Jeremy Weiland
02-27-2003, 10:33 AM
Hi Seth:
> Jeremy--that was an excellent post on your
> thoughts of the mechanics of transformation;
Thanks!
Your post was long so I'm not going to go line by line
through quotes in my response.
I agree - food is an important part of the experience,
for many reasons:
1. Food has an affect on the range of functionality of
the body, both from an emotional and physical
perspective. What fuel you use has an affect on the
performance you can expect from the vehicle (I
recently learned that this applies to turbocharged
engines, too, by the way! lol).
2. Food is a big part of the social complex we find
ourselves in. Believe me, my parents had our family
on a macrobiotic diet for a long time when I was
growing up, before "health food" was fashionable, and
it was a source for some pretty intense catalyst at
the grade school lunch table (wonder bread and peanut
butter vs. inch thick crusty sourdough bread and
tahini butter <lol>).
3. Food is a big part of the ritual of 3D existence
and experience. The concept and behaviors associated
with food (or lack thereof) has power for the mind,
and when this power is used in a ritualistic way, it
can increase one's ability to enter into those
distortions of discipline or self-destructiveness with
increased efficiacy.
Now, I think that you adequately addressed the first
two points, but what I want to tell you about, just as
a friendly warning, is the third. And my warning is
to not let the discipline become a matter of
conformity, force, and judgement. I'm speaking from
personal experience on this.
From my limited contact with you over the internet,
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that, like
me, you are somewhat of a perfectionist (to a certain
extent, I think all libertarians are :-) which means
you want to hold yourself to some pretty high
standards. I understand this and how that feels. And
what I'm trying to tell you is to understand that
*everything is allowable* (1:11).
IT IS OK to stray from the discipline - it is OK to
"fall into old patterns". It is OK to pollute the
body once in a while. EVERYTHING IS ACCEPTABLE.
Don't beat yourself up because you can't hold to a
strict diet. I went down this path before and it is
painful.
IMHO, what is much better is to set gradual goals for
the self, so that the worn paths in the mind are
slowly shifted to a new destination. Like, I don't
cook all my meals (ok, so I cook *none* of my meals -
I forget my girlfriend's on this list now... :-)
There's only so much sovereignity I have over my diet,
unless I want to cook for myself and sacrifice a major
part of my relationship with my gf. I need to resist
the temptation for overnight change because it is
never lasting. I end up acting like a completely
different person but not rooting those actions in a
genuine self-concept, which results in a lack of
strength when my highly controlled situation is
challenged. So I'm cutting things out one at a time,
and focusing on that rather than everything at once
(I'm pretty much done with red meat and chicken, now
I'm gonna try and move on to refined sugar).
I need to have compassion for myself and understand
that change takes time, and I am worth taking that
time. I need to realize that engaging in a
transformative process is most helpful when it
transforms the entire mind/body/spirit complex, not
just one superficial, isolated aspect that seems to be
most apparent, but has it's roots in other aspects.
And this is why I'm so interested in clarity on the
matter of transformation - because I think that if I
can be clear about myself and my goals, and keep that
clarity, it's less likely that I will interpret
weakness as failure (1:33) because I can be committed
to the process and allow the chips (the outcome) to
fall where they may. It's scary, because I'm truly
allowing my strength to be tested, instead of avoiding
challenge and failure.
I have a lot of personal experience with people
engaging in alternative diets. I've seen some people
lead well-adjusted and happy lives eating in ways that
are much more healthy and consistent with their
beliefs. I've also seen people form compulsive
behavior patterns, be unneccessarily harsh on
themselves, and eventually do net damage to their
complex (eating disorders, etc.). Because I have just
that type of personality, I know that avoiding
rigidity like the plague is very important - and with
love, respect, and hope I want to remind you of the
same thing. Go easy on yourself, and realize that
those experiences in which you may not have risen to
your own standards are not failures - they are in fact
the very treasure that helps you find out exactly what
standards really count.
The mental part of changing behavior is just as
important as the physical part, if not more. Remember
that it's much healthier to root new behaviors in
strength, mental and spiritual grounding, where such
changes are lasting and well integrated, than to be
"wishy-washy" and constantly changing your mind about
what you want. While not as direct and abrupt a
change as we might like to make, such **patience** is
actually much healthier than going in and out of what
we think is the "right way", and constantly judging
the self for perceived missteps.
I congratulate you on all that you have done to
understand yourself better! (1:23) It's always such
a pleasure to find out what you're up to, and as you
go down the path of self-acceptance know that we're
all here with you, rooting you on... :-)
Take care,
Jeremy
__________________________________________________
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> Jeremy--that was an excellent post on your
> thoughts of the mechanics of transformation;
Thanks!
