by Lee Green, Perth, Australia
Having worked in the hospitality industry for some 22 years I have seen many things and done many things that have made me who I am today. The choices I have made up until now have made me who I am right in this moment. I get to manage and run three cafes with an amazing team of people. They are everyday hard working people who get to show me many things that amaze, educate and make me wonder?
Hospitality has been sensationalised a lot in the last few years. Food has become a fashion in which people can immerse themselves, indulging is the new black so to speak. When did this all come about, and why are we content to over-indulge in expensive food and wine as if it were OK for our bodies, and YES, I have done this to myself in my past.
The many cooking books that are on the shelves enticing us to make their recipes are matched only by the many restaurants and cafes that abound, that are looking to serve us the ‘best’ food. A trend that I have noticed is in complete contradiction with what the ‘shopping’ public are able to afford and really want to spend. How does it all work? What drives us to feed so much, so often and without any thought on how it affects our daily living.
What would we do if our coffee were not available? Or the chocolate that we crave when things get a bit edgy is not there to fill the ‘gap’, settle us down and comfort us? The real question I am asking is “do we use food, coffee, alcohol, as a distraction from what is really playing out in our everyday lives?”.
How can this all work when illness and disease keep on getting worse? There is, in our everyday living, a lot of emotional hurt that we carry. We could ask ourselves, where is the responsibility of the individual in this?
It keeps coming back to that word, responsibility. It is fascinating really that when I started to feel the ramifications of the many coffees I would consume a day just to stay awake and function, it hurt physically as well as emotionally. I was doing this to me but why?
I kept looking and realised that the alcohol I was consuming was to keep me going after the day at work, a day that was empty when it could have been so full. The recreational drugs and excessive alcohol was an accepted part of the industry when I was growing up, and working in the high end of Sydney this was still very much the case.
Looking back and reviewing that time in my life I can see how desperately alone I was, clutching for any number of stimulants to stop me feeling the pain. The pain of missing me, in truth, of not ever knowing who I was. Where was my responsibility and who was guiding me through the never ending round of coffee, food, alcohol etc. I may have been on my own journey, but my peer group was living and breathing the same way I was. We called it fun and hi-jinx but we were all deeply aware of what we were doing to ourselves, and consequently those that we lived with, our friends and the customers and guests we served. Feels pretty average now, but no responsibility means at least for the moment, no consequences.
The crash for me was pretty hard and everything started un-ravelling. I was fortunate and found my inner resolve and started claiming that this was not the way that I wanted to live. I came across Serge Benhayon and the workshops that he runs through Universal Medicine and realised that I had a choice.
My body was not a thing that I had to drive, drown and crush, but was in fact the marker for where I was at. How I lived in every moment was represented in the very body that came with me everywhere. This was a revelation and is now an understanding that I live by. This revelation has given me the strength and power over my own choices to make fresh ones, ones that are self loving and that consider all of the people that I live with, work with and come into contact with everyday.
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
We can fight against responsibility, possibly in search for happiness and as a result live a life where we are miserable and living irresponsibly. When you consider this, responsibility does not seem a bad option at all.
Yes the body is a friend we most often forget we have and too often treat as if it was our worst enemy.
Our own self loving choices affect not only ourselves but those around us. People do notice and some ask what and why we do what we do. Listening to our body and honouring its messages is all about taking responsibility. Our overburdened health services are testament to how few of us do so.
I have experimented when I am feeling super-sensitive, awkward, vulnerable, and basically in lots of pain so to speak that I do not want to feel, I have instead gone for a walk and / or not eaten. This supports me to move through the awkwardness and pain, and it does not take that long too. When I have eaten to numb it is more painful on a deeper level i.e. at least I feel more of me when I feel raw. When I have eaten to numb I’m not feeling me.
Just imagine what a different world we would live in – a much healthier one for a start – if as children we were raised to know that our body is our responsibility, as are the choices we make on a daily basis. If we care lovingly and respectfully for our body the more steadily it can support us. Conversely if we neglect our body our well-being and vitality will drop and the chances are we will get sick. It is really quite simple but some how we seem to make it complicated and our body suffers.
We tend to glorify the choices we have made because they got us to this point. Yet, that conceals the fact that the choices we have made have had consequences we carry in our body that when we get to the present point, could make our lives unnecessarily hard.
With coffee, alcohol, drugs and indulging in foods so massively prevalent throughout all societies in one way or another – if these are used to escape the pain or tension that a person is feeling, then it’s safe to say that there is a lot of hurt in the world that isn’t being exposed or brought into the open air to clear and heal. Buried under “I love my coffee'” and other such phrases. Thank God for Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for living and presenting how life can be when we start to address and heal those hurts.
We may be able to convince ourselves that by over eating and drinking that we are having “fun and hi-jinx” but if we were to ask our body if it was feeling the same, I am sure the answer will be ‘no way’. The truth is, we cannot go on treating our body in such a disregarding way and not expect physical consequences eventually.
As I become more aware of my livingness and that includes everything… every choice, the ‘good’, ‘bad’ and everything in between, it greatly enhances my awareness of the impact I have on everything around me. I often find myself pausing to reflect in one way or another the effect I am having on people and situations either as a confirmation/celebration or as a learning.
There is a fresh new start on offer in every moment, it’s just up to us to choose it.
Because of how the education system is set up with a focus on knowledge, and not on how to care for and understand ourselves, we tend to reach for ways to cope with the mess of confusion within ourselves that are not truly supportive. Understanding what’s actually happening inside myself and why, and to be able to receive the support of Universal Medicine in this, has played a big part in being able to take more responsibility for myself.
