Opening Awareness

I was away on a long meditation retreat over the holidays. It was profound. I never imagined that serious meditation could actually be a training ground for a sane and purposeful life. And that is what it literally is. I have been meditating for several years now, and it has radically changed my relationship to life, but this retreat added another dimension... depth.

To take responsibility for one's relationship to their mind is no small task. But you can really start to see that we actually have to start with that if we ever intend to evolve. Otherwise we repeat the same reinactments of the scenes of our life with slightly different twists over and over again... half aware that we are doing it. This is impersonal, meaning all of us humans do it, unless we get serious about taking ourselves on.
My experience has been that if in meditation I take responsibility for dropping my compulsive need to attach to every thought and make assumptions about what that means about me, me, me, me... then space opens up; awareness expands. It is quite beautiful, and ultimately liberating. And extraordinarily challenging at times. But what else are we going to do?!
Do you feel a sense of responsibility to help make the world a better place? Most people I meet do. If we are really serious about this, then it has to start with the individual. What would it mean to evolve ourselves... to consciously evolve ourselves? Ultimately culture changes due to shifts in value systems, and this happens from "the inside out." We have to ask ourselves what we want to perpetuate, what we want to consciously create, and what we want to leave behind.

It is easy to fall into ruts with eating habits. Easy to be narrowly focused on the familiar. Having Celiac disease, forces me in a way, to think outside the box about food. For this I am eternally grateful.
When I ask myself what I want to leave behind to may space for the new, the answer is my unconsciousness. I want to become more and more and more aware. I care deeply about the evolution of culture, and I don't intend to be asleep during such a creative a dynamic process!
I notice that what "puts me to sleep," so to speak, faster than most anything is eating poorly.
I'm sure you know what I mean. Some foods and ways of eating just zombifiey the psyche and the vehicle that it occupies! Do we really want that, do we really have time for that?

What has worked to help get me "off" the addictive foods that are nothing less than harmful is to focus on all of the beautiful and stunning whole foods that I can have that love me back, that open up my mind, clear my senses, and provide clean fuel for my physical body. When I really do this, it is impossible for me to feel deprived!
The earth provides such richness and diversity. Literally gifts for us. It is a process of shifting your attention to what has real depth and value. Deep down, that is what we all long for. And deep down we all long to truly live, truly give, truly create! Well we are the ones choosing in every moment whether or not this is the life we live.
It sounds corny and simple, but its the truth: What you put in your mouth has great consequence. See it as an act that is no way separate from your very own philosophy on life. "How you do anything, is how you do everything." Do you care or not, are you conscious or not? Stop long enough to see that what you put into your body in not just in service of the immediate gratification of the taste buds. Open your awareness to the rest of your body, to the rest of the planetary body. I'll bet what you'll find is far more compelling than that junk food! :)