Body Consciousness And The Right Weight For You: Part One

By Bart Sharp

I recently went to a scale for the 1st time in over a year with the curiosity, “How much do I weigh?” I found myself at 150 pounds. As I reflect upon the weight I come to the realization, I have stayed within the same weight range between 150 and 160 pounds for the last 12 years. It gave me a deep sense of gratitude of how the consciousness tools (Access Consciousness mostly) I use in eating have served me so well. Below are some of the principles I live by in eating and developing a greater body consciousness.

I ask my body what is right for me to eat. I simply go down a list of things that are possibilities when I am hungry and when a food resonates or I feel a charge of energy upon saying the name of the food I know it is the right food for me at that time. I ask, “What’s right for my body to eat? A hamburger, vegetables, Mexican food (or I go down a list of restaurants) and generally something will feel right or I receive enough affirming yes in a muscle testing type of skill. It is also good to ask if your body is ready for food, sometimes it is not while your mind has determined it is time. I respecting my body’s read is important to follow in the best way we can.

When eating I ask my body when it has enough. I do not ask my taste buds or my logic that I need a certain amount of food. I tune into what’s right internally for me. When my body has had enough, I stop eating.

My primary motivation for eating is to satisfy my body. Sometimes my body wants a food that tastes good or other times it is for nourishment. Hamburgers are my soul food because I craved and cherished them so much as a child therefore my body likes to return to that particular food for a soul nurturing experience. Sometimes my body desires cooked vegetables because they help my digestive process and give me nutrients. It feels equally good when it is the right food to eat. When I eat the right foods my body signals a certain level of satisfaction, a fulfillment. A connection happens, body consciousness feeds emotional transformation by listening within.

Food is such an important part of living, it fulfills a primal need, if we address our food issues by asking our body it will respond strongly. It is a good start in learning intuitive abilities because we are learning to respond to our higher self, our body is a big part of this.

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When I eat I consider it a joyful experience. It is like a meditation, the more I savor every bite with the discipline of tasting all of the flavors of a meal in a moment-to-moment presence. I am fulfilling my taste buds need for stimulation, it is the primary reason why we eat. If we are not present when we eat, we will eat much more. Our bodies eat food for much more than sustenance but as much for pleasurable stimulation.

I find it unwise to eat while doing other things such as listening to music, watching television or thinking about intense problems. Eating is reserved for personal satisfaction and being in community with others. When with others eating is a special occasion and the company should be enjoyed as much as the food. Yet we can still eat consciously while enjoying a conversation.

I avoid mindless eating such as eating during a football game where I am focused on the game and eating in reaction to the sensations created from the sporting event. Another good example would be having a large popcorn and soda at a movie theater, we are creating a double stimulus where the movie moves us to eat in reaction to the event. Maybe it is fun to do once in a while but when we do food with multimedia we are setting ourselves up to consume unconsciously, most likely overeating.

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How many times do you eat and drink to soothe something stressful inside of you? The whole purpose of why the body is showing a stress is to give a message, it is not feeling good and needs to be processed directly. When something stressful occurs address it singularly until your body comes back to a normal relaxed state. Taking a walk or exercise maybe a better activity to do after processing to allow our body and mind to reset.

Allow food to be for pleasure and stress to be an opportunity for emotional transformation. When we eat from a stressed place the products are not consumed with ease but with negativity creating distortions in our cells, this is the road to creating unnecessary fat cells and illness.

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The body likes variety especially with foods. We develop many of our allergies by eating the same foods year in and year out. I have found doing disciplines for periods of weeks to be healthy, not only because my body likes it but it teaches my mind it is strong enough to accept change. Currently I have faced one of my worst eating fears, sugar. I’m now reducing my sugar intake dramatically as I have found I have developed forms of allergies from processed sugar. I find it humorous because sugar was the one food I did not want to approach, then one day the thought came to me that I could change my intake of sugar. Finally my emotional transformation was ready for this food transition.

Later that day I visited my chiropractor, who was testing me in regards to foot pain. He began using Applied Kinesiology or muscle testing in search of the source of the foot pain, of course it was an adverse reaction to sugar. Funny, we had done muscle testing before and sugar never came up. It made me wonder whether I was finally ready to hear it or approach it so my body confirmed it through muscle testing.

After two weeks in the reduced sugar discipline it is not a battle but more of a minor nuisance. Why? Because my body consciousness showed me the right time to change and I responded. When the thought first appeared this was a certain lightness in its quality, just like at the chiropractors office. That lighter sensation was a subtle signal it was the right time. Previously when the ideal arose it felt heavy and dense, something in my body was communicating I was not ready.

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When we begin listening to our body’s messages we develop a subtler intimacy with how it works. We’re functioning in a finer tuned “body consciousness” reality so we know what works and does not work for us immediately. If we follow the discipline of listening to our body, treating it kindly in response to its communication we will be more likely to have a happier and healthier body for greater emotional transformation. Our bodies will gravitate to the right weight, foods and eating habits that best facilitate optimum health.