The way I eat impacts on the way I live and relate with others. I am always responsible of my choices, aware or not, consequent with them or not. Maybe because of that, there is sometimes some reaction to the word ‘responsibility’, because it reminds us the unavoidable fact that we are not victims at all, but doers of our reality. The good news is that we can always rectify and re-imprint our life, as when we consciously assume our responsibility, we empower ourselves again.
This is such a great question Lee and a very pertinent one right now with the Christmas season upon us; “What drives us to feed so much, so often and without any thought on how it affects our daily living.” While many live like this on a daily basis the intensity gets ramped up a notch or two at this time of the year which has our precious our bodies groaning under the weight of the incredible excesses of food and drink; and then the first item on the new years’ resolution list is – go on a diet/detox! Crazy behaviour really when our health and our well-being is at stake in every moment.
I have noticed that as soon as people get bored shopping they head straight for something to eat, from a coffee and cake to a full blown lunch, and for many this is becoming the norm, I feel no one wants to sit still long enough to feel what is going on, and hence choose either to distract themselves or dull what they are starting to feel.
When we are not living the fullness of who we are, the world misses out on us, and your sharing reminds me of the responsibility we can choose to live with. Food is what builds, nourishes and maintains our physical body to be in the world, and if we are choosing not to be who we are in the world, it inevitably affects the choices we make with food, and it really makes sense of what is being made available to us out in the world in order to serve this demand of ours. It’s an amazing gift to all of us to have someone with the awareness like you to be in the food industry.
It is interesting that we think that we are avoiding our responsibility, and for a moment it seems that we are getting away with it. However, the fact is we can never escape our relationship with our responsibility or our bodies, as whatever we choose is reflected through our body. Our bodies are not designed to be abused, pushed or driven. This I have discovered, and the more we embrace all that our bodies are ready to guide us with, the more we live, breathe and work with a greater connection to truth.
So true Monika, for there are consequences to every move we make.
When we drive our bodies hard and fast and to excess indulgence with the way we live, can we really be that surprised that it leads to an inevitable crash in the way of exhaustion, an accident or illness and disease?
‘My body was not a thing that I had to drive, drown and crush, but was in fact the marker for where I was at.’ – awesome Lee that you got to a point where you felt like building a relationship with your body where you actually wanted to listen to its messages instead of drowning them out.
We often use our body for our own pleasure without considering whether this is actually supportive or not. There is a bit of a mentality here, that is, how much can I get away with? So we are content to put up with some symptoms as long as they’re not too severe…
Fresh choices are available to us in every moment – that with fresh, lovingly prepared food choices support a bountiful array of other loving supportive choices to be lived.
The city close to where I live is full of coffee houses and restaurants, there a literally hundreds of both.Food has become an entertainment and an escape, no different to the way people use drugs. In the 80’s it was the Pub culture and now it’s is the food culture, we seem to be reinventing ourselves rather than looking deeper into why we need to indulge in these various past times.
Managing 3 cafes! Gosh thats a feat! To reply to this question ‘do we use food, coffee, alcohol, as a distraction from what is really playing out in our everyday lives?”. From me it would be a categorical .. YES! It is truly inspiring and a great reflection to others in how you have changed irresponsibility to taking responsibility and how this in turn has strengthened and deepened the relationship with yourself and others.
‘How I lived in every moment was represented in the very body that came with me everywhere.’ I love what you have shared with this simple line Lee, if we listened to the wisdom of our bodies we would never treat it with such disregard or override what it was saying.
Dining out is not just dining out. It is far more than it. It is eating but is more than just eating. It is an activity that confirms our way of living and, hence, us.
What does the food indulgence tell us about how we are living? Why the indulgence? What are we asking food to do to (for) us? These simple questions are profound if we dare to consider them.
Hospitality is an industry that has the potential to be something that can offer us all nourishment and true health and support for our bodies on a nurtitional level. It can also offer us healing too in the way that the food is made and prepared with a love that honours and holds the client. It is a pity that it is the way it is in many ways as in truth it is abusing and not honouring our bodies and our beings at all.
The fad in food seems to be growing so much these days with more and more cooking shows on the TV and now even kids cooking shows, all competing with each other. No thought is given as to what the type of food is doing to the body or in what quality the food has been prepared in, food is used to comfort and dull any awareness of how the body feels after eating.
Great point Jill, we seem to be obsessed with food now whether it be cooking it, eating it, reading about it or watching it on TV – if the same energy was used to nurture and care for our body I am sure this unhealthy obsession with food would decline considerably.
Interesting thing to ponder on. I was at a school disco this week and it was on a day where the kids had been at an athletics carnival all day. Everyone was very tired yet they were all dancing and running around. I wondered what would happen if the music stopped. My feeling was that everyone would feel how tired they were and would simply want to go to bed. We can call on many things to fuel us and give us energy that take us beyond what our body would naturally do.
You are so right Lee that food has become a fashion that people can indulge themselves in. I hadn’t thought about it like that until I read this blog. Every other shop is a restaurant, and eating out is one of the most popular things to do. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, eating out, food shopping, what to cook? We spend a lot of our time on food. And alongside this are our growing illness and disease rates that relate to consumption of too much or the wrong type of foods. There is a lot to look at here.
