdens are contagious! Their negativity is likely to spread to you and contaminate your soul.
So we need to learn to recognise negative energy when it is sent our way, and learn to keep distance, for a little while, even if it’s from those closest to us. There’s just not enough value assigned to this, in our education.
Important to note is: The energy that we receive is in no way a permanent judgement of that person. Simply, of what they feed and expose us to, at that particular time.
Let’s say, a friend just had an unpleasant encounter with their boss, or a run-in with a sarcastic person, or a near death experience in traffic, (which in cities could be daily)…they naturally would want to vent to ease their load, and replenish their depleting energy by recharging it with some of ours.
That’s what we do for the people we love. Create a support system. And they would be happy to return the favour as well, in the future.
However we need to ask ourselves who are the people we are willing to share our energy with? Because it is exhausting for our soul to do so.
Much like the battery life on our cell phones. Because what else is our soul if not our battery?
So ask yourself this:
If there was a way to charge someone else’s mobile battery by transferring it from yours, which is already running low….who are the people you would be willing to lend it to?
Shockingly very few! And yet we permit anyone to steal the energy from our soul!
Just as is explained by science, warmth causes molecules to vibrate faster and higher, but when exposed to frigid bitterness, they slow down and drop lower.
Such a lot of ascending and unavoidable descending is going on at our very core every minute. And yet we haven’t been told to make time to address it!
Because when has buried, invisible treasure ever been easy to find?
But what if they had told us, emphatically, that we must set time aside everyday.
Time to meditate…not for hours with the improbable goal of everyone achieving Nirvana…but just to ‘hang out’ with ourselves. To observe the thoughts, emotions and conversations that take place between your mind and your soul.
To be your own friend.
Daydream at your window sill, or with your eyes closed lying down in a dark room.
What if they trained us to never question ourselves…
If you’re filled with dread before you meet someone, don’t talk yourself into it.
If your body demands a break, lie down for a few moments…even if it’s only forty minutes after you’ve begun your day,
or right after you met someone, no matter how briefly.
This listening to our soul is an integral part of the digestion process, for it to be able to recharge, and I can quite confidently say not just our physical and mental health, but also, invariably the entire world would be in far better shape if we did!
In conclusion, we need to ask ourselves.
Have we been so focused on staying alive;
so obsessed with staying attractive, successful and relevant…
that we have completely forgotten about feeding our mind and soul and then overcompensated for the void by feeding, exerting and materialistically decorating the vessel that holds them?
So starting today, I intend to ensure that my diet includes food and time, for all three of me!
What are you having for dinner today?
Sunset Effect - Nitya Satyani 