As part of our day-to-day lives most of us drive cars . . . and cars, like our bodies, require fuel to run. So there is a need to stop at a petrol station and fill our car with the appropriate fuel. In saying that, we would never plan to drive in and fill our petrol-fuelled car with diesel fuel, or vice versa. Through marketing and service information we are encouraged to use the ‘right fuel’ for our vehicle; for example, some cars will only accept premium quality petrol, or diesel.
So why is it when we have taken the time to put the right fuel in our car we then look to buy one or more of the huge range of petrol station in-store ‘food’ products that don’t give our bodies the right fuel to run on?
A packet of chips or a donut are not premium fuel for the body, as examples.
Now there is little doubt that we would not want to put the wrong fuel into our cars for fear of what would happen and how much it would cost to fix: from personal experience I know it is expensive – and not to mention somewhat embarrassing to correct what has happened. The fuel tank needed to be removed and drained and the fuel system had to be flushed out. I also needed to take the day off work to get my car to the mechanic. With all this in mind, have we ever stopped to consider what is happening to our body when it has to deal with this constant supply of improper fuel?
If we drove our cars in the same manner that we are prepared to drive our bodies, then what would be the cost?
If cars represented our bodies, and we consider the way we eat and treat our bodies, then our cars would either be at the mechanic’s or the panel beater’s on a very regular basis, at a considerable cost. Every week the mechanic would say, “Your fuel filter is blocked again, what fuel have you been putting in there?”
The wrong fuel for my body used to be my everyday choice; I was overweight, always tired and constantly seeking stimulation to keep going. More coffee and sugary foods is what got me through the day. But the false ‘energy’ boost from this sort of stimulation is only ever short-lived before the inevitable coming down, and then the need arises to seek more stimulation again; a cycle with no beginning and no end, just a constant feeling of blah.
Then, about 13 years ago I met Serge Benhayon and through his loving support, and the teachings of Universal Medicine, I was presented with a new and true way to fuel and run my body. I then chose to take what was presented and make that part of my everyday livingness.
That everyday livingness now has me eating salads, vegetables and fruit, proteins like meat, fish and nuts, and drinking water or herbal tea. My job involves lots of physical work and consuming the right fuel helps maintain my energy levels so my body does not feel tired or become exhausted.
So why did I choose a fuel for the body that did not help it run on all cylinders?
My choice was to not be responsible for the way I drove my body and as my body suffered, I looked for foods and drinks to stimulate it to feel better or dull the body in order to get through the day.
What if OUR choice was to only put the right fuel in our bodies?
Imagine if we all chose fuel for our bodies that gives us optimal performance day after day, also choosing to live in a way that never leaves us run down or exhausted, but vital and being able to live a full day every day without reaching for something to stimulate us to keep going.
What would be the cost if we all changed the way we ate and lived?
Could it be possible that there would be far less illness and disease and therefore far fewer people seeking medical attention from living in an ill way as I once used to?
Would we not have more vitality and hence be able to live much more fulfilled lives instead of spending countless dollars and hours seeking healing and medical attention from the choices we’ve made?
What will be your choice of fuel for your body today? I know what mine is.
Inspired by Serge Benhayon, Universal Medicine and its amazing practitioners and my Everyday Livingness.
By Mick Scheenhouwer, Carpenter, Brisbane
Further Reading:
Men In Livingness
Are You Fit For Life?
I Found Observing My Body is a Great Support
When your body is a loved and cherished vintage model you realise that you have to treat yourself with extra care and delicacy and be gentle with the accelerator and brake and appreciate the attention to detail as you move gently through life.
We can get into a downward spiral when it comes to eating the wrong foods that have a lot of sugar content as this gives us spikes in energy. When we hit the low spot we seek something to stimulate us again so that we feel the high. this can be a difficult cycle to come out of assuming we acknowledge we are in this cycle to start with.
I have eaten considerably better this week then I did the week before and the changes in myself are immense, I feel amazing, life feels more simpler and all because I have chosen to eat what was true for my body.
Yes Anonymous, we all know what is good for our body and what is clearly not. Honouring this knowing is the healthiest way of treating ourselves
Finding our way through a sugary minefield is open to interpretation according to how much we intake and when we stop all sugary foods even the slightest sweetness can send us out of control.
Just as its not helpful to put the wrong food in our body, so to is it bad to allow in negative thoughts.
If we all chose to eat and drink what the body is calling for in order to work at the optimum level then there would be no problem with feeding the world.
Food can be used to nourish and nurture ourselves, or to dull and dampen down who we truly are.
Another thing to consider is that the fuel we need for our body keeps changing as our bodies, age, weather, cycles and lifestyle change – so it is a never ending discernment for maximum performance, health, love, care, awareness and joy in life.
When we pull in to the pit stop of life, there are only two pumps to choose from: the cheap gas that raises you up then slams you down, and gets you moving crazy, or the fuel that nourishes every part of you, and comes with high levels of truth, stillness and evolution. Why on earth would we go for anything other than option two, and Love? Did I mention the second type has responsibility off the charts?
This is great analogy not just for the right fuel but also for filling up the car too much, never would we fill up our car so much so that it overspills, yet to often we over fill our stomachs way more then they need.
Yes and the fuel not only applies to what we eat and drink but also what we hear, say and how we react etc. Many feed their bodies with music and emotions that can cause even more harm than the wrong food fuel.
Eating too much food is really harmful to our bodies, the excess food is simply converted to sugar, and we all know how harmful sugar is to our bodies.
A beautiful insight into the care we give our cars and the care we give our bodies and the real effects of this and implications in our lives and the responsibility we have . A great reflection and pondering on the amazingness and love we can have in our bodies and our lives.
It is true if our bodies were cars they would be in the garage every five minutes and yet we can appear to be looking after our cars but there is no way of hiding the effects of our choices on our bodies.
It doesn’t make any sense why we would choose fuel (food) that slows us down, makes us feel heavy, dull and sick. Since I heard Serge Benhayon present about spirit and soul everything started to make sense. I now understand why I have such a struggle with certain things in life and why the world is the way it is.
I know quite a few people who spend so much time making sure their cars are super sparkling both inside and out and that’s great as there’s nothing like a sparkling clean car, but when it comes to their bodies the same level of love and care is almost totally absent. I wonder where and when, we as human beings began to bring more attention to that which is outside of us at the expense of what is inside of us, our precious and most valuable vehicle of all.
Our willingness to honour the way we feel determines our journey and destination. If doesn’t matter so much which fuel we use, if we’re ignoring our GPS – we’re destined to stay very lost.
It is wonderfully important to consider that fuel for the body not only comes from the food that we eat but also from the quality of movements that we make.
I agree with you Shami. The common school of thought is that food is our only source of energy but when we understand energy and how it works this reveals another level of responsibility that many of us may not have considered.
The quality of movements that we make, that is based on the choice of aligning to one energy or another, that then influences a whole range of choices: from the food we eat, to the emotions we allow within ourselves and take on from others, to even being aware of what we are filling ourselves up with. Are we filling ourselves up with our own deep self care ans self love, or negating that and seeking it from someone or something else?
What I have come to realise is that it is not just the food that I put in my body that counts it is about the way I eat that food. I could eat the same foods with completely different energy and the distinction on my body would absolutely be felt.
If someone was to actually give their car the wrong fuel, they’d be forced to stop and mend this mistake – empty the tank, clean it out and replace with new fuel. But what’s crazy is that when we do this in life we KEEP GOING. We override exhaustion, tiredness and feelings of depression, as a few examples, when really these are times to stop and reevaluate our fuel.
I have most of my life been health conscious, wanting to eat foods that were so called healthy for me, it was a head idea and not a body awareness for I pushed my body with the continual doing doing, with no love or self care at all. Now I am learning to listen to my body and how it is feeling and adjust my lifestyle and eating habits lovingly.
Bringing it back to connecting with our bodies, listening to what feels supportive and nurturing for them, ‘Now I am learning to listen to my body and how it is feeling and adjust my lifestyle and eating habits lovingly.’
It is important for us to bring in the aspect of nourishment to what we choose to eat, so easy it is to eat for taste, comfort, stimulation and energy boosting. When the body feels nourished and loved it is hugely supportive for daily life.
The more I listen to the wisdom of my body, the more awareness there is of what needs refining in order to keep it running harmoniously.
A great reminder of the responsibility we have for our bodies to support them completely. When we live in a way that nourishes and nurtures – then it is not just about us but also about how we can support others to also take responsibility.
Our reflections and choices to eat food that support and nourishes can be very powerful as it is not only the food that is noted but all the other movements we make that are clocked over time.
This is such a common sense approach- it is interesting that we don’t normally think like this though. We treat our bodies like we can do whatever we like to them- ingest any foods, go into emotions, treat it recklessly- we often have more regard for our material things then we do for our own bodies.
‘..and not to mention somewhat embarrassing to correct what has happened.’ This phrase has to do with your car but are we truly embarrassed when we visit the health professional and our lifestyle is not supporting us but instead we are putting all kind of food/drinks/thoughts in our body which are detoriating and leaving us less than who we are.
The analogy of using the right fuel for the car, and ignoring our body is par for the course…it seems that the closer something is to us we do anything to avoid it… like choosing to address the way we speak… now thats really up close and personal ..:-)
We use poisonous fuel to keep our bodies going. From coffee in the morning to the glass of wine at night everything is meticulously planned to maintain function at the expense of ease and true vitality.
It is so true that we take greater care with many of our belongings than we do our bodies, yet it is only through our bodies that we can truly live life to the fullest with vitality and well-being, through how we love and care for ourselves.
This is so true Carola. I remember falling over and badly damaging both my hand and my shoe. I was more upset about the shoe than I was about the hand because ‘the hand could heal’. I knew it was crazy at the time but the arrogance of it astounds me now.
No matter what our age, or daily job, the right fuel supports us to have the most alert and healthy body we can, to attend to what we need to every day.
Mick something for us all to consider is the fact that we are willing to always (unless a crazy lapse of awaerness) put the right fuel in our cars, the one that supports them to go and not break down – yet we don’t have that level of care for our bodies. Its as if we value what is outside of us and cost us money more than the divine body we grew up with.
For ages I thought that this fuel pertained to just the food that you ate, but now I can see that the greatest part is the quality of energy you say yes to letting through our body. There are only two types – don’t be fooled by the clever branding – what is from heaven and what is not. Thank you Mick for this blog.
Beautifully said Joseph – and if we are willing, it is very clear to see and feel the difference in our bodies, between living with love and living with all that is not of love.
Our bodies are incredible power houses that love to work long hours, but only when we treat them well, and put the right fuel into them. The difference when I eat the right/wrong food is huge in the quality of my thoughts, how I move, how I relate to myself and the world. I never used to even consider how food might affect my mood and thoughts, but by experimenting with how different foods make me feel, I now eat in a way where I have energy consistently throughout the day, and feel much steadier and consistent. It feels amazing to not have the highs and lows that I used to, the craving for something sweet to pick me up, or need to relax myself with alcohol. What I eat is now much simpler, more nourishing and more delicious, and so is how I feel, and life in general.
My body is amazing what I have put it through, and still do considering what I know and am aware of. It’s worth noting we have a being inside of us that is the human spirit that does not care one ounce about the body. A significant detail — do I want to be fully aware or dull myself from accepting the absoluteness of the love there is and the responsibility there is to reflect this.
I imagine that there would be very few of the seven billion people in this world whose bodies are running on all cylinders and if you take a close look at what ‘human fuel’ is sold, not only in every service stations but in every supermarket, it is easy to understand why. We need to become our own mechanics, very honest ones, whose care for our bodies is of the utmost quality, so we are able to move through our lives on all precious cylinders
I’m continually amazed what the body can do and how much it can achieve. Add to this the feeling of joy that can potentially deepen daily and you have The Way of The Livingness.
It’s a great point and is very confronting when we are faced with how we treat our bodies. It even goes so far as maintenance. Most of us service our cars regularly but having regular checkups, be it the dentist, pap-smears, a skin check…often they get left on the back burner and forgotten until something drastic happens. I’m pondering if it’s a lack of self worth, that we don’t value ourselves in the same way we value something we have paid a lot of money for that if we don’t maintain will cost us money.
It is interesting that we generally take more care of our cars (and horses come to mind here too) than for our bodies of which we expect ongoing and everlasting functionality and service without ever checking in what the right fuel might be. Instead we frequently opt for convenience or fast food, at the expense of our vitality and the enjoyment of life.
It is so easy to get distracted in the supermarket by the special offers or the enticingly packaged foods but if we maintain our focus and sense of purpose and only buy what we need to nourish our bodies we save time, money and loss of energy from the consequence of our meanderings.
Really if we do not get the right fuel into our bodies we don’t have the foundation to have a truly successful life. Get the right fuel and we have the building blocks to live the quality of life we all want.
Who is in the driving seat of our vehicle when we choose to put sugar in the fuel tank? If someone else did this to our high performance vehicle it would be vandalism, so it is interesting to realise that we are vandalising our vehicle when we weigh it down with unwelcome fuel.
Yes Mick, they say just 2 tanks of premium gas can clear out your engine… premium food is definitely the way to go ..:-)
Quality fuel for our body supports quality movements and clarity of thought, it’s basic common sense really.
Seeing food as fuel does bring in more of a responsibility towards what is then chosen to put into our bodies, because we are all very careful what fuel we put into our cars as we don’t want it to break down. Unfortunate that most don’t have this kind of consideration for the body when choosing what to eat.
How often do we think of food as fuel, rather than something that tastes great? I know my diet is super healthy but I don’t often consider food fuel, I wonder if I change my approach to food it would change what I ate – food for thought!
I can remember how utterly horrified I felt, as well as totally embarrassed, when I put diesel instead of petrol into the van of the organisation I was working for. My first worry was the damage I might have done to the engine and the next was having to let them know. But if I cast my mind back to that time I wasn’t worried nearly as much when I fed my body food that was going to damage its internal ‘engine’; now that really doesn’t make sense at all but it is how I lived. These days the fuel that I choose for my body is as high a quality as the fuel that I put into my car and as a result we are both running smoothly on all cylinders.
If we wanted to build a brick house we would not build it with wood, if we want to live in a body of love we would not choose disregard.
When put so simply as you have presented it Mick one can feel the ridiculousness of it. Which then bears the question why we move on such a way?
Putting the wrong fuel in the body can have serious consequences, we all know this yet there is often still a part of us that wants to ignore this ignorable fact.
I find this a very very fascinating topic because we all know that not eating in a healthy loving way is not something the body naturally warms to and in fact can and does react to. We bloat, we fart, we burp, we feel tired, lethargic etc. None of these conditions are ones we would truly like to experience yet we override it and continue to eat. It shows the seeking of these sorts of foods is more than just taste or physical experience alone.
It is now so obvious when I put the wrong fuel in my body. It’s like I have put treacle in my veins. My whole body slows down, I can’t think clearly, my vitality disappears, and my natural joy is diminished. It’s so not worth it. Much better to give my body fuel for life and vitality.
At the end of the day, there can be no denying of the fact that our bodies are receivers of energy, and what we express (be it physically, verbally or energetically) is a reflection of the quality of energy that we are allowing to pass though us. Our bodies are communicating this to us constantly, we just need to tune in and pay attention to the ‘gauges’. What energy we allow to pass through us is what delivers us the choices as to what we eat and how we live – our expression is how we live, all of it. This is such a brilliant blog as you highlight just how directly affected our vitality and well-being is by the quality of energy we are aligning to, and that this is empowering to realise as we ultimately are the ones that make the call, every day, every moment as to what energy we are aligning to. For a body that is moved by love, is a body that is truly firing on all cylinders.
I noticed in my local petrol station this week that they had moved the energy drinks full of sugar and caffeine to the front counter alongside the lollies. It is a great reminder of how we use sugar and caffeine as a stimulant to cover the fact that we are exhausted from living in such a way that is draining us.
After trying many different healthy diets over the years I have found the most supportive healthy diet for me is to listen to what my body needs and eat to support it and as I have done this the messages get clearer as to what supports and what doesn’t. A simple process that is well worth doing.
There is definitely something for us to learn here, the very place we go to fill our cars up with fuel is also the place where we buy junk food to fill our bodies up with. The total opposite from the care we take at the petrol station where we make sure we fill up with the correct fuel for our car, check our tyres,, a great reflection for us if we were to open our eyes and see what is being reflected to us.
Its so true that we must come to an understanding of what fuel really is good for our bodies…. And then comes the amazing task of the ‘tune-up’ ☺
The correct fuel for our body goes beyond the physical and into the dimensions of energy. What energy are we aligning to that is giving us our thoughts and the rhythm of how we move? From there our physical choices take place.
How awesome would it be to choose a fuel that supported us everyday, where we felt vitality and energy, so never reaching the exhaustion state. How young and vital our bodies would look as our every cell would be full of spark and life.
Our cars are like our bodies, they run well when looked after and break down and fail when our lifestyle choices are not supportive and self caring.
So when we put the wrong fuel in our cars they don’t work properly or at all so what effect does putting the wrong fuel in our bodies from these service stations have on our driving, our concentration, our response time? are we stimulated and racy or drowsy and dulled down. We have a responsibility to our own health and also the safety in which we drive.
If we filled a diesel car with petrol, it would come to a complete stop soon after, with serious consequences to the engine. If we considered which fuel is true for the body, whether it be food, quality of movement and expression, there would be far less illness, disease and disharmony on the planet.
Yes and what is interesting here is when a person passes away from obvious life style choices disease we often question why this is so – when we all know deep down the level of disregard that has taken place that lead to the situation in the first place.
For a while I’ve thought of fuel, only in the sense of what I eat. ‘Is that food good for me? Will it leave me feeling sick?’. But today I am getting in a new way that the key fuel for me is connection and what I feel in my body, because as life goes all my choices flow from here. The quality of what I choose in how I speak and how I move is powerful in so many ways. It can fuel or drain me just like sleep or what we eat. Thank you Mick for what you share here.
If we want optimal performance from our human bodies throughout our days then it is essential that we fuel it with optimal fuel. Great blog Mick.
I love it when I give my body the correct fuel – life just becomes so much easier, when we feed ourselves food that brings energy rather then taking it away.
I work really hard most days early till late, I love my work and I know without doubt I would not be able to do this is if I disregarded my body and gave my body the wrong fuel.
“So why is it when we have taken the time to put the right fuel in our car we then look to buy one or more of the huge range of petrol station in-store ‘food’ products that don’t give our bodies the right fuel to run on?” Such a great question Mick. It does seem crackers that people take more care of their cars and bikes than they do of their own bodies. And then we wonder why we get ill, diabetes being just one of the disease rates that is soaring, which can be cured by changes in diet and life-style for the most part. However many would prefer to take pills rather than give up their sugar and carbohydrates. Prevention surely has to be addressed by health services soon, as they will soon be bankrupt the way things are going.
It is very ironic that we are so willing to take such care of our cars so that they run to their optimum capability, but how we can be so negligent when it comes to fuelling our own bodies. Even at the check out paying for our fuel, we are tempted with so many foods that will literally slow us down or at best, give us a temporary boost followed by a fall in energy, or even change of mood. I wonder if at the checkouts in fuel stations, all that was on offer was water and just foods that made us feel vital, what the impact would be on our roads and our attitudes towards other drivers?
The food and drink we choose to consume inevitably alters how we feel each day, and that builds into our future experience of health.
It’s tempting to see what you have written here Mick as only extending to the foods we eat. Even that is a bit confronting. But to expand it out to consider the energy we choose as the real fuel that is running us is not a step so many appear willing to take. But when we do the beauty is all there for us to appreciate – wow, how simple and easy life can be. We have magazines dedicated to running in ‘top gear’ – now with sites like this we are beginning to see great tributes to a life lived Lovingly.
In a world lost in complication we need to stop and readdress what is happening, choosing the right fuel for our body is a recipe for inner success.
Although my choices have got way better than what they were before this is still a big learning for me .. to lovingly nourish my body and give it what it needs to be clear, open, loving and strong other than what my spirit wants.
Considering our body to be like a car and the food we eat as the fuel is an important starting point. This choice can support us to feel vital and able to make the most of our days. But in the end the state of our body is what determines how much of our essence can flow through us, or how much it is polluted.
I have been watching how my fuel gauge changes from week to week depending on the choices of food that I have been consuming. I fuel my car on the same day each week and have noticed that the amount of food that is needed has become a marker of the quality in which I am running my car-(body) that week. Appreciating that the simplest of daily chores highlight markers in the quality we choose to live in.
The car is a great analogy to observe because we know that putting in the wrong fuel will very soon cause it to not run well at all, very obvious. When we are numbed out or racy with eating sugary foods etc we don’t get to feel what the body is feeling until along the way we end up with disease and illness with the body saying it has had enough. As we tune into the body by feeling how food feels in the body we can make choices of fuel that are only healing for the body.
Its an intersting fact, that when we clean up our diet, our bodies get cleaner inside so when we put something itno it that is not so clean it start to malfunction, sometimes mildly, other times a bit mor vigorously. And the same happens with our cars – over time the inner workings will get a bit grunged up if we do not take care to give it the best fuel possible and it doesn’t work as efficiently. The only difference is that we expect our bodies to keep on working regardless of what we feed them, and complain when they don’t!
It’s interesting phenomenon (and paradox) that petrol stations double as junk food stores these days. So while we’re diligently filling our motor vehicles with the correct fuel, in the next breath we’re filling our human vehicles – our bodies – with garbage. We respect our cars more than ourselves.
I was at a petrol station yesterday and while waiting to pay I noticed the chocolate bars have got bigger. There are now two bars in one pack and the ones that used to contain two now have three. Sugary things are becoming super sized and are in temptations way all the time. The right fuel for our cars, but wrong fuel for us.
The problem with food issues is our taste buds and our brains. Much processed food these days has sugar in to preserve it and to make the taste palatable. More and more we see sugar as an ingredient. Sugar makes me racy. Other foods have a different effect and we often choose foods deliberately for the effect they have on our bodies, such as gluten which for me was a great numbing device – a thick cheddar cheese sandwich was my ‘rescue remedy’ of choice, but actually it left me feeling heavy.
When we put the wrong fuel in our car the effect is obvious and felt immediately. The more awareness we have of our bodies and are willing to listen to it the more we can feel the effect of the wrong fuel in it too.
Our fuel is the quality we live in, whether we choose to come from love or not. When we choose to make more (self)loving choices our diet is changing accordingly. We won’t choose unhealthy food when the relationship we have with our body is one of true care and love.
So why is the esoteric student so devoted to a clean diet? On one level, it of course allows the body to operate as it should and is designed to. However, on a much deeper level, it serves to raise the energetic vibration of the body in such a way that makes it more able to not only register but embody the energy of fire, which is our true energetic state. That of course if a forever deepening and unfolding process, and so a true esoteric student does not eat according to rules set by another but by developing a relationship with the energy of fire, or that of their own Soul. As the level of fire increases in the body over time, so does the food that they choose change as the body adjusts. Paramount to this whole process is developing a relationship with fire, for the truth is you can have a totally clean diet that is honouring of your body and yet not be one step closer to embodying the fire of your Soul. As with everthing with the Ageless Wisdom, it is always about energy first.
A great question to constantly ask ourselves is what fuel are we taking in, what are the quality of our thoughts? what is the quality of movements, what are we letting in that will effect us?
Asking these questions ultimately brings more awareness and if we are willing to listen to the answers we learn how to evolve.
Most people would be utterly embarrassed admitting that they’ve put the wrong type of fuel into their car – especially when they know better/ differently. And yet, we have an arrogance that we can hide or get away with putting the wrong fuel into our bodies – not only once, but frequently… And even take pride in talking about the fact that we’ve eaten this or that.
Great point Kylie, it reminds me of the hot dog eating contests where by the contestants eat enormous amounts of food, and watching them you would expect them to have a heart attack or at least vomit, but this type of behaviour is seen as fun and championed.
What a great way to look at our body and how we treat it. When we eat foods that clogs our system it then doesn’t function in its optimum level or potential. So, often our food choices are some of the reasons why we can feel exhausted, grumpy and completely out of sorts. I know since I have changed the quality of fuel/food I put into my body, my energy levels and how I feel has been amazing.
It really stands out when you visit supermarkets where the focus on food really lies, for instance there are so few aisles which have foods in them that are truly healthy for the body. In fact I have often wondered if you take out everything in the supermarket which would be considered unhealthy, we would only really need a very small shop.
‘there is little doubt that we would not want to put the wrong fuel into our cars for fear of what would happen and how much it would cost to fix’ – Very true, and in-keeping with your comparison to the body is this not a contributing factor to why healthcare services around the world are in huge amounts of debt? Their garages are full or people putting in the wrong kinds of fuel!
Great point that you make here Mick, and one that we can so easily bypass. It is interesting how much we are prepared to take care of our cars so that they will run efficiently, but are not nearly as willing to take the same amount of care with our bodies. If we did however, it is absoultely possible that our bodies would run with a similar efficiency and power and we would feel the benefits on so many different levels.
I had a friend come visit me a couple of days a go who was quite upset because by mistake she had put petrol in her car instead of diesel, what was great is that she realised afterwards that when filling up the car she was checking out thinking about something that certainly wasn’t healthy and that the car and petrol situation was just a reflection of this.
‘Could it be possible that there would be far less illness and disease and therefore far fewer people seeking medical attention from living in an ill way as I once used to?’ Imagine a world where we all would choose to listen to the divine design of our vehicle, the body? Not only the food but also caring and nurturing for our body in a loving way. Illness and disease would not be everyday ‘s normal, the healthcare could be true caring again and we would feel vital and awesome.
Just this morning I read about energy drinks and that it can cause serious heart problems and even death in some people – definitely not the right fuel for our body. And yet companies make money, and lots of it, from putting these concoctions together and selling them on supermarket shelves where they are freely available to kids even.
Today for me this blog highlighted the way I drive my car as a reflection of how I drive my body and I know that the care with which I drive could be so much more. Thank you. The fuel in both cases is loving care.
‘Imagine if we all chose fuel for our bodies that gives us optimal performance day after day, also choosing to live in a way that never leaves us run down or exhausted, but vital and being able to live a full day every day without reaching for something to stimulate us to keep going.’ It’s crazy how this is something that most of society could only imagine or even dream about. This is 100% possible and without too much drama and FOMO. We just need to adjust our attitudes toward food and also our perception of what it means to treat yourself, because as it stands, we treat ourselves and celebrate with foods that are actually killing us….but they taste so good we’re not willing to see the truth of what’s behind them.
The right fuel for our body changes everything… and also its worth saying that although there will be foods in common that are great fuel for most people, each of us will have a particular type of fuel, or range of foods that is just right for us.