What a great subject matter to raise discussion on – and still completely relevant some 5 years later. I am also old school hospitality and now I am running two cafes, a bakery and support with my husbands health food/fruit and veg shop, so with all that, I relate so much to what you have shared here. It’s an interesting position to be in when customers are demanding these fads – wanting the images that come with them – the instagram status and all under a false pretext of health. Kombucha is a great example of this, I sell it at both cafes and I love the local guy that makes it for us –but to be fair, I don’t believe in it – it is being marketed as this medicinal drink- that apparently contains all these probiotics that are great for your gut – plus it has turmeric in it which guarantees its healing properties, right? Well, maybe not, but I sell it because there is demand for it, the same way I sell coffee because there is a demand- but I am honest with my customers about my view on it – if they want to know that is. I am a lover of good food and have almost perfected it in how I present and produce my menu, but to me the rubbish and misconceptions that engulf the food industry are sickening and are the exact opposite of what I feel food’s true purpose is.
Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine are certainly supporting me to be aware of not just those around me but those far afield helping me to open up to what is going on in the world. I have found it all too easy to not care, to think that what is happening on the other side of the world has nothing to do with me, the truth being I did not want to see or hear as it was too painful to feel the responsibility of my choices. I do care and this is being reflected in my relationships where for the first time in my life I am listening and hearing another and this is bringing much change in my life.
Considering everything to be part of a whole is revolutionary – or at least it is today simply due to how lost we as humanity have become. I’m constantly blown away by the lies we’ve taught ourselves and just how separated we are from each other in the name of protection. What a simpler life we lead when we choose to be, first with ourselves and then with everyone and everything.
It was a huge turning point for me when I realised there was constantly on offer an opportunity to hold a loving relationship with my body, through which I discovered that every single choice made by us is reflected through our bodies. As such our bodies are the marker of truth, the truth of our choices, and if we are willing to be honest and listen to what is being signalled we can explore why and where our choices come from, and if they are supporting a loving relationship with ourselves and our being. For the more we are living in honor of our truth the more we bring this to the lives we live.
It’s so different when I don’t think about food all of the time, there is all this extra space and I’m more focused on what I’m doing…. well, it could be the opposite way really! When I’m not looking for something to console me or distract me away, I’m more focused and present hence food is just a normal part of my day.
When we mix the words food and responsibility the outcome can be quite uncomfortable – most of us are not responsible around food and we consider first the taste and pleasure of food before its effect on our body. However my experience of taking more responsibility around food and eating in a way that does not impede the way I feel and my ability to cope with life has been really cool, and it actually feels amazing to stop revolving my life around indulging in food and instead approach it as a way to nurture and nourish my body so that it can do everything it needs to, and all it takes is a simple choice to treat our bodies responsibly. I reckon responsibility should be the new black…
When we begin to consider that how we live in our lives directly impacts on those around us, we begin to humbly consider again the responsibility we have. The beauty I have found in this is that responsibility becomes a joy to live with.
I laughed when I read this line, “What would we do if our coffee were not available?” I watch people and coffee has become not only a ‘normal’ part of life but some may consider it a necessity in life. I watch people and their attitudes around coffee and how they travel for it, what it means to them and the way they describe it. I am not saying it’s a bad thing but I am aware that coffee is doing something for us that we don’t want to do. Everyone knows that coffee is a stimulant, a drug and so what and why do we need to be stimulated or as they say ‘given a caffeine hit’? This article builds on this question and brings us to be aware that everything isn’t how it may seem around coffee. This is a huge and ever growing industry and as someone said to me the other day, 20 years ago I wouldn’t have dreamed of going out and paying for a coffee it was something you made at home and yet now we have whole areas of a town dedicated to just that, coffee shops. In some small towns coffee shops are the dominate businesses and they are not stopping ‘popping up’. We even have drive through ones and all these coffee shops are surviving. How can we have so many and still more coming? It’s great chat, not over a coffee haha.
“This revelation has given me the strength and power over my own choices to make fresh ones” This is good to see Lee, how we need some strength and power to choose differently. I found myself so often thinking that i choose differently or really changed something in my life, whereby I just gave the same choice a different flavor or look. The true changes asking for a complete new foundation – a foundation of love. And I have to see that my old foundations (and old choices) are fighting their own deselection. And also all relationships build on my old foundation often don’t like to get a refreshment and a change. So yes truly, I need the power I get through my connection to God and my own divinity to build something new here. And this connection is already what I can offer than to the world. As a reflection of truth.
‘…but no responsibility means at least for the moment, no consequences.’ But we all know in our hearts that this mentality is untrue as there are consequences to every choice that we make and from everything that we do that has ripple effects not only in our own lives, but equally in everyone else’s around us.
That’s the thing, isn’t it, no matter how far we go we know in us that we’re harming both ourselves and all we touch, and of course we can go to amazing lengths to hide this from ourselves and others – I know I did, and still can if I don’t want to see what is happening around me; yes we are responsible but the first question for me is am I willing to see what is there, without judgement, or expectation, and then am I willing to see my part in it, again no judgement, or condemnation, and then what am I willing to do about it – am I willing to be responsible and take true care?
It all starts by becoming more honest and connected to the body and from there our body will guide us through life, a life that will restore the real nature of us in which any abusive behaviors will have no place anymore.
This line captures so well our arrogance in how we are with ourselves and our bodies Lee; ‘My body was not a thing that I had to drive, drown and crush, but was in fact the marker for where I was at.’ Many of us have our own versions of how we do this, but in truth whatever we do be it food, alcohol, drugs etc, is an end point, and a distraction to avoid us feeling what is truly going on with us and our lives. When we can stop trashing our bodies we allow ourselves the space to see and feel what is going on and then we can choose what next with a greater degree of clarity – we give ourselves a chance.
The inexorable rise in illness and disease despite the wonderful advances in conventional medicine pose the question – Why? One of the answers is in the way many live today with little or no discernment of the effect of the way they live having an impact on their health and well-being. Universal Medicine asks us to take responsibility for all the choices we make in our every day living and the energy in which we do all that we do.
