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You Are What You Eat

Tuesday, June 8, 2021, 

Today's title is a classic, and timeless phrase that we've all heard a million times; "you are what you eat".

In the physical sense, this phrase is completely true, in that the food you eat will have an effect on your body (for better or for worse).  However, we "eat" with our eyes, brains, hearts, and souls too and, if we "eat" and consume the wrong thing....it will begin to negatively effect us.  

Each morning, before I begin my practice, I spend an hour enjoying coffee and contemplation (#strangerthings).  While I was spending my coffee hour this morning scrolling through my phone, I found myself on a once-favorite app of mine which was intended to be a fun place to share memes, funny pictures, and gifs, etc.  This app, unfortunately, has become a sewer of unhappiness and discontent (most acutely in the past few years).  

I mention this app, because, while I still occasionally visit it to steal a funny meme or gif, I made the conscious effort a few years ago to simply avoid the app, as I noticed that I wasn't feeling well after spending time on it.  Even with this conscious effort to avoid this now-unhappy app, I will occasionally catch myself on it longer than I intended....."hypnotized" by it as I scroll through memes.  I have to catch myself, and say, "wait.....how long have you been here.......come up for air and put the phone down!!!!".  

Like the snake in Disney's animated "Jungle Book", who could hypnotize the other characters with his eyes, our phones/apps/TVs/monitors/screens, can "hypnotize" us, and force us to "eat" a lot of stuff that isn't good for us.  

Time to begin today's practice.....

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