Posted by alexandra_k on September 23, 2013, at 18:45:15
In reply to Re: Don't know where I'm headed to » thinks2much, posted by Partlycloudy on September 23, 2013, at 17:40:42
It is hard.
On one hand I don't suppose very many people just wake up one morning and feel like starting exercising when they have never really gotten into it before. I mean... Why would you want to? If it is something you had previously discovered you got enjoyment from you probably would have wanted to well before now.
On the other hand I know that suffering is for real and there most probably isn't a simple solution to that or you would have hit upon it well before now. I really don't mean to be giving you a 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' lecture. Really.
I've been reading some stuff about how some of our features of life today might have come about because they were adaptive in our evolutionary pasts (10,000-20,000 years ago, lets say) and the time lag has meant that our bodies haven't caught up. So... Most people crave fats and sugars. Once upon a time when we were living on the savannah and food was scarce... When winters were harsh and we needed to have put on enough to get through periods of famine... When we were engaged in demanding physical labour of hunting and foraging... Such cravings would have been adaptive. Not so now with our sedentary lifestyles and with cheap corn syrup and transfats readily available.
(What was their incidence of mental illness? Hard to say.)
I'm not entirely sure... I wonder sometimes if it is more that we don't know what our body is trying to tell us. I mean... I often crave potato chips. Fairly sure that that is what I'm craving. But I've come to learn... Vegemite will reduce the craving. So, really, it was salt that it wanted, and I misheard or misunderstood. Or similarly when I think I want chocolate (the delicious kind that is mostly sugar) and I have cocoa (80+ cocoa solids) and that deals to the craving and I didn't need to make a pig of myself to do it...
It sounds like your body is trying to tell you something. With the disquiet. That is very very real.
What is it that it is wanting???
I wonder...
Sometimes I think we get stuck in cycles. You want to do whatever it is that you are used to doing. Or... I sure as hell do. If I've been eating a lot of junk food then when I get hungry I crave particular kinds of junk food that have found their way into my repertoire. When I manage to get into healthy eating patterns (which is really hard in the transitional period) then I find myself starting to crave healthy options. A huge part of life is about comfort, I think. And comfort comes in familiarity. Having things that we do that help us feel good about ourself. Reliably. So we can do them when we need to feel good.
How about other things... Something that perhaps you have discovered enjoyment of that you could attempt to rediscover? Music? Art? I know it is hard when you don't feel like doing anything... On the one hand... That can indeed be a very real and horrible place to be. On the other hand... Maybe your body is trying to tell you something (something has go to change). Only you can figure out... Whatever it might be.
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1051117
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20130807/msgs/1051204.html