How powerful a journey it is, to actually come back to oneself and place in full regard, this body which we inhabit? In a world driven to achieve and perpetuate so much that is actually harming us – and in no small measure – our relationship with our bodies is the key to putting the brakes on that which has had us in a spin, and in that, severely disconnected from the depth of wisdom each and every one of us hold.
How would our world be, if this wisdom were permitted the environment in which to actually flourish? How would we relate to each other, how would we treat ourselves, our bodies and each other at every level?
Take away the notion that it’s somehow ok to treat our bodies as “a thing that I had to drive, drown and crush”, and everything changes…
Love all that you’ve shared here Lee, thank-you.
“How I lived in every moment was represented in the very body that came with me everywhere.” I only can agree Lee as this is my own experience through my own body and though all the patient I met so far. To live my life more responsible that means to love myself and my body was the best thing I chose to do and it is such a joy to bring this to all the patients I met so that they too can feel what is possible and that they too can chose to live in a more loving way.
Thank you for sharing Lee, a very powerful blog. I know what you mean about food being used as an indulgence – It is fascinating how much we actually eat and snack throughout the day. Do we really need all this food or snacks? Even healthy snacks are not really that healthy for us! Go back 50, 100 years or more and I very much doubt people snacked throughout the day which shows we do not need all this food, along with the escalating obesity levels. So what are we getting out of eating constantly? I know for me food can be used to stop or distract me from feeling pain or hurt that may be coming up – but that pain or hurt is merely a consequence of my choices so if I deal with that it goes. The great thing is I now have a choice thanks to Universal Medicine.
How is it that as a society we do not question the quality or energy of the way in which our food is prepared and served? Or any service we provide or use? It’s not that we don’t, because if for example we get ‘bad’ service from someone who may be rude, angry, disengaged…etc. we notice this and may even complain about it. But how often do we think about the mood of the chef, the quality of the energy in the kitchen team as a whole, whether our hairdresser is hungover or our teacher has just left home having had a big row with their daughter? What Universal Medicine presents is that it is not the outcome of what we do that is important, but the way in which we do it – our quality. When it comes down to it, if you had a choice between an amazing gourmet meal from a famous chef who has been abusing his staff and a delicious, simple meal cooked from the quality of love the chef is living consistently for themselves, which would you choose? I know which one I would go for. Love all the way.
It’s interesting how we use the term ‘recreational drugs’. It’s become ‘normal’ to take drugs and use them, despite this being illegal and harmful for your body and psyche. Why aren’t we using the terms, “I’m going to take some drugs to check out from the world” or, “I’m going to drink alcohol to numb myself from feeling the pain”? This is being honest and responsible.
“My body was not a thing that I had to drive, drown and crush, but was in fact the marker for where I was at. How I lived in every moment was represented in the very body that came with me everywhere.” This is indeed a revelation and then something to deeply honour and live by.
“The real question I am asking is “do we use food, coffee, alcohol, as a distraction from what is really playing out in our everyday lives?”. And for me there is only one possible answer and that is yes. So when did we discover that these substances could take the edge of how we are feeling or numb them altogether. Maybe it began with the lollipop that we given as a child to reward us or to make us ‘feel better’ and then as we grew we progressed to more numbing substances. But the one thing that I have learned is that no matter how much you try to numb the feelings you don’t want to feel, they do not go away, in fact the longer they are ignored the more they burrow into our bodies and into our lives until our bodies cannot hold them any longer and we end up with an illness or disease; it all comes back to total responsibility for each and every choice that we make.
I agree food has become a fashion. Many people even queue up for hours just to have a taste of some sweets or have a meal at a restaurant they have read/seen/heard about. I am pretty sure that it is not just about wanting to eat something that tastes delicious, we are seeking to be rewarded, identified, comforted by food rather than nourished. It is refreshing to hear from someone in the industry, and what a difference it would make to eat food prepared by someone like you with the awareness and responsibility that you are choosing to live with.
Hello Lee and the art of food or food choices are simply choices. I watch how I am with food and funnily enough it has nothing to do with food. Sure we know some foods are a stimulant, some obvious ones are sugar and salt and some not so obvious like fruits and some ‘health foods’. We place a lot of attention, decisions, debate and energy around food. What if food wasn’t the problem or where the decisions lies? Could we even take our minds or our attention away from food? So what is it, how do we use it and why don’t we like to see beyond it? Maybe it’s about control, we like to think we are making the decisions, I choose this and I didn’t choose that. So when it comes to health I don’t eat refined sugars, I eat natural sugars because we think is a better or healthy choice, but is it? I mean they both have sugar and here we can go into a massive debate around which is the better one, the research and pretty much justify everything. I am not saying or making an argument either way but what are we actually deciding and how far down the decision or choice line is this food or sugar conversation? If life is more about energy then physical and for some this maybe another discussion like the sugar was at this point but let’s keep going. What if life was more about energy then physical? It wouldn’t matter where sugar came from it would come back to a feeling, but not a feeling just on ‘your’ body level. Like saying refined sugars make me feel sick but natural sugars are ok for me. We know the facts of what sugar does, stimulates and so now we can go into why we are tired or nominate the exhaustion etc etc but is this a true step into responsibility of energy or is this just a better step or seat on the merry go round? A choice of sugar or anything or thinking of a better version of the same thing isn’t a choice truly, it’s just better that isn’t really any better when energy is there, it just looks better. We need to go to truth and truly sugar is sugar no matter how cool or natural you make it. Now steps in the argument of we need some sugars, your body needs it etc but it all still comes back to energy. You are going to say or think anything when you think you are the one in the drivers seat but remember energy first. So the only choice is the energy you run yourself in, the fuel you are using long before you think of food. The alignment to an energy that doesn’t give you a range of better choices for you to ‘choose’ but makes it about a quality you are. You could say anything that makes you think putting anything near your body that stimulates or dulls you in anyway is not a true energy and so here is the first choice, what will you choose?