Why do the majority of us love our cars more than our body!!!! It’s crazy really. One such fuel (maybe 2) that are being consumed in vast amounts is coffee and energy drinks. It does not take a genius to know that these are simply not good for our body but they keep being produced and we keep drinking them! I guess it takes each and every one of us to individually wake up, feel this for ourselves and then make a different choice as you have done. Then there will be no demand for supply and drinks such as these will stop being produced. Now that will be an awesome day.
“What if OUR choice was to only put the right fuel in our bodies?” Is it that we don’t make the connection between feeling tired, illness and disease etc and what we eat – our lifestyle? As health services world-wide become more strained, surely it makes sense to focus on prevention rather than cure? Something we can easily take into our own hands – by making different choices.
I am finding that it’s not just what we put into our bodies that is included in changing the way we eat but also how we approach the behaviour of eating in the first place. If we only placed 1 litre of fuel into our cars at any one time it would be exhausting constantly in a stress to find the next gas station, in fear of running out and stopping and yet I know I have done this to my body with sugary foods or eating in a way to avoid my feelings – constantly seeking the next nibble incase I feel something I am avoiding. Stopping to properly refuel gives me the space to breath and be just with that moment, whatever may be there, whereas if constantly on the go there is no stop moment or so it seems because that momentum does eventually terminate by our choice or from the body saying Stop!
Absolutely brilliant Mick. The scary thing is we get warned when we are at the fuel pump – the signs direct us to the correct fuel for our car and measures are put in place to stop us from using the wrong fuel. When it comes to fuel for our bodies the opposite is true as the foods that are killing us are often promoted as being ‘healthy’ or even ‘essential’. It’s an outrageous state of affairs but in the end responsibility rests with us. We must pay attention to the way our bodies respond to food if we want to live truly vital lives.
Gorgeous Mick. I am sure that less illness and disease would be there in a certain degree. As much of our illness and disease can be prevented by the way we are living. One big part of that is with food (part of the fuel for our human body) yet not all we get energy from. As we constantly make choices that can exhaust us. Even though we eat healthy foods so the speak. So there is more than meets the eye. Thank you for bringing this up. Love the easiness of truth in the revelations of the blog.
Premium fuel for our car and “A packet of chips or a donut” for us leaves me wondering why many of us give so much care to ensuring our car is “fuelled” with the optimum fuel, but when it comes to fuelling our own amazing bodies anything will do. It just doesn’t make sense! If we don’t look after our cars we know that they will eventually break down, sometimes costing us a lot of money to fix, so why don’t we consider that our bodies will also break down with the same lack of care. In our case though we tend to expect someone else to fix us and hope that the bill won’t be too high. Not a lot of sense at all in this scenario either. It is becoming obvious that it is time for some simple common sense to be taught to our children from young, as to the responsibility they have to care for their precious, and often breakable, bodies.
Perfect example of the neglect we practice with our bodies daily. It seems like a crazy comparison, but seriously…why on earth do we care more about our tin cans (cars) than the body that allows us to live every single day?
Knowing what to eat based on what our body truly needs is a never ending learning.
I can remember the feeling of horror when I put the wrong fuel in the work van; I was mortified, but when I look back at that time in my life I definitely wasn’t being as equally horrified at the ‘wrong fuel’ that I was putting into my body. How crazy is it that we seem to be more concerned with our vehicles running at their optimum than we are our bodies? Now that simply doesn’t make sense!
And likely this was already prompting you Ingrid, to look at what the fuel was you were putting into your body.
The correct fuel for our body is love and when this choice is made, every choice thereafter, be it the foods we eat, the words we speak or the movements we make, will be imbued with the quality of this. Of course it needs to be stated that the reverse is also true so that if we do not choose love, we choose its opposing force and all that we eat, speak and move with will carry this toxin.
I know for certain that I have used food as a reward, to dull down myself when I feel great and to smother feelings I don’t want to face. Yet there is actually no reward in food, because ultimately we feel more rewarded when we eat only what we need to feel energised and ready for daily life.
A great reminder for the day and all days ahead. What we put into our bodies has a huge effect on our thoughts, feelings, emotions, reactions, self-esteem, everything! We are responsible for maintaining our body so our expression is more clearly from who we are and not from who we are not.
I have learnt that if I put heavy, greasy and sugary foods into my body it will not feel great, my energy levels will be depleted, my mood changes and it makes me feel awful. I can definitely feel a difference when I choose foods that are nourishing, fresh and made with love. My body, moves and feels completely different, so, I agree, I feel our health is very much related to what type of food/fuel we choose to put into our body, similar to a car there is a direct impact from our choices. So, it doesn’t make any sense to choose bad quality fuel for our body.
“have we ever stopped to consider what is happening to our body when it has to deal with this constant supply of improper fuel?” A great question for everyone, I know I never use to consider what I use to put into my body, I ate what ever I felt too, I was non the wiser in that it had any impact on my body. I never related any illness to what I ate. But once I began to get the understanding from the presentations of Universal Medicine, it made sense how foods like dairy caused sinus problems. Since I have cut out dairy I have had no sinus problems or colds.
Love the symbology of your post Mick of a car and our body: “A packet of chips or a donut are not premium fuel for the body, as examples” – quite, and also neither is making it the other way and so ‘clean’ with obsession that the car/body equally malfunctions too ; )
I love Joshua’s comment, we pay money to buy alcohol and then use our state, using in effect most people’s money, to help offset or ameliorate the effect of filling our bodies with poison. Would it not be far wiser to spend money helping people look at why they have a ‘need’ for alcohol or any addiction, and addressing this in the first place?
We pay money to buy alcohol and then the services of our society are used to make us better from the harm it causes. Crazy.
A guaranteed way to damage the engine of your car is to put sugar in the fuel tank. My body supports me so much more steadily now that I take care of the fuel that I consume.
The fact we have so many people in the world suffering with obesity and parts of the world suffering from malnutrition and starvation like for instance the current situation in Yemen shocks me. I find it crazy we can find money to send people to the moon and spend billions of pounds/dollars on space technology whist all the time the problems right under of noses here on earth get bigger and bigger.
I am so much in agreement with what you have written Samantha. Yes it is crazy to the extreme that all this money is being spent on looking at what is going out ‘out there”‘, when it’s right here in front of us that we need to be looking and spending the money. There is more than enough money in the world to ensure that no one goes hungry, that everyone has a supply of clean water and adequate shelter, but it is very obvious they don’t. There’s definitely something very out of balance in this world we live in.
Great analogy Mick, for us all to honestly consider the way we have been treating our bodies and the type of fuel we have been choosing to run with, has it been one of not wanting to take responsibility as we know someone can “fix” our issues or one of deep honoring knowing the more we care and make loving choices the more vital and harmonious our bodies become.
Are we willing to give up complex, hard and resistant lives, and live very simply and loving? A great question to ask..As the resistance might rise up straight away inside us when this question is being asked. But a good starting point and to remember, that we are here to come back not invent in further complexity. As simplicity is Our key. I am humbled by your blog as equally to all the teachings that are in here that Serge Benhayon represents. We are not here on earth to further dwell in complexity and despair – we are here to re-turn, re-united to the simplicity, universe we come from. Let’s make ourselves at ease.
We have a lot of ignorance and arrogance around our body, not choosing the same awareness we have with the fuelling and maintenance of our cars. We would never knowingly put the wrong fuel in our car, but we consistently do it with our bodies , and we are shocked when the consequences, in the form of illness and disease appear. We have been sold stories , sensational taste, health benefits, lured by fast food but it’s all fuel for our body, and the body does not require all the complicated mix but a the simplicity to refuel to support a vital body.
Putting the right fuel into our bodies is vital if we want to live more lovingly, have more energy and overall clarity. Humanity is arrogant to think we can eat what we want and get away with it, the consequences of which are now clearly showing in how much illness and disease rates are rising.
It is a fact that when our cars start playing up with the odd little message which might be in the way of a light flickering on the dash board, or the occasional jitter or smoothness of the car whilst idling, or stalling, this inevitably sends alarm bells to us that something is not quite right and off we go to the garage to get the problem checked out. But when it comes to the body we have become masters at ignoring the signals, coming up with excuses why we choose not get something checked out or ways to subdue the signals the body is giving us.
What is it about being a student of Universal Medicine and The Way of The Livingness that has made me sit up and take notice to what my body is telling me, after in my case many years of choosing to numb it and treat it poorly? Everyone has heard the old saying that we treat our cars better than we treat our bodies, but it seems to not make much difference whether we have heard it or not. So what is it about the philosophy, science and religion presented by Universal Medicine that has got hundreds of people just as ingrained in poor behaviours as anyone else to change their ways? There is something very empowering to be offered information that feels to be true, yet without judgement and with total love and respect, while also being delivered by a core of people who genuinely practice what they preach down to the fine detail. It has been life changing and continues to be.
Great blog Mick, the car and fuel analogy is very powerful. The way we care for, and the fuel we put into, our cars is a wonderful reflection as to how we treat our bodies and the energy we are choosing.
The thing about this, is how easy it is to think that we are getting away with it – to eat the foods that do not support us in our daily lives. Sometimes I will eat something and tell myself, its ok, I can handle it. But this is not in communication with my body and what it is actually asking for, which may be to rest, or to go for a walk.
Its a subtle part of the image in the blog, but a point well made. Why would we not choose the ‘ultimate’ fuel at the pump for something as precious as our own bodies?
We are able to connect the fact that when we drive a car recklessly we can cause it to breakdown, yet it seems harder for us to see and accept this same thing with our bodies. There are so many illnesses and diseases we claim to not know the cause of, yet most of the time it is staring us in the face in the form of the way we live, and the choices we make that we know harm us.
Reading your blog again today – just was so good to imagine what you put here: “Imagine if we all chose fuel for our bodies that gives us optimal performance day after day, also choosing to live in a way that never leaves us run down or exhausted, but vital and being able to live a full day every day without reaching for something to stimulate us to keep going.” Everyone would feel so much better and I feel there would be much less strive in the world too. I know that I feel so different since making loving food choices for my body, and not by being told to but rather by feeling what my body says after I have eaten and then making the appropriate adjustments.
I like how you say we put in the right fuel into our car but then buy at the same time some snack/food/drink that is not supportive/the right food for our body. It seems like where the consequences are seen, felt and had immediately we choose wisely while when there is a middle ground (i.e. of not feeling so well to having some kind of disease) we are simply keep going ears and eyes shut to what we are really doing to ourselves.
I was ‘driving’ my body over the weekend – moving lots of furniture some of it too heavy for me, and some of it ‘banging’ against my body so I’m feeling a bit sore and bruised this week. So imagine if this was my car? It would be down the garage needing bodywork repairs and an overhaul of the engine… and I might allow myself a lie in for an hour and maybe a bath for 30 mins? When I put it like this, that bit of abuse does not make any sense.
For so many of us we grow up thinking that food gives us the fuel. If I was tired I would think I need food. Food is essential but food can also be the thing that is making us feel heavier and more tired. As always it comes back to the energy we are choosing more so than the food. Our choice of energy is the fuel and will also determine what food we choose.
This is just a classic and such a great way to see how silly it is to eat things that only pleasure the mouth but not really offer the body true nutrition and actually give the body even more work than it otherwise should have to do.
The fuel I put in my body is forever refining, I used to fill it with all the wrong foods that ultimately gave me highs,lows and big crashes, now I choose to be steady and strong by the choice of fuel I allow in my body.
Yes me too, and it is making such a difference in my daily life too.
Men especially take great pride in their cars. Not only the look but also, perhaps more so, the mechanics. There is a precise way of looking after cars – the same fixed formula, no matter what day, month or season. We love this fixed way of looking after something -predictable and always assured results. Our human bodies are much more of a mystery, some of which even the greatest minds in conventional medicine have not fathomed. We definitely are affected by seasons and cycles. There is no guarantees about health even if you are extremely cautious and meticulous with diet. So, if life is about perfection or comfort, it is no wonder we look after predictable machines more that the organism we live in. However, if life is about exploring, observing, evolving, then our bodies deserve to be treated as the amazing instruments they are, that deserve all the care and attention we can commit to, so that we can delve deep into exploring life’s meaning and purpose.
There is no way we would put anything but the right fuel for our car, in our car. And so it does not make sense that we literally at times seem to have to fight with ourselves and the supermarket shelves to pay the same respect to our body – our one and only vehicle in this life. Most of us find this a huge struggle, but letting go of our addiction and comfort around food is so liberating, and the body and being loves it.
A great blog Mick the right fuel definitely supports the body to feel energised, joyful, vital and clear. I took my daughter to the movies yesterday and noticed the amount of junk food available to eat whilst you watched a movie. Why has it become normal for us to need to consume food constantly and especially junk food while watching a movie for 1.5-2 hours. As a society we need to address the level of sugar on hand that is harming people on a regular basis and also contributing to increasing obesity and diabetes.
Understanding the critical importance of food for our evolution Is essential , we must learn to listen to our bodies, not our heads for our diet.
Oh and how convincing and tempting the head can be at times. Those times it’s good to feel into the body deeply and really be discerning if what the head is offering is true…
If I was to have sugar again I would feel racy, emotional and all over the place, so why would I ever want to put that in my system? When I go into service stations when filling up my car with petrol I am saddened by the fact that there is never anything nutritious sold, only junk food. The confectionery sold in theses garages are a reflection of the state we have allowed ourselves to get in – so far removed from who we truly are.
Crazy really it is no coincidence that garages have become a pit stop for our bodies to fill up with sugar. We are offered such a reflection here, we make sure we fill up our cars with the correct fuel so that it runs smoothly and gets us from A to B and in contrast to this we fill our bodies with the completely opposite fuel, that actually drains, us but because of the sugar hit and the satisfaction of the taste and flavours and textures we completely over ride the fact that the sugar we are putting in our body is doing us harm and in the long term making us sick and in need of a mechanic.
I am amazed at how much the lolly counter has grown in my local petrol station, another one offers when paying for the petrol a 2 for one deal on some of the chocolates. This false fuel gets us no where lifts us up and then drops us flat with exhaustion and anxiety as a result.
Mick your amazing blog highlighted in such a simple but clear way what most of us are choosing to put into their bodies without thinking about the consequences. I am a person who loves such a practical advise as it made it so obvious and so palpable what we are really doing to ourselves.
It’s fascinating really why we would choose to nurture our cars more than we would our body. I have seen many people, in fact I did this myself that says, as they sit down to eat something…”well I know I shouldn’t, but I will”. So we know that we are eating something or eating something in a way that is harming ourselves but we choose to do it anyway. I know the question I have often asked myself is why do I do this, why am I eating when I am not hungry? What need am I attempting to meet? Food is very exposing in many ways, for we end up seeing how much we use it to not feel/medicate what is going on all around us, but also not to feel our own absolute gorgeousness and how incredible we are ourselves.
Hello Mick and a great question, “So why is it when we have taken the time to put the right fuel in our car we then look to buy one or more of the huge range of petrol station in-store ‘food’ products that don’t give our bodies the right fuel to run on?” This is not a question that hasn’t been asked before and it while it makes complete sense it would seem because we can get away with it or so it seems, there is no urgent need for us to change our behaviour. Even though we appear to be getting sicker and sicker and things are heading in a worse direction we still don’t look like stopping. Our choice in foods isn’t where the buck stops either because what makes us choose different foods over others, why do we make food choices at particular times? This comes back to more then food and it’s your choices in each moment, your movements in each moment that actually walk you into this choice or that. Yes make ‘better’ choices with foods and then look back at the steps that got you there in the first place.
Thank you Mick. I am aware of the need to fuel my body with what it needs and the best fuel that I can afford. I still sabotage this effort by often just having something extra after dinner , and regretting this when I feel bloated and uncomfortable! There is no excuse for me not to love my self and my body enough not to put it through this !
Recently I have been realising, it is not just the type of fuel we put in our bodies, it is how we ingest it, are we rushed, racy and not present? All this greatly impacts the way we can digest and the way we see life.
Imagine trying to squeeze in more petrol from the pump than our car tank capacity has room for. It would create an overflow. Yet with our bodies we view the stomach space as an equivalent balloon that has a compliant elasticity to accommodate our overeating rather than taking in the right foods in the right quantities and honouring the body’s natural design.
Working in a school recently, it was sad to see how many of the children where drinking ‘energy’ drinks, personally I feel these drinks are harmful mentally and physically to anyone let alone children who’s bodies are still developing.
My observation of people involved with Universal Medicine is that they all look so healthy and I can only put this down to diet. So choosing the right fuel for the body makes all the difference to ones physical and mental health.
‘What if our choice was to put the right fuel in our bodies’ this is a great question, one I am sure we may not truly and honestly want to answer. Because we attach so many things to eating, what we eat, how we eat, when we eat and with whom. It is not so straight forward, or should I say, we don’t allow it to be straight forward. We want it to be complex, we want it to be about everything other than putting the right fuel in our bodies, when in truth is actually is that simple.
This is a powerfull article because it strikes the absolute importance of us taking the repsonsibility to care for ourselves. Like this incredible poignant example in this blog; of fueling our car with the right fuel. What makes us indeed tanking the right fuel during our lives when we consume food, but not only food, also like excercing? When this is understood we come to enrichen our lives with truth and so another way of living that is inspired by for example Universal Medicine, who offers a true lead on true health, step one is becoming aware of what we are choosing – so we can choose another way.
I remember years ago when living in America and drinking gallons of coffee a day a friend told me how bad it was and said she was far less exhausted drinking just her herbal teas. At the time I thought she was just a mad hippy and carried on because I was young and thought I was invincible. We can put the wrong fuels in our body for a certain amount of time but and the body will be forgiving but keep doing it and it will break down eventually .
“Imagine if we all chose fuel for our bodies that gives us optimal performance day after day” This makes so much sense,if we did this illness and disease rates would plummet and everyone would be mentally and emotionally so much more harmonious. It really is a simple answer in a world that has lost itself.
It is good medicine, elixir of life, to remember that we always have a choice in absolutely everything – including choosing right fuel or wrong fuel for our magnificent bodies.
I love how you named it Tamara – ” …a good medicine, elixir of life …” what a beautiful way to describe that we do always have choices,
Appreciation keeps coming to mind as I re-read this blog. We do not truly appreciate how amazing our bodies are and that they hold a great source of wisdom and understanding. Unlike cars, which react instantly if we put the wrong fuel in them, our bodies are very patient and tolerant whilst we abuse them daily with a myriad of wrong fuels.
There is a huge consciousness around food and eating which needs to be busted. We need more blogs such as this and a big shift in our education system.
“If we drove our cars in the same manner that we are prepared to drive our bodies, then what would be the cost?” This is a very thought provoking question Mick which highlights how little we value our greatest asset – our amazingly extraordinary bodies. It makes no sense whatsoever that we continually choose to place more value on objects outside of ourselves – yet we consider ourselves to be intelligent!
What you present Mick is so simple yet totally revolutionising – I mean could we find something more simple and cost effective to turn around our health? Cutting out junk foods and eating more healthily does not need to be expensive (for example eating out junk food might cost you $10 for meal, but what about a home cooked omelette for a few dollars accompanied by a glass of water)…people spend hundreds of dollars per month on wine, beer and cigarettes – these are not really ‘foods’ as the offer no nutritional value – and they actively deteriorate a person’s health. Imagine how our world would change if we but chose to give our bodies the right fuel!
I was reminded of an old saying”a stitch in time, saves nine”. That is if we look after our bodies now we will not have to pay for the consequences later, what’s more the cost to society at large through hospital procedures that would not be necessary is immense, and it’s not just the procedures but ambulance costs, admin costs, running of surgeries, pharmacies and their goods etc etc. The implications are enormous.
For me putting the right fuel in our bodies needs to be a subject we raise at pre school and continue throughput education, as if we get this right it is the building blocks to a great life – get this basic step wrong and we will be forever playing catch up.
The key to a healthy relationship with food is to be able to discern what our bodies need to support it and what they don’t in every moment we feel the impulse to eat.
This analogy is so great, it really makes me stop and consider the fuel I am giving my body.
This really highlights for me how much we forget to care about and disregard our own bodies. Most of us are poisoning ourselves slowly with the food we put into our mouths… what a different perspective you offer Mick. Putting the right fuels in and changing the trends in the medical system.
When I stopped eating gluten and diary I felt my body rejoice, I went from feeling heavy, emotional, overwhelmed and exhausted to feeling light, vital and more joyful. I know I could not feel as good as I do now if I ate food with gluten and diary in it. Now what I eat is a constant refining process, sometimes my body shouts loud and clear what it can and can’t eat and other times it is more subtle either way if I listen and take note I evolve if I don’t I remain stagnant in my own choices.
I love coming back to your blog Mick; it is such a simple yet powerful reminder to deeply care for all aspects of our lives. Taking responsibility for the way we live and the choices we make is the key.
It’s funny isn’t it that many of the products that us humans create are very sharp and discerning in having the right source of components or the right form of fuel yet it seems like we can get away with not offering our human bodies the same, but is that really the case? Your car analogy Mick is great to give us a pointer that we have definitely some work to do when it comes to true responsibility. The body might be ‘kind’ to us giving us some room to consider our choices but really, it could be that it could say no right there and there. Pizza in = hospital for a week including stomach pump, wouldn’t that be an interesting scenario.
Great blog Mick! The right fuel for our body each day is a great choice! One that our bodies love. What has become apparent to me though is that overtime, the fuel needs to evolve accordingly with where my body is at, some things which used to be okay are no longer okay and are stunting the use of my car.
I regularly choose to feed myself with foods that do not make me feel very well. Foods that I know are dulling, bloating, send my blood sugar levels crazy, or make me drowsy when I wake up. These foods are well known to me, it is no secret and I know exactly what I am doing. When I watch myself with these foods it is like watching a child throw a tantrum, utterly not willing to make a move that is needed. It goes beyond stubbornness and is simply a tantrum, in my own way, to control the evolution of myself, to make it happen at my own rate, and to ensure that I never actually expand as much as is possible. However, no matter the tricks and the games I will eventually expand in my awareness to great depths and understanding, this cannot be stopped as it is the natural evolution of us all – to expand in our awareness – and no amount of tempting tasty food can actually stop that, only create a delay, which itself will eventually expire.
Yes I know what mine is too Mick. Thank you for the beautiful reminder and really relevant metaphor; the image in my head is very stark.
Reflecting on your blog I realised that I probably take better care of my car than I do my body; this needs to change where I am taking loving and consistent care of both.
Hi Shirl. Yes it is often that we take better care of one over the other, where in truth everything should be treated as equal.
” choosing to live in a way that never leaves us run down or exhausted, but vital and being able to live a full day every day without reaching for something to stimulate us to keep going.” This is something I have been working on for the last few years, it has been an amazing journey but the small changes I have been making have really supported me in my energy levels. More and more I am understanding the impact of what I put into my body. My body response immediately and I am so aware when I have eaten something that’s going to make me tired. I am also so aware if I go for something to give me a quick energy boost. Or bodies are amazing how they communicate with us.
The simplicity and common sense is this blog is super inspiring, – we eat well we live well we eat rubbish and we don’t live so well. It is funny how obvious it is yet many still ignore the painfully obvious.
There is one vital lesson I never received about nutrition when I was growing up. This was that my diet and what my body requires for optimal well-being is going to constantly change throughout my whole life and that I am responsible to listening to my body so I can make the adjustments.
Vicky I too never really had any understanding of nutrition and the impact on our body. It has only been over the last several years as I have been listening to my body, that I have been learning so much. There is great responsibility in my choices of what I put into my body as I now have more understanding of nutritional health.
When listening to my body about what it needs to eat, I have come to accept that I need a lot less than what I was eating when doing so from the ideal of the ‘3 meals plus a couple of snacks per day’ model. I find I can eat one meal a day, sometimes a very small one, sometimes two meals, sometimes nothing but an apple or blueberries. The thing is I am perfectly healthy, no deficiencies have occurred from this way of sustaining myself and my vitality and mental clarity have increased.
On the days when I don’t follow my natural impulses and eat more than I need or something I felt not too but did anyway, I do not feel as well. And so the proof is in the pudding, or should I say the proof is in not eating that pudding!
It keeps amazing me that we choose to treat our bodies in a way we would never ever treat our cars because it is expensive and very obvious (car can’t drive on wrong fuel). Though considering this opens my eyes to in what way our bodies are sending us messages too that the fuel we put into our bodies in not right for it through heaviness, mucus, depressed thoughts, stomach pain, heartburn and eventually also diabetes or heart disease – what is the price we are really paying for the wrong fuel we put in our bodies?
You make an interesting point here Lieke, because with national health boards footing the bill for our health care out of taxes that we do not really see, it is easy even to not see the full consequences of our health choices until very far down the line, when expensive doctors, nurses and equipment are needed. So, I know that you mean the bodily cost, but we can take this out further and look to our families and fiends and colleagues and if we could tangibly see how our ill health choices affect them too, and then out to wider community that we are each responsible for, perhaps there would be even more cause to take better care of ourselves.
Looking back how the prized possession of a car can/does take priority, checking all dashboard dials that all is running smoothly for any daily journey from A to B. But, checking in with my own barometer (body) of life I allow a little haze to come down and tone down that inner knowing and feeling when clear signals are given that the fuel I put in is not up to that star rated standard it/I deserve. I agree Samantha optimum fuel is required for optimum performance.
In a recent experiment with food, I discovered how my body reacts to certain things that I eat. When describing this reaction to a friend, she noted that it was interesting that I associated this reaction with the food and not the quality I was choosing to have in myself first – before the food even enters my body. This made me stop.
Great point Shami, this is where our true responsibility lies.
Yes great point… It is first and foremost the quality we are in that determines what quality of food we will choose for ourselves. This brings in that we have to look at everything in our life and not just food.
Interesting how we don’t normally stop to feel the quality we choose to eat in, how we choose to eat and the quality in our selves. I have been noticing the difference in how I feel by the quality in which I eat. The more connected and present I am the clearer the messages from my body.
I hate the feeling at the end of the day when i haven’t eaten food that supports me; it is like I stumble in the door with nothing left in the tank, and then I miss out on having quality time with my family because I am tired and flat.
Great point Nicole. These choices are given to us throughout the day and we often over ride them due to the level of vitality we have been travelling with some time.
Mick it is so ironic that when we get to a ‘restaurant’ for cars, we only have the choice of nutritious foods that is right for their bodies, and yet when we go to pay for the fuel, we get a plethora of foods that are toxic for us. So we are putting diesel in our petrol fuel tank, meaning we take more care of our cars body than our own.
It makes no sense.
I love putting it this clearly, so we can actually see how crazy it is the type of things we put in our bodies, and how we have let society make it so very easy to eat the wrong things.
