Creation & Consumption: Pt I

Here is a completely hypothetical story that I'm sure has never happened to anyone... You've been keeping really clean on your diet. You are feeling physically energized but mentally taxed - it's a huge cognitive challenge to plan out your meals and think about all the things you have to look out for. You go out to Valentine's day brunch and even eat a bit beforehand so you're not pressured to eat anything you don't want to. When you get there, the warm bread is eyeing you up from the side of the table and you just have to take one biscuit. Next thing you know, you've ordered all their house-made pastries, knocked back a flourless chocolate cake (it's flourless!!), spent the rest of the day searching for food like Templeton from Charlotte's Web, and are hiding behind the fridge door after dinner spooning almond butter out of a jar. You know your body doesn't need it... You can't think of any excuse to be eating and you feel terribly guilty but you just can't stop yourself.

When shame and lack of control over your actions shows up, it is a sign that your subconscious motivations are out of alignment. To make sense of this, think of your actions like a joint pulled by two opposing muscles. In proper alignment, the force exerted by each muscle is balanced. Both muscles have optimal leverage and the joint can move through a healthy range of motion. Out of alignment, the force exerted by one muscle overpowers the other. This muscle is constantly contracted, "hogging" the joint. Both muscles now have suboptimal leverage (they are either too long or too short) and the joint can't move very far from the contracted muscle without it tensing up and resisting.

In this example, the forces pulling on the behavior are consumption - the need to consume something external to solve a problem (food, stimulants, information, approval, etc.) - and creation - taking responsibility and embodying the solution. These "problems" are often emotional discomfort of which we may or may not be aware and the solutions we use are often chosen reflexively, based on what we have learned from the people around us (which is dangerous when we live in a society that is obsessed with consumption). This makes it easy to unconsciously develop an imbalance: when one of these muscles gets used too frequently, by someone solving all their problems with consumption, it becomes facilitated.

A facilitated muscle is a muscle that is activated so frequently it begins to build tension or resting tone. This makes contraction easier than normal, as the muscle responds more quickly to even minor neurological signals. A facilitated muscle can even "steal" signals from surrounding muscles - for example, those with tight lower back muscles have shown as much contraction in the lower back as in the abdominals when doing ABDOMINAL exercises. This faulty activation pattern can lead to pain at the joint and atrophy in the surrounding muscles if not corrected.

Now, if we want all of our psychological muscles to be fully functioning, and the "joint" of our habits and behaviors to be in alignment, we must find and recondition the facilitated muscle. Now that we know the consumption muscle is facilitated, the approach to correcting joint positioning is two-fold: (1) stretch the short, facilitated consumption muscle and (2) strengthen the long, weak antagonist muscle (creation).

Stretching a facilitated muscle will lead to a muscle that is not overworked and is optimally functional. We can stretch out the creation muscle in a few ways:

1. Stretching the time to satisfaction - the time between a craving or a feeling of "need" and the satisfaction of it. For example, when you recognize the impulse to consume food, to drink coffee, to turn to a drug, to scroll through social media, or even to look for the approval of someone else, take 5 minutes to sit with that feeling before acting on it. As you stretch the time progressively longer, you'll grow more comfortable with feeling the need instead of immediately satisfying it.

2. Stretching the period of satisfaction - consuming in a more relaxed mindset by reducing the pressure to do so. Once you start satisfying the craving, the need can leave - you are listening to it. Remind yourself that the process of consumption can be enjoyable too instead of feeling like a rush to the end. This will allow the muscle to contract only as forcefully as it needs to and will avoid building up resting tension.

3. Replacing the craving - this approach is a bit more advanced and I explain it more in depth in my YouTube video on the subject.

On the other hand, strengthening a muscle will allow it to better oppose the (currently) facilitated muscle and support the joint, in addition to taking the joint through a more complete range of motion. To condition our creation muscle to be more active and powerful, we need to get a certain number of reps in daily. Practice nourishing yourself, energizing yourself, and consuming from what you already have. I will be posting a follow up video on how to use tools like meditation and mantras to train your capacity to create. For the time being, consider the activities that make you feel abundant and that eliminate the NEED to consume. Start by reflecting on the ultimate goal of consumption - what does it feel like on the other side? From there, consider the times that you have felt like that even without consuming. Was it because you were distracted by laughing/playing or energized by the work you were doing? Whatever activities or habits come up, dedicate some time every day to feeling abundant and you will start to recondition yourself to think of creation and consumption as equally viable options.

As always, if you have questions or want to share your experience, please feel free to shoot me a message. If you want to schedule a call to discover how concepts like these can apply to your own evolution, please set up a discovery call with me here.

Cheers,

Alex