What a reflection our body gives us, we can choose to ignore or take responsibility. Either way our body will keep communicating what is true and what is not. The body does not stop communicating, it is us who numb ourselves from feeling by what we choose to put into our bodies.
I feel like I can hold a veil between truly being responsible and remaining in the comfort of ‘this will do’, ‘this is enough’, ‘I’m doing okay’. It reminds me of holding my hands over my eyes and moving one finger to peep out. I absolutely know that responsibility is the path to true freedom for myself, and the way to liberate mankind. Self empowerment invites these two responses – cover up and ignore the truth or put my face to the light and step out to take responsibility.
Maybe we let this be because we think that we only live once and that’s it so why not go for it? But what if we actually reincarnate and have in our backpack every choice from all our lives? Could be a pretty big ouch moment for many.
I used a run a mile if I heard the word ‘responsibility’, it is not such a scary word now and living responsibly has absolutely changed everything for me that I now am living the life I always wanted. Sure there are always pockets where I am avoiding responsibility and this is a work in progress that when I commit to and not fight the next level of responsibility there are many great blessings that eventually come with this choice.
“My body was not a thing that I had to drive, drown and crush, but was in fact the marker for where I was at.” I agree Lee, and we could also add the word “being” alongside body. We also crush the wonderful essence we are, as well as the emotions we need to examine and receive support for. What I have learned from Universal Medicine is to nurture and foster my being (the true essence of me) and stay connected to my body and the truth it offers, and to care for myself in the most loving way possible.
It is so interesting that so many of these blogs share that Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine is a catalyst to know they have a choice. I wonder why this is not how we are brought up, to know that we have a choice about what we put in our bodies and we must own the consequences as a result. Getting support for why we consume what we consume is key to making lasting change.
What you say Lee is so true, it is all about responsibility and certainly our bodies are a reflection of how we live and level of responsibility we commit to. Thank you for the timely gentle reminder.
Responsibility has become a bit of a ‘dirty word’ in modern day society. I have come to a much more honest relationship with it in recent years which has shown me that responsibility cannot really be avoided for if we act in ways that are irresponsible, we are simply responsible for our irresponsibility. Sure, we can deny it but ultimately we live the consequences of our own choices and it catches up with us in the end. Responsibility is also a connection to power and hence perhaps it is good to consider that the most responsible people are also the most powerful.
There is much in your sharing Lee, the reason why food, alcohol and coffee are huge players in our world, along with the responsibility of caring for our body, learning to no longer indulge in our self imposed harming ways of living. Messages that many are coming to for themselves, but the shining light, talking about the importance of re choosing how we live, introducing self love. Through this simple yet profound teaching that Serge Benhayon presents, much naturaly changes in how we live in our bodies, as we begin to honestly feel the harm of how we have lived.
We can try to use such things as food and drink to fill ourselves, but their filling ability is naught. We are only able to fill ourselves with our own love and light.
Awesome revelations Lee. I can only imagine how great it would be to work with you in contrast to how hospitality is often run. It’s a mad house and it’s go go go without a single thought for those working and those being served. Sounds to me that you know just how to have a successful business simply through living with the truth of knowing your body.
Thank you Lee for sharing your experience, the body is amazing in the amount of abuse it can put up with until finally illness and disease are the result. Often we have to get to this point before we sit up and take notice and become responsible for the choices we have made in the past. Learning to lovingly care for our bodies, being aware of how every choice affects it, we can then heal.
We have all ‘seen many things and done many things that’ has made us all who we are today and although we cannot change our past directly, we can change the trajectory that our past is directing us in.
It’s true Lee, food has become very much an indulgence in this day and age which means we can easily forget the fact that food should be eaten to fuel our body, not to pacify our emotions.
I used to be a coffee drinker. I was somewhat of a connoisseur and very much a snob about coffee. I tried at numerous times during my life to give it up but it always crept back in. I can’t remember exactly when my last cup of coffee was because it slowly drifted away but it was around 4 years ago. This time when coffee was making its way out of my life, my son was around 3. One day I announced to him that I was going to have a coffee and this caused him to protest and beg me not to. Why did he care? Because he knew how I would treat him a few hours later once it wore off. In my irritable state he would get yelled at and I would be very short with him. It was a great lesson in responsibility as I realised that my simple choices not only affect me, but those around me.
Thankyou Lee, great to get insight into the hospitality industry. Your last paragraph is very powerful, “My body was not a thing that I had to drive, drown and crush”, this quote really highlights the way in which we treat our bodies, hard to read but very true. Unfortunately mistreating the body is considered so normal nowadays, TV shows are even structured around this drive and crushing, reality cooking and renovation shows for example. We don’t have many people reflecting or writing about the truth and that there is another way to live, so I really appreciate your blog and all you have shared.
Realising we have a choice is life changing for we then let go of being the victims and become the true masters of our life… deciding how we want to live it. It is gorgeous to read of the responsibility you are now living in consideration of everyone you know and meet…. This is a deeply loving, considerate and inspirational way to be.
It’s strange to look back and realise that there was this quite strong awareness of how I was mistreating my body and a fair determination to do so and to not take responsibility for as long as I didn’t have to. Every now and then a wave of guilt would wash over me that I would dismiss as quickly as I could, or just have another drink. What I didn’t connect was this lack of love and commitment to myself meant that the love I wanted in my life was not there. I had this idea that I could be love without living this love, which I now know is nonsense.