Great point Hannah, when you put it like that we can not but see the complete and utter ludicrous situation we are in.
“Imagine if we all chose fuel for our bodies that gives us optimal performance day after day, also choosing to live in a way that never leaves us run down or exhausted, but vital and being able to live a full day every day without reaching for something to stimulate us to keep going.” Great point Mick what this really boils down to is self responsibility – are we going to choose to continue to be irresponsible or will we start making choices that benefit ourselves and everyone around us? The choice is ours and from that choice we have either chosen love or harm. It really is that simple.
I like this point about the cost of using the wrong fuel for a car in relation to the cost of using the wrong fuel for our bodies. Of course what the wrong fuel is is something for each person to discover, I am constantly learning about this. But the cost of these decisions to fill our bodies with what our bodies do not want can be seen very clearly in how struggling our national health systems are.
It is so clear to see through the rise in need for care from the medical system that we are not caring for our bodies, they are just seen as something that is to be used and has to work. Which shows there is no responsibility taken for it to work to the best of our ability. And that is what you so clearly present here, we have a responsibility for our own body just as we take for our car.
Love the symbolism of the fuel and the car – makes so much sense. It also reminds me how we can also put so much of ourselves into our jobs and neglect our relationships. The attachment to what we have and our need for recognition can play out in many ways but always at the expense of valuing how amazing we are. Since bringing more focus to the fuel in my body the quality of my presence and being has changed immensely. Thanks Mick for making it as simple as it really is.
Part of the reason we put the wrong food into our bodies is because there is so much misguided information circulated in the world of what foods are actually good for us.
Great to acknowledge the similarities between our vehicles and our bodies, as it makes it really simple to comprehend. But even with knowing this there is still a resistance to changing, it feels like our cars, and even nature are forced to live like this whereas we are “intelligent” enough to make our own choices. But what’s more intelligent here? Given that so many people are pushing their diets to the extreme with catastrophic impacts on their health, as Serge would say, are we really making choices here? Or are we letting go of responsibility and being puppeteered into a way of living that holds us back.
A well known supermarket chain in the uk have now introduced picking up a free take-a-way coffee before you go shopping. So the shop smells strongly of coffee and people are walking around with their trolleys shopping and drinking coffee at the same time!!! It is absolute craziness and literally shows how obsessed we have become with coffee. This is certainly not inspiring us to put the right fuel in our bodies.
It is crazy that we can put so much focus and care into our cars but not our bodies. It used to mean nothing to me to take time off sick to recuperate, without looking at how I got there in the first place! Now I have very few days off sick and when I do I take them very seriously in looking at how I’d been living my life, in the few weeks beforehand, that resulted in this.
Mick when you say as plainly as you have that we pay more attention to the fuel we put in our cars than our bodies, it exposes just how much food has become something other than a means to refuel our bodies. Donuts and chips are not about nutrition. Since when did food become an entertainment, or a means to feel better? Even as a child I did not regard food as simple nourishment and was drawn to sweet food – and all around me this love affair with food was modelled. It really is crazy and not surprising that we are now in a so called “obesity” crisis.
We can all use food in different ways – to entertain, to taste, to numb, to comfort, to stimulate, to restore energy, to lose weight, to gain weight and, of course, to refuel our bodies. We all know exactly which foods to pick for each need, and often ignore what we know and allow ourselves to be driven by our emotional needs. We may restrict our eating by willpower, and that sets us up to fail but as we refine what we eat and feel our bodies more, we automatically sense what is needed – our body will always make the right choice as long as we don’t let our minds override its signals.
When I ask myself what is going to truly nourish me today, yes there is food, but alongside the food there is so much more that actually nourishes me. On the menu today is appreciation, confirmation and celebration. This is what nourishes my soul.
Beautifully said Vicky. Food nourishes the body, but we must also nourish the soul.
It’s premium fuel only for me these days. The days of running on two cylinders and coughing and spluttering my way down the road, often coming to a grinding halt, are long gone as I much prefer the power that comes with the change of fuel; fuel that my body loves and definitely appreciates.
Succinct and powerful blog. Thank you Mick.
Thank you for the car analogy Mick it is very relevant, we wouldn’t put the wrong petrol into our car, but when it comes to the body all manner of wrong food is consumed, and when the body becomes tired and exhausted by our way of living, we just add more of the sugary hit. Looking at my body now with more self love these days, I am just amazed at the lack of self love in the average persons life today. There definitely is another way.
I agree Jill, once we start to pay attention and treat our bodies with respect, it highlights how neglectful people are with their bodies. What I have noticed with myself is that I am more likely to go to the doctor, dentist or optician sooner instead of leaving the problem to get worse, whereas before I would reserve that luxury for my car and put my body second.
Ah the old car/body analogy – an oldie but a goodie and one I never tire of hearing. It is so true that we would perhaps not dare treat our cars the way we treat our bodies – although not universally true – often the way we treat our car is reflective of the way we treat our body. Are we the sort of person who drives the tank right down to empty before refueling? Are we the type of person who polishes the facade, but never looks under the bonnet? As men, do we choose a car that reflects how we see ourselves and the lifestyle we like to portray – do we prefer the Ute, or the sports car? All of these things reflect something to us about ourselves.
Interesting as I have noticed that there are several people who treat their cars as though they were the most precious thing on the planet and yet feed their bodies with oily and fatty foods for example and their own bodies are certainly not a reflection of their cars. It could be that these people are treating their cars how they would like to be treated themselves( lovingly polished and stroked regularly with lavish attention paid to them),how they would like to be seen( smart, clean and dressed up to impress) and valued( the cars having a certain status). Eating for status is another subject worthy of consideration.
For many years before encountering Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine I complimentary health practitioner and believed I ate healthily. However, the approach was based upon knowledge and I was heavily overweight and lack vitality. With Universal Medicine I was introduced to a whole different approach. This was to experiment with different foods and to listen to my own body as to what was beneficial and healthy for more. The change has been dramatic. I have lost a huge amount of weight, I have far more vitality and, energy and my whole general sense of well bing has greatly improved. With the support of Esoteric Practitioners, listening to one’s own body to discern what are the correct fuels for the body is, in my opinion, by far the best thing anyone can do
Yes Jonathan I have seen your before photos and they are staggering! I am shocked that was you! You and your lovely wife now look 20 years younger and so much more full of life. The turn around confirms yet another miracle. – Deeply inspiring.
It’s an interesting reflection that society places more importance on ensuring we are aware of the importance of regular checks and servicing of our car and the quality of the fuel we choose, than ensuring people are aware of the effects of choosing the wrong food for their bodies.
I saw a photo of a sports car recently which had a caption which said something to the effect of, “No, I don’t have any tattoos. You don’t see bumper stickers on a Ferrari, do you?” Using the same analogy, what kind of car do we treat our body as? Is it a well cared for, high performance vehicle, taken for regular tune-ups, given premium fuel, and cleaned lovingly? Or is it a rusty old jalopy with a few dents and belching black smoke, which we are praying will just get us to our next destination without breaking down?
We may wish for the sports car, but feel our bodies are more like the jalopy, and so we think, “well, what’s the point? I might as well run myself into the ground”.
But the truth is, that we are all high performance vehicles, that just need a bit of care and maybe a lick of paint and a waxing to show what we really are. We might think that we are built more like a Volkswagen Beetle instead of a Lamborghini, but I’ve seen some amazing Beetles which dazzle with their sheer joy of driving and being on the road.
It matters not what kind of life or body we think we have been saddled with. The joy of life comes through the living of it in its full truthfulness.
An awesome sharing Mick, I know my car performs well and I seem to get more km’s out of it when I use premium fuel in it. I also know that if I eat in a way that truly supports my body I have more energy and vitality, but there are still times I chose to eat something knowing that it will dull me or make me tired – obviously to avoid feeling something. What you share is simple and practical yet reminds me to make food choices as carefully as I do my fuel choice.
“Imagine if we all chose fuel for our bodies that gives us optimal performance day after day, also choosing to live in a way that never leaves us run down or exhausted, but vital and being able to live a full day every day without reaching for something to stimulate us to keep going”.
An awesome blog Mick with such a powerful message.
Our challenge now is to take responsibility to choose fuel that supports us to be loving (to ourselves and others) and vital.
Mick I was considering how recently I would be eating the food that was supportive for my body “the right fuel” yet at times when there is lots on I may get the thought to eat something that is not so good for my body. As your blog has shared how interesting is it that we get these thoughts that I would often act out yet I’ve never got the thought to fill my car with the wrong fuel.
That’s an interesting thought David… “I’ve never got the thought to fill my car with the wrong fuel” yet I can load my body up when it is all ready full, or fill it with food that does not support me. I know my car won’t work with the wrong petrol…so why do I allow disregard for my body?
The problem is of course that when you give a car the wrong fuel there is an immediate problem. When we eat foods that harm the body we can still keep going and big problems might arise some time later. We self medicate to override when we don’t feel so good and whatever we choose to do this with will numb our ability to truly feel how we are doing. That is why it is so great to read and write these blogs and comments to raise the awareness of how we have chosen to live our lives, what the effect of these choices might have on our mental and physical state of being and how we can improve the quality of our lives by making some different choices.
It’s interesting to note that we all know that chips and donuts are not good fuel for the body, yet most people still choose this, which leads to that viscous circle of constantly needing more sugar to sustain energy levels. I very rarely eat any sweet foods, and if I do, it’s because I’m knackered, and I know full well that having an early night would be much more supportive than snacking… it’s time to start making the choice we know will really support us, and not just as individuals, but everyone. The more we honour our bodies and begin to feel more vital, the more others will be inspired to do so.
So true Laura. I find that if I eat foods that my can’t handle very well, even if it is something seemingly healthy like corn thins, I can feel the effect straight away. My body is getting louder and it’s asking to live in honour of it.
The answers to life are so much simpler than we think but unless we adhere to what we know is true we will stay in the vicious circle of finding new ways to fix ourselves but never truly heal ourselves.
It also occurs to me that it is not just the right fuel that is important but how much of this fuel that we actually need. It feels like we tend to overfill the fuel tank a bit too much at times too and this can cause us to be too heavy and weighed down by our now too full fuel tanks!
Mick, I love the analogy you have used here between choosing fuel for our car, and fuel for our bodies. People get to the doctor and wonder why they are exhausted or falling apart, as do the systems that govern and oversee all of where the money for this is directed. If we take it back to something as simple as fuel, then really there is no wriggle room around it!
Imagine if one day there were no coffee shops or cake shops – they were all closed down?
People would feel the extent of exhaustion in their bodies; people would be suffering from withdrawals- headaches, feeling moody,and becoming reactive. They would not be in a fit state to go to work. There would be a rise in absenteeism, and sick leave. There would be an increase in illness and disease.
But once on a program of healthy eating was initiated and consistently followed, we would find exhaustion a thing of the past. Our minds would be clearer, and body would feel more invigorated and vital.
Our attitude towards work and our relationships would improve immensely.
So I know what fuel I would choose!
Good point Loretta, if we eliminated all harmfull foods from our diet, how beneficial would that be for our health and wellbeing
I feel that when I am not connecting well with my body I will eat foods that feel comfortable and actually they make me feel worse. Again we can compare this to our cars as well- often when my car is untidy and I am feeling disconnected from me, my car will get more untidy as I am disconnected from providing loving support for myself and my car becomes a reflection of this. When I am living from my body in a loving way I appreciate my car being tidy and feel yuk driving in it if it is untidy! What a great reflection our cars can be for us!
I agree Gill and I would even go a step further and say it frustrates me when I continually choose to ignore this very important fact.
I was thinking about your question ‘ What if OUR choice was to only put the right fuel in our bodies?’ and it came to mind that it should be part of our DNA but I realise that that would then take away our responsibility and right to choose.
Now with epigenetics are they not showing us that it is our behaviours that can also inform our genetic make up so by changing our behaviours we change our DNA and thus become pre-dispositioned to make different choices ? One day every choice will be that which returns us to our soul.
Love this blog Mick – thank you. I understand now that any time that I eat foods that stimulate, numb or dull me is when I don’t want to feel something. It could be that I don’t want to feel how tired and exhausted I am and so i prop myself up with sugar, or it could be that I don’t want to feel an emotion that my body is holding. In both cases I simply don’t want to be honest in that moment and there is an arrogance that I can abuse my body and shut it down/muddy it up so to speak so that I can remain comfortable in not feeling.. Our body is very straight forward and gives us strong signals about how our choices are affecting us which thank God is the case as if we didn’t have the body to keep us in check we would have no way to stop the momentum we are creating through our choices, to correct it and return to a point of harmony and balance within ourselves and with the universe.
You have a fantastic perspective here on how important our human bodies are for the communications they give to us which actually keep us in check and not as wayward as we could perhaps be – given the choice.
Mick this is a profound blog – you say ’ Imagine if we all chose fuel for our bodies that gives us optimal performance day after day, also choosing to live in a way that never leaves us run down or exhausted, but vital and being able to live a full day every day without reaching for something to stimulate us to keep going.’ Just profound – the impact of this would be mind blowing and completely world changing. The choice is ours.
Great blog Mick. What you show, is how closely related self care and choices we make are. I feel that the choices we make, around food, exercise habits, emotional well being, relationships etc, all sit on, and are a reflection of the foundation of care we have towards ourselves.
I have noticed that my daughter who is young will sometimes eat a lot and then goes for days where food is not high on her agenda. I learnt early on to trust her rhythm with food and it has been great to watch how she knows what she needs and never overeats, she trusts herself and her relationship with food. What a great foundation she has.
That’s a great observation. It’s interesting how as adults our relationship to food changes. It’s like we become slaves to food rather than using food to support us as our body needs.
Great observation Jinya, slaves to food is a good way to put it. I know I certainly have been and have felt controlled by my urges, everyday however I am getting stronger and listening more to what more body needs. Sometimes I still override it for a quick fix but by bringing more acceptance and appreciation to myself I am finding this is happening less.
A great analogy “If cars represented our bodies, and we consider the way we eat and treat our bodies, then our cars would either be at the mechanic’s or the panel beater’s on a very regular basis, at a considerable cost.” We see the immediate impact of theses choice with a car, I once put leaded fuel in an unleaded car, it smoked, it choked and then it stopped and would not move another inch…and it immediately cost money to resolve, I did not forget this mistake / choice. What is an interesting difference between a car and our body is that our cars do not have innate intelligence, a knowing of their own shape, form and being, our bodies do…and much of this is not run by the brain, but within our bodies, they continue to function with great detail, care and skill through regardless of what we put in them. This natural intelligence to reach a balance, homeostasis, supports us maintain best possible ‘optimal’ health while we may put ‘fuel’ in that does not support us. We may have alarm bells but we often choose to ignore them, we have a false sense of being ‘ok’ and many consider the process to be the ageing process. However I would suggest ill health and ageing are very different processes and these alarm bells increase and illness and disease do occur if we do not heed the warnings that our bodies share, they become unbalanced, over loaded and cannot function with the ‘fuel’ that is put in. We have all heard of the ‘midlife spread’, this is not an inevitable consequence of the ageing process, this is choice concerning what ‘fuel’ is put in to the body on a long term basis. Those alarm bells actually ring loud if we choose to listen, for example that pasta meal that got me lying on the sofa because I could not bear to sit up any longer, the extra glasses of wine that gave me a head ache and a dry mouth etc have big impact. I used to tolereate feeling tiredness, pain and bloating from what I ate and drank, because my mouth and eyes liked it, I over rode what my body told me. Choosing to be aware of these signs empowers us to look after ourselves and feel great what ever our age.
Great blog Mick, I love the analogy, it makes prefect sense, the quality of what we put into our bodies is the quality that we get out.
What is being offered at the petrol stations is what we must be asking for on the whole, so it is very exposing of where we are at as a society if we need caffeine drinks and sugary foods to keep us going. We need to look a little deeper and ask why we might be so exhausted?
That is such an easy understandable analogy Mick – I love it because there is hardly no way to not understand what some people are doing to their bodies by choosing what to eat each day. It is sad that some people are more interested in their cars than in their own bodies!
I love this blog Mick. It reminded me of the days when I would pay for my petrol at the service station and pick up a chocolate type treat pretty much every time. (I’ve never had a weight problem so I would simply always do this automatically). Having Serge Benhayon ” present to me a new and true way to fuel and run my body” has been life changing. Now when I pay for my petrol it never occurs to me to pick up a treat for me. I have learnt and I am still learning to care for my body. Thank you for sharing.
Wow so many comments under this blog Mick, you have really made a heap of sense. One of the things I got the most was that I used to take better care of my car than my body…or should I say I paid more attention when I disrepected my car than my body because it was more expensive…
Yes more expensive and immediate, yet only in the short run …
Crazy huh Lucy! We put ourselves on the bottom of a list of things that are more important and then wonder why we get sick…..
We have regular check ups and maintenance schedules for our cars, but in most cases we have nothing of the sort for our bodies.
And how crazy does this sound when you read it!
Wow what a great analogy with our bodies and what we fill them up with. I love it and know so well how different i feel and the energy and aliveness in my body and head when i eat lightly with care and attention to how and what i eat. It really does make a difference and changes the way i feel . Therefore i can see that by our choices we really can change our lives and all we feel and how we can choose to live life from the inside out. It is amazing the lethargy for instance from eating sugar when it is the one thing put in to give us so called energy when we need a pick up as is in alcohol and coffee and puts us into a dependancy cycle of living leading to and from itself exhaustion a world plague.
The horrible thing about eating the wrong foods is that once you’re on the slope, it is easy to slip down it and consume more and more, feel more tired then seek more sugar.
I watched a food show on the box about what food scientists do in the manufacturing of foods to create the ‘Bliss factor’ that is the perfect combination of sugar, fat and salt. This is what can switch the brain off and make you want to eat the whole thing or bag of what ever. Its like the Oliver gene in a box “can I have more” in fact I would like it all! Armed with this knowledge we have the choice not to eat it to start with…
Steve, I have heard of this perfect combo of fat, sugar and salt as well, apparently it tricks your brain into tinking it needs more, and you actually can’t stop, until you’ve had whatever was in the bag/packet, no matter the size.
What you share Steve reminds me of a programme I watched a few years ago now, that revealed how aerosol type spray/s were created to cause a similar ‘had to buy’ aroma. Puffs of stimulating aromas of certain foods/drink were constantly put into the air to cause the shopper to get a whiff and stimulate our airways/minds with a had to buy moment, as the taste buds were instantly stimulated. That’s a crafty one. As you share we do have a choice.
Well Mick when you put it this way, that our body is like a car it puts it all into perspective in how we actually treat our bodies and for many not with the same level of care as with our cars. To put incorrect fuel in the car immediately causes havoc…however our bodies seem to be quite resilient , however over the time, the fuel we put in does affect our bodies, but by the time our bodies get so sick, or lack vitality, or a general feel of unwellness how many of us actually relate it to the fuel we use? It is clear with a car and we are not different, just takes a bit longer BUT our quality of life is affected.!
Great topic and discussion Mick, it amazing how little, at times, we consider that what we consume effects the way we feel. It sounds obvious but yet many of us ignore this fact.
That’s so true for me James – I so often get caught in the trap of thinking I am eating pretty well without even a moment spent considering the effects on my body.
Hello Mick, I can’t imagine anyone in the world that wouldn’t be able to relate to this blog.
I get so shocked by substances that people are willing to continue to consume after serious health scares. I have had friends that get out of hospital after heart surgery and major operations and they don’t think twice about having a double shot coffee or to continue to drink alcohol. I don’t judge them as I was the same once upon a time but it does effect me as it is a reflection for me to consider the ways in which I still give my body the incorrect fuel, although I have improved I am still using food emotions and sugar which is detrimental to my vehicle.
The only way to inspire others is to totally live the truths we know, love that you are leading the way with this Mick and without perfection, very inspiring.
It is very obvious our cars do not run on any old fuel it has to be the correct fuel we always ensure this at the pump. Yes I did once put petrol into a diesel car it promptly conked out. Human error yes but, just goes to show no second chance. One very stationary, not going anywhere car. Not like my very tolerant body over the years. So many times I’ve abused it with all sorts of foods, stress, anxiousness and lifting weights beyond its ability to naturally to do so etc. I feel totally blessed to still have this amazing body and yet given more chances to make choices that either harms or heals. Great sharing Mick and just loving the flow of comments.
This is such a great blog, thank you Mick. I can so relate to not filling my body with the right fuel and living with that constant blah feeling. Every time I choose to eat a food that does not support my body I have this foggy feeling in my head and a dullness that leaves me seeking more stimulating food to perk myself up. Choosing foods to support my body leaves me feeling fresh, clear and vital and wanting to be fully committed to life. I know which choice I’ll be making today.
So true Bianca, I can relate to all you say…..I feel such a difference when I eat foods, rest and take care of myself to those days when I eat those things that might give me a kick for a moment and then it’s all downhill, and I feel the stress of the day so much more…in short my quality of life is positive when I use fuel that is correct for my body!
Me too, I have experienced the fogginess and lethargy when I have eaten heavier foods. Our bodies will always let us know what is or is not suited for ‘premium performance’ but are we paying attention ?
I can say the same too, the quality of my livingness each day depends very much on the quality of food I give to my body as well as the quality of sleep I’ve had
Food, nutrition and diet is a hot topic constantly discussed and written about. The food industry is huge. But it basically comes down to the question asked here ‘have we ever stopped to consider what is happening to our body when it has to deal with this constant supply of improper fuel?’
I would also ask – ‘Do we actually WANT to stop to consider what is happening to our body when it has to deal with this constant supply of improper fuel?’
Well good question, if we do stop to consider how we are fueling ourselves we may need to look at what lies beneath the choices to prop up, to cover up, to fill and to ‘feed’ us… this is not so comfortable and requires us to be more honest and self-responsible with the choices we are making.
Great point you raise about the food industry Jenny and can really feel the power in your question ‘Do we actually WANT to stop to consider what is happening to our body when it has to deal with this constant supply of improper fuel?’
This is a good point Jenny. How many people even care about whether the food they eat is right for their bodies or not? As long as it tastes good most people don’t seem all that bothered. Perhaps the majority of people do not make the link between the food they eat and the way that they feel.
I chose to have a decaf coffee today to numb what I did not want to feel and the racy anxiety I am left feeling is so far away from the yumminess I felt yesterday without the coffee that it is a superb reminder to care for what I injest as how can I run smoothly and efficiently if I put dirty fuel into my system?
Great blog Mick… it’s crazy to think of it as simply as this. We know what it would do to our cars if we put the wrong fuel in it… and we actually do know what will happen to our bodies from fuelling it incorrectly, yet we choose to ignore this!!
In answer to your question Mick, I’ve put the wrong fuel in my car (and yes its time consuming and a very expensive mistake) and the reason was that I was totally checked out while I was refuelling. This is exactly why I would load up with nuts or popcorn on the way through the convenience store… not bothering to take a moment to think if that is the best thing for my body or not.
“Could it be possible that there would be far less illness and disease and therefore far fewer people seeking medical attention from living in an ill way as I once used to”. This to me is a wonderful and very necessary question and from my own experience of changing the “fuel” I put into my body is 100% true. My health has never been better.
Me too Elizabeth, I can also vouch for the fact that what fuel we put into our bodies effects our health. And this fuel is not just what we eat or drink but also the choices we make and how we decide to drive / run our bodies. By taking responsibility for the way we live, interact, eat and even breathe has major effects on our health and well being.
This is a great question Mick, ‘Could it be possible that there would be far less illness and disease and therefore far fewer people seeking medical attention from living in an ill way as I once used to?’ This seems very possible, I have changed my diet a lot since being inspired by Serge Benhayon, I no longer eat sugar, drink alcohol, smoke, eat foods to stimulate myself or keep me going and I rarely get ill and generally feel very well, I have just had a health check at my local surgery and the nurse commented that my results were ‘very good’ I was told that I have very low cholesterol, low blood pressure and a low risk of developing heart disease, this test may have come up with very different results had i carried on with my unhealthy lifestyle of sugar, alcohol and smoking.
No fuel company would survive if the petrol contained additives or ingredients that had a negative impact on our car or it’s performance. For example, if a petrol gave us mileage, but caused the paint to blister and bubble, or caused the temperature to rise or fall, or cause the car to grow or shrink in size or to smell badly etc… Or, to simply not give us optimal performance ,we would complain, stop buying it and the company would go out of business.
And so, when it comes to our bodies – how is it that manufacturers produce so called ‘foods’ that do not offer us optimal performance, and have numerous negative effects on our bodies, our health, moods and our vitality do not receive complaints, or a drop in sales – but more sales than ever????
Have we become so accustomed to the negative effects of food that we see it as normal? And have we forgotten what true fuel for our bodies feels like?
Its very revealing Kylie, in that there would be a national outcry if this happened. I know in the UK a few brands of petrol use a “cheaper” form of petrol and you can see the difference in how the car runs – this caused a big stir yet trading standards would be all over the fuel company in your example. It shows we value possessions, what we own, what we accumulate far more than we do the sacredness of our own body.
Awesome point Kylie! Why are we still buying these foods… and why are they still allowed on our shelves?!
Katie that would be fascinating if our cars were a direct reflection of our bodies, there would be an awful lot of old bangers on the road and even more piled up in the scrap yards! I used to pride myself in how well I looked after my body with exercise and food and yet came to realise that I was over exercising and eating what I thought was ‘healthy food’ but the food that I ate made me incredibly bloated. I would get a shock if your system was implemented, I would wait for my Rolls Royce to arrive and be stunned to be handed a clapped out old motor that wouldn’t even start !
Pretty much everyone knows the food we are consuming is not the right fuel for our body, but that does not stop us. Just like we can smoke and drink alcohol while for years we have known that they are actually toxic to our body and detrimental to our health. Now that I have cleaned up my diet a lot, I can feel how gluten, dairy and sugary foods dulls the alertness of my body as does over eating and it keeps me more “comfortable” in not facing things that I need to face. I used to eat like this all the time, and sometimes have odd moments of over eating to get the result. We are not innocent unaware beings, it may be subconscious, but the choice of putting the wrong fuel into our body is deliberate. Seeing and owning up to this behaviour is the first step. The next one is to start unraveling why we are choosing this.
Such a great analogy ~ to ponder on the actual detriment we are doing to our bodies if we ingested things that were not of top quality or beneficial and instead filled out bodies up with crap, we would not be of top performance. We would be struggling, as many people are, to have true energy, true vitality.
I have stopped looking for food or a snack at petrol stations, because there is nothing in the huge selection of foods and drink that is the right fuel for my body.
Why would food be sold at a petrol station, we don’t buy petrol from a grocery shop or butcher?
