Addictions

Today I've got a short reading to throw at you; just something to think on. This is an excerpt from The Daily Raw Inspiration a few days ago

"According to the latest research addiction is a Chronic Relapsing Brain Disease. So when you feel an addictive urge to indulge in something that you know is not right for you, see if you can stall for time, until the dis-ease passes. Sometimes you will feel completely over it in just a few minutes! Try distracting yourself with your favorite hobby, or whatever work you feel most drawn to do at this moment. Perhaps our human brains are wired for addiction, and we can also help ourselves by cultivating addictions that are not destructive. If we could cultivate a few good addictions that could balance each-other out such as a work addiction, an exercise addiction, and a play addiction - we could indulge all three without over-indulging any one, and actually make our addictive natures work for us rather than against us!

In Joy!
Jinjee"

After fasting for a little over a day, I've made some observations that relate to this idea. When I'm not feeding my addiction for food or lending my brain to thinking about food, I leave open space for "healthy addictions". All day yesterday I was craving different random songs that I hadn't heard in years. I was thinking about music, art, love, relationships etc etc. These concepts are abstract and a little harder to digest. It's a lot easier to think about the simple things like food than it is to think about bigger ideas. In the interview on Rawkathon last night, Dr. G was telling a story about how he heard someone giving a raw food speech say he his goal was to make Raw Food the most talked about topic in the country. After that, Dr. G stood up and said that he wanted to make Raw Food so fundamental and familiar to every person that it didn't NEED to be talked about at all. There are more important things in this world than food. Wouldn't it be great if we all grew up in a world where fresh, raw, organic food was a GIVEN?!? We wouldn't have to think about it or be inconvenienced by a society where something so simple is so foreign to others.

I also caught this article on hotmail today. I'd like to hear what you think about it if you get a chance to read.

Right on Dr. G!

Just watched the rawkathon interview with Dr. G. It's the only one of the 4 so far that I've actually been able to sit through. I respect a lot of the raw food "gurus", don't get me wrong but what Dr. G says just really makes sense to me. He has such a simple view on raw foods and how it ties into health overall. It's very comprehensive, quite the opposite of the magic bullet approach that fad diets and yes, even raw food can often take. "Eating well is so easy and such a gift that people actually need to experiment and find out that hey, the water's fine here...So that we can start paying attention to the other issues in life. Paying attention to our food and our fitness is not what's important in life. There's a lot going on in the world that need help." Dr. G is right! We need peace of mind, an ability to handle and process our feelings, connections with other human beings, sunshine, physical activity ANNDD a healthy diet. You can't have tunnel vision and just focus in on one thing. We're so hungry for a quick fix but that's not what life is about. It's a journey and the challenges are always changing. It's an adventure and it should be exciting, not daunting.