I can’t help but notice with increasing concern that we, as a nation, have become more and more consumed with food, of all things. When I was a kid, we all simply ate what showed up on the plate. And that was that. There was a choice of a few varieties of foods. They were real, by the way. Life was simple. Eat, play, eat.
"Life was simple."
Who would have thought that we would come to the point in our human evolution where ordinary, otherwise normal people, would take pictures of their food and even delight in sharing them with their 5000 friends on social media? Who cares? I love you, but I am sincerely not interested in what you ate for lunch – even if I cooked it!
I just like food. Food and I don’t have a complicated relationship. I just love to eat.
And I am so tired of hearing about the latest diet lifestyle choices. The truth is, I have tried them all – Atkins, South Beach, fat friendly, fat hostile, vegetarian, vegan, high carb (my personal favorite), low carb, low fat, cookie diet, intermittent fasting, keto diet, juicing, pill popping, slim fast, starving, fasting, Mediterranean diet, Asian diet, and on and on.
Yes, I love food. And in the interest of keeping my body fat within the confines of my airline seat, I have tried all those diets and they didn’t work for me. Why? Because those diets do not reflect my true relationship with food. And that is because I am junk food addict. There. I said it. Please don’t judge me.
How many commercials have you watched where the actor would rather eat chocolate instead of engaging in a relationship with another human being? We have been brainwashed to substitute food for our relationships. I know, because it has happened to me.
I know I should be spending quality time with broccoli, spinach or a respectable head of hearty romaine lettuce. If I want to live a long and healthy life, with no drama, a balanced diet of plenty of water, fruits, vegetables, whole grains (once in a while) is what I should be consuming.
And, of course, my mother always told me to stay away from dessert. She said, that desserts may taste good, but they are “A moment on the lips and forever on the hips.”
And yet, even though I know better, in fact, was raised better, I can’t seem to resist a soft serve vanilla and chocolate ice cream sitting in a crispy cone. Make that a double. While I am at it, I might as well indulge myself with hot chocolate fudge oozing its way down the sides. It tastes so incredibly delicious when I am gorging on it. And, even though I know in the back of my mind I will regret this later, I can’t help myself. I am in too far. I can’t stop. And, it tastes so goooooood. Yum.
"The mouth is an integral component of restriction."
Asparagus may be attractive to some. Yet, to me it is boring. I want the enticing thrill of a cheesy pizza with a thin crisp crust, hot out of a wood brick oven. There is so much sugar in that tasty tomato sauce that my insulin is going to be in for a wild ride in about an hour. And, the hot melted cheese oozing with the fragrance that only mozzarella can evoke is tantalizing to my taste buds.
I hope the cheese is real.
Never mind the fact that I will be gagging and coughing up an overwhelming amount of phlegm tomorrow. Right now, in this moment, there is no time, no tomorrow, no yesterday. Just a slice of garlic-sprinkled heaven and me.
Then, after the thrill is over, as I hang my head down for the ‘walk of shame’ back to my senses the morning after, I ask myself, “What have I done?! What was I thinking??” I will just continue to mercilessly beat myself into submission until I lie to promise myself that I will never do it again. It just doesn’t make sense. How could I do this to myself?
The internal beating begins: I would be respecting myself right now if only I would have spent last night engaging my digestive system with a respectable grilled salmon chaperoned by a quinoa salad. And then I could have done the right thing of saying ‘No’ to dessert. I would be holding my head up high and feeling proud of myself right now if I had given my digestive system the 16 hours of rest from eating that the experts say is necessary to maintain a healthy body. How can I live with myself after this?
Then an idea struck me.
I will create and promote a whole new eating program. It will bring together the best of all worlds. And, I am going to call it “INTERMITTENT BINGEING”. Yes, that’s right!
And, I am going to go on social media and promote my new program. “Eat everything that is not nailed down until you roll away. Then starve fast for 16 hours.” It’s brilliant!
Eating is just one way a person can cause a short circuit with their mouth.
Gossip is another way.
Who can resist a piece of juicy gossip that makes one feel momentarily superior to the person who has just been bashed? How often, after hearing a negative comment about someone, do we just accept it as fact, rather than someone else’s opinion? How often do we stop the other person and say, “Please stop it. I don’t want to engage in gossip.”?
Of course, the other option is to practice Restriction.
"Matzah is like bread without ego."
When the desire to cause damage with my mouth strikes, I could build my ‘restriction muscle’ by simply pausing for a moment and then say, “What a pleasure!”
This will give me an opportunity to override my old reactive system and then mindfully make a proactive choice. Pausing simply breaks those old neural pathways from activating old, not-so-helpful behaviors. Then my soul can have the pleasure of making healthier choices.
Whether we are engaging in eating or speaking, the mouth is an integral component of restriction. Our mouths are powerful instruments for manifestation. What we manifest with our mouths, positive or negative, is up to us.
These short circuits of the mouth can be healed through the cosmic event of Pesach and the eating of Matzah.
Pesach, in Hebrew, is actually translated as Peh = mouth+ Sach = speaks, aka the mouth speaks.
During the Pesach Connection, we engage in speaking certain words and eating certain foods in a certain order to help us rebuild our restriction muscles. This is just one of the extraordinary benefits of participating in the Pesach Connections.
In Pesach, I will be eating an extraordinary amount of delicious Kabbalah Centre Matzah for a whole week, because it provides healing for my soul.
Why matzah?
Because bread is a code for a direct link to our internal reactive nature and ego. Just as bread has the power to expand and rise, our ego has the ability to expand and motivate us to rise to great heights in the material world.
Matzah is like bread without ego, bread that has had its reactive nature shut down. By tasting the Matzah, with the proper meditation and intent, we receive the power to shut down our ego so that we can free ourselves from the slavery of reactive behavior and rise to great spiritual heights in our life.
Karen Berg, Spiritual Leader of the Kabbalah Centre, said, “If people would only be more mindful of what goes out of their mouths than what goes in, we would manifest a better world.”
May we take these words to heart (and mouth) and manifest health, peace, love, joy and abundance for all!