That’s funny Thomas… we don’t buy petrol at a grocery store! It’s the ‘quick and convenient’ snack options that Service Stations do so well from. Which makes me wonder… if we were caring for our bodies in a truly loving way – we would be well planned with our food… we wouldn’t need the quick and easy options… yet they do a roaring trade from these!
You make an awesome point here Thomas, and in addition to that, why is it that petrol stations often have foods that are unhealthy and incorrect fuel for people, yet for mechanical products – the car, they have only what is correct for the car. Since we are the consumers, it seems we care more about our cars than we do about ourselves?
Even the concept of selling food at a petrol station is a little odd, displays of fast food mostly, food with lots of sugar, salt, caffeine or a combination of them all, the irresponsibility of selling these stimulating foods that give people a quick fix, a rush of energy then a big drop, not very intelligent or safe whilst driving a car, where one needs to stay awake and present.
Great example Mick, it’s crazy when we actually examine some of the fuel we choose to put into our body. I totally agree Mick, our body is like a vehicle, how we choose to drive it, fuel it and service it, ultimately affects every aspect of it. It makes so much sense what quality food we choose to eat affects how we feel, perform tasks and hugely important is our health. Brilliant blog!
I agree Sue, with what you say about “not so many people stop and do this, until a crisis is reached.” And even then when they do, there is an experience of the harm that the body is put through. And then when through medication or a ‘diet’ the body has recovered, a lot of people still go back to the old habits and are disappointed in their body when an illness returns.
It does seem a crazy thing that we look after our cars but not our own bodies. I am guilty of this too and what has helped me is to deal with the issues that trigger the disregard of the body. It might be some anxiousness or holding back my expression or some sadness/emptiness or loneliness. Once I have dealt with that and seen the truth of things, I don’t want to abuse my body anymore.
Thanks for the sharing Annie – it’s great for us to sit and look at what it is that makes us go for the foods that we know aren’t fuelling us well. For me I’ve found it’s always (always) if I haven’t truly listened to myself or honoured myself in any situation – if I’m holding back, over compensating, or other… it hurts! And then I eat to mask it!!
Annie, this is so true, the disregard always stems from an issue I have not dealt with or wanted to feel and it is when we deal with the cause that the reaction is possible to stop.
You really expose the irony here Mick, that we will value our cars and make wise and careful choices about the care and regular maintenance so they support us and remain consistently reliable while neglecting the very vehicle we live in. Crazy, and as you indicate there is little wonder they become ‘clapped out’ and break down.
Awesomely simple yet powerful blog Mick that brings us back to the fact that it is all a choice and that perhaps we do not choose for our own bodies what we choose for our cars in regards to fuel and care. Why is that? Could it be that most are not yet willing to live the level of responsibility required to honour our bodies accordingly and truly understand the impact that these choices have not just on ourselves but our society at large and the healthcare systems that are already under enormous strain.
This is such a pertinent blog. A year ago I spent a fair chunk of change having a full medical check up. It was a long and detailed procedure and I felt that it was an essential thing to do to support my body, take care of myself and get a detailed look of where I was at. I could say much more about what an amazing process it was…but in relevance to this blog was the reaction that I got from so many people about the amount of money that it cost. (£500). It is a lot of money. But then I started thinking; about what we spend on our cars, computers, phones, etc…..all of which are easily replaceable, non-essential items, that have absolutely zero true bearing on our quality of life. It’s crazy isn’t it?
I’ve done the same thing – full MoT of my personal systems, and yes quite a cost. However for me it had to be a ‘big deal’ (a 40th birthday present to myself), and I have to keep asking the question of why I would not get regular check ups and then a periodic ‘full service’. The only thing that came up from the medical was to keep an eye on my cholesterol with a simple and inexpensive blood test from time to time. But have I been back? As always I have let the pace of the outside world, the unending list of things to do be the beat that I work to, rather than lovingly making sure I take some time to look after myself along the way.
Simon that made me laugh.. I saw an animated cartoon of this scenario.
Although I haven’t put the wrong fuel in my car I know what it feels like to put the wrong fuel in my body. Presence is key I agree.
Too right Otto. People spend an enormous amount of money going to pubs and clubs, buying clothes and holidays yet cough and splutter at someone who looks after themselves medically. The irony is that for many people it cost a lot more than that when they end up in a body bag or spending a night or two in casualty because of the reckless behaviour in the name of so called ‘fun’.
The right fuel is about food, and also about the thoughts that I allow myself to have, the music I consume, the newspaper that I read and everything can be discerned in that matter. It’s a fantastic science and fun and worth to practice!
True Felix, we fuel our bodies with more than food. It is always my state of being that decides what fuel I will take in. When I am tired I tend to grab for sugar. When I am emotional I may grab for a film which supports this. So before going to fuel my car/body – I should drive in that awareness how I use the fuel in the first place, because that will be the fuel I reach for.
Sonja what a great comment. Your wrote: ” . . . I should drive in that awareness how I use the fuel in the first place, because that will be the fuel I reach for.” That is a very good hint – Thank you.
Well said Felix – fuel is many things… I agree with this totally.
When we try to run on the incorrect fuel (such as sugar or caffeine for example) – our engines speed up to an above normal pace, and then come to an abrupt halt, as we run out of steam a short while later. We then require more fuel to keep us going, but have a tendency to choose something that will give us another ‘up’ – forgetting that these fuels corrupt the integrity of the entire vehicle and motor for the minor ‘shot’ of energy they give us.
It is easy to think we cannot live without these fuels, until we actually choose a different source of fuel, and we experience the level and quality of vitality and performance available that we have been missing out on all along.
At the supermarket today my trolly was filled with fresh green veg, (lots and lots of it!) with herbs, avocados and lamb. That was it. Nothing processed or prepackaged just piled high with the broccoli on top. It amused the chap behind me in the cue and the supermarket lady couldn’t help but ask me about the food I ate with my family as it was so unusual. We all chatted for quite some time as my food was scanned and they were intrigued as to what I would make with it all.. all kind of things like soups and roasted veg was my reply. I explained that I changed what I ate because my body reacted to gluten, dairy and sugar and changing what I ate was one of the best things i had ever done. I think in part they were inspired but taken by quite surprise because it went against the norm.
Realising what supports our body and which food does cause a reaction – however seemingly subtle it might be – will not only benefit us, but also make us an inspiration to others who see how much our well-being changes after changing our diet to what our body really needs.
Simply embracing the fact that choosing the right fuel is a great joy to the body. And there where times when no-one could imagine that cars could run with electricity. They do today. So any-one arguing a certain way of nurturing could be boring or wrong: why don’t they try it first before talking it down? To much effort, fear to loose comfort? I’ve been trough the pleasure of the change – I would never ever do different again than choosing premium fuel or electricity.
So the other day I bought some food in a supermarket that I knew did not support me but bought it anyway, then went and filled my car up with fuel and ….. the fuel gauge has broken! Now that is definitely telling me something. Maybe next time I will listen to what does support me instead.
Ha – that made me laugh, Vicky – it’s so wonderful how life reflects back to us whatever we need to learn
I am so often astonished how much people care for their car instead for themselves. You really nailed it here Mick.!!!
The over-weight man, nursing a hang-over, smoking a cigarette, diligently polishing is car on a Sunday morning – the absurdity of it would be amusing if it wasn’t so prevalent.
I agree Steffi, I am astonished too when observing how people care for their car yet neglect to do the same for their body. This blog reveals how important it is to fuel our body with the highest premium quality food because if we don’t the affects could be detrimental, leading to illness and disease.
And we don’t get to hop out of our bodies like we do our cars, so we get to feel the effects of our behaviours sooner or later.
“A packet of chips or a donut are not premium fuel for the body, as examples”… I agree, it’s a bit like putting nitroglycerine in your car, makes it go faster but doesn’t do it much good in the long term. In other words chips (hot or cold, and donuts) give you false energy to stave off the exhaustion but is not the answer, only a short term solution. Great sharing Mick.
The questions you are asking Mick are big – we know what healthy is but don’t choose it consistently… and can feel a big difference when we do choose, so what is it that stops this…it have to be our care and love for ourselves.
Beautifully said Joel, we seem to find it easier to ‘love’ things than we do ourselves?
I feel I am putting the right fuel into my body, but the next step is of course to feel the right amount needed for optimum vitality, depending on the day and to energetically support me to be all that I can be.
Yes, our cars are very clear at showing us what is half full, full or empty. And, over-fuelling our car only results in a big mess and a waste of money.
Our bodies too clearly show us exactly how much is needed to ‘fill up the tank’ – although unlike our cars, our fuel tank can vary from day to day depending on our needs.
Absolutely. Because, taking the blog’s metaphor further, if you fill your tank with 100 gallons of fuel, the weight of the fuel is going to massively affect the performance of the car. One other element to this for me is HOW I put the fuel in the tank…HOW I eat. This is a big one for me.
Yes Janet fine tuning the fuel that we put into our body is a daily support to enable us to live and express in the fullness of who we innately are.
Definitely the case that, if we ran our cars the away we run our bodies, we would constantly be paying out a lot of money to get the car fixed, as well as getting through an awful lot of cars, as each one was worn out by our disregard!
Could refueling our body be more then the food and drink we are consuming? I am starting to be aware of the fact that YES there are many contributing factors to our vitality and energy levels throughout the day. How we are moving, talking and walking and the thoughts we are choosing all have an effect on how we feel. It’s simple right? But there are many of us who are choosing to be unaware of this and the importance of every choice we make.
It’s a great topic Mick and a needed conversation – how are we refuelling ourselves? I have had a few instances where my petrol tank would not open, it’s a simple push machanism, which failed on the rightful occasion and needed to by pried open. I took this as a pretty clear message and stop moment to ask myself this very question… How am I living and refuelling my body?
A few weeks ago in London I saw a car show that had been put up in the streets for the public to see.
The show hadn’t started yet – but there were about 12 cars – all beautifully polished and very expensive – and then 6 ‘promo girls’ who were stood shivering in tiny skirts and crop tops – smoking and drinking coffee before needing to be ‘on show’ – that picture says a lot to me. That we can treat commercial things with more love than our bodies. It is sad that we have accepted this as the norm, and that our possessions have become our assets rather than who we truly are.
It is all in the title ‘Right Fuel for the body’ – it really is a great analogy, looking at our body like we would our car. We know that if we were to put diesel into a car that needs unleaded petrol, our car would not work. Much like when we put the wrong foods into our bodies. We can choose food that is going to make us feel sluggish, high on sugar and full of caffeine or we do have a choice to fill our body with the right food that is going to sustain us throughout the day, to be self honouring. Just like we need to put unleaded petrol into an unleaded car – it does become our choice, right fuel for the body!
The analogy between the car and the body does bring the message home. It makes sense to care and maintain this extra ordinary body of ours. The more we learn about giving it the right fuel and quantity the more we learn to recognise when it is being ill treated and the deeper we reconnect with the inner self.
In England we have an MOT for our cars every year > It is illegal not to. It means that the car is tested for it’s road worthiness and makes sure that it is not going to be unsafe for it’s driver or anyone else on the road. I make sure I have a similar check up with the doctor every year and the results of that are due to the way I live everyday – the choices I make in lifestyle, diet, in work and in relationships. Our bodies are our vehicles of expression and as such need to be kept clear at the very least.
You are right Mick. If we did all start to put the correct fuel in our bodies the rates of illness and disease would have to change dramatically. Perhaps the biggest change that would happen would be a lot more honesty in the world. Without food to self-medicate ourselves, we would have to look at why we are feeling exhausted, sad, empty etc. Then we would have to deal with this. Sounds like evolution!
What I have been feeling of late is how when I take care of my body, I naturally want to take care of my car and other area’s of my life such as my home, my office etc. I find that the more I truly tend to one area of my life then another area where perhaps I don’t pay so much attention to becomes highlighted and there is a natural tendency to want to bring that area up as well.
Putting the correct fuel in my body has meant I have more vitality and very rarely get sick. If we overload our body with the wrong fuel our body has to work twice a hard to do the same work.
In my experience, and I feel this is true for many other people, my past abuse of my body via poor foods (fuel as you mentioned Mick) was from both not wanting to take responsibility for my body and life, and from attempting to bury my issues with food and drink. This seems like the easy way to deal with all the hurts of our lives, but what I actually found after discovering Universal Medicine, is that although it is a lot of work, it really is just as easy to say no to those things that are not supportive of our body and way of living. And once I began to call out all the things that I had done to actually harm my body with poor ‘fuel’, including the way I reacted to things and interacted with other people, it became easier and easier to make those self-loving choices.
Another thing that came up to me was: there is fuel that promises to make you run faster. That may be true. But what happens to the rest of the car? The wheels, the brakes, the engine itself? They will all worn off way before their time.
A masterpiece, Mick! I’ve just been trough the whole torture of having fueled the wrong “patrol”. I had a few days of 14 hours a day work to go trough. The result of that was me slowly dropping off my natural rhythm and therefore getting tired. Being tired turned into exhaustion after a few days and I found myself craving for sugar to “survive” my shooting days. It did help for one night to “stay awake” with honey and other sugars. But the days that followed where a nightmare. I found myself being totally racy. I couldn’t sleep – what I had actually needed the most – neither rest deeply in any form. I was running “faster” but my engine heated up to a point of nearly breaking down. A high marker of how even a little bit of unwell fuel can pollute the whole to badly.
We have never been told that the quality of food we choose is a result of the quality of energy we are in when we make that choice. This is important stuff though and brings awareness to where we are at and why we eat what we eat.
Well said and very true Katinka, ”the quality of food we choose is a result of the quality of energy we are in when we make that choice.” This is absolutely important and should be taught about food instead of a general ‘and in my opinion misleading’ advertising “two ounces of vegetables and two pieces of fruit a day, keeps the doctor away”.
Food is one of the foundational things needed for us to function what better way to cause chaos in your life than eat in a way that does not support you, and what better way to make a fundamental change to your life by eating foods that nourish you.
The cost of not choosing connection plays itself out in food choices and in many other ways. If I don’t choose me and connection, then something else if choosing me. Then it is a game that is totally one sided with a result of living less. It has become very obvious recently that the line is very clear and the choice is very simple.
“To eat what your body needs to fulfil your daily tasks and work joyfully.”
That’s quite a different way to look at our diet but it totally makes sense. I can imagine though that if we don’t enjoy our daily life, tasks and work and we are not stopping to feel what is going on for us, we gladly numb ourselves with food and we choose comfort or stimulation not giving it one thought what it will do with us on a physical and a psychological level.
This is a very pertinent blog and pertinent questions asked. So how come we do choose premium fuel for our cars and yet if we were to treat our car like our body we would be knowingly putting in the fuel that clogs up the engine and produces substandard performance? This is a great conversation to start, not in order to chastise ourselves, but to start to take an honest look at the disregard, lack of self-worth or self-loathing that we may be running with, and what that is about.
Maybe they should start selling some more supporting and nutritious fuel at the gaz stations for us human beings….
Smiling as I read this great blog today. I can add that I get more attention than my car now and my fuel consumption is lower with higher energy performance.
Hi Mick – A very fitting analogy indeed – and it is great to hear from a man’s perspective the impact of bad foods vs good foods, and how you have now honoured your body and have changed your diet because of this honouring.
When we look at it this simply, it is so obvious that bad foods will run us down and good foods will pick us up. The question is – are we ready to let go of the comfort that comes with bad foods, and be open to the fact that we are worth more than the bad foods we put into our bodies? Food for me has been an ever changing relationship as I have changed how I see myself.
I used to crave sugar every day at work – come 3pm and I was off to the shops to grab anything I could – but I was overriding a body that said perhaps this isn’t the answer. It has only been in me respecting, listening to and loving my body that I can make better food choices to confirm these things.
I too have put the wrong fuel – diesel – into a work van and drove on out of the service station. It didn’t take too long before it coughed, spluttered and died! So it amazes me how our bodies keep on going with the rubbish fuel we put into them, but it is inevitable that eventually they will begin to “cough, splutter, and maybe even die”. Isn’t this the very best reason to take responsibility for our bodies and treat them like the precious vehicles that they are?
Mick, i have twice put the wrong fuel in my car and it certainly is a big OUCH, the car literally ran to a halt in the middle of the road, its hugely exposing on so many levels, and the hassle and cost are hard hitting consequences. Yet as human vehicles it seems we have learnt to override our dashboard instruments, put up with the repeated flashing and beeping and drive with great irresponsibility and lack of respect for the vehicle we live in.
True Lucinda. It is often not until our bodies come to a complete halt that we begin to listen to all of the beeping, alarms and alerts we have been ignoring for days, weeks or years.
‘Imagine if we all chose fuel for our bodies that gives us optimal performance day after day, also choosing to live in a way that never leaves us run down or exhausted, but vital and being able to live a full day every day without reaching for something to stimulate us to keep going.’ I am sure this would have a big impact on our health and vitality, and so reduce the burden on our health systems.
Most of us do know the fuel we are using is not optimum for us, but do not feel we can afford a better fuel; some of us do not care as survival is more important, so any fuel is better than no fuel. Considering there is the possibility to fuel our bodies with something else—namely Love, is a continuing unfolding in this world with more of us consistently living the Love we feel within us.
Love is the only consistent way to look AND feel younger, and it’s free! The wisest choice, Tim.
I have always loved the analogy of our bodies as cars – it is so practical and brings common sense and simplicity back into the way we behave and treat ourselves. It is almost too big to consider the impact of all of us actually taking care of ourselves rather than relying on the body repair shop to sort out our irresponsibility.
Well said Matilda, I love this analogy too as it brings it straight home for everyone to understand. And yes, the magnitude of our irresponsibility is enormous – yet if we did take responsibility and made choices like we do for our cars, there would truly be so much more vitality and joyfullness in the world.
This practicality and common sense approach takes the enormity of the situation away. Sometimes it can feel like there’s an overloading mine field of information out there regarding diet and what we should or should not eat. To keep it as simple as feeling what your body feels like after consumption and wether its efficiency has been altered or supported makes life a whole lot simpler.
True Jenny, are we eating for a life of simplicity? or eating for a life of complication?
Simplicity – we feel great, we are not dropped, dulled, sped up or in discomfort after eating; but remain light, full of energy and ready for the next moment.
Complication – feeling heavy, down, dulled, or racy, having pains in the abdomen or even a headache after eating, feeling bloated, tired, drowsy or poor digestion for days after eating (and this is just the beginning).
There must be something we are ‘gaining’ from the latter food choices to put our bodies through such disregard…without even realising it!
Mick, your blog certainly highlights the irony that exists in society- we all make sure that the right fuel is in our cars so we obtain optimum performance from our car, but what about our bodies? I know what I will choose.
Awesome blog Mick…it made so much sense. It’s sad really, that most of society choose to take better care of their car, than they do of their own body. We wouldn’t dare add the wrong fuel or the wrong oil into our car, as we know it could damage the engine, or the car will stop working. So why not give our amazing bodies the same respect and correct fuel it needs? It makes so much more sense. Thank you for sharing Mick…great analogy.
Yes, Jody, I agree. How it is possible that we can take better care of something made out of metal than our delicate and sensitive bodies? Is it because we value money more than our health?
It is so ridiculous that we do live like that Jody. And it is also ridiculous that people who said that they are intelligent doing so – that is what I could not understand – so wherefore is all the intelligence??? By all means not to know what the body truly needs . . . mmmm I have to ponder what intelligence really mean.
Further to your reference of the type of food that can be bought at a service station and a bit of side ways step but…I was astounded to see at a newly opened service station TV monitors at the actual pump. Talk about fueling our cars with premium while humans are served large and varying forms of numbing out stuff (no other word for it).
Great analogy Mick and a joy to read, each time I go to fill my car up at the petrol station I will now be reminded of what fuel I am putting in my body as well as my car.
Great analogy! Imagine our body would react like our car on an untruth fuel…we would lie in hospital all the time. But wait – is it not nearly that way already? We are constant ill or suffering. Overweight. Cancer. Back Problems. Diabetes. Blood pressure. Heart diseases. Depression. Discontent. Disharmony…. where does it begin? And when do we begin to take the reflections we’ve got from our body? Do we have to lie in hospital to realize about our inappropriate fuels? Or are we willing to start earlier? Our choice.
I have been driving the same car as you Jeanette for far to long. I had for years felt that if the car was only a functional thing that allowed me to do what I wanted, why invest in it. I would buy a used car that works for a few years and then discard it for another “just good enough’ again and again. This was the same way I had treated my body and felt about myself. I am now treating my self like a new car… because I am worth it.
When we stop and listen to our bodies we can see that they respond quite loud and clear with what is the right fuel for it and what is not.
If this were the case Katie, we would be outraged at the irresponsibility of others who block up the roads with their broken down cars! We would be calling on each other to be more responsible. There would be increased legislation to regulate the abandoning of the diabetic car when the wheel (aka leg) fell off and or the headlights (aka eyesight) failed. I could go on and on… Suffice to say there would be uproar unlike anything we have ever seen in regard to the effects on our society from not caring for our bodies. There is another blog here!
A great analogy Mick; with a very powerful message.
Your last question; “What will be your choice of fuel for your body today;” is poignant.
Your blog provides us all with a simple reference point as we ponder our food intake.
Mick I loved reading this, if we took that responsibility to fuel our body with the right fuel, we would actually have a very deep connection going on within ourselves to know exactly what best to eat to support our body, and everyday as we refine our fuel, our choices will be different.
I am aware that although I eat very healthily I still overeat very often. Sometimes the best fuel for the body is to only eat when hungry!…to not eat at all and allow the body to digest the last meal feels great. It’s easy to get hooked into eating at certain times of the day because that is what we are so used to.
Thanks Mick. The anaology of the car is such a great one. It really stops us in our tracks and forces us to explain why on earth we make the choice to put the wrong fuel in our bodies. One might argue that we won’t combust if we consume something ‘bad’ in the same way a car might react if we give it the wrong fuel. But the fact of the matter is, our bodies are far more sensitive than cars, and if we chose to actually listen to what it was telling us, we’d hear loud and clear that it wasn’t happy through all the signs it gives us, bloating, diarrhoea, stomach pain, headache, lethargy, racy feeling etc etc.
It doesn’t hurt to pay attention to the only thing we actually own – our body.
I agree Elodie. The car analogy makes a farce of the excuses we give to ourselves, justifying why its ok to treat our bodies the way we do. The way we treat our bodies just doesn’t make sense. We can see we need to take care of our cars but somehow expect our bodies to keep taking the abuse we dish out.
Hello Mick Scheenhouwer and I love a good car story so thank you. It really breaks this wide open when you relate to things this way. Put it this way if my body had a mechanic I think he would be a millionaire a few times over and it would be very embarrassing to continually turn up with the same fault over and over again. As I said when we break things down like this it becomes super simple, thanks Mick great work.
I like that Raymond, it would be embarrassing if we would turn up with the same fault over and over again. What comes to mind when I read this is that when I choose to eat something that I know is not supporting I tend to hide it from my kids as it is embarrassing to admit that I know there is something I refuse to feel and deal with.
Yes, few of us would dare to admit to the mechanic that we actually enjoy putting the incorrect fuel into our car – or that we need to do so ‘to keep us going’??
I stopped eating chocolate many years ago. I was addicted, and would have vile mood swings with the effect of the caffeine and sugar. Today when I see the size of the chocolate bars in petrol stations I honestly am shocked! They are huge and the old chocolate addict in me would have loved them, the new person who knows the impact of that much sugar wonders if this is why we have so much road rage!!
It comes down to taking responsibility for the choices we make with food, however as you experienced Mick, when you are in the cycle of constantly seeking stimulation from food which ends up leaving you feeling blah for most of the time, it can be a very difficult cycle to break.
Thank you Mick for this analogy and truth you presented in your blog. The clarity you bring to the subject is so simple but very memorable, so reminding myself will not be hard to do. We do look after our cars quite often better than we look after ourselves, I will be reminded every time I put fuel in my car from now on, that I need to self nurture and fuel my body with as much love and care, or more ! A great sharing.
When we really deeply consider what you have presented here it is hard to fathom how different life would be as a society if we made this change. For example if we put the wrong fuel in our car, there is a pretty instant response and the car stops working, our bodies are no different yet we keep pushing them and override the sluggishness. Imagine what life would be like if we all ran our bodies on the right fuel and sleep. The world would be a very different place.
This is a great analogy Mick…I wonder why we choose to be more responsible with our cars and not so responsible with our bodies? Is it because the effect on our car is instant and hits our wallets big time, whereas any major effect on our bodies generally takes years to come to fruition and we can go to the doctor/hospital and get them to fix us – almost for free? How forgiving are our bodies to put up with this arrogance, disregard and contempt for so long, and yet when we treat them with loving care, nurture and honour them, they respond instantly – surely our bodies deserve more respect!
The thing about this analogy is that in a car, other consequences of buying and using the wrong fuel are instant and expensive, where as the consequences of living and eating or fueling our bodies in the wrong way don’t always catch up with us till later down the line, allowing many to feel for the moment like they have gotten away with it.
True, Rebecca. How amazing are our bodies that they adapt and work hard to process all the different toxins we put into them, but as you say, there comes a point in time when the ongoing effects of the disregard and abuse become apparent in the form of an illness and disease.
Absolutely Rebecca, its like driving around with every monitor on the dashboard flashing and beeping until one day it all collapses. Universal Medicine calls us to look at the energy we are driving in, go back to the beginning and pay attention to the position of our seat, how we are strapped in, how our mirrors are placed, relearning how to support ourselves for a safer, responsible and consistently smooth drive.
That’s true Rebecca, the consequences are not always evident at first. On the other hand I have experienced that by paying more attention to my body, it’s messages when I ate something ‘wrong’ are becoming clearer and are very often instant.
Thank you Mick for a totally relatable blog. The Motor Mechanic for our car’s health is the equivalent of a Doctor for our health. Imagine if the Doctor’s asked us about what we are actually putting into our body? And then imagine reeling off the following list … donuts, soft drinks, cigarettes, alcohol, coffee, chocolate…mmmm doesn’t feel like the best fuel for the body.
That is not a bad suggestion Vicky. We are more considerate of what we feed animals than what we fuel our own bodies with! We would be up in arms if we knew an animal was being given alcohol or any obesity producing food, day after day. I am having a revelation about the extent to which we have a will to be self destructive as human beings, or not. Self appreciation and self care are critical elements include into our discussions and relationships from the ‘womb to the tomb!’.
A brilliant analogy Mick and one that is sure to get people thinking. I have observed so many car owners who treat their cars so much better than their bodies and then wonder why their bodies aren’t working that well. For me it all comes down to self responsibility and not waiting for someone else to fix it for me, and like you I have made many changes to the fuel my body is fueled by; it’s only premium grade fuel for me these days.
