How do we feed ourselves?

A pretty simple question with a seemingly simple answer. The obvious answer is food!

We hopefully feed ourselves a few times (traditionally three times) each day.

In my opinion, these are three chances we get each and every day to show ourselves some love and fuel ourselves in a way that's purposeful and intentional.

Of course, our days don't always go this way and there are times when we "forget to eat," "don't have enough time to eat" or simply "don't feel like it."

And to that, I say: you are missing out my friend.

You're missing out because food is a direct link to the stomach which I see as akin to the soul. In fact, it is estimated that 90% of our body's serotonin is produced in the digestive track aka the gut.

Essentially, this means that what we feed ourselves has a direct impact on how we feel not only physically but also emotionally.

However, I like to take this concept a step further and zoom out on our perspective of what we consider food to be.

We've all heard the phrase "food for thought" but what about "food for feelings" or "food for the soul?" We feed ourselves in these areas every single day without being conscious of it.

Just by the thoughts we think and the internal dialogue we have with ourselves throughout any given day, we are feeding ourselves in a way that often leaves an equally long (if not longer) impact on our bodies and minds than feeding ourselves with physical food does.

When we feed ourselves empty, processed foods, we function more slowly and think less clearly and our brains become wired and addicted to wanting these genetically modified and chemically enhanced foods.

When we feed ourselves negative, empty thoughts, we are directly feeding our brains to hunger for more of those bad thoughts and feelings… just like with junk food!

It's simple: through these thoughts, we create a habit where we LITERALLY rewire our brains to think these self-defeating thoughts over and over again.

I like to think about these concepts in terms of cars. If you have a shiny brand-spankin'-new BMW, you probably won't be fueling it with low grade, diluted gas because that would limit the lifespan of the car's ability to function at a high level.

The dealership would most likely recommend using a higher grade gas that would ensure your new midlife crisis toy to function at its maximum performance capacity.

You bought the car, you love the car, now all you have to do is take care of the car and fuel it with the good stuff and if you don't keep refueling it, it won't keep running.

The same goes for me and you. As I mentioned earlier, we have three given chances each day to fuel ourselves in a physical sense. We get these three, beautiful chances to put clean fuel in our bodies in order to make them run.

Just like a car, when our tank is empty, we can only run on fumes for so long before burning out.

Aside from fueling a car, we have to take care of them in other ways because they are the protective barrier that gets us from point A to point B; just like our bodies. Sure, sometimes they malfunction and have a glitch here or there but the sooner we tend to the problem, the less likely the problem is to worsen.

When we aren't feeding ourselves physically, we still have thousands of seconds, hundreds of minutes and multiple hours each day to feed ourselves emotionally too. That's so many chances!!

I say all of this to say that there's a whole lot of truth behind the saying "you are what you eat."

However, feeding ourselves goes far beyond what we eat at each meal. When we think good thoughts and eat clean foods, we aren't only feeding ourselves, we are nourishing ourselves.

And there's a big difference between the two.

My hope is that we can not only become more aware of the food we put into our stomachs but also the food we feed to our souls.