We are in fact hungry for something that food can never fulfil.
We are starving for our real selves.
Responsibility is far more satisfying and offers a deeper level of contentment than any food, cake, dessert, drink etc.
Food is no longer a necessity to live; but instead a pastime and hobby due to our lack of living.
“The pain of missing me, in truth, of not ever knowing who I was.” This is where all our ill behaviour stems from. Understanding that the way we treat ourselves is what we are bringing to everyone and everything around us is the first step towards appreciating the level of responsibility we truly have in learning to make that reconnection back to ourselves.
When we consider that how we live is what we bring to the world it gives us more of an idea of the importance of our responsibility to live in an unharming way. Sometimes when we are really numb we have to consider the idea of how we would treat and care for a small child to bring ourselves back to how we should love ourselves and then by extension, everyone else.
How amazing if we lived in a world where we just ate what our body needed to survive and when we gathered with friends and family the focus would not be on food but on truly connecting with each other.
Great and revealing blog Lee. So much of the hospitality industry is built on comforting people’s hurts and continually feeding into the consciousness that all foods in moderation are good for you. We all know even if something looks absolutely divine in it’s appearance and aroma that our body is the one that cops the consequence of digesting it after. I love the changes you have made to be more responsible for your body, and in turn more responsible for how you then work, live and be with others.
Exactly Aimee the whole industry and soothing customer service is based on making sure that the person dining can do whoever they want to their bodies – unless it gets too extreme – there is no stopping us.
I’ve just come home from a lovely evening dining at a restaurant and I felt what you have shared here. There is like this platform of indulgences, and if you choose to disconnect from your body and just go by how something tastes in your mouth or by how it looks visually then you eat more or foods that you usually would not.
Responsibility is the key stand out here, we can either take responsibility for our choices or not. A lot of things get in the way of us not taking responsibility, our hurts, protections, and not wanting to deal with those, but it does always come back to responsibility. It is up to each of us to develop and feel our own stuff, for us to evolve.
Humanity live happily because they make the effort to separate the different aspects of our lives when in truth there is nothing unrelated with everything else. Do we simply go out for eating? Or dining out is in truth a way of dealing with the unresolved emotions and let them govern us when we choose what to eat and drink? Do we simply go for a coffee for the pleasure of it? Or do we go for a coffee to keep us going because we live in a way that exhausts ourselves? Food can be used as medication of an ill way of living even if what we think we are doing is simply bathing ourselves in the pleasures of our five senses.
Correct Eduardo – the deeper truths and revelations are held in every action that we take.
Disregarding my own body just because everyone else was doing the same thing is now such an obvious lack of responsibility. Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine have presented that we always have a choice to take responsibility for ourselves and not muddle along trying to keep up with the so-called ‘norm’.
To open myself to responsibility, the first step was to get honest. Honesty has a sweet note of supporting me and others in a disarming way. A great step towards growing up.
I like that felixschumacher8. Honesty has a sweet note and I can feel how we can begin to grow up and take responsibility for our choices instead of blaming and trashing our bodies in the arrogance that it is everybody else’s fault.
It’s interesting to observe and listen to all the excuses and reasons we can come up with to eat foods that we know have a negative affect on the body, when we ‘need’ it to pep ourselves up, or numb or struggle through the day. If we listened to them back they are quite ridiculous.
It was an amazing revelation to me as well when I realised that my body was the marker of my truth not my mind. It was then that I was able to really feel what food I was putting into my body and what felt okay and what did not. This is an ongoing refinement for me as my body responds in its’ own way and from truth on a daily basis. Simplicity with food seems to be the key and I have noticed that the more simple the food is, the tastier it is!
Forget the black market for recreational drugs. For any thing that can relieve the tension of life turn on your popular cooking show.
So true Luke, then you hear comments like ‘that’s all I want now!’, after watching some delectable desert being made on a cooking show. Why do we not stop and say, am I in control here?
There is no control as soon as the cooking show is turned on because the choice is already made to find a food that will deliver you something.
Good point Luke
Haha Luke and yet sadly this is so true, obsessed with what we can do with a few ingredients we forget to check in to our body and truly feel what we can eat to deeply support us.
Yes and checking in to what foods we need to support ourselves is so important.
And no one will question you, or ask what’s up… it has become so ‘normal’ to seek relief and down time, even when that so called ‘relaxation time’ is the expense of our bodies through eating and drinking things that don’t agree with us.
It’s a game that we all have played and now the ‘sport’ of eating and drinking is in each an d every household in the western world. Books, TV shows and classes all manner of methods to help us improve how we cook — no semblance of feeling what supports just a one track view that this will taste great, the body is then just the recipient of these choices.
Wise words Kylie. Highlights our un-honest use of language and the illogic in one sentence.
I can very much relate to your sharing. Once I started introducing a bit of honesty into my life – most of my habits and life style choices couldn’t stand the scrutiny of self-responsibility. There was always something I was hiding. It’s been a long, and still on-going process, but I feel so much freer and lighter than ever before.
‘My body was not a thing that I had to drive, drown and crush, but was in fact the marker for where I was at. How I lived in every moment was represented in the very body that came with me everywhere. This was a revelation and is now an understanding that I live by.’ This is indeed a revelation in a society where we learn to use our body to fit it into what we want it to do instead of taking utmost care that this vehicle that takes us everywhere in life is treated and looked after from head to the littlest toe according to what it needs to be truly vital, fit and full of life.