“What would be the cost if we all changed the way we ate and lived?” For my money Mick it would seem that the National Health System in the UK and the world over wouldn’t be facing/be under bankruptcy. The economies wouldn’t be under the strain they are today. The impact would be huge.
Yes Rachel and not only that but children would be able to concentrate at school, adults would be more focussed at work, sick leave would drastically decline, productivity would increase, relationships improve. There is so much that is impacted by what we put into our bodies and yet we, as a society seem to be going in precisely the wrong direction.
Mick the irony is amazing, the fact that the petrol stations put so much emphasis on making sure we don’t put the wrong foods in our car yet inside they put so much pressure to ensure we DO put the wrong foods in our body. Yet it’s always our choice so again I would put more care about the fuel in my car than the food in my mouth. What a change today in the way I take care of the food I eat, from time to time I see someone at work eating a Doughnut or Chocolate Cake and despite knowing how sick I would feel eating it their is still a tug in my mind to want to have some yet the feeling in my body that does not want it in any way. It’s interesting how even feeling the difference there can be times of still questioning what food I would put in my mouth when I would never drive up to the garage and think maybe I’ll put petrol in my diesel car today…
Great blog Mick and so accessible in the way you have written it. I have often been amazed that I would always have my car serviced regularly but not until more recently have I considered ‘servicing’ my body in the same way. I love the idea of a nurse or doctor saying ‘Your fuel filter is blocked again, what fuel have you been putting in there?’ as this would really reflect back to us the level of care we often use when fuelling our body. I have been struck recently while visiting my sister in hospital that the food and snacks that are on offer do not reflect a healthy way of living as so many are either loaded with sugar, dairy and gluten – and I feel these would certainly clog up the filters!
Agreed Susan, the snacks and foods available in hospitals are decidedly unhealthy, ‘ in hospital that the food and snacks that are on offer do not reflect a healthy way of living as so many are either loaded with sugar, dairy and gluten’. Hospitals should be leading the way with healthy foods and snacks, all the time they serve up and sell ‘rubbish’ some people will get the message that this is ok. The problem in part, goes back to the food industry, if we look at snacks sold as ‘healthy’, there are still many harm-full and addictive ingredients in these. Time for a food and what we eat revolution.
Mick, this is a very good point – if we had to take our body to the ‘mechanic’ every week and they could see exactly how we have been treating it and what we have been putting in it, how would we feel? It would be very exposing and perhaps a well needed reality check.
I agree Janet and I wonder if the mechanic gave our bodies a hefty bill each week for all our repairs how we would then feel about consuming the wrong fuels for our bodies. Perhaps a free health service by way of the NHS is not the way forward?
I love the idea of a ‘mechanic giving us a health bill’ – the general population would be in for a shock and most likely make drastic changes to the way life would be lived…
Your great blog Mick, presents us with a simple analogy which everybody can understand. The interesting thing for me is that you clearly have a physical job which demands a ‘fuel’ which can maintain your energy levels and you have succeeded in solving this problem by eating simple nutritious things which are readily available. If more people followed your example, we could globally cut back the enormous amount we spend on healthcare, drugs and medication, not forgetting work days lost.
The cost impact alone of taking responsible care of ourselves would be breath-taking; then dare we consider having a level of well-being that meant we stepped into our days with joy, purpose and consistency as a default position, rather than endurance, survival and emotional volatility.
Love the aptness of this analogy Mick and your question ‘What would be the cost if we all changed the way we ate and lived?’. We all take a lot of care to ensure we always put the right fuel in our cars so as not to make an expensive mistake that would have a direct impact on our bank balance. With our bodies there is also a great cost to ourselves but not necessarily in monetary terms as the tab is picked up by our National Health Service so people seem less willing to take responsibility for making the right fuel choices on a daily basis. The cost saving would be huge if we all committed to being more responsible not just in the lowering of physical illness and disease but also mental health problems which are currently massively under-funded and so many are living with debilitating anxiety and depression on a daily basis.
Mick it sound like you and myself 13 years ago could have the health poster of what putting the wrong fuel in our body’s does. Like the photos they are putting on cigarette packs now. They could have put out photos on take-away coffee cups, doughnuts and anything with high sugar content. It is a simple choice of what we put in our bodies that supports us… that has no down side.
When I read your sharing, what comes up in me is – everything matters! I’m getting better to care for my body, but I realize that I can put the same care into looking after everything else, e.g. cleaning my car. Everything in my environment affects me as well, so it is important to make sure, that everything around me is lovingly cared for. It is an unfolding way for me.
The old saying comes up, what we put in is what we get out….. Such an important and vital question you ask, ‘what fuel are we putting in our bodies’, and thus what damage are we doing to our own bodies when we harm and abuse our bodies with the wrong fuel, is the exact same damage when we put petrol in a diesel care or vice versa….. A great analogy, and is something for us all to consider as we change and refine our diets, for example, what was fine yesterday, may not be suitable today? If we continue eating something that we know is no longer suitable, because we resist letting it go, it is still the wrong fuel….
What strikes me, is that as I learn about and change how I care for my body, there remains a subtleness to the disregarding choices that can be made. For example, I may not eat chocolate anymore because I find it too stimulating to my nervous system, but I may still watch a program on the TV in the evening which has the same effect on my nervous system, thus affecting my nights sleep and the quality of the following day. So it is possible to think that many changes are being made and yes these do deserve to be celebrated, however, we can also see from this example the games we can play with ourselves and the depths of change that awaits as we become more and more honest with ourselves.
Mick Excellent blog, just the thing needed to be taught in primary schools all over the world – as if we get this right everything flows- it is so simple really and we humans have made it so complicated!
Brilliant idea Samantha, thank you. I will plan this as our hot topic for conversation in class next week!
This makes so much sense Mike, and really exposes how damaging the fuel we can choose to put into our bodies is. It is so not a common question that most of us ask ourselves before eating – ‘Is this premium fuel for my body or not?’. Reading how it was embarrassing for you to fill your car with the wrong fuel to show your choices, reminds me of hearing some people who are overweight and have low vitality apologise and are embarrassed when something shows up their choices.
Brilliant blog Mick, The question you pose..”What would be the cost if we all changed the way we ate and lived?” is a great one.. My first thought was surely the health care system would be under less strain? the health and well being of people would improve… I’m sure there would be considerable reduction in costs across the board, in health care, in workplace, less sick days off, improved mental health, improved family health and relationships… it would have an affect on so much..
You raise some great points here Mick, especially the fact that we are more willing to be responsible with our cars than we are with our bodies! Our bodies are with us every minute of the day and should outlast the lifespan of a car, yet we often treat it with such flippancy and disrespect. How do we expect our bodies to continue on without deterioration when we fill up with the wrong fuel?
A perfect analogy and a very important question, Mick. Thank you so very much for bringing this up for us all to consider.
‘My choice was to not be responsible for the way I drove my body and as my body suffered, I looked for foods and drinks to stimulate it to feel better or dull the body in order to get through the day.’ This is true, I used to eat foods that numbed me so much I wasn’t aware of the effect they were having on my body – as I refine my diet I can feel more and more and that enables me to eat in a more truly nourishing way.
Brilliant simple analogy Mick I love it .We really take great care of looking after our cars and their fuel whereas our bodies are often not given nearly the same respect and nurturing. It is time to look at our diets in the world with a new and true insight as offered by `universal medicine and this would really change the state of world health and much much.
Brilliant simple analogy Mick I love it .We really take great care of looking after our cars and their fuel whereas our bodies are often not given nearly the same respect and nurturing. It is time to look at our diets in the world with a new and true insight as offered by `universal medicine and this would really change the state of world health and much much more.
I love this analogy with our car symbolizing our body. Like most people I didn’t consider putting the wrong fuel in my care. I would be more upset if my car had a scratch then when I had bruises, something broken or an illness. I love to take care of my car with regular washing, cleaning and maintenance and I started doing the same with my body. What food I eat and what I drink is definitely part of this.
I love to take care of my car knowing it is a reflection of how life is going. I am inspired by this blog to apply the same tender loving care to me.
Great analogy Mick. It is absolutely always a choice and we are the only one responsible for looking after our “car”.
Thank you for writing about his important topic Mick, as doctors are calling the lifestyle illnesses a crisis in our health system. There is a reason behind choosing foods that dull, stimulate or numb the body and if we look at why we are choosing those foods it will help to gain a better understanding of why people are not respecting their bodies, not feeling good about themselves or not coping with life. Since I have eliminated gluten, dairy, alcohol and sugar from my diet, I feel more, and along with feeling more vulnerable at times, e.g. when I am tired, I also feel lighter and clearer. Allowing myself to feel the tiredness means I can adjust the way I am doing things, and take care of my body in this way.
If everybody on this planet was living responsibly, eating the food that we are suppose to eat, the health care institutions would not be bankrupt like they are now!
This is very true Alexandre. We have a responsibility to care for ourselves because everything that we do impacts another and society.
A very simple everyday example of how little sense our current way of eating makes … it is no surprise that as a humanity we are getting sicker and fatter in direct relationship to the sugary, high caffeine drinks and treats we consume. You’ve brought my attention to some poor fuel choices made today, and to bring more awareness to my day tomorrow.
I agree Alexandre and Mick. Where ever we go it seems that food is on offer and mostly it is the ‘junk food’ variety. When people aren’t stopping to think about their choices, it is no surprise that they fill up on things that clog up their bodies. Sadly, the expectation is then usually that someone else (ie medical practitioners) will do the repairs so they can go back to their old lives again.
… and then the cycle begins all over. In some ways it is astounding that this continues and people will continue to choose that again what makes them sick in the first place.
Exactly! Shows our responsibility for the community as well. What I bring to the table (and into my body) gets into my community, gets into the world. Time to see the bigger picture here and time for responsibility!
Last night I watched the news and some research, some of which was carried out in hospitals, was presented about hot spots of diabetes in Australia. In one Sydney area 30% of the population had diabetes, another 30% had pre-diabetes. One woman interviewed had had her right leg amputated because of gangrene, another woman very obese was told by her doctor that she would lose he limbs if she did not change her diet. She had been living on chips and junk food, and continued to ignore her doctor’s advice to change her diet. Her advice to viewers was to listen to your doctor. I know how much lighter and clearer I feel as a result of eating nutritious food prepared with care.
My choice of what I eat starts long before I get to the point of purchasing food or putting it in my mouth. It comes from how I live my life 24/7. If I live in an unloving or unaware way then I create a lot of tension and that will create a strong desire in me to eat unhealthy food either to numb what I am feeling or to give me an energy boost for where I have wasted energy. Therefore choosing the fuel for my body is a 24/7 choice and involves what emotions I eat and what energy I choose as much as what I ingest by way of food and drink.
Well said Nicola and so very true, ‘ that choosing fuel for my body is a 24/7 choice’, meaning that how we nourish ourselves or not in other areas of our lives, will be how we nourish our bodies with the correct fuel or not. In effect it is how we live and how we treat ourselves every day, and what we feel we deserve….. if our self worth is lacking it becomes so easy to choose the wrong fuel, and if we are choosing the wrong fuel, then working on our self worth issue is a gift to ourselves.
You make a good point here Nicola, it is more than the food we eat – I also find that it’s our reactions and the taking on of other peoples problems, which can then contribute to us feeling exhausted and making unhealthy food choices to give us a boost.
Very true Nicola and Julie, there is a lot more to this blog than just the food we put in our mouths, and what we put in our mouths is decided way back by how we are living. Are we living in a loving, caring and nurturing way, or being disregarding and disrespectful of ourselves? It is then obvious from how we live the types of food we will choose.
Love the wider 24/7 time scale you put to us here Nicola “If I live in an unloving or unaware way then I create a lot of tension and that will create a strong desire in me to eat unhealthy food either to numb what I am feeling or to give me an energy boost for where I have wasted energy.” This is how I have also come to understand how my choices play out.
I agree with this Nicola. Choosing to be me and to see, understand and be committed to life supports me to make wise choices that my body likes and when i am affected by life, not centred and with tension i feel drained by this choice and depleted and crave foods that go against my body – to pick me up, reward or dull myself, none of which sustain me or support me, in fact they add to the load on my body.
Spot On Nicola!
Thank you Mick. It makes perfect sense to fuel our bodies in the correct way so the question is, what or who is running the show if we continue to make non-sensical choices even after we become sick? People know what they should or shouldn’t be eating, that’s a fact, so why are we using food as a drug to numb ourselves? Is it to not feel what we do not want to face? If so, our current choices are just creating a huge delay, because in the end we can run but we can’t hide. Lets feel what we need to feel, let go of what is not true and embrace the divinity that we truly are.
When I ran my body on the wrong fuel I was continuously at the garage for minor ailments, cold sores, mouth ulcers, cold and flu remedies. Now the fuel I use is far cleaner and of a far better grade and my body is thanking me with few ailments, coughs or colds. In fact I would go further and say my body now is energised and all the sluggishness has gone.
I love this example Mick to show the disjoint between how we treat our cars vs how we treat our bodies, and have used this example myself in many conversations with people when they comment on what I eat, particularly at work. When I use this analogy, they get it straight away…it’s like the light goes on…the penny drops. The question I ask is ‘Why are we able to put the right fuel in our cars, but not our bodies?’ and ‘Why do we maintain our cars with more love and care than we do our bodies?’.
When you break it down like this, it’s very clear and simple – we have two fuels to choose from – nothing else, no in-between, no half and half – either one that is harming or one that healing and not just with food.
Ah yes Gyl – so very true indeed! A great depth to an already exposing analogy. We have a choice in all that we do to choose where our energy supply is coming from or what we are being fuelled by… Everything is a choice and we are responsible and totally accountable for what that expresses as.
Yes Gyl, only two choices, with the light of our soul or with something else (of which there are many choices)
A great blog Mick. The car analogy is perfect to highlight what we do to our own body (car!) with the incorrect fuel.
It would be amazing to have a garage that offers food and snacks that are premium foods for the body
At the petrol station yesterday for the first time I saw they had fruit on sale! It was quite surprising and even more surprising that it was right next to the register. At least one owner in the world is attempting to offer an alternate fuel choice for our bodies.
A great blog Michael, I love it when there is a comparison between ourselves and other aspects of life – it, as your blog shows, can be so exposing. I lived for years eating basically whatever I felt like, the local snack-bar near work made a lot of money from me, cream buns, soft drinks and hamburgers – no wonder I suffered from endless colds and flu’s. Now with a much better focus on what food is ‘the right fuel for my body’ colds and flu’s are very rare – just one of several benefits…
Awesome analogy. What it says to me most about this strange irony is that we place greater worth on our cars than we do on our bodies. I remember a time when I would make the time to start my engine to warm it up, and whilst it was warming up, I roared inside to put make up on and clean my teeth – far greater attention and worth was place on my vehicle than my self. Once I exposed this to myself, I now enjoy giving myself at least one hour to get ready. We need to start valuing ourselves and feeling the worth of who we are.
I love the metaphor of the car because it’s such a great example of how we are so willing to take care of anything outside us, but not our bodies. For example I noticed that with my camera, I always clean the lense and put the cap on to prevent damage etc, but do I bring the same care an attention to myself or are bruises a part of life?
Great observation Rebecca. We are very careful with things on the outside but can tend to be a little bit wayward with the way we treat ourselves. Getting to know our bodies and our self care will be really beneficial, because then we will get a fresh view at what is actually going on and bring that same level care to all others.
What you introduce here Mick is so simple, yet it seems almost impossible for so many to put into practice. Why is that? We need to at least start to ask this question! Because it does not make sense why it is so difficult to make a very sensible choice to actually truly nourish and support your body. What is running us that we constantly make choices that are against our bodies health and well-being?
Very good Question Judith! What is running us to fill us with inappropriate fuel?
Or: what is the fuel we are choosing appropriate for?
And to go on here: If we fill our car with the right fuel it will drive us through live. If not it stays in the Garage.
From this view our body is a lot in the garage (be it hospital or on the sofa), or get tuned again (diets, training centre, sports, therapy). Nearly not imaginable how would it be like if we would fill our body with the appropriate foods? Would we fly?
What you share here, Mick, is such common sense but which the vast majority of people disregard. What I find even more shocking is not only how the media and corporate business knowingly promote this disregard but actually lie about the the supposed benefits of the ‘wrong fuel’.
You cant put diesel in a Ferrari it would so explode combust do some pretty funky things like what happens after we eat the golden arches even with food we think we can get away with eating … Its like a ticking time bomb
Great points Mick.
Food is a big issue for a lot of people and a good example of the ‘fuel the body needs’.
What if we also considered that we can also use emotions to get us through the day.
What if we need drama to be stimulated to get through our day.
Fuel for the body isn’t limited to ‘food’ but to everything in life.
Having a great relationship can give you ‘good fuel’
Going to bed early could be ‘good fuel’
I’ll leave it to any comments to go deeper with these examples.
So true Mick- what would society be like if we all choose to put the right fuel in our bodies?
How different I now feel in my body from eating no gluten, dairy, caffeine, alcohol , or sugary foods- more vitality, no longer being hypoglycaemic, or anaemic, no more bloatedness, indigestion and constipation.
I marvel at the capacity of our body to keep going, seemingly no matter what we put in it or do to it. But only up to point of course, and that is also a miracle and great wake-up call to how irresponsibly we can at times behave.
Thank you Mick for asking the all important question, a question I find vitally important to ask myself everyday. Something so blazingly simple yet something requiring constant awareness to keep sight of, after so many years of irresponsibly allowing lesser grade fuel to run this body. A body worthy of the best care and consideration to keep it running at its optimum, and without the need of quick pitstops to pep up with.
Why do we so often opt for a type of fuel that is not the optimum?
Could it be that we do not give ourselves the same value we do give to our cars and therefore do not see that our bodies deserve the optimum fuel?
Our bodies are vehicles of light and we are the mechanics, skilled in our every move when we commit to bringing the precision required to be in service.
Exactly! We are her for service – but what or who do we serve by choosing an energy which sabotage us?
That’s an interesting thought Katie, how would cars look and function if they were a direct reflection of our bodies? I immediately got an image of the motorway with a huge traffic jam made up of lots of cars creeping along at a snail’s pace with dents and bits having fallen off them, belching out black smoke whilst the drivers were just not able to get where they were going on time. I bet if this were the reality people would start taking a lot more care of their bodies quick-time.
That’s what I saw too Josephine. Lots of battered cars, backfiring and spewing plumes of black smoke from their exhausts. This image when translated to my body is all I would need to consider daily the fuel I put into my body.
Great analogy Mick – as our car would become sluggish or non-responsive with the wrong fuel so too do our bodies react in the same way when we insist on supplying it with food and drink that doesn’t support it’s wellbeing.
I like the allegory of fueling of our car compared to fueling our bodies Mick. And I have to agree that I was more precise with fuelling my car then with nurturing my body. With my body I had the feeling that I could get away with it and with my car instead I knew that it immediately would show the consequences of my choices. This makes me aware of the fact that although my body does show me what is good or not so good, the same way as my car does but I had learned to disconnect from this, to ignore these signals and arrogantly force my body to accept and do its job under my conditions. It is the irresponsibility of not taking proper care for myself that is being exposed by this way of living. Because in fact I know, and could not ignore the evidence of what living in this ignorance off and arrogance with the body would result to, as shown that clearly in society through the alarming increasing rates of illnesses and diseases.
I love it. Such a common sense to put the right fuel in the car, in the body. But I also know the arrogance behind choosing the wrong fuel for the body – I may just get away with it; if I don’t, there will be a way to fix it; and it’s only my body, I own it, it’s at my disposition etc. – I do know now that I will never get away though. Every choice has a consequence.
Love this blog Mick. I am often stunned by the amount of sugar, salt and carbohydrates that inhabit service stations. Such a clear sign that we have not considered thee type of fuel we put in our most important vehicle.
This is true. And it would also save us and those close to us all that comes with us getting ill.
Yes Mick. I know my choice too. I choose love, a nurturing fuel of healthy food, vital sleep and a gentle way if being.
It does not make sense, now does it, that we take better care of our cars then the body we live in every single day, 24/7.
It doesn’t make sense that it is normal to need caffeine to wake up. When we were kids, we just woke up and had more energy and joy than we knew what to do with.
Indeed Mariette, wouldn’t this make a great documentary to look at the care we take of our cars and then the disregard we bring to our precious human vehicle.
Thank you Mick! This is a fantastic article in how it so clearly exposes how silly we can be as humans in the ways we choose to run our bodies. Unfortunately, our education system, and worldwide media do not necessarily encourage what it is to be truly healthy, and so people can fall foul of false recommendations. Listening to our bodies is key, and what it wants, and actually needs becomes abundantly clear when listened to consistently.
The key point about Universal Medicine might be that it becomes possible for us to do what is actually good for us and our body without going through some tremendously tiring or controlling process. It is getting all the benefits of being healthy without being bored or unduly disciplined – you don’t have to be disciplined as it is extremely uncomfortable to eat or drink or do what is harmful. Therefore, why do it for more than a few times?
Great blog Mick. I love the car analogy – we know full well the right fuels to put into our car, and we wouldn’t dream of putting in something that’s not right… so why do we do this to our bodies? It’s the same with overeating too – we wouldn’t OVER fill a car with fuel and risk damage or spillage, yet we do this to ourselves regularly… If we can value a car and not want to wreck, ruin or damage it in any way, we definitely have the potential to do this with ourselves.
Hello Susie Williams and when you put it like this it makes it so funny and ridiculous even, “It’s the same with overeating too – we wouldn’t OVER fill a car with fuel and risk damage or spillage, yet we do this to ourselves regularly” Imagine standing putting fuel in your car and overfilling the tank in the service station, someone would come up and let us know what we were doing. Many people would look at you and think there was something really wrong if they watched you do it. Yet we watch ourselves and people over eat all the time, in fact some people encourage it as a way of caring. It is really quite strange to discuss the ridiculousness of this. Thank you Susie and see you at the servo.
Excellent Raymond Karam this absolutely exposes where we as a society are at – there would be uproar if we just blindly kept pumping fuel into a car with no thought for what the consequences would be. Yet no one behind the counter asks if we really need 3 chocolate bars, a fizzy drink, a coffee and a sausage roll for lunch?
I had a dream about that Raymond, The lady next to me was overfilling her petrol tank and the fuel was splashing onto my car, and drenched my grocery shopping! I told her about choosing things for herself and never considering other people. Our selfish and irresponsible actions alway affect other people as well.
If we were beings that truly applied common sense we easily would have a very healthy diet, hence there must be another factor at play that also with much ease makes us choose otherwise without too much questioning these self-harming choices. The answers may be plenty like using food and drink for emotional and not just nutritional reasons, seeking comfort (numbness, distraction, stimulation) from feeling unwell or overwhelmed to deal with things appropriately (anxiousness), avoiding to raise one´s awareness as food and certain drinks dull us down etc etc. Reflecting on using the most supportive fuel for our body and being immediately brings up a whole lot of further questions.
Very true Alex. With the car we are quite simple: we fill in the ‘right’ fuel so it can serve us. But with us and our body it becomes more complicated. And the question is: what do we use food/our fuel to serve for? Which purpose do we serve by using a fuel which is not serving our health or well-being? Many questions and a lot of people study it/us…. Could be so easy to come back to simplicity and take just in what does serve our health and wellbeing? I guess in the stage we are right now we do not really know, or better said: we lost the feeling of what is really nurturing us and now have to claim back, step by step our awareness, claim back simplicity. Like a car we are here to serve – maybe its time to remember that and to start to find out how to live it again.
It is true Mick your analogy with the car and our body makes sense. When we put the wrong full in our cars it tells us instantly by grinding to a halt . This happens to our bodies too, but we have managed to over-ride this and ignore the messages it is clearly sending such as lethargy tiredness exhaustion and loss of vitality, until it comes to a point where the body can’t cope any more and we become sick often with multiple damage to our body.
Wow, Mick, the scene you have outlined with hearing the sentence from the doctor: “Your fuel filter is blocked again, what fuel have you been putting in there?” has made me laughing, but also has brought a huge awareness to the power of the analogy of providing the best fuel for our cars – and also for ourselves. Thank you for this inspection, to repair my attitudes of disregard on a daily choices basis.
Great points you have raised here Mick, there are loads of people who look after their cars way better than their bodies. Your article should be printed in car magazines. It makes so much sense, we inhibit our body all of the time, why wouldn’t we want to take optimum care of it? We don’t like it when our cars aren’t running smoothly, why do we accept that it’s OK when our bodies aren’t running smoothly?
I like that Donna – have the article printed in car magazines – it brought to mind the possibility that some car enthusiasts in particular may treat their cars in inverse proportion to how they treat their bodies and perhaps are unaware of such a link and may really get to appreciate the choice to treat their bodies in a very different way.
Well said indeed, Mick. The ‘cost’ of our irresponsibility is colossal. It would only take one government to turn around and expose this global trend of abusing our bodies and stacking up the medical bills, for this insanity to be addressed once and for all. In the meantime we can all work on the areas of our lives where we opt out of truly seeing the choices we are making.
Our irresponsibility as human beings is colossal Janet. We only need to look at photos of the general population of say western countries from 50 years ago and look at photos now…people’s bodies are a lot bigger and medical conditions such as diabetes and obesity are on the rise…along with the consumption of sugary, processed foods.
Nature provides the right fuel for all of its living inhabitants from an ant to an elephant – and the soil/environment for us humans to grow and also live off the land. Often wondering how I got so side tracked to fill my body with the fuel of man’s creations eg crisps, chocolate etc etc. To take the time to till the soil and eat what nature so well provides really suits my bodies every nourishing requirements – I DO know (pretty sure we all do) when I slip into eating foods that harm that natural flow. Great blog Mick thank you.
You make a very sensible argument Mick, for putting the right full into our bodies – as do global health statistics.
So if we are intelligent beings and it is indeed obvious how to care for our bodies, what on earth is really going on when its so hard for us to decide to fuel our bodies in the way they need to be …? I’m sure ‘m not the only one who has struggled with this either.
What I have learned is it really comes down to one choice, and its not the obvious one about what to put in my mouth but the choice to commit to truth (or love if that word fits better) – that is really commit … my whole being, every cell. That one choice precedes the array of choices that will follow, guarantees them in fact. It is really the only choice we make.
Using the car as an analogy to our body is a great one. It’s easy to see how we can damage our cars with the wrong fuel and how we can damage them if we are rough or careless. We take our bodies so much for granted and easily abuse it by the way we eat and move and treat ourselves. This blog is definitely food for thought (literally) on how we look after ourselves.
