When Kristi asked me to contribute to this month’s newsletter about “sugar addiction” she asked that I write something about the “sweetness of life.” As I pondered that, my mind kept hearkening back to the case study about Mary J, that I contributed last month, and how inspired I am by her journey. Mary was a self-professed “Sugar Addict.” She shared with me how she would sit and unwrap one Starburst Fruit Chew after the other and only realize just how many she had consumed when her meeting was over and it was time to collect the wrappers. The number she consumed in an hour could be upwards of 20-25 candies!
Her experience highlights how unconscious we can be when the hunger for sweetness overtakes us. We’ve all done it. Sit, stare into space and shove something in our mouth without ever tasting or savoring it. We are not with ourselves in the process. Then, we snap back into our body and realize what we’ve done as our heart sinks and we begin to feel and process the effects of what we’ve just consumed. It’s not doing this from time to time that is the problem; it becomes an addiction when done habitually and compulsively. The trigger is, I think, a deep abiding hunger for sweetness in our lives. We search for a sweet feeling yet our behavior is creating the opposite experience. There is nothing sweet about feeling sick from just having grossly over-consumed.
Mary J’s journey was so beautiful because, as she became more embodied, she realized that sweetness is not provided via the sugar but rather it is a feeling that is hungering to be satiated from within. It’s rather like a child that is hungering for attention and sweetness but her mother is so consumed with outside influences that she just keeps handing her child candy bars to quell the hunger and keep her quiet. Thus, the child begins to relate sweetness with candy rather than emotional presence. We are that child and we are the mother as well. The body, when craving sweetness, really wants love and attention and then maybe a candy bar too, but not a candy bar in lieu of presence.
As with any substance, the sugar is not inherently our enemy. It can be a wonderful, satisfying and sweet experience to have a delicious sugary treat when we stay with ourselves for the eating. Mary illustrated this beautifully in her process of embodiment and reset. She eliminated sugar completely for 28 days and when she went back to it, the relationship had changed. Now, she has sugar. For most of her life, sugar had her.
Mary came to the conclusion that the sweetest gift we can give to ourselves and our relationships is self-care. It is the sweetness we truly hunger for.
“I am convinced that the key to happiness is self-care.” – Mary J.
If you missed the case study featuring Mary’s journey last month, here is the link: https://www.tummytemple.com/vitality/the-total-renovation-cleanse-a-case-study.html
Wishing you a dolce vita,