Your blog made me wonder what would happen if we take away coffee, alcohol and food as a distraction. What would the world look like? It is so accepted that in order to get through the day you need to drink a lot of coffee. But coffee is a stimulant! So what is the real state of the vitality levels of us as human beings? I think it would give us a much more honest view of where we are at when we take away stimulants like coffee and alcohol, it would be a mess in the beginning for sure but it would also give a true marker to work from and live in a way that keeps us vital naturally.
There is so much comfort around our food today that you have exposed here Lee and it suits us to remain ignorant and not know the true impacts of that comfort so as to not see how irresponsible it may in fact be.
Discovering this blog again it is lovely to reflect on the last three years and also to look around the world and see that not a lot has changed. Yesterday the term ‘force feeding’ and ‘force drinking’ arrived after having had the opportunity to cater to and serve nigh on a 1000 people at an event. We do this thing when we force feed ourselves when we are not hungry and we do the same with drinking – pouring drinks into our bodies because they taste nice or because of the affect that we get from them. We are effectively abusing our bodies with these things in order to control it, dull it and mask every thing we may feel.
Life is forever presenting us opportunities to evolve and yet we cannot if we find a way to ‘force our bodies into submission’.
I see around me a constant quest for new taste sensations, for the imperative to try the new restaurant everyone is talking about, to acquire the latest cookbook. I have a few cookbooks myself which are now redundant since having adopted a much simpler and healthier way of eating. Not spending so much time thinking about food has opened up other possibilities and opportunities in my life to connect to what is important for me to evolve.
Great point Patricia Darwish, when we keep things simple – we create more space and time.
Brilliant Joe Minnici.
Responsibility is so much more than a strenuous task or duty. It actually is equivalent with self-empowerment, care and love and is in this and many other senses a true revelation.
Alex Braun this is so spot on thank you for sharing this.
This is brilliant Lee as you clearly speak as one who knows what they are talking about. It does hurt when we feed ourselves with food to numb and drown out any pain, more so possibly than the pain we’re not wanting to acknowledge and feel! Without Universal Medicine, numbing and distracting myself with food would have been all that I knew, whereas now I am aware that it is possible to feel any inner emotions if we’re willing and they then do pass.
When we are choosing to listen to our mind we are disconnected from our bodies. This is when we believe we can eat and drink anything and we can’t seem to join the dots that how we are living and treating our bodies equals why we are so exhausted, emotional and get sick. When we connect to our body and listen to what it has to say we quickly learn what foods and drink we can’t consume as we can feel the consequences. When we choose to be responsible with our body it is amazing how quickly it responds.
When you start to feel the ramifications of food, it becomes apparent the responsibly you have.. Continue to eat them and feel affected, and so not feel great working etc. or not eat them and be able to work and interact with others easier. I like the way you have put this Lee- “Food has become a fashion”
Recently I had a bit of a blowout on food that I know does not support me – the thing is after I gave in to a craving based on dealing with an emotion (or more truthfully not dealing with it). It stayed with me for a few days – the push to go and eat it again and again. I did not but this shows how much when we give in to fix our immediate issue the momentum is there to push us under the bus and keep going.
So true Lee! I have experienced the same thing also. The cravings are harder to stop once you have given in, it puts you in a cycle. and the momentum of the cycle, as you’ve said, keeps you snowed under.
Lee you make some interesting points, the way we are with food and the choices we make around it more often than not are done without the thought of how this food or choice will effect us in the long term left alone the short term. As you so clearly presented many of those within the hospitality industry have chosen not to support their own bodies with true care, so what is the true quality of the food that we are eating? Choosing to be more responsible about the food we eat and the way we prepare food is something to deeply consider, perhaps too what your blog presents is the possibility that there may be more to food and the way we eat than once thought. Could food be one step towards taking true responsibility for the way we live?
It astounds me now Jade – but there is a culture that is devoid of true care and like a factory we produce so another can feed. No one discerns what the team are feeling like prior to service – it is all based on who is on top of their game and can keep up.
A great blog Lee, I work in the hospitality industry as well, I too have noticed big changes over the last 5 years. People are consuming more food on the whole, especially high sugar desserts. What people are truly craving will never be satisfied by food. It is beautiful to read how you took responsibility with your food choices to support you and others around you – very inspiring.
The other factor in this Anna is that in order to stay popular and open – many restaurants etc are trading on the bigger is better model. Cheaper meals that are bigger in size – everyone loves a big bargain, and this is driven by customer expectations – cheap, big, and comforting. With so many eating out instead of cooking these cheaper options are gaining popularity.
Thank you for sharing your story Lee, yes I am amazed how we have changed food and cooking into an art form for the senses and yet use it to numb the very sense we all share that allows us to feel our connection to each other and the the divinity we are.
Excellent point Paul and one that keeps gaining momentum as we seek further and further to keep us away from ourselves and feeling the agony of missing ourselves.
Interestingly we have so many foods that are there to tempt us in the moment, through stimulating our every sense. We have come to seek the relief, indulgence, satisfaction of in that short period of eating, with complete disregard of what happens next. It’s no wonder we then go to the next thing and the next to not feel the consequence of that first choice.
Great blog Lee, this is a clear representation of what state the world is in and it all keeps running when we don’t make the choice to feel who we really are and what we can bring in this world through all our unique expressions.
You asked some great questions here Lee, exposing the irresponsibility of the hamster wheel society believes it has to run in and the medications that sustain the illusion of not feeling the pain or the consequences of such a life…..so beautiful you chose to step off and claim there is another way.
In one person’s life there is always so much going on, I feel like so much more then just physically as well. Food has become a medication for all our dramas, complications, hurts, reactions… some may choose to not eat at all but others will choose to eat all the time. I know I have figured out how much I don’t want to feel whats going on in my life, when I eat and that will determine the way I eat and how much I eat. I think that as a humanity we are yet to make food and eating something that we have when our body needs it and only what our body needs. There is so much extra food/treats that are always around not supporting our bodies to be capable to live truly harmoniously, loving, open and truthful.