I like Mick that in this blog you not only presented the fact that for our bodies to operate at an optimum level they need premium high quality fuel – that’s a no brainer. But you went deeper than that and also related our choice of fuel to how we are ‘driving’ our bodies in the first place. For me it is so true that how I move my body in every moment and how busy my mind is, has a direct impact on my body. If I allow myself to get too exhausted or racy or anxious, I will start to crave certain foods or drinks that are not of premium quality. So way before the choice as to what fuel to put in my body comes the choice to be in my body and move my body in a ‘premium’ way!
That’s a great point Andrew. How I am with myself absolutely determines what I end up eating. When I allow myself to get completely caught up in the world of work and take on everyone else’s problems, it completely depletes me, at which point I’ve lost myself to a degree and reach for comforting foods, which in my experience only dulls me further leaving me feeling quite flat and unable to get on with what I need to do efficiently. Counter productive at all costs.
Great point Andrew, we often mistaken our food choices for being “in the moment” rather than addressing the momentum we are in before we choose what to eat, which will always determine the choice we make
Andrew Mooney this is absolutely the next phase of responsibility – the cycle of abuse, wrong fuel and too much of the wrong fuel ids being ultimately triggered by something. Our hurts and how we cope with the world, the stuff we take on as we grow up all incites and begins a way of being that literally needs feeding to sustain. Most will continually drive at something to keep them in the loop – daring not to stop to feel exactly what is going on.
All of medicine would be transformed if we all took more responsibility for the quality of the fuel we put in our bodies every day.
Such a great analogy Mick. It’s something that most people do not consider when choosing food for their bodies. Yes, if we treated our cars the way we treat our bodies they would indeed break down. It’s incredible that people wonder why they are ill so much! This is the reason why.
When I look back at how I felt when consuming a carb, caffeine and sugar heavy diet compared with how I feel now consuming mainly greens and protein, it is a no brainer as to what fuel to choose.
This is a great dose of responsibility and common sense, written out plainly for all to see. Why do we treat our cars better than ourselves? Do we have more ‘love’ for our cars than ourselves? Great blog.
It’s crazy! We stop on the petrol station to put supportive fuel into our car and by the way buy some sabotaging fuel for our body…
Great article Mick, ‘Imagine if we all chose fuel for our bodies that gives us optimal performance day after day, also choosing to live in a way that never leaves us run down or exhausted’, when you write it this simply it really does seem crazy how we as human beings more often than not choose the ‘wrong’ fuel for our bodies, we run ourselves down on such a regular basis that choosing fuel that is harmful for us has become ‘normal’.
Great analogy Mick and how funny to think here we all are making sure we are going to put the right fuel in our cars, some of us being extra discerning, and then we walk into shop to pay on and there before us are all the choices of marketed and highly manufactured foods to have as a treat! Ironic.
I have always found it very interesting that the foods on offer in petrol stations or even at the cash desks in supermarkets are those that do little other than deplete our body and its naturally efficient systems. As you say we would never intentionally do this to our vehicle that we drive, so why would we do it to our vehicle that we live through and in?
It has always amazed me how so many people take so much care, time and expense looking after their car while completely disregarding their body. What is going on here? I used to think I looked after my body and car, now with more connection to my body and a deeper respect and honouring, I am building my care and devotion to a new level.
And to add to my former comment. Do we consider that the wrong fuel during the day also affect the way we sleep? All the stimulants effecting the quality of our sleep. And when we do not have a fully charged “battery” we start the day tired and look for stimulants again and are back on the merry go round.
That would be like us leaving the lights on on our car overnight and then coming to it in the morning to find a drained battery, and needing a ‘jump start’ to get going? And so, not having a restful sleep requires a ‘jump start’ in the form of caffeine, sugar or carbs to get going in the morning.
Your blog mick is a very clear presentation on how important it is to give the right fuel to our bodies. Not only to avoid getting physical ill and feeling tired, but the enormous effect the choice of our fuel can have on our mood is also one not to be overlooked. If we only look at the world (largest) dependency on caffeine intake before people can cope with the day and how their moods are before they had their first (or second cup) of caffeine is enormous. And this is right after they wake up after a ‘presumed’ well rested sleep.
A friend and I were discussing the ideal that we had growing up that we would treat ourselves on our birthday with cakes and unhealthy food as it was a celebration so why not spol ourselves. We were reflecting on this and realised that we now view this in such a different way. If we really wanted to treat ourselves on our birthday why wouldn’t we put food into our bodies that made us feel amazing, now that would be a treat.
“If we really wanted to treat ourselves on our birthday why wouldn’t we put food into our bodies that made us feel amazing, now that would be a treat.” Great point Heidi, and why not treat myself as if it is my birthday every day, and give myself the most nourishing food to celebrate?
Great Blog Mick. Very easy to understand and question when relatable to our car and petrol.
The body is a fine machine that can put up with years of the wrong fuel and will manage on some level to get by, but before too long when things start to go wrong and need replacing it’s not so much fun and a little more costly to change a liver or kidney instead of a fuel pump or exhaust system.
I remember when service stations used to be places where you would buy petrol, oil, maybe a fan belt or indicator bulb or something. Now we have places, that are bulging at the sides filled with fizzy drinks, crisps and almoner of chocolate delights. Its far less tempting to put the wrong fuel in the car than what is on offer inside. This is something that has to be looked at, as its fine for us that is aware of the dangers of putting the wrong fuel in our bodies but not so much for those that are less aware.
Hello Kevin McHardy and there is a key word in service stations, ‘service’. I use to work in my families one when I was younger and we even use to clean the windscreens of every car, a real care. It could be the further we have stepped away from this car for our ‘vehicles’ generally the more it has allowed people not to care. This is a great conversation and a great analogy from Mick Scheenhouwer.
We all know that junk food is not good for us and yet I often used to consider it a ‘treat’ to have cake, a rich, sugar laden dessert or share a bottle of wine knowing that afterwards I would regret it as I would find it hard to get up and go. I also have taken the presentations of Universal Medicine into my everyday livingness and no longer pour sugar into my fuel tank and every day my vehicle runs evenly and steadily throughout the day and the bodywork has a gleaming shine to it.
Mick you have used an analogy that is so beautifully clear that everyone can relate to it, even people that don’t drive. Looking back it’s clear for me to now feel why I put things into my body that were clearly no good for it and that is because I felt crap. The food and drink that I put into my body momentarily covered up my feelings of irritation, anger and exhaustion but they, of course never addressed them. So what, in truth I was doing, was adding more feelings of crap to my general everyday feeling of crap until one day I had no choice at all but to address why on earth I felt so awful. Having now addressed my underlying feelings of feeling awful I have no desire to put things in my body to take me away from how I feel, in fact I actively avoid anything that will take me away from me because ‘me’ feels so good.
Mick this is a great observation and one definitely to consider. As you say it’s very expensive to put the wrong full in your car as it is when we put the wrong fuel into our body. Our bodies do not get away with it, even though we like to think we do. Our hospitals, doctors surgeries and naturopathic clinics are full of exactly what you are sharing. In fact only yesterday in Australia there was an announcement that what medicare will pay for will change, essentially because we can no longer afford the way we are looking after our health. It is expensive money wise in terms of treatment for disease, but there are many other loses we face as a community with the increase in chronic and preventable diseases from relationships, to community participation and connectedness to name only a few. But knowledge and advice will not be the key to our change, for it’s never worked to this point.
Hello Jennifer Smith and that’s a great point also. We have been supported by medicare in a way in our country and not really felt the true extent of how we are with our bodies. It seems like this is changing as you say, “In fact only yesterday in Australia there was an announcement that what medicare will pay for will change, essentially because we can no longer afford the way we are looking after our health” I love the site http://www.unimedliving.com as it reads like a guide through this next part of what is happening in our world in many ways. Thank you Jennifer.
You highlight a great point here. Humanity lives in a way that they think they are getting away with it as most don’t suffer the immediate consequences of putting the right fuel in their bodies. If you ate something unsupportive and ended up in hospital that afternoon then I’m guessing people would be more inclined to make a healthier choice next time. It’s crazy that we take better care of what drives us around over what we actually live within.
Until Universal Medicine, I had not fully considered the extent of how the choices I make day to day impacted me emotionally, leading me to eat in a way that is not truly supporting my body. Sorting out my stuff and choosing to be fully me again (as well as I can) in life has given me the space to just feel joy again which means my food choices are about supporting me to feel more of that joy, as opposed to soothing, numbing, pushing down emotions etc that I used to do with food.
Greater post Mick, particularly how you highlight the difference about the fuel we put into our cars and then immediately afterwards, what we put into our bodies when we enter into sugar world.
You also mention that if we treat cars the same way that we treat our body then we’d be visiting the mechanic’s regularly. I guess it’s happening now, in reverse, as evidenced by the massive number of people who regularly visit doctors’ workshops (clinics).
I often ask people exactly what you have written about… Would you put crappy fuel in your car… and why do you treat your car so well but not your body. At least if your car dies you can get another one, but our bodies are with us for this life and well worth investing in by supplying with the best food options.
So true Rosie, we can’t just go out and buy a new body, or have panel beating done every time we ding it. What’s also very exposing is just how devastated we can get if we have a car crash or scrape some paint off a door, its the inconvenience of needing to get it fixed, the money it costs or having to continually see that scratch or ding…yet feeling bloated, tired, bruised and battered doesn’t make such an impact or upset most of us. It’s very much the same, what we choose we live with everyday.
Great Mick, yes it’s interesting how we seem to take greater care or look after/service our cars far more than our bodies. If the car isn’t fit to drive, then it doesn’t maintain its tax or road license, insurance, or even becomes available for scrap. What would happen if as a race of beings we required to service our bodies – by law. Wow. What a thought.
I love what you are saying here Mick about the heavy cost to our medical system that our ill choices have. Sooner or later we have to come to terms with this because our ill choices actually affect everyone.
So awesome you have written this article Mick. Funnily enough, although I have used this analogy from time to time when having conversations about sugar, it has been much more frequent this past week. Yesterday I had a beautiful reflection of how I used to think when having this conversation with a ‘health conscious’ young man working in a café who acknowledged that certain sugars are bad for us but nothing wrong with eating fresh healthy fruit, etc. and said in a somewhat emphatic way that it is perfectly OK to eat everything in moderation. He then shared that he slightly reduces the amount of sugar he puts into everyone’s coffee which I thought was rather cute albeit a little imposing. I used to do little things like that – maybe I still do? – oops I had better have another check in with myself!
I love the analogy of the car as an expression of our body, Mick. There are so many appropriate connotations and correlations we can make from it. The fuel we use and the food we eat, the way we treat our car and our body, and another is are we the driver of our car and life or do we let someone else take over the driving by leaving the keys in and the doors unlocked. This means that we either stay present with ourselves or let our mind take us to far away places and not consciously present when driving.
A very apt analogy Mick and one that rings alarming true. The constant and horrible feeling of ‘blah’ can so easily be corrected with premium grade fuel in our ‘tanks’. There are only every two grades of fuel to choose from; one is love, the other is not. No matter which one we choose, the quality of every choice thereafter will come from the quality of what we have first chosen. However, when we first decide to switch to the premium grade fuel that is love, it takes awhile to be able to consistently choose it due to the momentum created by our previous choices of the lesser grade of fuel (all that is not love). That is, we reach for what is familiar and ‘safe’ rather than what is true, so often there is a bit of cross contamination occurring until such a time that we can consistently choose what is loving and true without all the other contaminants getting in the way.
Very true Liane – “There are only ever two grades of fuel to choose from; one is love, the other is not.” Just yesterday I had to stay home from work because I ate something that upset my system so much, it was something that was once a premium fuel for my body, but now it’s more like premium fuel with dirt and grit in the tank, so it might still run but it coughs and splutters and there is not the same acceleration. It’s a constant refining, like high performance fuel.
Over the years I have often used this analogy of how we treat our cars versus our own bodies. I love how you have taken it further here Liane, there are only ever ‘two grades of fuel to choose from; one is love, the other is not. No matter which one we choose, the quality of every choice thereafter will come from the quality of what we have first chosen.’ And how you go on to describe what can happen after we make a new loving choice, ‘we reach for what is familiar and ‘safe’ rather than what is true’, so we have to consistently keep making these loving choices, this is key.
Yes Liane, I have been party to the cross contamination you speak of and I have been known to convince myself that there is no point putting the more expensive quality fuel in (LOVE) when there is still some standard unleaded (NOT LOVE) left over in the tank. So then I will just roll with the unleaded for a whole another tank, waiting for things to be perfect before I will commit to the premium. I tell myself stories like does it make that much difference?? The truth is that it does and we can only feel the true benefits when we choose it consistently and that dedication to choosing that premium fuel and not just checking out at the petrol station and grabbing the nearest pump is the choice that is made every time we stop to fill up.
Making that mistake of putting the wrong fuel in our cars, isn’t made again quickly by most for it is cost prohibitive and annoying to do so. So why then (it’s a great question Mick asks), do we ignore the same parallel with our bodies? It’s great to raising awareness of this – it’s so simple and tangible for another to get!
Love this Mick, I have often likened how my car performs to my body. I have to say I wash my body a little more regularly! But food wise you are spot on, nothing but the best for my car and notice how the different fuels available make it run differently. I relate to how it can purr and hummm along, take off on hills and idle smoothly, to how my body can perform and how different foods support it. Interesting also that when we take our cars on long distance trips we get them fully checked out for safety beforehand, but do we do this with our bodies regularly, even though we go on long distant trips with them everyday!
This is great Mike. I love premium fuel for my body to run at its optimum, loving fullness.
Yes I love that too – only premium fuel being the loving food to ensure maximum health and vitality.
This is great Mick, I have really enjoyed what you wrote and it brings so much responsibility to the reader. I like how you have answered the question “why do we choose to put the wrong fuel in our body in the first place” simply because we haven’t chosen to drive our body with responsibility in the first place. I find it amazing that most of us would know what the correct fuel for our body is but simply don’t choose it and choose something less. There is almost an arrogance in this because we know our body can handle a lot of things and can process things, but we don’t choose the ultimate fuel that we know will help us evolve all of the time.
Hello Harrison White and that is one of the biggest things I take from this blog, “it brings so much responsibility to the reader” We can be conveniently selective on what we are ‘responsible’ for at times and this feels like one of them. I think that is why this analogy is very important in this case because if we spoke just about food and our choices most of us would just turn off, the responsibility would be too much. This blog makes light of it but also delivers the responsibility in bucket loads as you say. Thank you Harrison.
Just as you describe the car revisiting the mechanic regularly because if the wrong fuel and the mechanic saying the car is blocked again. I wonder what our health practitioners would say about many bodies in society if they saw them regularly and would look at what is truly going on with them on a deeper level.
Great analogy Mick as it makes such a clear point about the choices we make around food. If we would never incorrectly fuel our cars why do we continue to make the same ill choices around the food we eat that fuel our bodies? There is definitely lots to feel into and ponder on here, but ultimately the choice is clear, the way we eat determines the quality of our health and whether we live with true vitality or not. The responsibility lies with us.
It’s a good point you make Mick. We do not want to put the wrong fuel into our car for fear of what it will cost. But we don’t stop to say ‘I am not going to put that into my body because it will cost me. It will cost my body, my pocket and my family.
Yes exactly Johanna, the only difference is the cost to the car is immediate, and because our body is so forgiving, the cost to it becomes apparent so much later, especially when we are not in tune with our body to read its more subtle signs of not running too well on the wrong fuel…
Great point Johanna08.smith, the cost of putting harmful fuel into our bodies is born not just by ourselves (feeling lethargic, exhausted, bloated, emotional) but also by our families and the rest of humanity, who all get a lesser version of everything we are.
It is inarguably important what we choose to put in our bodies by way of fuel, and the overview of the state of humanity’s health is testament the fact that overall we are getting it wrong. What we decide to put in our bodies each day is reflected by the level of self-responsbility we have towards state of our own health and the level of awareness we have around what constitutes true health and wellbeing. Studying with Universal Medicine it becomes quite simple – self loving choices cover all aspects of our life, and food is just one area that needs constant refining.
Thank you Mick for your straight forward sharing of what is obvious to us all but ignored by many. You are so right to make the observation that we carefully choose the right fuels at the station for our cars but then choose to fuel our bodies in a non supportive way when we walk in to pay! Now when my hand gravitates towards that last minute salty carby crunch, I will ask myself ‘I wonder what Mick’s got in his lunchbox today’ and with that image I can make a better choice. Thanks for reminding me that good health really can be an easy choice.
What a brilliant analogy Mick – when you lay it out like this, choosing fuel that does not support our bodies seems absolutely insane – yet is definitely the norm in society. Thanks for sharing your experience as when people begin to listen to and care for their bodies as you have done, others can also be inspired – your lived example is the best “marketing and service information” to encourage others to make a change.
A very straight forward anology Mick, which I relate to as I put E10 in my car, in most cars it would have been acceptable but not my Honda, it rabbit hopped, stopped started and was a mystery to my mechanic, when I went to Honda they recognised the problem as being the fuel. So even when we were told E10 is an alternative fuel we still have to be wary of the suitability as in my case. If we relate back to the body it’s just the same as all the supposedly health options being marketed, which still contain sugar, dairy, wheat, and a few chemicals to boot, no different to the obvious bad guys like a donut. We also need to be discerning, read labels and feel if they are being truthfull and from there choose to be in our optimum performing bodies.
Very inspiring Mick. This is just the kind of nudge needed to make me, and probably many others look at what we are putting in our bodies and if the quality we are choosing is the quality we want to be.
If we were charged by our bodies as we are charged with mechanics the world would be different place for sure Mick. Great analogy here – thank you for sharing this with us. I fuelled up my body yesterday with the wrong kinda fuel, and I paid for the price truly … I felt lethargic and bloated….but if it came from my wallet each and every time, I think I would learn quicker. Lots to ponder on here.
Love the body/car fuel analogy. If we playfully extend this to chips and little dents in the car bodywork, caused by lack of due care and attention, then that can be tracked right back to how we’re living our lives – a little bump from the corner of a table when you weren’t concentrating on where you were going, a little scratch on the finger from opening a tightly-wrapped parcel in too much haste and frustration. Our cars are great reflections of how we’re treating our bodies. Never mind dogs looking like their owners, just take a peek at the car. It’ll tell you all you need to know.
So true Cathy, ‘take a peek at the car. It’ll tell you all you need to know.’ I can feel that when I’m busy and feeling overwhelmed that my car becomes a mess, I abandon tidying it up, the same can be said for my body, i can abandon caring for it in the same way if i have lots of of work to do, so how i’m looking after my car definitely reflects how i’m looking after my body.
I love that Cathy – we could absolutely take the car analogy further and see that every burst tire, scratch, scrape, bump, fault or chip is down to how we live our lives and how we are in that moment… It is, as you say, the same as when we bang our heads, stub our toes or get paper cuts – all down to our relationship with our bodies.
This makes perfect sense, surely any smart person could see this? And I think on some level we ALL know this but just choose to ignore it, unless … we have a health problem and then that is when we might look at changing something … briefly. It takes self-love and commitment to ourselves to want to look after our bodies. Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine are amazingly inspiring in living and reflecting to others a way to live that is far more loving that what is currently being lived. It is great to here how you can see this and the changes you have made in caring and looking after yourself more.
I can really relate to your blog Mick. I also used to use food to keep me going throughout the day, as opposed to having a natural vitality that didn’t need a sugar hit to kick start me every few hours. Since cutting out sugar, carbs and caffeine I feel I have more energy than ever, and what’s more I am much more emotionally stable and have an emotionally steadiness than I never had with the way I used to eat.
I too have been on the receiving end of choosing the wrong fuel for my body. I oscillated between being sluggish and racy, was bloated, and my mind was foggy. I was truly feeling generally below par, and I sensed that I was not living to my optimal health. When I began to appreciate that my vehicle was naturally attuned to truth and responded to all that I do, and specifically designed to do so, I began to honor how I cared for it. There is no doubt that once I made the decision that my vehicle deserved a specific fuel, and made the switch to the fuel that was precise for my ‘slick’ vehicle, I started to feel and move with vitality that is beyond compare. I have now discovered that is more than a ‘second gear’. With choosing fuel that supports my vehicle I am discovering that there is so much more that this amazing vehicle is capable of and in fact is truly is designed to do.
Carola, you make choosing the correct fuel sound so sexy and appealing, I am struggling with living what you have so beautifully shared in your comment and find it super inspiring that you are supporting your self in a new found way that allows your ‘slick ‘vehicle to operate at it’s ridiculously awesome and full potential.
Ditto Sarah, and Carola’s comment is inspiring – there is more than 2nd gear – I’d not allowed myself to consider this before, but can feel that I would love to be consistently living from more than 1st and 2nd gears! Right then, here we go …
Way to go Carola! I love how you have described yourself so succinctly. You certainly have demonstrated that there is more than a ‘second gear’ and seeing you driving by like this your very slick vehicle with your engine all fired up is an inspiration to all
I have filled my diesel car with unleaded petrol Mick, not once but twice. Both times I recall feeling tired and distracted. Fortunately on both occasions I realised before I drove off, but the inconvenience and cost was significant. Not until I read your blog did I do a more complete ‘reading ‘ on the situation. My body had been giving me warning signs that I needed to stop and I had ignored them, dragging it along to carry out my responsibilities. I was shocked and angry with myself for my lack of presence and self-awareness. I could feel that it was not so much putting the wrong fuel in my body but treating my body with disregard, not honouring and caring for myself in the way I deserved that pulled me up. Our cars are an awesome reflection in so many ways and I often look at the cleanliness of mine, outside and in, and can feel how it equates to how I am with my own self-appreciation and self-love. Thank you Mick, and awesome sharing!
Yes I agree Bernadette what we do with and how we keep our cars is a great way to check in on how we treating ourselves. I can certainly relate to eating the ‘wrong’ food when I am tired and distracted, even if the food may appear to be the most nourishing and nutritious of foods in most people’s eyes but it may not be what my body needs at that moment.
I agree wholeheartedly with you Mick we would never put the wrong fuel in our car by choice, but a lot of us do that every day to our bodies. Apart from the disregard and cost in medical expenses or even just in the subtle ways we feel a bit off colour, where is that same responsibility for our own health? Do we not consider ourselves as deserving and worthy as that same responsible care and attention we give to our cars?.
Investing in and valuing what we own more than who we are and how our body feels becomes exposed in this allegory.
It is part of seeking ourselves in the outside so much, that we have forgotten to truly look inside.
That’s beautiful Alex, we do seek ourselves at the outside so much and we have forgotten what lives inside, we often forget we have a body at all.
Mick, this is a great blog, I love it, especially the comparison you make here of the fuel for our car and the fuel for our body. It makes so much sense when explained the way you explain it. “Imagine if we all chose fuel for our bodies that gives us optimal performance day after day, also choosing to live in a way that never leaves us run down or exhausted, but vital and being able to live a full day every day without reaching for something to stimulate us to keep going.” What a very different world we would then be living in, with everyone feeling truly vital and clear, with no more exhaustion. How differently we would all then be able to get on together, much more lovingly than we do now. Our moods would be so much lighter, and I feel there would be much more joy in our lives.
Good point Beverley, “our moods would be so much lighter” with the right fuel in our body and also, we would be eating less and thus taking the burden off the resources that this planet provides.
Great Blog Mick – so true that we can easily effect the performance of our vehicle by the fuel we put in it – our body is no different. I agree that the false fuel of sugar and coffee is one that will damage our ‘engine’ over time and once changing to ‘cleaner fuels’ the results can be easily felt.
It absolutely makes sense Mick, and is so true. We do look after our cars much more than our bodies, because we accept little things after we eat like indigestion, bloating and stomach upset too easily and will even say, I shouldn’t really eat that, it doesn’t agree with me. It seems the few moments of pleasure, outweigh any after effects the body may go through. It’s quite sad that we seem to have more love for our cars than our bodies even though both vehicles are needed to get us where we need to go. You would think after all our bodies do for us in breaking down all the crap we put into it, we would be much more attentive and caring of it, as it is the carrier of some very precious and much needed cargo. A ceaseless love that never leaves us, and look how we repay it?
Mick, this is a great blog. I love the analogy with the petrol tank of the car, and knowing that putting in the wrong fuel is disastrous for our vehicles, just as is food for our bodies. It’s interesting that you bring this up, for so many of us do not hold our bodies in the level of regard that is so desperately needed, and hence we see the current levels of illness and disease rampant in society.
I used to talk about my body breaking down and having to go to the garage (doctor) to get it repaired. I treated my body like it was somebody else’s responsibility and the reason it broke down was nothing to do with my reckless driving (lifestyle) My health deteriorated badly before I realized what I thought was looking after myself was nowhere near enough.
I can relate to this Bernard, thinking it was someone else’s responsibility and then getting disgruntled because they couldn’t fix me. What I find amazing is that we wouldn’t leave our car to deteriorate to the extent we do with our bodies, let alone fill it up with the wrong type of fuel.
This is very well said Mick; choosing to live in a way that never leaves us run down or exhausted, but vital and being able to live a full day every day without reaching for something to stimulate us to keep going. By living this choices every day makes life so much enjoyable in a clear mind and a vital body.
Yes and it feels so awesome doesn’t it Monika, to feel this vitality and at the end of the day, going for a restful sleep rather then having to sleep from exhaustion.
Clarity of mind and body is exactly that Monika Korb, a choice.
Mick you have presented a great analogy for us to consider. There is currently increased awareness around what fuel or food we give our bodies but despite this I observe many people still making poor choices because their bodies seem to cope with it. I have found what I want to eat depends on how I am feeling in myself eg feeling solid and joyful I eat supportive food or if in reaction to say something I tend to look for the wrong type of fuel. Based on this I think there is something deeper or under the hood in why we continue to eat food we know harms us instead of always making choices that support our bodies.
They may think there bodies are coping with the ‘wrong’ food they are eating but in fact they are not. It is just that that type of food numbs them even more from feeling their bodies and the poison builds up with out them listening to the signs and further down the track they end up with an illness.
I agree Sharon,
We all know how foods make us feel, either light and vibrant or heavy and sluggish, looking for a quick fix. But the only way I can consistently choose foods that make me feel light and vibrant is when I choose first and foremost to love my body deeply. Knowing what a very special organism that it is and that harmony is what it thrives on best, foods that make me feel light and vibrant fully support the truth of how my body likes to be in the world.
It’s a great analogy Mick because it makes it very clear: there is a right and a wrong fuel for our bodies. Cars are a bit simpler because there are only a couple to choose from and we are told what goes with what; whereas for our bodies, we need to get very honest about what works and what doesn’t, within a huge range of choice.
I am going through a stage where I am eating things I have eaten for sometime now and realising that they are no longer the right fuel for my body. So, letting go, of the recipes and ways of doing things, surrendering to this and trusting my body’s message. Truthfully, I think the body operates best on a very simple diet, eaten with care and presence.
