Food or Money?

I recently listened to a CD by Lynne Twist called “Unleashing the Soul of Money: Find Sufficiency, Freedom and Purpose--Through Your Relationship with Money.” I was shocked by how much of what she said about money could also be applied to food. It was almost as if the two were interchangeable. See if any of what she has to say about money rings true for you when you think about food.

Twist claims our cultural approach to money rests on “The Great Lie of Scarcity” which is based on “Three Toxic Myths:”

--There is not enough

--More is better

--That’s just the way it is

Think about where in your life you experience a sense of scarcity. There’s not enough time, not enough money, not enough energy, not enough attention... Where do you hoard? I need more shoes, more food, more money, more toys, more hours in the day... And what do you leave unquestioned, assuming “that’s just the way it is”? These myths make up the consumer culture we live in, and, as Twist points out, “In a consumer culture, we race right past enough toward more.” Is that how you eat? Even the word “consumer” makes one ask, is she talking about money or food?

Twist proposes we replace “The Great Lie of Scarcity” with “The Principle of Sufficiency.” She says, “When you let go of trying to get more of what you don’t really need, oceans and oceans of energy become available to do more/make a difference with what you have.” Think about this when you eat. What is sufficiency when it comes to food? What does it feel like to have exactly enough? Why would you want more than that? What exactly does it take to satiate you? More than enough? (In my case, yes, more than enough, thank you. Why is that?) Twist challenges us: “Be in the presence of the exquisite distinction of sufficiency. You can’t do that when you are scrambling for more.”

I am fascinated by how the influence of our “consumer culture” plays out in our eating habits. No wonder we are an overweight nation. Think about what it means to eat mindfully when everything around us says “Supersize Me!” It is an act of subversion! We are bombarded by messages that more is better just as we are bombarded by the message that skinny = beautiful = happy. What are we to make of this? Even if we are trying to diet--to eat less, to lessen our size--we still feel the need to cut more calories and lose more weight and exercise more. But, as Twist points out,

“You cannot get to abundance through the door of more. The doorway of more will only bring you lack then then the longing for more again... The only route to true abundance is enough--the exquisite distinction of sufficiency, being met by the universe.” She’s talking about this in terms of money, but I think it’s a great argument for the practice of eating when you’re hungry and stopping when your body has had enough. Whether you are overeating or restricting your eating, it’s the same vicious circle.

The trick is both recognizing when you’ve had enough and then honoring it. This is not something we necessarily grow up learning how to do, whether with food or anything else. Who doesn’t want more of a good thing? “There is no room or space for the distinction of enough in our culture. Enough has a hard time holding any weight in a consumer culture that’s racing toward more. But if we let go of trying to get more...and start paying attention to what’s already there...it begins to expand into abundance.”

Twist implores us to stop and notice what we have, appreciate it. “What you appreciate appreciates. When you live in...gratitude, or when you exercise the muscle of appreciation, what you appreciate grows in the nourishment of that attention...and you realize that you live in a kind of bounty that’s been eclipsed by the chase for more. This is as much about being present and attending..to what you already have as it is about anything else.” You see? All roads lead us back to mindfulness, which turns out is the key to everything!

I realize there is some risk in using Twist’s language when we’re talking about weight issues, because if I tell a dieter to appreciate his or her body, the first thought might be, “And watch it expand into abundance? No thank you!” But let’s rise above that here and try to see what abundance might really mean for us. This reminds me of Rago’s work which I mentioned in my last post. You may remember that she organized the people she was treating for eating disorders to prepare and serve meals to the homeless community. Actually I should point out that after they served the meals, they sat down with those they had invited and ate with them. I wonder if that experience showed them what Twist calls “the profound radical truth of enough”?

In my last post, I mentioned that Rago and Archer suggest your energy might be better spent somewhere other than in the worry that your thighs are too fat. They tell us, basically, to love our bodies and eat what we want. I think Twist takes that momentum a step further by showing us HOW. Let’s go back to the Three Toxic Myths that support the Great Lie of Scarcity. Let’s start questioning ourselves when we find ourselves buying into them (no pun intended). When you find yourself feeling like there is “not enough” of something, ask yourself, is it true? When you find yourself feeling like you need more of something, ask yourself, is it true? Do I really need more pulled pork, more wine, more pairs of jeans that will fit me next year if I just lose a little more weight? Is that really just the way it is?

Before I ever listened to Twist’s CD, I walked into my closet one day and suddenly decided, “I have enough clothes.” Sure there could be a morning that I really wished I had a lightweight but long-sleeved teal blue blouse to go with those black pants, but so what? I had a closet stuffed full of clothes. That was enough. I vowed not to buy a single piece of clothing for a year, then I could reevaluate. I’m over half way through, and so far, so good. It’s actually easy and satisfying, even liberating. No more lunch hour raids on Ross to stock up on huge armfuls of clothes that I didn’t need but couldn’t resist because they were just so darn cheap. Enough can be enough. Enough food, enough clothes, enough money. We really do live in abundance, don’t we?