Recently, I spoke to a therapy client of mine. For the protection of her identity, I will refer to her as, “Judy.” During the therapy session, Judy brought up her anxiety, and the stressors in her life. We both agreed that her anxiety was directly related to others trying to strip away her dignity which is a divine right we all born with. Anxiety for her translated to Judy’s compromised self-esteem. Judy’s perceived threats from her sister-in-law was emotionally controlling her by: imposing on her privacy, expecting Judy to give of herself unconditionally, and talked gossip about Judy behind her back.
The story I just shared about Judy focuses on the toxicity she was absorbing from a toxic relationship, and removing the toxins gave her back her freedom. So, Judy was consuming these side effects from the stress she was under.
Consumption can take on many forms including: food, liquids, alcohol or drugs. We consume peoples’ energy in toxic conversations; we get angry after watching the news; we feel inadequate after spending too much time on social media.
When it comes to food, it’s complicated because we need food to live. Food is everywhere. We can remove these other forms of consumption, but food is not one of them. Each of us are continuously evolving in our relationship with food.
After reading, The World Peace Diet, I’m realizing how we need to be more self-reliant when it comes to food. There’s a saying, “They who control the food, control the people.” We need to make educated decisions about what we eat, where the food derived from and how was it treated during life and death. We are not just focusing her on what’s organic and healthy food. Important emphasis needs to be on: the quality of life of the animals, methods of slaughtering; evidence of abuse and neglect. Indications of harmful hormones being injected into the animals we consequently we ingest. We eat the stress of the cow for example if the cow was abused. We eat the hormone of the chicken if the chicken was pumped harmful hormones. We eat the chemicals of the vegetable if the vegetable was a farming product of “Big Ag” heavily reliant on herbicides/pesticides.
We can take steps to disrupt “Unconscious Capitalism” by encouraging communities and their leaders to promote self-sufficiency. Community-based farming, otherwise known as Permaculture values team building and educational outreach is another example. We are dependent on the grocery stores to sell us overpriced food that is supposed to be good for us. Reading packaging is one of many ways to take back control but it doesn’t stop there. Packaging can be misleading and sometimes not accurate. Together, we can begin to build alternative economic systems based on community and cooperation.
Dr. Tuttles’ work has influenced people across the globe to start thinking for themselves to make more conscious choices. Social change begins with each person making change. We receive cultural messages that we believe without investigation letting our conformist tendencies to take over. These social influences seep into our psyches with each piece of food we put into our bodies.
We can be mindful not only with our food choices but also with how we treat ourselves and others. We can be kind to animals, and care about how they are treated. We can begin to make a conscious choice to say “No” to eating beef or poultry or even fish all together. We can reestablish our own diet incorporating organic fruits and veggies, grass-fed organic beef, organic cage-free chickens, and fresh water fish. Another choice is practicing a plant-based diet adding in occasional animal or fish protein. Many people have experienced a deeper connection with Mother Earth and living beings after starting a Vegan diet.
Corporate farming companies are selling us beef and chicken sometimes with body parts in it; blood, bones, and waste. Now, I will likely order a salad instead of a burger at a restaurant. I don’t know what kind of meat I would be eating! I also don’t want to support companies that don’t disclose how they profit off of consumers and behave in unethical ways. The other thing is that healthy food is expensive, and unhealthy food is cheap. It’s the cheap unhealthy food that’s filled with hormones, chemicals and junk that would ruin our appetites altogether if we really knew what these companies are up to.
Recently, the news reported that 12-year-old boys from Guatemala were being brought into the slaughter houses in U.S. soil in the early hours of night so that they are not exposed as victims of human trafficking. It was reported that you couldn’t leave the slaughter house without getting blood and body parts on you. The rise in Human trafficking and slave labor is another layer of systemic violence and the predatory culture that we live in. So, I ask “Is this burger I’m eating coming from such a place?”
The child in this case is a victim, just like the cows and chickens, are victims of abuse and murder. We too are victims if we continue to believe what corporate America wants to feed us both with their food and their information. We can end our victimhood by fighting to end the abuse of animals, children and all living beings.
I spoke about my client’s anxiety earlier. In our last session together, she reported feeling improvement with her anxiety symptoms. Judy set her boundary letting her relative know where the line in the sand was drawn. She’s on her own side, and the relative, now on the other side of the line. Imagine that! Now, her headspace is open and expansive, free of outside influence. She has enough room in her mind now to begin to start thinking for herself.
We, as conscious consumers, can also mirror this shift in perspective when it comes to our food choices. Let’s take back control from external pressures. Let’s build a stronger self-concept….fully aware of what’s going on in the inside and knowing what is going on around us.