Absolutely Emma. Different to cars, there are hundreds and hundreds of different fuels to choose from, but only one is the true choice for everyone and it stands out far from the crowd… LOVE 🙂
I totally agree Emma, I have also been going through a stage of simplifying the way I eat and as a result I find that I am sleeping better, waking earlier and having much more energy throughout the day. So yes, it would definitely seem that ‘…the body operates best on a very simple diet, eaten with care and presence.’
Great blog, would we put the wrong fuel in our cars and if not why do we put the wrong foods into our body that just make us tired, bloated, gassy, over weight and stimulate us. It really is about choices and understanding what foods really would support us and provide good nutrition through our day, rather than go for foods, that stimulate us and provide shorts burst of energy.
Well said Amita, a diet that sustains our body without highs and lows but rather consistency surely is much healthier for us in the long run.
Dear Mick,
For me personally, even though I know what foods support me and my body and which foods don’t, recently I found myself eating some foods that I know do not support my body. On reflection after eating them I found that the trigger had been that I had dropped the ball so to speak. I had let the love I have for myself falter and wavered into wanting to be like everyone else. The realisation that when I don’t hold myself with my love, that the thoughts can come in that offer me ways of living that are not supportive of my body was the best experience ever.
Beautiful sharing Leigh. I agree it’s important to look deeply to understand why we are choosing something that does not support us. Not with self-condemnation but with love, and through this new awareness gently return to the love we walked away from.
You make it so simple and clear here Mick that eating food that supports us for life is not difficult or complicated at all. But like your motoring analogy there is a responsibility factor that is getting in the way. Imagine if we had to have a license for how we are with our body. If this was the case many of us would have been suspended a long time ago, for illness rates that we see show that we are not road worthy. The fact is though we are worth true care and all the nurturing in the world…a wax and polish, engine tune and valet service too.
You raise the point here Joseph that if we had a license for how we treat our body that “many of us would have been suspended a long time ago,” however I think it is also the very fact that we don’t have a form of monitored responsibility holding us accountable for our actions that is the rationale behind the way in which we treat our bodies, if as a community we held one another in grace to account for the way they are then together and individually we could develop a healthier way of living
Love that idea Joseph – a licence for how we are with our body… But do we not have that already? When we disregard ourselves our body tends to give us a marker, be it stubbing our toe, tripping, having an upset stomach etc., or in more severe cases when we don’t look after ourselves for a long period of time we can get serious illnesses or injuries… These are all a bit like speeding tickets or fines for driving carelessly.
A great and very clear presentation of very simple truths, thank you Mick. Putting the wrong fuel into the body is very much a case of ‘as you sow, so shall you reap’. I have learnt this first hand, having manifested a thyroid condition after years of ill-living which included putting the wrong fuels into my body. I would add to this that the wrong fuels can be intangible as well as physical – emotions, push, drive and stress were also part of the picture.
This is great Mick so simple and clear. It is amazing how stuck we can be as to not be able to see what it is we are really doing to ourselves. What we eat or drink is a direct connection to how we feel in our everyday activities. Wouldn’t it be incredibly supportive to humanity if every fuel station shared a wisdom inviting us to consider if our bodies are being honoured with the equality of fuel we choose for our vehicles?
Hi Sandra, that would be a great campaign to raise awareness!
… instead of advertising foods and drinks that are far from being the super extra high-performance fuels and motor oils they offer for our cars – so crazy ridiculously absurd.
This makes so much sense Mick – I know I pay a lot of attention to what fuel I put in my car, but I don’t pay the same attention to what I eat, which is completely strange when you think about it.
Hmm, yes the thickening comfort of autopilot-ness!
Awesome blog Mick, it really made me ponder on how silly it would be to be at the mechanic every week with the wrong fuel in my car. This mechanic would really start to think I am a little slow in understanding! Though isn’t this what I am doing when putting food in my mouth time after time that makes me feel heavy? Isn’t that just as silly as putting the wrong fuel in my car every week? I think it is for sure, great reflection and realisation.
Absolutely Lieke, and how come we don’t feel the same way when we are at a doctor’s appointment for reoccurring health issues, knowing for instance that we should cut down on let’s say sugary foods or deep fried fast foods. Or needing operations to body parts that are suffering from carrying an overweight body around.
I love your analogy of the car being our body – it’s one I’ve considered before but have never so clearly felt the enormity of what you have brilliantly expressed. Why is it so difficult for so many of us to commit to eating only the ‘proper fuel’ for our bodies? Could it be that the consequences of improper fuel in a car are immediate and very expensive and so there is a very clear and definite link between the two. Do the first and it will cause financial pain, inconvenience etc. And yet, our bodies are incredibly resilient and can often take a huge amount of self-inflicted abuse before they show us the consequences of our choices. Because of this the causal link is not so obvious (not true really, for if we are honest with ourselves we know why we get sick) and so we can easily choose to not take responsibility, playing the game of hide and seek with the truth to avoid it. The other point that occurs to me is that we can also flatly refuse to believe that our body is breaking down due to the ‘fuel’ we have put in, unless or until it is proven to us scientifically. There are so many differing and contradictory so-called professional opinions in the field of nutrition, that iy is also easy to find a convenient excuse for our choices which can also then add to our arrogance and denial when the truth of what we our doing to ourselves is exposed.
Spot on Lucy – you have absolutely nailed it.
I have found that too Lucy, working in a hospital and seeing our amazing bodies and what they put up with and adjust to. I have been blown away on more than one occasion. What’s interesting as I consider this, we all know that, that our body can put up with a large amount of torment. But have we considered how our body would respond if we approach it in a way that’s caring, supportive and nurturing and that this is a choice that we can make? I know from my own experience, and certainly what Mick is sharing here is that our body’s love being treated with care and respond to this even more so.
Dear Lucy,
Simply it is the way we see ourselves and our bodies, the honour we have connected to in just how much our bodies do for us, or not that allows the arrogance that you have mentioned here to continue to have us believing that we are not responsible for our health. Yet the arrogance can not and does not allow us to see clearly just how responsible we are for our own health and wellbeing. So it is this, the arrogance that needs to be seen as the true driver of our vehicles, when we choose to over and over eat the foods that we know cause us discomfort. None of us like arrogant people, so why then do we accept it as the driver of our vehicle, instead of choosing our tenderness and deep care, our love of our bodies, that we all hold for ourselves deep within, the very same thing that we ache to feel from another, we can immediately offer to ourselves. I have experienced, that by deeply caring for and loving my body that my food choices have changed and there is more of a commitment to feeding my body with what it needs, not what I want to eat.
Absolutely Lucy – I recall hearing what it is like to pour sugar into a car’s petrol tank – the car stops doesn’t go anywhere – and a whole cleaning and rebuilding process would ensue to get the car running optimally again. If only we recognised how our own bodies are dealing with the fuel that is short lived, available everywhere and does not truly support.
It is a great analogy using the body like a car, it is very relatable. If we are really honest we notice every time we put bad fuel into the car aka our bodies, it pretty instantly tells us yes or no. But we have become masters of not listening and playing dumb, and our bodies accommodate this disregard by actually keeping going, until they don’t of course and that is where we find ourselves today with crazy health issues on every front and us continuing as if nothing is wrong.
It simply does not make the slightest bit of sense when you stop and really think about it.
I agree vanessamchardy we as a society have become so out of connection to our bodies that we keep blaming the environment or our genes for our illness and disease. Even though the effect of foods on our bodies have been researched and proven over and over again. So why do we choose to rather stay in comfort and reach for medication, instead of looking what we put into our bodies that prevent us from living healthy and vital lives.
Good one Mick, the right fuel for the body is so important especially if we consider that our body will still be going, seventy or maybe eighty years or more later. I agree, I can’t believe how bad the food is that is on offer in so many places. Better for you to flush it down the toilet before you put it through your body.
I agree Nick. Sometimes people have something bad for them in their hand and say they’ll just eat it to not waste it. But the truth is that we are actually wasting our bodies when we do this. It is ok to leave something on our plate or say no thank you to something that’s bad for us.
Great point Nicholas. If we consider how long us and our body will be around for, which could be 80 years or so (!), it would be a crazy thought to put the wrong fuel in and risk permanently affecting or damaging our body – and this absolutely applies to food too!!
Yes Nick and if you think about it we place a time frame on how long a car is worth keeping on the road – not as long as a human body – yet we treat the two so differently when it comes to the right and supportive fuel.
For most of my life my car was run on close to empty, it had lots of dings and sometimes full on accident damage. It was constantly getting flat tyres and occasional radiator and battery problems. I can see very clearly how it was simply a reflection of me and how I lived my life in that time. The changes I have made, as you have Mick, taking much more loving care about what I put into my body and how I am in the way I use it, (much more gentle and respectful of me) is reflected in the car I have now. A super smooth ride and a feeling of being very supported in it when I drive. You have just provided me with the opportunity to fully appreciate the significant changes I have made with the support of Universal Medicine and people like you. Thanks.
Such a beautifully strong confirmation of the power of love when lived Jeanette.
As I read your comment Jeanette I could very much relate to the reflection of your old vehicle and the life you were living. I have a very reliable and steady car now, but I can feel an upgrade coming on.
This is beautiful to read Jeanette.beautiful that you can look back and clearly see the reflection from your car in how you treated your body.
I use premium fuel in my body and when I downgrade from premium to low grade fuel such as an excess of sugary food or indulging in distractions I flat-line. Flat-lining for me means to dull down the vitality and vibrancy of who I naturally am which leaves me feeling ‘blah’. I used to live ‘blah’ all of the time and since upgrading to the more true and consistent premium fuel I realised that I was merely existing and functioning but not truly living.
I too use premium! I’m not going back either 🙂 I love the fuel economy and purr it gives me.
The effect of the food that we choose is incredible and the effects on us and on our lives is really not appreciated until we feel the difference between living life and functioning. One thing that fascinates me is what is driving me to eat in a way that makes me feel, to borrow your word, “blah”. I am sitting with this one, but there is the obvious I don’t want to feel what’s going on, but I am also using food to avoid feeling how amazing I feel when I don’t eat that way. Crazy, but true.
It is quite amazing the difference you can feel when you eat ‘premium fuel.’ I find I am able to think more clearly, have more energy and I’m more sensitive to what is going on around me. I can relate to that flat line feeling if I eat heavy or sugary foods. I become a very dull and sluggish version of myself.
Feels like we could have labels on food reminding people what is premium fuel for the body and what is not. It may not encourage change but it would at least give a stop, pause and feel moment.
Great idea JY. I really appreciate reading this blog as it has offered me an opportunity to really reflect on and be honest about food choices I am making and what is behind them. There really isn’t enough awareness about this out there.
I agree Marcia, when we use low grade fuel in our bodies it dulls us down and keeps us in a perpetual numbness to not feel what we are doing to our bodies with our food choices. Once the decision is made to refine our diet according to what the body truly calls for, awareness grows exponentially. It’s premium all the way!
Yes, I can relate to this Marcia, the downgrade to anything less than premium fuel certainly is ‘flat-lining’ for me too.
It occurs less often nowadays and my body certainly reflects its distaste of these ill choices of mine very quickly as bloating or feeling bone weary – hard to keep the eyes open, dragging one footstep in front of the other to move and having to really push through to keep going, which is even more exhausting.
I’ve had enough of feeling ‘blah’ and now I realise that is possible to feel ‘zing’ all the time I’m opting for the latter.
All true here about ‘premium fuel’ for our bodies, but we should not forget, that the ‘fuel (food) choice’ comes form the state of being (the energy) we are in. So if I exhaust myself during the day through doing and drive or not being able to observe, but constantly react on certain situations – then of course I will choose the wrong fuel. Of course I will crave for sugary food. So here is more to get aware of, not only the food choice itself.
The difference between feeling vibrant, vital and the numbness of a miss-fueld body is immense. It is truly comparable with existing to survive and living.
I love your word ‘blah’ Marcia. It absolutely describes how I feel in my body if I overeat or eat the wrong foods. Having ‘blah’ in my life is definitely not worth the moments of satisfaction I get from having the food in my mouth!
I have been sputtering recently, fuel has been low, I have not found the right petrol station because my eyes have been distracted and elsewhere and then, too late I find I am running low and have to fill up with the cheap stuff. The engine has felt a bit blah, rather than ah, so there is not only a correlation made between the quality of fuel but also what led me to need to refuel so cheaply…what happened long before I needed to refuel that caused me to sputter in the first place? I make a positive about going in reverse to go forward 🙂
What I have recently been questioning is that thoughts are no different to the food we put into our bodies? I have found the two are very close if not hand in hand with each other. Negative / emotional thoughts lead to poor food which results in a run down body, where as positive thoughts can lead to greater discernment of foods which can promote a more vital body. But just as I can easily say No to chocolate because of it’s affects as I have learnt to pause and feel what happens afterwards with food, the same attention has not been on my thoughts thus far. But both can create a momentum that then fuels the body in a positive or negative way. I have also felt that taking responsibility is not something to avoid but actually a great healer and brings a lot of balance into my life when I choose to go there and be responsible. By disturbing the body with ill fuels it’s like putting diesel in my petrol car to avoid going somewhere and the place I am avoiding doesn’t even exist! Thank you Mike.
Interesting point you make here Leigh. Its true that when I am not feeling great, I have more negative thoughts and then its at those times I tend to make poor food choices. The reverse is true too. I have been practicing switching what I m thinking so I focus on appreciating myself instead of berating myself. It takes some commitment because I realise I have had a life time of being very comfortable with negative thoughts, Gradually though that pattern is changing and it does make a huge difference.
‘By disturbing the body with ill fuels it’s like putting diesel in my petrol car to avoid going somewhere and the place I am avoiding doesn’t even exist’ So true Leigh I have often fuelled my body with negative thoughts and emotions and coupled this with eating food and drink that dulls me and then wondered why my body is not running efficiently?! For me it is having the willingness to take responsibility for the constant refinements necessary to keep my body running at an optimum level and I find one ill choice can lead me down a path to lower performance until I fine tune my choices again.
That constant refinement and constant claiming of our grandness – or as I am seeing it at the moment: extending the moments of felt and claimed love into other parts of life. This feels like a big thing and are we fueling ourselves for this constant refinement or fueling until we reach a certain point? I would say I have done the latter but its great to have such highlighted. Thank you Helen.
Great point Leigh! We nurture our body with energy and this energy determines the fuel we use to get around in life. Fuel is food, thoughts, etc. all what the chosen energy provides us with. I love how you say that putting the wrong fuel into our bodies is not only harming the body, but it is intentionally done to avoid going somewhere, somewhere where we are more aware and more clear about what is truly going on. That’s a big ouch as the intention is to live less instead of embracing the amazing beings we are and live by our amazingness. Fuel is about awareness and how to refine our awareness every second of our day to be in constant connection to our true source, the divine.
“…and the place I am avoiding doesn’t even exist!” That is brilliant, Leigh, while we fuel ourselves with poor foods of all kinds (food, thoughts emotions, moods, behaviours etc) we fool ourselves with where we are going with that, basically ignoring where it leads to, then wondering how we got somewhere we didn´t want to end up and finally realizing that it is in nowhere land, i.e. as far from who we truly are for no truly good reason.
Great call, Leigh. Food is also our thoughts. The way we move and the way we hold our bodies influences what we eat, drink, how we sleep and determines the quality or our thoughts. And so we end up in a merry go round, for what we eat and think also influences our movement and the quality of our thoughts. And what are we avoiding here? The responsibility you wrote about brings us closer to feeling our grandness and by that to an even bigger responsibility.
Great point Leigh, its not just about the food we put into our body, but what is the quality of our thoughts? Are they positive? Are they negative? These also can lead to what you then put into your body depending on the quality of those thoughts throughout the day. I know when I have allowed the negative thoughts to come in and take over, I want to go for foods that are not supportive for me. They usually are going to foster more negative thoughts and around the merry go round we go. So it is really important to be very vigilant with our thoughts too.
Mike, it’s true what you say people often place a much higher value on their cars than themselves. I know for sure I have never put the wrong fuel in my car, but have certainly fuelled my body often with food that harmed or at least not of optimum quality. Now, and more often than not, I give my car and body the care and attention they deserve.
I relate to what you say here Kehinde, I have done that too in the distant past, as putting the wrong fuel in our car has an immediate and often huge financial impact. The body is more forgiving and, if not attuned to the body, we take much longer to get its’ subtle hints, and if we don’t get them then eventually the body will shout – not a very nice experience any longer. So good fuel for the body is where it’s at for me too.
Thank you Mick, I like how you are asking the question whether we are as careful and caring with our bodies as we are with our cars. And I am very sure that our state of health would drastically improve if we all took more care about what we are putting into our bodies.
It’s crazy the lengths some people go to to ensure their car is well looked after and maintained, and yet take very little care or responsibility for their own health.
Your question sparks an interesting point: ‘Could it be possible that there would be far less illness and disease and therefore far fewer people seeking medical attention from living in an ill way as I once used to?’ Could it actually be that simple? And so if it is, why do we keep running our bodies down so that we do end up eating foods that can keep us going through the day, when there is a more natural and easy way to live?
and will it take the collapse of the health systems for us to realise this?
Great points Jennifer and Shevon. I recently spent some time doing work experience in hospitals and they certainly are full to the brim of patients!!
Mick this is a great analogy and you are so right we take special care to put the right fuel in our cars but not so our bodies. Because illness and disease have become so “acceptable” in our world we have stopped asking”why “. When we don’t question anything our awareness of the possibilities decreases to the point where we override our body symptoms until the “stop” is so huge that we are forced to stop and feel -interestingly enough sometimes even the big “stops” are not enough for us to make change. It does not make sense!
Great blog about the responsibility we have for our bodies. The health system is bankrupt in almost every country and people are getting sicker and sicker. Wellbeing is today measured by how close we are to feeling well and not by the joy of truly living well every single moment of the day. True wellbeing starts with responsibility!
Yes and so often our health or illness is something we often demand from employers to provide us with like fancy company health benefits that attract or retain people in the company. There’s nothing wrong with such benefits of course, it’s when there has been no responsibility, or even irresponsibility towards our own health by the (care-less) way we live it/our lifestyle…and then expect someone else to sort it out/pay for it. Our health is totally our own responsibility.
“True wellbeing starts with responsibility.” Hear hear Rachel – and if we were to take responsibility one would imagine that McDonalds, Coke and others would be out of business quick smart – or at least be forced to deliver quality goods.
Ha ha, did you not hear the McDonald’s now started to have ‘organic burgers’? This will be a run.. But junk food is junk food – with or without ‘organic’ appendix.
Agreed Rachel, wouldn’t it be great if it were that simple? In truth it is but we are all s0 desperate not to feel how far removed from the love we have become, even if that means getting sick and dying! With love for ourselves we can return. No wonder diets never work!
Yes absolutely Rachel. The measure for what true vitality and joy for life is very skewed. The key to change is responsibility for our own choices.
Absolutely right Kelly, the key is responsibility for our own choices, as it only takes a small amount of wanting to be more self caring to turn it all around, little by little with the body guiding the way.
Yes, I agree and brilliant comment Rachel. By taking responsibility and choosing to fuel our body with real, quality food is part of basic self-care and love. Everything we put into our body goes through a process. So, what we choose to eat will affect our entire body, and if we choose anything less in quality than what our body requires, it will simply not function in its’ optimum state. If we choose to continuously, neglect, disregard and abuse our body, it will one day stop functioning prematurely leading to health problems and this is already evident right now in our society. The answers are clearly spelled out in this blog, this website and in the teachings of Universal Medicine, deeply inspiring us to take responsibility for our wellbeing, our life and the way we choose to live.
It is great when we start to choose to put the fuel in our body it needs to have. We all get the signals of our body whether food fits in well or not. It is mainly a choice to listen, so why aren’t we listening, why are we not taking the responsibility for our body as we do for our car. Do we love our car more than our bodies, could that be it?
The funny thing is that I thought I did run on all cylinders, and I did not think there was anything wrong with my eating habits, because it seemed to tick the right boxes for a healthy diet most of the time. It was not until coming across Universal Medicine that I started appreciating that just like my car my body needs the right fuel and as I start taking greater care of myself I may become aware that the fuel needs to be refined. What I have found is that unlike my car there is no manual and no one is as qualified as my body to let me know what it requires. All it takes is for me to listen with honesty and honour what I discover. Compared to the vitality that I now feel from starting to honour my body in this way, I can now clearly vouch that the way I was living 10 years ago was not running on even half the cylinders.
This is so super simple and common sense! Right eating = a far more supported and richer, nourished and nurtured body. Who could complain about that! Perhaps though this suggests that we actually might not want a body like this sometimes as to live this way would require far to much responsibility and self love.
Yes very true it can seems a too big responsibility to feel amazing every day. But I am getting the hang of it more and more, just feeling I am worth all this amazingness and love feels the way to start.
Super cool article, I can really refer to this example. It is actually easier to fuel our car with the right fluid (as there are big consequences to it) than our body, but we forget (or don’t want to know) that it does work the same for our body – but we do not commit to our body in the same way.. Why??!
It is interesting to stand and take a moment to feel why we do this. We might have all different reasons why we find our car more important then our body, but there is something very important to this question, and for us all to realize that it is our greatest power to come back to that answer.
I love what you have shared here, it is really easy to say yes we look after our cars more than our body but what if we stop to truly ask why this is? That is when we start to get underneath the question and look a bit deeper, not just on the surface level.
Agree, this is the analogy that made me stop, the fuel, the care, the way others treated my car, I started seeing the car and everything to do with the car as a reflection of my life and it made absolutely no sense. I think I am on my ‘L’ plates and will happily do a great many hours because it is one of the greatest reflections I have had in my life.
Its funny how people put so much care in making sure their car is looked after and has the best fuel in it so it can take them to where they are going, with the knowing that they will make it there and back. But can easily not support the body in the same way, and not even consider that they could be unwell because of the food that they ate. A great blog Mick highlighting this in a great reflective analogy.
Classic analogy Mick, the difference between how we treat our cars and how we treat our bodies is startling to say the least. I studied nutrition among other things and even with all that knowledge I was so disconnected from my body that I would not apply that learning consistently to myself.
Great point here Joel which brings me to consider the education offered in relation to health and well-being (ie medicine, nursing, alternate therapies etc). It seems that often the education in these courses about the human body does not extend or include applying to the actual practitioners in these fields. And so the picture is much grander than any individual and is a global responsibility, however nonetheless starts ‘with’ the individual and choice.
This is really the irony, especially in the health and well-being sector: you can’t teach or help someone if you do not live healthy. This said, we can observe doctors smoke, drink and eat junk food. Not to speak of the lack of self-care in their jobs.
Yes this is a great point Joel and I absolutely agree Angela that the education applies not just to those that it’s being taught to. Parents, teachers etc, we all have a responsibility in educating but it comes down to us and honesty in the food choices we make every day. How can we educate our children when we are not living healthy eating ourselves? How can we expect our children not to eat sugar when we are eating it ourselves? It is only through our livingness that we truly offer education.
Great comment Joel. Even with all our knowledge and learning about the correct foods to eat for optimal health, we still are very disconnected from our bodies. It has at times been difficult for me to apply the same care and attention to myself that I automatically do without a second thought to my car. It is very curious, but something worth pondering on very deeply.
Nutrition as it is taught in most colleges misses the mark in many circumstances. For instance it gives you information on what a balanced diet may look like, but does not take into account the energy you may eat it in or why you are eating or the fact that that a particular food may not be what you truly need to eat to support your body in that moment but we often over-ride what we feel because we think it is ‘good for us’. There are so many more factors that need to be considered not just the so-called nutritional value of a food type and a so called balanced diet.
I agree Mary-Louise, eating from the head and eating from the wisdom of the body and its clear messages have two very different results. I have tried both and listening to my body wins hands down x 10 🙂
Great point, Joel. When education is based on how the teachers, which are the rolemodels are living and as such presenting their lived experience shows how huge the influence of any teacher in truth is. and as such the responsibility a teacher has.
It is so true Mick what they have at service station counter’s , endless chocolate bars and chips . I must admit I have never been tempted by the chocolate bars and chips , but coca cola and V drinks were on the top of my list. Until one day a friend said to me Deb you look after your car , house and everything around you , but not what you put in your own body . Good point and that’s when I started to make changes in everything I put into my body and still refine my choices everyday.
Mick, using the symbolism of the car is a great way to help people be more aware of the fact that we choose what we put in our mouths and that what we choose affects how the body functions and how we feel. People often don’t seem to connect the type of ‘fuel’ they put in the body with the feedback from the body – in fact sometimes there is an unconscious attempt to dull the senses by eating certain foods and we seem to be blind and deaf to what the body is trying to tell us. It’s a good point you make that there would be “far fewer people seeking medical attention” if we took responsibility for our food intake.
Mick, a great analogy between our bodies and our cars; indeed our bodies are very similar; if we don’t put the right fuel in, it cannot perform to its capacity. In contrast to the car, our bodies require constant refinement; what was right for us last year or last month, may not agree with us now. We are evolving, so the kinds of foods we need is evolving too.
Very true Esther. The right fuel last year may not be the right fuel for our bodies this year – we need to feel which foods or substances agree with our bodies and allow us to function efficiently day to day, and cut out things that cap us.
So true Esther, as we evolve so does the food the body needs refine as well. It’s an awesome process and what I find quite astonishing is that one week my body does well on a particular food and then a week or so later, it does not want it at all any longer. So there is a constant fine-tuning for the vehicle (the body) just like we tune and fine-tune our cars too.
Yes, that is so true Esther, I have found that the food that is right for me is constantly changing. It is quite a detailed and subtle process to refine our food choices. This is all quite a contrast to the food supplies of a petrol station or most aisles of a supermarket, that offer food items that are not at all supportive of this process. How crazy it is that we allow so little regard in the food that is on offer for humanity, food that comforts, dulls and poisons us and so very rarely nourishes our bodies.
Great comment Esther, I know there is a direct correlation between my performance and what I choose to eat. If I choose to eat something that no longer supports me my body shouts loud and clear and the fall out is usually immediate.
Absolutely Esther – learning to listen to the communication from our bodies allows us to feel the effects of different foods and make such choices in regard of what is truly needed at the time.
Yes, very true Esther. I have experienced this too, to constantly fine tune my food choices by continuously listening to my body. As we evolve our body communicates to us what food (fuel) is required to support us. The key is to listen to our body and we naturally know what, when and how much food we need to eat. No book or anyone else can tell us this except our own body. Our body is extremely intelligent, incredible and powerful, it is our responsibility to love, care and honour it consistently.
