One of the biggest issues I hear from people who are trying to eat more raw food is that they have trouble sticking with it.
They eat raw for a meal or two in a row, maybe a whole day, or even a couple of days in a row.
Some will even get to eating raw for a whole week…and they’re happy and proud of themselves for being able to stick with it for as long as they did.
Then Something happens…
Something.
Even though they’ve been on a roll with eating raw food, suddenly they find themselves eating a sandwich, sticking their fork in their partner’s pasta bowl, or heading through a drive through.
Why is this?
It’s because we are not comfortable with feeling uncomfortable.
Feeling Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable
It’s natural to seek comfort when we’re uncomfortable.
It’s part of why our species has lasted as long as it has and has continued to evolve.
As we seek comfort, we keep ourselves out of danger so we are able to continue living.
The problem now, however, is that very rarely are we *actually* in danger.
Gone are the days where we were threatened by saber-tooth tigers, or harsh weather conditions without proper food, shelter, or clothing.
It those days, being comfortable was a matter of life and death.
Today it isn’t.
But we’re still wired in many ways to think that it is.
As a result, as soon as we feel uncomfortable, we try to fix it – as if it were a matter of life and death – even though it’s not.
Is this making sense?
We’re wired to seek comfort to sustain ourselves as a species. But we’re way beyond the possibility of dying off as a species from not having our basic needs met.
With the exception of very, very, very rare moments, you are physically safe.
As you read this in the comfort of your home or office, on your laptop or smart phone, you have no need to worry about your life being snuffed out.
There is nothing to be scared of.
But because we are human beings, wired to survive, this instinct to fear for our lives and seek comfort is still a part of us.
It’s a part of us, but it is completely outdated.
It’s no longer necessary.
So what’s happening is that it’s malfunctioning. It’s misfiring.
It’s basically crying wolf.
It’s still on the look out for dangers, (because that’s its job)…
And because it doesn’t find any REAL ones (like living, breathing saber tooth tigers) it freaks out about non-life threatening issues…
Things like when someone doesn’t call us back, when we feel overwhelmed at work, or we get into an argument with someone in our family.
For lack of finding something more threatening, that mechanism within us (called the Reptilian Brain) has turned those types of events into the “life-threatening dangers” we need to save ourselves from.
The Imaginary Saber-Tooth Tiger That Almost Bit Me Today
Today I was at a car dealership looking to get a used car.
At first I was feeling great.
I was happy. I was clear.
I felt comfortable with the guy who was helping me.
Then Something happened.
Something.
An imaginary saber-tooth tiger showed up.
We started talking about numbers and money and then suddenly I looked down and my hand was actually shaking.
Physically shaking!
There I was, sitting safely in a chair, in a beautiful show room, talking with two very nice men who were being very kind to me and whom just moments before I had been smiling and laughing with…
And now I was trembling and scared…
That outdated mechanism within me was totally misfiring.
It was telling me to be scared in a moment when I didn’t really need to be scared.
(Now, I’m sure I could find a bunch of people who would say I was totally justified in feeling scared or nervous talking about numbers with two car salesmen, but that’s because many of us have been conditioned to see car salesmen as saber tooth tigers – when the reality is that they absolutely are not. Remember…just because a lot of people may agree with something, doesn’t mean that it’s true.)
Back to my shaking hands…
I excused myself to make a phone call and have some time to myself.
When I was done, I was honest with my salesmen friends and told them I was nervous and that I wasn’t going to be able to make a decision from this place because I only like to take action out of feeling good.
We came to some arrangements to wrap up my visit there and off I went.
But the Imaginary Saber-Tooth Tigers Came With Me
Even after I left the dealership, I still felt anxious on some level.
“Had I said the wrong things? Had I made a mistake? What if I blew it?”
I had a hard time shaking it.
I was uncomfortable and I wanted to feel comfortable.
Now, because I’ve had practice working with these types of situations, I was able to see myself from a higher vantage point and know that I was not actually in danger and that it was just a malfunctioning of that mechanism.
I still felt uncomfortable because that mechanism had been triggered…but I simultaneously knew that it was not real.
But if I hadn’t had so much experience working with this phenomenon both with myself and with my clients, you can bet your booty I would have been driving through Wendy’s on the way home for some French Fries.
I would have been buying a bag of chips at the gas station I went to on the way home.
I would have been going to Papa John’s for that pizza special they were advertising on the radio.
Why?
Because I was uncomfortable and I wanted something to fix it…
Something like food.
Which brings us to the other problem with our outdated system…
So now, not only does our outdated mechanism within us perceive danger where there isn’t any…
But our habit of reaching for food during these false alarms is completely lame and ineffective.
If as a species we had reached for food to make us feel better when a saber-tooth tiger was chasing us, we would not have survived as a species.
Can you imagine?
“Yikes! A tiger is over there…I think I’ll gorge on this berry bush to try to make myself not feel scared anymore.”
Absurd. We would have been gobbled up for sure!
Food is not intended to make us feel comfortable.
Food is intended to nourish the body, not calm our emotional upset.
Food doesn’t actually help our mind stop perceiving imaginary saber-tooth tigers.
So we’ve got two things to contend with:
1) A gajillion-year-old safety mechanism that is misfiring and perceiving life-threatening danger where there isn’t actually any and kicks us into “need immediate comfort mode”…
2) A crazy bad habit of reaching for ineffective solutions (like crappy food) to save us from these uncomfortable feelings.
Is it possible to escape from our biological instinct to stay alive…and this strong cultural history of people trying to solve their emotional problems with junk food and too much of it?
Absolutely!
The Inner Game of Raw Food involves learning strategies for decreasing the frequency with which we perceive imaginary saber-tooth tigers in the first place…
And it also involves learning appropriate techniques for dealing with the emotions that come up when we do find ourselves stressed out because of an imaginary saber tooth tiger.
Both are incredibly powerful and necessary if you want to enjoy a life full of raw health and happiness and stick to your raw food goals. One of the first steps is to understand that this saber-tooth tiger situation is a big part of it.
So leave a comment below…
What are you learning about why you have trouble sticking to your raw food goals?