Your post was long so I'm not going to go line by line
through quotes in my response.
I agree - food is an important part of the experience,
for many reasons:
1. Food has an affect on the range of functionality of
the body, both from an emotional and physical
perspective. What fuel you use has an affect on the
performance you can expect from the vehicle (I
recently learned that this applies to turbocharged
engines, too, by the way! lol).
2. Food is a big part of the social complex we find
ourselves in. Believe me, my parents had our family
on a macrobiotic diet for a long time when I was
growing up, before "health food" was fashionable, and
it was a source for some pretty intense catalyst at
the grade school lunch table (wonder bread and peanut
butter vs. inch thick crusty sourdough bread and
tahini butter <lol>).
3. Food is a big part of the ritual of 3D existence
and experience. The concept and behaviors associated
with food (or lack thereof) has power for the mind,
and when this power is used in a ritualistic way, it
can increase one's ability to enter into those
distortions of discipline or self-destructiveness with
increased efficiacy.
Now, I think that you adequately addressed the first
two points, but what I want to tell you about, just as
a friendly warning, is the third. And my warning is
to not let the discipline become a matter of
conformity, force, and judgement. I'm speaking from
personal experience on this.
From my limited contact with you over the internet,
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that, like
me, you are somewhat of a perfectionist (to a certain
extent, I think all libertarians are :-) which means
you want to hold yourself to some pretty high
standards. I understand this and how that feels. And
what I'm trying to tell you is to understand that
*everything is allowable* (1:11).
IT IS OK to stray from the discipline - it is OK to
"fall into old patterns". It is OK to pollute the
body once in a while. EVERYTHING IS ACCEPTABLE.
Don't beat yourself up because you can't hold to a
strict diet. I went down this path before and it is
painful.
IMHO, what is much better is to set gradual goals for
the self, so that the worn paths in the mind are
slowly shifted to a new destination. Like, I don't
cook all my meals (ok, so I cook *none* of my meals -
I forget my girlfriend's on this list now... :-)
There's only so much sovereignity I have over my diet,
unless I want to cook for myself and sacrifice a major
part of my relationship with my gf. I need to resist
the temptation for overnight change because it is
never lasting. I end up acting like a completely
different person but not rooting those actions in a
genuine self-concept, which results in a lack of
strength when my highly controlled situation is
challenged. So I'm cutting things out one at a time,
and focusing on that rather than everything at once
(I'm pretty much done with red meat and chicken, now
I'm gonna try and move on to refined sugar).
I need to have compassion for myself and understand
that change takes time, and I am worth taking that
time. I need to realize that engaging in a
transformative process is most helpful when it
transforms the entire mind/body/spirit complex, not
just one superficial, isolated aspect that seems to be
most apparent, but has it's roots in other aspects.
And this is why I'm so interested in clarity on the
matter of transformation - because I think that if I
can be clear about myself and my goals, and keep that
clarity, it's less likely that I will interpret
weakness as failure (1:33) because I can be committed
to the process and allow the chips (the outcome) to
fall where they may. It's scary, because I'm truly
allowing my strength to be tested, instead of avoiding
challenge and failure.
I have a lot of personal experience with people
engaging in alternative diets. I've seen some people
lead well-adjusted and happy lives eating in ways that
are much more healthy and consistent with their
beliefs. I've also seen people form compulsive
behavior patterns, be unneccessarily harsh on
themselves, and eventually do net damage to their
complex (eating disorders, etc.). Because I have just
that type of personality, I know that avoiding
rigidity like the plague is very important - and with
love, respect, and hope I want to remind you of the
same thing. Go easy on yourself, and realize that
those experiences in which you may not have risen to
your own standards are not failures - they are in fact
the very treasure that helps you find out exactly what
standards really count.
The mental part of changing behavior is just as
important as the physical part, if not more. Remember
that it's much healthier to root new behaviors in
strength, mental and spiritual grounding, where such
changes are lasting and well integrated, than to be
"wishy-washy" and constantly changing your mind about
what you want. While not as direct and abrupt a
change as we might like to make, such **patience** is
actually much healthier than going in and out of what
we think is the "right way", and constantly judging
the self for perceived missteps.
I congratulate you on all that you have done to
understand yourself better! (1:23) It's always such
a pleasure to find out what you're up to, and as you
go down the path of self-acceptance know that we're
all here with you, rooting you on... :-)
Take care,
Jeremy
__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more
http://taxes.yahoo.com/