So true Esther. As we evolve, our diet changes as the food we once ate no longer serves our body. It is a constant refinement in every moment so a loving commitment without perfection is essential. This is a great reminder of the importance of food, how essential it is to eat the right foods in any given time supporting my body and to not let this slip making other areas in my life as more important.
Our decisions ultimately comes from our head or our heart, if the decision is from the heart it be respectful and considerate of the body (and everyone else) if the decision comes from the mind it will be easy to abuse and harm the body. Every meal, every mouthful has either been impulsed by the heart or head.
Great blog Mick, what we choose to put in our body can often be seen as terrible low quality fuel. And as I have experienced it is making you feel that way as well. And now knowing and feeling that I have a choice for what I put into my body, I am choosing wiser, premium fuel for the body. A true support.
It’s such a great and clear analogy. It’s good to see comments like yours Benkt whereby you’re plainly saying that only the best quality fuel is what you’re into.
So true Mick. Finding the right fuel for our body is very simple, we just have to listen for what our body is asking, because deep inside we know what is needed in every moment.
Often food is not seen as fuel, which I guess is why its easy to choose foods that really don’t suit our body. When we can really start to understand that what we put in our bodies changes everything, our physical, spiritual and metal wellbeing, then slowly we can make different choices.
That’s true Heather, for most of us we don’t see food as fuel, but more so something that satisfies hunger. But food can also be a comfort, a distraction, a numbing device, a stimulation, a pick me up, a sabotage to pull oneself down, a checkout…so it can very much be an unhealthy drug or good medicine depending on our choices.
Great point Michael, how many of us tend to have to think about what it is we require in our meal instead of simply re-connecting with our bodies, the very vehicle which requires the food in the first place, and asking it instead.
When food is chosen enmasse to support the body then we will have great improvements in health. Currently much of the food choices are about comfort and reward. This type of food motivation is not serving us well as can be shown by diabetes stats, obesity rewards too.
I wonder if food choices are about comfort and reward – producers of processed food have been able to formulate very cheap ingredients so that they become highly addictive to those who eat them (the right mixture of sugar, fat and salt) so I see a lot of people eating food they don’t really enjoy but can’t stop taking in.
I would say that is spot on Christoph, food is all about comfort and reward. Considering that we can go without food for quite a few days, it is obviously not our primary source of fuel, nevertheless I personally cannot imagine going without food for even a day and most people have three or more meals a day – even though that is not really necessary, so there must be some other kind of motivation behind it.
“My choice was to not be responsible for the way I drove my body” – this is such a wonderful comment Mick and I can feel how it equally applies beyond what food I choose for myself to how I move and express and the physical and emotional situations I choose for my body…. I have an image of parking myself in the middle of a busy intersection and then wondering why people get frustrated or angry, or that people run into me and dint and bruise my body! This beautifully simple analogy that you have applied with the car exposes how it is no longer ok to play victim in such situations and the importance of taking full responsibility for all my choices. Thank you.
yes the right fuel for our bodies is crucial – our bodies need to be well looked after just we look after cars and make sure we put the right fuel into them.
I love how the more we treat the body as though it’s voice matters, the more we reap the benefits of having a body that’s well loved. It loves us right back.
You raise a very good point, a body treated with love will allow you to live a far more full life because it’s not weight down by exhaustion, excess weight etc.
Absolutely, ‘I love how the more we treat the body as though it’s voice matters, the more we reap the benefits of having a body that’s well loved. It loves us right back.’ Yes, time to honour and cherish our bodies as they deserve.
Mick, super awesome blog. Super easy to understand and get. I loved this part “A packet of chips or a donut are not premium fuel for the body, for example” great call, and seems super obvious but most people would probably scoff when having that pointed out. Love what you’ve presented. A practical and different way of thinking about caring for your body.
People can only scoff Emily because of the grace of our bodies that cope with a lot of sustained abuse. They keep going in spite of our bad choices for a very long time before they send out a legitimate complaint. The car is not so compliant. Stick in the wrong fuel and you know about in minutes.
I like what Mick said about the fact that if our bodies were more like our cars and instantly demanding care we would constantly be at the doctor and they would very likely be getting frustrated with our persistent, stubborn silliness.
Great point Rachel 🙂
Yet, isn’t it the case that our bodies never cease to prompt us to care and tend for ourselves in an honouring, deeply needed way? Could it be that we are tuning out and ignoring the warning lights?
By the time our body stops us, there will likely have been a huge lead up of every conceivable sign and signal that we have largely been inattentive to.
What very much comes into play here is the average person’s way of living in moderation. We think that as long as we do not overdo it all the time we are getting away with things, but we are not. The dis-easing of the body starts gradually and we become used to it blaming it on age or other things, starting to medicate ourselves with more food, drugs, entertainment etc. entering the next stage of being ok with an aching and unfit body believing and accepting again that this is the way it goes, all the while this is not at all the way it has to be. So step by step we are building ourselves a body that is only coping and trying to catch up with our irresponsible way of living until it simply cannot anymore and breaks down or shocks us with a severe illness or disease.
Our bodies are sooo amazing in many many ways and yet the majority of humanity don’t even see or know this, they are simply taken for granted and even seen as a nuisance, especially if a body becomes really ill and then it is moaned about, judged, seen as weak, inferior, etc – when all the time it is processing a HUGE amount of food, energy, pollution, lack of or too much exercise – all those things we inflict on it, expecting it to keep functioning and performing as we demand … whew! Not much love there! C’mon humanity, let’s realise our love and respect for our bodies – and thus ourselves – and perhaps we’ll be stepping out of the cycle of self-harm at last.
“most people would probably scoff when having that pointed out.” Very true Emily. And some people are not even aware that this kind of food is not good fuel for the body. More education is needed to provide people with an understanding that they can then use to make new choices in their lives about the food they eat and the way they treat their bodies.
I agree Rebecca, most people are not aware that these kinds of foods are not good for the body, they see them as quick, simple and they get the energy they need, not realising it is short lived energy. It really is about educating in a way that is simple and effective, so people do understand the choices they are making.
Love it Mick, what you have shared is plain ol’ common sense! Supporting our bodies to run on a fuel that is warm, light and loving is a far better option than something that is heavy, drab or soggy! I absolutely know from experience that one feels natural and totally rewards me back by supporting my whole day and the other just makes life difficult. I guess the question I have to ask when it is such a simple choice to make is why would we make such choices in the first place? Do we not feel deserving of the right fuel? Is there something we get from choosing foods that make us feel dull or racy? or perhaps we don’t accept just how amazing life can be (and we are) when we’re running on the most supportive fuel for ourselves.
Yes Cherise I had to think about this too “or perhaps we don’t accept just how amazing life can be (and we are) when we’re running on the most supportive fuel for ourselves.” I could feel a part of myself go like ‘If I feel not heavy or dulled by my food and vital and full of energy everyday, I would have to be responsible and there would be no excuses!’ But on the other hand I feel this would be absolutely amazing and I am actually experiencing this more and more whilst refining my diet.
I can really relate to what you have written here Lieke, ‘If I feel not heavy or dulled by my food and vital and full of energy everyday, I would have to be responsible and there would be no excuses!’ It is great to have this exposed as sometimes if I just want to check out or kind of give up and not take responsibility and not be in my fullness then dulling myself with food does the job. I’m learning that it is so not worth it though, that it is much more lovely and I’m so much more clear and light when I simply eat what I feel to eat and not more and that the dulling feels awful.
Lovely addition Lieke and Cherise as it confounds me how much I want to destroy my body’s stillness with stimulating foods. It feels awful, I don’t want to do it yet I do do it. It so clearly shows that there are two energies and one is not loving, and actively wants to stay that way, has no intention of changing! So the loving part has to be the one to take charge and make the decisions and that is ultimate responsibility. Simple but yet because of the forces coming at us it is felt to be much harder than just a simple choice to be love or not..
Totally agree, Vanessa, “I don’t want to do it yet I do do it” – I’m yet to crack this one consistently! Am finding that rather than ‘decide’ to not do it, it’s stronger if I’m operating from my body, an approach that I still find a challenge when at work but I’m getting there.
I think you’ve nailed it there Cherise, certainly in my case anyways “Is there something we get from choosing foods that make us feel dull or racy? Or perhaps we don’t accept just how amazing life can be (and we are) when we’re running on the most supportive fuel for ourselves.” This is changing now though as it becomes more normal for me to feel vital than it does sluggish and recognising that my physical body is actually really important to me, every day!
Cherise on reading your question ‘I guess the question I have to ask when it is such a simple choice to make is why would we make such choices in the first place? ‘ I remembered very cleary that putting things in my body that were harmful to it like alcohol, sugary foods etc made me feel momentarily better. I felt so rubbish so much of the time that little pep ups or dull downs were a welcome momentary distraction from how I generally felt. I medicated myself almost constantly with something, be it food, drink or sport. There is only a certain amount of this kind of behaviour that the body can tolerate before it has no choice but to send an adjustment in the form of an illness of some kind.
Great comment Cherise, Taking the wrong food does make the day difficult. Unlike the car’s petrol tank that can be drained if we put in the wrong food, our bodies have to process our poor food choices and that can take a long time!
That’s a great point Cherise – maybe we just don’t want to accept how amazing we are and how amazing life can be when running on supportive fuel!
This is so true Cherise, in my case anyway that I “don’t want to accept just how amazing life can be (and we are) when we’re running on the most supportive fuel for ourselves.” Isn’t it crazy that we resist making food choices that optimise ourselves to support us in our day. Recently I spent the day eating lightly and I was amazed at how much energy I had on so little food. It showed me how my mindset had been accustomed to eating a certain amount of food each day.
Correct Caroline, when I eat light it feels awesome, we also have so so so many ideals about food and how much and what we should be eating for vitality. I am re looking at everything I eat and what it really brings me. I had a real fear of not eating three times a day – it was quite intense. I spoke to a friend who does a 2 day of fasting and she said it was great when she realised she could be hungry and that it would pass. I am just wanting to eat when my body actually requires sustenance not on automatic pilot of its breakfast time xyz. But to really trust my body and love my body with food.
Loved this piece and have to say not everything I put into my body today was the correct fuel. But tomorrow is another day to treat my body with the respect I have for my car.
Yes, same here Sally… and the other day I ran out of petrol!, so… there’s much to learn from both of these things. One gentle step at a time… no perfection… 🙂
Just lots of love and acceptance – no need to bash ourselves up about it as it just makes it all so much worse!
True – do we truly value ourselves to want to love, honour and nurture our own vehicle (the body).
Yes, today is another day as I too have been eating too much especially snacking on too many nuts in between meal times! It’s time to take another look at the food choices I am making and to make choices that support my body as to where I am today.
Yes, Sally, I’m going to get a little dinky toy model car for my work desk to support myself there – I find it is easy to go along with whatever food is available when there, simply because I think I don’t have time to select the right fuel.
Wow Mick, I’d never really clocked the irony of what is on offer at our petrol stations: so much promotion and help around the optimum fuel and oil for our car, yet in the food section, a real disregard or lack of care for what our body may need. However this may not be surprising… it’s easier to make money (and please the customer) by supplying the energy fix or emotional crutch, than to ask us to take great care of ourselves.
Fill up your car and your sugar habit at the one stop. Says a lot about getting through the day being largely fuelled by sugar, which is to our very very great deficit ultimately.
I remember when petrol stations only sold petrol. Now there are fridges that only have caffeine laden soft drinks in them. The petrol stations wouldn’t stock it if it didn’t sell, so this tells us how dependent on stimulants just to get through the day many of us are.
I agree Heather and these fridges are everywhere. This suggests that many of us need to have instant access to these stimulants such is our dependence on them.
Hi Heather. I too can remember those days when they were called “service stations”. You drove in and pulled up to the pump and an attendant filled your car. Now its about self service so we no longer have the connection to those staff members.
Yes, left on our own we can look for something to fill the gap and that is often something to put in our mouth like food, something that will keep us busy chewing or reaching for another mouthful. This doesn’t say much for our relationship with ourselves.
Coffee sales are going through the roof. I was talking with someone who is a Barista and they said at some events like the Melbourne Grand Prix they go through 30 kilos plus a day of coffee. They basically can’t keep up with the ques. Coffee sales and hence exhaustion in our bodies is not going away any time soon.
It is interesting that our fuel stop has become the candy shop. How many of us are travelling on empty that we need this false pick-up?
Well said Deborah. By the absolute abundance of sugar items on the shelves and caffeine or sugar drinks in the fridge it’s clear there is a huge reaching out for re-fueling, but a lot of pit stops have to be made when the quality of the fuel is from a false source.
That is so interesting to read Amina. How things people say can so influence our behaviour with food! I remember that as a child I never felt to eat more than I needed so I would even leave my dessert half eating if I had enough. I remember getting comments from adults how they never seen that before, a child not eating their whole dessert and how special that was. Even though I at that time saw it as normal to not eat more than I felt to, I have changed this behaviour later in my life. I never thought of it but hearing that actually nobody listens to their body in regards to how much they should eat, gave me a good excuse to change when life got a bit more intense and start to overeat to not feel as well.
It’s true Lieke, this is such a subtle change in the way we eat and view our food but it has enormous impacts on us, how we are in our every day and our overall health and wellbeing. It is like we overfill a cars’ fuel box to the point we have flooded the fuel tank with too much petrol and thus have trouble starting it and running it.
Wow that’s really interesting Amina!! I too used to refuse cakes and sweets at birthday parties that I went to, I have no idea why, I just felt to say no. And it’s so fascinating that after taking you to the doctors you were given more sugar to eat, isn’t it common knowledge (and medical knowledge) that sugar isn’t that great for us anyway?
Now that’s crazy and shows how brainwashed we can get and make decisions from the head and not the commonsense approach from the body.
Yes, Helen and you have to keep stopping to get more sugar where your car can run a long way when fuelled properly and cared for but not so our bodies. Imagine if our cars put on weight if they were not cared for because on what we pumped into them!
I love the play-fullness of this comment Sally. It is so true, and a little exposing to feel that if a car I owned visibly appeared to be neglected I would want to actively do something about it but that I have not had the same level of care, concern and commitment for my physical body…. yet how I treat my body is also clearly visible for myself and others to see and feel… If I choose wisely I can allow myself to see how the type, amount, timing and way I digest my fuel supports me or not. This is gold.
Now that would make us stop Sally but somehow some people don’t even take much notice when they actually get a lifestyle type illness such as diabetes.
Awesome point here Sally. We always look to getting the most amount of klms out a tank of fuel but never consider this when it comes to fuelling our own bodies. I now have this image in my head of cars not being sleek and stylish but obese. Its funny and not funny all at the same time.
That is funny, yes, we would be furious…complain, say there was something wrong with the car, own the fact we put the wrong fuel in, wonder how and why we could have made such an error and change it very fast. Yet we don’t behave the same way with our bodies, and when we realise the error change does not come as simply. I would like to abdicate responsibility and say it is because there is more of the wrong fuel available than the right fuel, but that would simply abdicate my responsibility in what I bought as a consumer…the supply is there because the demand is there…go figure.
That’s a very good point Sally, when we properly fuel our cars they run a long way – so then what does that say about the ‘three meals a day’ model? which is never only three meals because we need to factor in the mid morning nibbles, the snacks, the sweets, the sodas, the midnight fridge dips – it’s never ending returns to the petrol station! if this way of eating was sustainable why is it that it is behaving in a constant, never ending requirement for fulfilment that isn’t working?
It sure does Helen, it is amazing quote how many sugary snacks and drinks service stations are full of. They must be selling them otherwise they would not have them. It is interesting on reflection how i would always associate long journeys as a child with sweets and waiting for the service station to get more!
I agree Amina. Sugar is a temporary fix to a longer term ill. There is so much demand for it because many of us lead exhausted lives. I have only managed to stop relying on sugar since I started to make a change in the way I live. It’s not impossible if as you say, we create the with the space to deal with it.
This is a very revealing story Amina. The fact that the so called ‘experts’ can tout sugar as an essential part of one’s diet is an absolute farce and it goes a long way to explaining why we have huge levels of obesity and disease in our general population. In the end though the responsibility rests with each and every one of us as our bodies will always help us discern what is truly supportive and what is not.
I have never fully considered this and the complete irony either; but yes we take care what fuel we put in our cars and have no regard for what we put in us! Crazy! It also shows how we do not currently support each other, what if all petrol stations changed this and had only healthy food and drinks?
Rosanna, I could feel the irony of this even more as I read Michael’s blog…nuts really, when you consider all the detail and support that goes into the correct fuel for our car. Then we step into the shop to pay and are bombarded with all the wrong fuel to put in our body. It comes at us from every isle. What is going on in a world that places more care for a car then our own body? Great blog Michael really exposes the ridiculousness of this incidence and thousands like it.
Yes Mary-Louise, it is crazy that we pay more attention to our cars than we do to our bodies. It is astonishing that we are advised to use the optimum fuel for our cars so they don’t get clogged up and won’t start, but there is nothing to advise us in the same way in regard to our bodies. In fact we are encouraged to buy foods that will make us racey, sluggish or sleepy. Your blog is a brilliant example of how ridicluous this is.
Whilst there is a call for this kind of sugary and fast food and giant size cups of coffee at these motorway service stations for example, there will be a market. People want the quick fix, the sugary high, the caffeine hit to keep them going whilst on the road. What does this say about the general populace… it does seem to indicate that we are prepared to look after our cars more than our bodies, crazy! It could be that we take our bodies for granted because they repair themselves, but we are all walking timebombs and unlike our car which we can drive into the garage and have repaired, our bodies take longer to recover. If we had to pay for our body to be repaired we may feel differently and consider what quality of fuel we put into it!
Hi Sandra, I know someone who after a 6 week stint in hospital had a bill for just on $130.000 and that was in Australia. Lucky this person had medical insurance which covered a fair bit but there’s a lot to be said about caring for ourselves and our body.
That is a huge expense for 6 days Elizabeth. The cost of not taking care of ourselves is felt on every level.
Completely agree Mary Louise
I agree Mary-Louise, what is going on in the world if we care more about our cars than we do our bodies, our bodies we have to live with literally 24-7, you would think that humanity would have got all of the messages now as our body sends them to us never end-ingly
True Harrison the messages come thorough loud and clear like the “honk” of the car horn but often we ignore this signal.
Very well said. Peculiar and yet very telling that we put ourselves a distant second, if in the picture at all yet we service, tend to, clean and fuel our cars with the finest. This makes me wonder what is ‘driving’ this detailed support of our cars and if it is true care or an image we put out to the world to define us?
Yes, this is exactly what my husband and I have been discussing, that within the Petrol stations you can not fuel your actually body with anything that will support it to run, work and play for a long period of time. We need to look at remodelling what it means to stop and refuel at a petrol station.
We are fed the things that actually make is ill. We are bombarded with them in the isles as you say Mary-Louise. I feel this all comes from greed and the lack of true care people can have for other peoples health and wellbeing.
Thanks Mary-Louise. Yes there is literally thousand of these places and I recalled from a few days ago how when lining up to pay you are funnelled through a series of shelves and displays full of junk food just after carefully attending to which fuel you put in your car. Crazy.
Great point Rosanna…imagine if petrol stations were like supermarkets, with all kinds of odd fuel choices available, and we could pick any of them, knowing that they are not suitable or would not go well in our cars but chose them anyway, only to then have our car not start at all, drive sluggishly or slowly or start with verocity only to breakdown on the side of the road later. We wouldn’t…so why do we do it to our body?
This is a great point Sandra, ‘imagine if petrol stations were like supermarkets, with all kinds of odd fuel choices available, and we could pick any of them, knowing that they are not suitable ‘, this simply would not happen because we are conditioned to only use the right fuel for our car and it is clear that using the wrong fuel will have an immediate impact on it, and yet there is not this clarity around food and drinks for human beings, we are sold all sorts of wrong fuels/foods, but they are sold as if they are fine for the body when they are in fact very harmful.
Interestingl our body is built as such that it compensates our abusive behaviour for a while. Our cars don’ t do this. They break down immediately when they got fed the wrong fuel. If our bodies would break down immmediately I guess people would choose differently concerning their food. But because the body is more patient people can stay in their comfort, eat what they want and when the body after years reponds with a heavy illness do like this has nothing to do with their behaviour because the body was able to compensate for so long.
This calls us in our responsibility, just because the body is not immediately breaking down, is it still our right to treat it in an unloving way ?
Yes Sandra, what Mick introduces here makes it so obvious. If our car had the wrong fuel and would not start, we don’t just shrug our shoulders and say, I can’t help it. We would have to deal with it sooner or later.
Sandra that’s a great point, we are careful about the fuel we put into our car in case we breakdown as that we don’t cause complications and problem, but we can’t see that if we use the wrong fuel for our body we would experience the same. Instead we indulge in food, ignore messages from our body and then wonder why we have illness and disease. We sure need to smarten up in our food choices as a society.
It’s a proven fact that we as human beings won’t necessarily act just because somethings good for us. The fact that rubbish food sells says it all. It shows us what we value and where our focus is as a humanity. We prefer comfort and dullness rather than true health and well-being. However Mick’s blog, as are many blogs on this website, is a very welcome change.
That is a very interesting point, Shevon. Why is it that we settle for junk foods, or comfort foods which make us feel less than when we do without them? There is an age-old question of why we choose to do something that we know will lead us to ill-health? Take these choices and look at them objectively, and they would be judged as insane. And yet so many of us make these choices several times a day.
Naren, we are settling for junk and comfort foods as we do not want to feel what’s causing us to eat these. Often our bodies are letting us know and we ignore the signs and then add more junk food on top. It really is about taking responsibility and understanding why are we making theses choices when we know that we feel awful when we eat theses goods, getting to the root cause.
How true Rosanna and how very exposing. l will never walk into a petrol station in the same way again and what a relief. All the junk food that awaits us there is incredibly disregarding of our bodies.
I always notice the abundance of unhealthy food options at all service stations. It’s almost laughable when you consider the care everyone takes to put the right fuel in their car and never deviate from that.
Yes, when I consider it fuel stations certainly sell all sorts of stimulants -refined sugars and lots of caffeine. I’m really noticing the energy I’m driving in – is it racing against the clock, pushy only thinking of me and my destination without consideration of others, in a hurry, frustrated etc? More often than not I’m becoming very allowing, accepting of all that is around me and really introducing enjoying being with me driving around regardless of heavy traffic, traffic jams, other road users etc. Driving really shows me where I’m at and I am starting to appreciate the lessons it provides.
Interesting that you raise this point rosanna. I was at the hospital yesterday and could not help but notice that in a public place of health and where people are obviously going for support in this area, that there was very little on offer in the canteen or food stalls that offered a healthy eating or drinking choice. The items that featured were coffee and chips… So very ironic and very noticeable that we have become so accustomed to this way of diet that we often don’t blink an eye when it’s polar opposite to what truly supports health and well-being.
Indeed Angela – that is the same in hospitals in Norway. Plenty of sugary/savoury things to choose from and not one healthy item in sight, not even a bag of nuts. And the main meals for the patients contains either gluten or dairy without exeption. Ironic and crazy.
That is a great point Angela. We are in the 21st century and the hospital systems are lagging well behind when it comes to providing nutritional food. Clearly those making the policies in public and private hospitals have not yet valued the effect food has on the body.
Rosanna this is a great example of how things are set up for us to make choices that do not support ourselves – all the lollies and comfort food predominant in petrol stations is no accident. Of course on a conscious level it is just about what junk food sells when we buy petrol, but on a deeper level, a simple offering of nourishment of our car is being associated with offering very poor nourishment to our bodies and thus reinforces it is ok to not care and respect ourselves.
I agree Rosanna, a great observation by Mick. I walk past snack counters, and buy the fuel, many others are stocking up on sugar and carbs little knowing they’re filling up their bodies with the least optimum fuel. All attention on the wellbeing of the car, none on themselves
I am considering that perhaps the reason we pay such attention to our car is that it stops if we don’t, breaks down, the battery may die, the wheels fall off or we may blow a gasket.
It is curious really that we do not pay heed to the warning lights that are constantly delivered by our body, the call for more tender care, correct fuel or to be garaged for a while…in paying no heed to the detail and lack of precision in the body, it is little wonder that our body may crash and some major repair work is needed.
I’ve never clocked the irony either – that’s amazing how petrol station store the right fuel for our cars, but completely the wrong fuel for out bodies!
Meg people are so run down and exhausted so they crave wrong fuel for their body, shop counters are not looking out for the health of people, but looking out for their profit margins. That’s where it’s going wrong, it’s not about people and health. It’s about making profit.
I would have to agree, shops are more interested in their profits than their people, especially big brands, and it’s very much where businesses are going wrong.
You are absolutely right Rosanna – the irony would be funny if it wasn’t as concerning that, as they are just supplying demand, that is the food we most want to eat (as it’s such a small store often, they would only put what is eaten the most)…
Worse than putting out the food that’s eaten the most, petrol stations are full of food that’s downright addictive! It seems almost like a vicious circle, petrol stations put out what we buy most, food that’s higly addictive and they know cannot easily be resisted, we stop by hungry, and our only choice is stuff we know is bad for us. I definitely see you’re point though – that we are, by virtue of buying it, asking them to keep supplying food for us to poison our bodies.
Ha, Rosanna – Ironic indeed!!
The very strong push for junk food at service stations is tantamount to drug pushing! It is extraordinary that we have allowed this and have basically sleep walked our way to this but in truth it is an active choice to allow this abuse.
Yes, it is an active choice to allow this and fuelled and fed by the fact that we are in denial at how exhausted we are by the way we are living. Nothing will change till we change how we live in order to heal our deep seated exhaustion. Only then will we no longer need the sugar on offer and as the demand dries up so too does the supply,
I like what you are pointing out here Rosanna. The section for our cars is clean and straight in a gas station only the best and what the car can really take, but that what is on offer for the human being is bad stuff that runs our bodies down, taking and their energy and performance with every item sold.
Hi Rosanna. Yes I’m sure that the sale of these products is due to the enormous profits that are made, but there is always a cost to bear and our bodies suffer from it.
I agree, Rosanna, the shop at the service station is heavily promoted these days – satisfy all your fixes in one go – I read this article the other day, quite thought-provoking! http://www.unimedliving.com/food/sugar/why-our-service-stations-are-crack-houses-and-what-sugar-does-in-the-brain.html
Recently I had a job in a place in Essex which was supposed to be a few hours work, which turned out to be a lot more and I hadn’t taken any food. There was a service station nearby so I thought I’d go and get a snack as I needed a bit of the old sustenance. There was quite literally nothing in there I could eat not even an apple or a banana. Everything was either loaded with sugar or salt which I don’t think the old car would make it very far on that sort of fuel.