It is accepted wisdom that just as in life, variety in what we consume is essential to good health and cheer.
However, many of us are limiting ourselves with our choices, or more to the point, our perceived lack of choices. Are you constantly eating the same thing? Getting tired of it? Low on energy or nutrition?
Fellow Twitter "resident", Dick Costolo (@dickc) has eloquently described what happens when we frequently eat "souffle." He states (with apologies to souffle-lovers, everywhere!):
"Regret is a souffle. Light and flaky on the outside, ill-defined on the inside. Neither are worth the effort."
Regret can become a habit; one that does not serve us. We waste precious time and energy on what has passed and cannot be recovered nor will ever be. When we dine on "souffle" we are also negatively impacting our heart rhythms. This is a big deal, folks!
Research has shown the more disorderly our heart rhythms, the more impacted our emotional, mental and physical health. Our capacity to be resilient diminishes; this means it takes less and less to cause us to fight, take flight or to freeze. We become inept at controlling our emotions. They become unmanageable and ill-defined.
Many of us have developed the habit of reviewing what we didn't do, accomplish or attempt. The more we "eat souffle", the more we "eat souffle." That is part of the addictive nature of so many of our habits. We often adopt them in order to lessen the hurt, the pain or to self-soothe. The reality is that we are setting the scene for more of the same. By the same token, we have just as many habits that help as hinder - flossing, getting exercise, uttering a prayer or a mantra...
You can change your history right now, simply by choosing to become aware of your non-resourceful behaviours, ensuring that you have the knowledge you need to replace them, as well as the repetition required to create new pathways in your brain.
When you apply heart-driven intelligence, many of your non-resourceful habits and behaviours fall away. It's like a paper-cut. When you have one, everything you touch causes you pain. When it heals, you've forgotten all about the pain - you are moving towards a more natural state of being, as opposed to what's normal - to what you've adapted.
One useful way to overcome that urge to partake from the "souffle dish" is to begin to appreciate where your life has taken you instead of where you wanted it to go. Did you learn or experience something that you wouldn't have learned or experienced otherwise? Were you prepared for the thing you wanted to do? Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise - saving you from something that could have been less than ideal? That is one question you may never have answered.
Speaking of appreciation, I'd like to express my gratitude to Dick Costolo for turning on the "burner" so that I could prepare and serve this "meal."
BRAVO!!! I love your term “heart-driven” intelligence.
Friends like you help me to stay the omnivorous mutt that God intended.