Sparkle Revolution Newsletter

Have you ever given thought to what motivates you to do the things you do as a regular part of your life? Often we do things on autopilot or are just running on programming and not giving much thought to why we do things. You can examine the actions you take as a way to be more mindful each day. You can also start to consider what drives you to do things, which may in turn provide valuable insights and opportunities for growth.

To look at one example, you probably brush your teeth each day. It’s likely you don’t give much thought to why you do this. It’s just a habit and you do it every day. But if you think about it, there is some reason you ever started brushing your teeth. Were you ever told why? Is it because you don’t want to have bad breath or get cavities? Are you worried about losing teeth if you don’t keep them clean? Or is it because you were taught to love your human body and take care of it? Even though you likely aren’t spending much time thinking about why you brush your teeth when you do it each day, something as simple as this can be an opportunity to approach your life from a place of love and acceptance rather than a reason based on fear.

A more interesting example for many people is the food you eat. What motivates you to eat the foods you eat on any given day? What things were you taught about food as a child? How do different foods make you feel emotionally? Do you find yourself saying things like “I shouldn’t eat that,” “I cheated on my diet,” or “I need to go on a diet,” etc.?

At some point in my life I realized that almost my entire relationship with food was based on fear or self-judgment. The number on the scale always made me feel bad. I craved certain foods, but then felt guilty when I ate them. I spent a LOT of time thinking about what to eat so that my body would fit some vision I had for myself about what was “good enough.” These days, I am able to approach my relationship to food and my body with a little more love and a lot less self-judgment. I never weigh myself anymore, but instead pay attention to the subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) cues my body gives me about what foods make me feel good physically and try to mostly eat those things. Then I let myself off the hook when I eat a cookie! There is a huge difference between seeing your body with love and aligning your nourishment to taking care of your human vessel vs. criticizing your body and always trying to fix it from a place of judgment or fear of looking “bad.”

Learning to love your body can certainly be a journey if that isn’t where you are today, but one enlightening step could be starting to notice your motivations around what you eat. Then, see if you can start to shift these from fear-based to love-based. Try a simple activity to begin to explore this concept.