Julie Tallard Johnson’s Blog

Dear Friends, I will be putting in a new lesson on spritual journaling and health every Monday.
You will find at the end of each lesson journaling suggestions and ways to take the practice off the page. Enjoy! Julie

“Your karma is in the refrigerator.” Donald Altman, Art of the Inner Meal

I attended a teaching recently where the Rinpoche spoke about the process of waking up. He mentioned how each of us can wake up to our true nature, become enlightened in a single lifetime. I thought how many of us would simply hope for a healthier, more balanced state of being. And, for those of us who are challenged with disordered eating, addictions, illnesses, or pain simply want freedom from these conditions.

Rinpoche spoke on how (in the Buddhist perspective) the karma of this and past lives impacts how easy or difficult it is to wake up to our true nature. He said based on karma, some of us are like gasoline and can wake up fast with one strike of a match (or a random spark). Others are like dry wood; it takes right conditions, not too much or too little wood and sometimes more than one match to get us going. (We may even get going but get rained on or not completely catch on fire.) Then there is the third group he calls wet wood – or, wet rock. As wet rock we find it nearly impossible to set on fire. (But I have sat in a sweat lodge
recently where a rock cracked open after water poured on it and a flame came out of its center.). So even wet rock, given the right conditions can catch fire.

Rinpoche mentioned it would be helpful to acknowledge which we are – gasoline, dry wood or wet wood/rock.

When it comes to waking up to a healthy body, mind and spirit we can be any of these at various times. Are you a more enlightened eater in the morning and then become like wet rock at dinner or in the evening? For many of us certain foods trigger unconscious eating, while for others it is the company we keep when we eat.

Possibly, you are gasoline in certain areas of your life (wherever you feel creative or enthused); where other aspects are more like wet wood, such as your relationship to food and your own physical body. To awaken our relationship with food and our body we need to keep creating inner and outer conditions so that even a wet rock could catch fire. We do this by getting honest with ourselves about our present conditions and difficulties with a willingness to initiate more suitable conditions for an awakened state.

I will offer diverse methods here that are known to set wet wood afire and keep the flame going. Those of you, who feel more like a wet rock when it comes to enlightened eating and healthy living, remember the wet rock in the sweat lodge. Right inner and outer conditions for a long enough period will generate the state of lasting health that you want.

Know, as I do, you have the ability within you to change your karma, to awaken your relationship with food and to achieve a state of enlightenment in this very lifetime. In fact, you can use your relationship with food (how you eat; what you eat; why you eat) to wake up.

Journal or Consider these:

Write about being hungry. Use the following images to ignite your writing (can be used in the actual journaling piece): the rising sun over a frozen body of water; a rock cracking open from heat; wild berry picking; tasting something new.

What are you hungry for today besides food? Make a list, like a grocery list.

What are you prepared for? Write down the start of this sentence, “I am prepared for . . .” then complete the sentence with whatever comes. Trust what comes. Breathe and move your pen. Instead of stopping to think rewrite the sentence, “I am prepared for . . .” Fill up at least one page of your journal. When we write like this we get beyond the thinking mind and to more soulful, rich material. What insights arise from this exercise?

Taking the practice beyond the page:

After identifying your trigger food (from last weeks inquiry), consider removing one trigger food from your diet. What might take the place of this trigger food? Notice what happens (compassionately) in mind and body as you make this new choice.

Refer to your “grocery list” of what you are hungry for (besides food). What can you do to take a step to obtain one of these conditions?

Notice how much you chew your food before swallowing. Is two bites, four or twenty-five? As in all your awareness practices, do it with curiosity, not judgment.

“My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people.” – Orson Wells

Ever since I had my daughter (at the age of forty thirteen years ago) and moving to rural Wisconsin from Minneapolis, I began to carry twenty to thirty pounds of extra weight with me. My relationship to food changed, where once meals were just part of the day I found myself more obsessive about food. Where I once ran three miles nearly every day, I found exercise more challenging. I also gathered such habits as eating late at night (in front of a DVD), eating in the car and eating standing up (while preparing meals or on the run). Old habits such as eating fast and overeating when eating out only increased. I fought with my body and with food but found I would go up and down with this extra weight. When reaching the 30 extra pounds my relationship to my body felt hostile.

I journal nearly every day as part of a meditation and wake up practice. However, I never liked the idea of keeping a food journal (felt too obsessive). One morning as I listened to a meditation tape by Lama Surya Das I had an Ah ha. I thought, “I need to bring my relationship to food into my spiritual practice.” After finishing with my meditation I went and found my book by Donald Altman, “Meal by Meal” and opened it to that day’s meditation. Here is the quote that was at the top of the page:

“The most important thing in spiritual practice is food: when you eat, how you eat, why you eat.” Lama Surya Das, Buddhist Monk

This synchronicity pointed to a deeper truth: that our relationship to food is an expression of our spiritual life. With this realization I deepened my spiritual practice by uplifting my relationship to food. There are moments where I feel the vulnerability of this shift but now my relationship to food is a key part of my spiritual practice. So, I end up with many benefits, two core ones being a deepening of my spiritual experiences and a lighter more conscious body. The beauty lies in the daily relationship we have with food – making our spiritual practice simple and accessible. (Notice I did not say easy.) We will always need food.

When you eat, how you eat, why you eat and what you eat are a microcosm of the relationship you have with all things. We can choose to uplift our relationship to food, thus transforming all our relationships. When I brought food consciously into my daily spiritual practice I noticed an immediate “lightening up” in mind, body and spirit.

As a transpersonal counselor and guide I wanted to share this journey with others through my upcoming class: Spiritual Journaling Writing Your Way to Health and Weight Loss. I will be including some of my journal entries as well as some journal writing prompts and exercises for any inspired bloggers.

Today’s quote in Meal by Meal is by Annemarie Colbin, author of Food and Healing: “True Healing begins with awareness: awareness of self, first of all, to discover how we function. With awareness comes responsibility.”

If you like, write about what foods trigger any habitual eating. Write compassionately, knowing that awareness is the greatest task of any spiritual practice.

Notice what makes you hungry and why, journal about this.

Write about a favorite meal using the following words: digest, moment, utter, entry, round.

May you have success in your search for well-being. Julie Tallard Johnson

Jewelhrt8@aol.com

www.julietallardjohnson.com