November 2007 Issue
Dear Reader,
As we begin another holiday season, it’s a great time to be thankful for our cravings. Yes, that’s right. We can be thankful for our cravings.
I’ve been craving ice cream since I was a child with a special sweet spot for Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia, the perfect blend of chocolate, vanilla and fruit.
A few years ago, I noticed that on Sunday nights after teaching class all weekend, an alien energy would take control of my car and drive it up the to the neighborhood store where I would inevitably buy a Cherry Garcia.
After several rounds of this, I began to wonder to myself: “What is causing this to happen?”
Many people view cravings as a weakness, when in reality they are important messages meant to help you maintain balance.
Learning to listen to our body is essential. Cravings are the body’s way of sending us messages to maintain balance. The longer we ignore these messages, the stronger the backlash can be. Yet, most people view cravings as a weakness, something to be controlled through austerity and discipline.
In those days, I was working too many hours, eating a strict macrobiotic diet and drinking hot tea all day every day. When I started deconstructing the craving, I noticed that my body felt hot and tense when I had the tea—causing my craving for a cooling food. I also realized that after the ice cream, I felt cool and calm.
So I decided to drink more cool water, eat more sweet vegetables and add more olive oil to my daily diet to find that balance. Within a few weeks of making these changes, my cravings passed and the car-jackings no longer occurred.
The lesson here is to look for the foods, deficits and behaviors in your life that are the underlying causes of your cravings.
We all have this innate wisdom that urges us to eat foods that will dissipate, at least temporarily, our physical tension, give us more energy or lift our moods. Food can acts as a kind of medicine to regulate our current inner state.
So whenever your body is craving something, pause for a moment and wonder, “What’s really going on here?” When you find yourself impulsively reaching for some food, please take a moment to slow down, breathe and reevaluate the situation and consider what your heart and soul really asking for.
Joshua Rosenthal, MScEd
Founder and Director
