Allow Gratitude to Heal Your Relationship with Food

www.catherinecarrigan.com

On this Thanksgiving Day, when we take time out from our busy lives for a national day of thankfulness, we can allow true gratitude to lift the veil on our relationship with food, with our body and ultimately with our life itself.

As you think about your Thanksgiving feast, what are you really thinking about deep down?

1. Are you worried about how many calories you are going to consume? If so, you may have a fear of food.
2. Are you worried about whether the host has prepared a meal that is adequately glutenfree, vegan, low fat, Paleo, low carb, dairy-free, corn free, GMO-free, sugar-free, kosher or organic? If so, you may be suffering from orthorexia.
3. Are you looking forward to a total blow out, planning on filling your plate multiple times to the point you have to loosen your belt? If so, you may have a habit of overeating.
4. Are you planning on throwing back more than four alcoholic beverages if you are a woman or five alcoholic beverages if you are a man? If so, you may be suffering from alcoholism.
5. On the other hand, are you planning on moving the food around your plate and throwing out the fattening stuff when nobody is looking? If so, you may be suffering from anorexia.

Maybe we are all a little nuts when it comes to this thing we call food and drink, nourishment, sustenance, grub.

And then again you could be one of the one in seven people on the planet — 12.9 percent of the world’s population or about 795 million people — who are undernourished, also known as starving.

Every six seconds, a child under 5 dies of hunger-related causes, and one in eight people in the developing world go to bed hungry each night.

One of the things that science is now teaching us is that every thought we think creates our body chemistry.

Are you literally poisoning yourself with your thoughts about food?

Are you the victim of the food you eat?

Are your attack thoughts creating your fear, low self esteem, anxiety or depression?

Maybe it’s not the calories, the glyphosate, the trans fats or even the amount of food we eat that’s bothering us, maybe it’s our relationship with food and drink, with our bodies and with this life we have been blessed to live.

How can we shift out of this insanity, this mental trap we have set up inside our heads about the danger that faces us every time we sit down to eat a meal?

I propose that before we fill our bellies we fill our hearts with gratitude.

Here are a few affirmations you can use to transform your relationship with food:

THANK YOU GOD FOR THIS FOOD.

THANK YOU GOD FOR BLESSING ME WITH THIS BODY IN THIS LIFETIME.

MAY THIS FOOD BE EXACTLY WHAT MY BODY REQUIRES TO EXPRESS PERFECT HEALTH ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE CELLULAR LEVEL.

THANK YOU GOD FOR THE ENJOYMENT I RECEIVE FROM THIS MEAL.

THANK YOU FOR ALL WHO CONTRIBUTED TO THE CREATION OF THIS FEAST, FOR THE SUN, THE PLANTS, THE ANIMALS, THE FARMERS, THE PEOPLE WHO CHECKED ME OUT AT THE GROCERY STORE, THE CHEFS AND FOR MY FAMILY WHO SET THE TABLE.

THANK YOU FOR CONNECTING MY MIND AND BODY TO ALLOW THE DIVINE INTELLIGENCE TO GUIDE ME TO WHAT I REQUIRE TO ENJOY PERFECT HEALTH NOW.

THANK YOU FOR THE WISDOM OF MY BODY THAT SHOWS ME NOT ONLY WHAT I NEED BUT WHEN I HAVE HAD ENOUGH.

MAY THIS FOOD AND DRINK BE EXACTLY WHAT I NEED IN THIS MOMENT TO FULFILL MY DIVINE PURPOSE HERE ON EARTH.

THANK YOU GOD FOR BLESSING ME WITH THE BODY TO ENJOY THIS FOOD, THE FAMILY TO SHARE THIS MEAL AND THE AWARENESS TO APPRECIATE THIS MOMENT.

THANK YOU GOD FOR BLESSING ME WITH THE GIFT OF MY LIFE.

I GIVE MYSELF PERMISSION TO ENJOY THE BEST OF THIS MEAL, KNOWING AND EXPERIENCING THAT THE WISDOM OF MY BODY PERFECTLY ELIMINATES ALL THAT DOES NOT SERVE MY HIGHEST PURPOSE.

GREAT ALMIGHTY PHYSICIAN, MAY THIS FOOD NOURISH NOT ONLY MYSELF BUT EVERYONE AROUND ME, CREATING A CIRCLE OF LOVE THAT EXTENDS OUT INTO INFINITY.

THANK YOU FOR THE LOVING COMMUNITY THIS MEAL CREATES.

THANK YOU FOR BLESSING ME WITH A MEAL THIS BLESSED DAY.

I REJOICE IN THE LIFE I LIVE.

THANK YOU GOD FOR OPENING MY EYES TO PERCEIVE THE BLESSINGS I RECEIVE ON ALL LEVELS FROM THIS NOURISHMENT.

MAY MY HEART FILL WITH GRATITUDE AS MY BELLY FILLS WITH THE SUSTENANCE I REQUIRE.

MAY THIS FOOD EMPOWER ME TO FULFILL MY SOUL PURPOSE WITH JOY, VITALITY, ENTHUSIASM AND DEEP HUMILITY FOR ALL THAT HAS BEEN GIVEN TO ME, TO MY FAMILY AND TO MY COMMUNITY.

In February 2015, my mother and I went on a cultural exchange program to Cuba. This visit occurred before the U.S. had normalized relations with the Communist government, so we got a glimpse of the typical struggles of the average Cuban.

It was painful enough to ride through the countryside and see the starving dogs and horses, the men using hand tools to hoe vast fields that could have been more easily tended by modern machinery.

Even more upsetting was my visit to a bodega. I will never forget the chalkboard that listed the rations each Cuban was allowed to pick up every month. Only so many eggs. Only so much rice and beans. Only so much coffee. The smiling portraits of Fidel Castro and his brother Raul hung on the wall as if it was through their great beneficence that this near-starvation was made possible.

After leaving the bodega, I wept for over an hour.

I had spent decades not only sorting through my own relationship with food but counseling many others to heal overeating, anorexia, orthorexia, alcoholism and beyond, and there I was glaring at what it meant to be struggling to have enough to eat.

Along with unconditional love, gratitude is truly one of the most healing, uplifting and transformative emotions that we can ever feel.

This Thanskgiving Day, may we make peace with food and allow our new-found healthy relationship with nourishing our bodies empower us all to express our divine purpose with strength and grace.

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