Eat your emotions
# The deadly duo
‘Toxin’ is synonymous with poison, contamination, and waste. It conjures up images of waste that decays and putrefies; having the appearance of sewage pulled out from the river Styx and the smell of a pile of dead rats. Perhaps that is an exaggeration; perhaps I am guilty of hyperbole. Perhaps, but the point still stands.
Toxins concerning humans are noxious substances that rot the body from inside out. While that image is true, it is only half the picture, for it ignores the other type of toxins i.e. emotional toxins that deteriorate a vital aspect of the body, the mind.
Emotional toxins often go unnoticed for the simple reason that they are not measurable or tangible in a society that believes only that which it sees and validates only that which it can measure. A society that emphasizes logic over feel and thought over intuition, emotions, and their toxins will always be ignored.
They themselves might be immeasurable and ephemeral but their impact is tangible. Your emotions are every bit as real as the cells that make up your body. Everything is, after all, energy fluctuating at different vibrations. Emotional and physical toxins are as inextricably linked as the mind-body itself.
The deadly duo is harder to split apart than the proton and neutron within the nucleus of an atom. They are born together, live together, poison together, and die together. Physical toxins cannot be eliminated from the body till you get a handle on your emotional state. Only a stable mind can bring balance to a wobbly body. Emotional toxins are near impossible to handle till you look after your physical self. A mind, no matter how strong, will collapse under the weight of a disintegrating body.
You accumulate physical toxins when you aren’t meeting your emotional requirements. You gather emotional junk when you do not treat yourself right physically. Physical toxins stack up when you do not look after your body, emotional toxins when you do not care for your mind. Physical toxins are the result of not respecting yourself, emotional toxins when you have no respect for anyone else.
Physical toxins are the manifestation of a diseased body, emotional toxins the outcomes of an ailing mind.
# The three reasons
Even though they are equally insidious, emotional toxins remain hidden. It is not their shinobi-like stealth that allows them to lurk in the shadows but our lack of awareness. They both make landfall but only one hog all the attention. Emotional toxins are Buzz Aldrin if physical toxins are Neil Armstrong. The three ways we empower emotional toxins are:
1. Slow change
Change, when it is gradual and unhurried often goes by unnoticed. This is why you fail to notice the smooth change of seasons that happens every week. This is why it takes you your 1000th whiskey to accept that you have a problem. This is why December has you wondering where the year has gone by and the years have you wondering where has life.
This is why you also never realize that you go on ingesting and collecting physical toxins every day of your life. It is not until your skin breaks out in volcanic pimples that rival the Pacific Ring of Fire, do you think about physical toxins. When such tangible physical contaminants often go unnoticed, it is no surprise that emotional toxins win every game of hide-n-seek.
2. The allure of poison
A more disconcerting reason is that we are aware of the existence of emotional toxins but would rather pretend otherwise. It is not their presence we fear but their absence that we dread. Given enough time and stimulus, even the vilest of customs become addictive. This is why you cannot wash off toxic habits and break free from poisonous people.
In much the same way, an overly diseased body not only survives but begins to thrive on physical toxins. A sick mind begins to sustain itself by chomping on emotional waste. A person who spends far too much time in the darkness finds solace only in the night and comes to detest the light.
Your mind clutches at emotional toxins for the same reasons that a miser latches onto their money. A glutton digs into that caramelized dark chocolate brownie and a Jedi turns to the dark side. All of them know it is wrong but they give in, because, at that moment, it feels sinfully right. Hell has a charm that most of us cannot deny and fewer can resist. Evil sings louder and sounds sweeter than good; like the deceiving songs of mermaids at sea.
Noxious emotions, like destructive actions, are far more powerful than their counterparts. Noxious emotions, like destructive actions, build into a habit that chips away slowly till one day it tears you down. Noxious emotions, like destructive actions, are a parasite you love to host because you have convinced yourself that they are symbiotic.
3. The lack of belief
We come at the final reason, the nastiest of the lot. You either lack the belief or the drive to purge yourself of all that rots you from within. While they might seem different but belief and drive are the same. It is only faith that can push you forward and it is only your drive that can vanquish the demons of doubt when they attack your beliefs.
Most tell themselves that emotions are the domain of the subconscious far too subtle and deep to be within your reach. Like a gambler who bows down to the cards of plastic. You do not have to control your emotions. That is absurd. Like the gambler trying to command the cards. You have to redirect your attention and effort. You have to put down the cards and walk away from the table.
It is not the absence of knowledge that impedes you, it is the reluctance to act. You know what needs to be done, you always know what needs to be done. You know right from wrong but you choose wrong or worse, you choose nothing. You let the choice make you rather than the other way around. You pick the effortless damage of inaction over the healing pain of effort. You surrender because it is easier than fighting.
You refuse to change when, ironically, you are change personified. You are the universe in constant motion; you are the universe adjusting, adapting, altering, and amending itself. You concoct tales to explain why you fail. You fabricate lies to make it easier to get by. Over time, you become the stories you tell yourself. Over time, your lies become your truth; your excuses morph into your reality.
#Eat your emotions well
Physical toxins amass as your body struggles to digest all that you make it consume; be it food, the air, or even the cream you put on your face. Emotional toxins build up when your mind fails to process the world that it devours.
Most physical toxins come from fermenting and rotting undigested food while emotional toxins are primarily unprocessed and rotting emotions. This is why you must eat your emotions like you must eat your food.
- Eat whenever you are hungry, never kill your hunger. Express whenever you feel, never bury your emotions.
- Eat only when hungry and not because it is time for a meal. You must never shove down your food. Emote only when you feel not because you should be feeling something. Never force yourself to feel.
- Eat slowly and mindfully. Feel with attention and awareness.
- Food is best enjoyed when communized; emotions are most felt when shared.
- Never stuff yourself with too much food, eat only till you are half full. Never pile yourself with too many emotions, break away when you are half saturated.
- Food has the potential to nourish a starving body, emotions the ability to nurture a famished mind.
- Emotions, much like food, should be had natural and whole. Artificial emotions, much like processed foods bring instant gratification at the cost of long-term damage.
- Listen to your body when it comes to food. Hear out your mind when it comes to feeling. Consume what feels right and feel only that which consumes you from inside.
- Never gorge on leftover food. Never ruminate on stale emotions.
Never substitute food for emotions or emotions for food. You cannot eat away your emotions and you can never feel away your hunger. Never have the two together; it is far too much to ask of your body and mind. Digest the world around you before feeding yourself with the food in front of you. Consumed right, food and emotions are dynamic elixirs. Ingested wrong, food, and emotions are potent poisons.
