I just realized that all this time I have valued teaching others how to love and care for themselves through healing their relationship to food and learning how to feed themselves sustainably that it can look like them choosing to eat out all the time and/or wanting nothing to do with food prep and that is OK!
As I dive deeper into the “how” I am finding less judgement about what this looks like for each individual. When someone calls me to feed them, they want to be fed. When I get excited about teaching the “people how to fish” instead of “giving them a fish” I notice that I get caught in the longing for an expected result; that they will know how and want to feed themselves and that this is the measurable indicator of them successfully loving and caring for themselves.
NOT SO SIMPLE AND SUPERFICIAL!
That expected result is one possibility and another is that they love and care for themselves and have a balanced and self-nourishing relationship to food, which looks like them wanting to be fed! Simple. Clear. Their main value and focus of energy goes elsewhere.
The old paradigm of us needing to be independent and act from a place of lack is shifting. The new paradigm is that of interconnection and inter “being” and inherent abundance.
So it does not hurt when I serve others by teaching them how to nourish themselves with intuitive and self-sustaining eating habits, but I realize that is not the goal in and of itself. The main goal is that we all begin to live with self love and radically intentional self-nourishment and the desired outcome is not to be “self” sustaining, but rather life sustaining and since we are all connected, we all play a different role in serving one another.
Maybe the people just need to be fed and one of my gifts is to feed them so they can focus on serving up their gifts to the world.
I have known this, but am realizing it on a new level. As much as I enjoy counseling and teaching others about the joys of mindful eating and seasonal cooking, I am curious to reignite my joy of feeding others as well.
Maybe I will start a soup kitchen.
Are you being served?
We don’t all have to do everything. In what way can you nourish yourself by gratefully receiving others gifts?