A Shift In Thinking...

"The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation, but your thoughts about it." ~ Eckhart Tolle

Ever have one of those moments, or several, where you have learned something new and are so excited about it that you think everyone else should do what you are doing?  Think about when you first started running and felt amazing.  You thought, 'Everyone should be doing this to feel amazing!'. Thing is...not everyone likes to run.  Some will never like running even if they give it a try.

For many years I struggled with GI issues.  Since I was a kid actually.  I tried various different things to get relief and eventually I found it by following a whole food plant based (WFPB) way of eating.  It's not a good idea to just throw oneself into a PB diet.  For one, like anyway of eating, you want to make sure you are getting all your vitamins and minerals etc.  So I did some research.  The more I researched, the more I decided that this was the way all folks should be eating!  Not only because of the animal rights issue, but also for environmental and health reasons.  I won't go into the nitty gritty reasoning behind each reason because that would take forever.

Suffice it to say, it's for those three reasons that I have maintained this way of eating.

As I read that statement it makes it sound like it's not a fun way to eat and I am forced to do this, but that's not the case.  I eat a lot of yummy food and the foods I don't eat, donuts, chips, etc, I don't miss in the least.

Right, so I have established that I love the way I eat, that I get excited when I read information about it and like most, I want to share that info.  Here's the thing though...when it comes to food, one has to be very careful about standing on a soapbox and saying 'MY WAY IS BEST!'.   No matter what they think.

As much as I would love if the world switched it's way of eating, for the three reasons listed above, I know that I don't want to be told how to eat, so I don't tell anyone else.

That doesn't mean I don't think it though...

When I see friends getting sick over and over again with colds and flus I think, 'You know, if you switched how you ate you wouldn't get sick...I never get sick.'

I know, I know...thinking that way is almost as bad as saying it!  It's judging and I despise judgment!  I didn't realize I was doing it though until last week when I got sick!  In the midst of my feverish delirium I recognized that even if you eat a WFPB diet, you can still get sick.  MY IMMUNE SYSTEM WAS NOT BOMBPROOF!  Sigh...  As I sat propped up on the couch I let that thought sink in.  It was then I realized just how much I would look at folks and think 'If only you...' and I felt horrible.

But sometimes we need to feel horrible to make a shift in thinking.  I do think that I stay relatively healthy because I choose to put good nutrition into my body.  It's like the computer acronym 'GIGO' - garbage in, garbage out.  However, it doesn't give me the right to judge or think that others should do exactly what I am doing no matter what.

So see, sometimes it's good to get sick.  It gives you time to reflect on some of the ideas you have and determine if you still want to proceed with them, or if you want to make a shift in that thinking.

Peace out my lovelies!