“do we use food, coffee, alcohol, as a distraction from what is really playing out in our everyday lives?” I love how you raised this question as this is definitely something I can put my hand up and say I do. When I feel like I’m having a hard day I notice how I will turn to food and eat more than I need
I have done this and sometimes still do – nowadays it might be another serve of veggies over a bottle of wine but the effects can be equally as stupefying. The body is so sensitive – we do not need ‘more’ – we dull ourselves when we take on more than we need.
To make such profound changes as you have done we need support, Universal Medicine provides that support in a loving abundance it is such a blessing. Thanks for sharing your experience Lee it is very inspiring, i would love to hear more about how those you worked with in hospitality responded to your change to a more responsible way of living.
Absolutely 1timrobinson I had huge support from Universal Medicine, my practitioners and those around me. Life can feel daunting and lonely – yet we still have to make the first step towards support for it to be there in full. We can’t just expect it to come when we need – we have to put the work in.
‘The pain of missing me, in truth, of not ever knowing who I was.’
This is our biggest hurt of all, thank you for exposing it so beautifully Lee.
Interesting to note that this is at the core of many anti-social and destructive behaviours across society. Why is it that we do not truly know who we are?
Lee, you feel so free in your choices now by claiming that you do indeed have a choice. I’ve always thought there was a stigma attached to responsibility and only old boring people were into it. This belief system is so capping and I can feel the power and freedom in taking responsibility for every choice I make and know that it truly does affect everyone else.
Me too Rachael Evans – responsibility was to be avoided at all costs. There is no way I was going to get responsible – too much fun to be had. Reality is none of the way I was living was fun – it was a constant roller coaster of emotions, abuse and agony. No more. Responsibility is the new black.
Beautiful blog Lee, it can sometimes feel a bit of an ‘ouch’ to feel all that is happening in my body is due to my own choices, but it is for sure very empowering. Also to note the positive changes in my body are also a reflection of the choices I make. Thank you for sharing, starting to make changes like you do in the hospitality services, is very inspiring.
I can relate to what you say Lieke about feeling the ‘ouch’. But as you say this is very empowering because we have the awareness the next time round what what truly happens in that moment and therefore a deeper insight to not want to choose it again.
Hospitality = Responsibility
Or so it could be.
I recall a very similar experience while working within the hospitality industry, it was as if it was a prerequisite in seeing how much you could trash your body and bounce back to work. I’d have to say this is becoming more of a common theme in many industries I have worked in.
Jamie, what you share is true, when I first joined the industry that’s what I felt, the hospitality is about late nights and indulgence. But in truth it does not have to be that way, I am still in hospitality, what I have found that taking responsibity for myself, has inspired the staff and even customers to take responsibity. Just that alone has caused, a shift and a change in our hotel. It has been confirmed and felt by staff and customers.
I love what both you and Jaime have shared Amita. Hospitality from a true way of living would be of great service to humanity.
I love what you share here Amita, your commitment to you above all can be felt and this is what is representative of true hospitality. We can make choices that serve all.
I remember someone saying to me a little while ago about food being a controversial area. We have so many beliefs about food, what’s good for us, what’s not good for us, eating a ‘balanced’ diet. We rely on information from experts to advise us and we use it to connect to our families and friends – it’s part of how we socialise. The effects on our body has never really come into it. I love that you bring this with this article Lee and how we can observe, honour and care for oursleves with what it is that we eat and drink. The fact that you work in this area is an added bonus. Your customers, clients and employees will all feel the deep care that you have when using your services.
Lee, it’s an incredible story to share, in the fact that a man who makes his living from food and drink can actually feel the truth about the impact of our overindulgence in these on our bodies. Thank you for be willing to lead the way in your industry with this truth.
Universal Medicine has been the only place in the world where I have come across people willing to ask these sorts of question about themselves and of life. What coming back to this blog has got me asking now, is that, if there is a love within everyone that is ready and waiting there for us to feel, experience and adopt as part of our lives, then why are we falling back on these distractions to top-up the avoidance of our hurts? It’s like having the answers to all our problems right in our face all the time, it’s like being thirsty and having a water bottle on your back, but not drinking from it. Thank you for this reminder Lee to be curious about life.
These are interesting questions to many people; “What would we do if our coffee were not available? Or the chocolate that we crave when things get a bit edgy is not there to fill the ‘gap’, settle us down and comfort us?” I am not sure if “food indulgence” is a worldwide phenomena or only in some parts of the world but in the part of the world I live (currently in Australia), it is definitely happening in a big scale.
I love your blog Lee, you have touched a very tender spot. I have used food as a form of comfort. I have fallen for this new food trend and feeling I wasn’t enough because I wanted to indulge in these wonder new café and restaurants, but knowing that financially it was not viable. It was interesting to feel into it and how I allowed myself to feel less and wanting to use food to patch up how I was feeling inside. In the past two years I have taken responsibility for my own choices and have changed what I eat, and how I eat, in a really loving way. I no longer feel the need to indulge or feel less about myself. I have been feeling so amazing since refining what I eat to support and nourish by beautiful body. I now feel full and amazing because the quality in how I live is now about listening to my body, my inner voice and appreciating who I am. I have been extremely inspired by Serge Benhayon, his family and people from Universal Medicine.
“a day that was empty when it could have been so full” this is so amazing Lee.
Interesting to ponder on why we treat our bodies the way we do, ignoring what we feel and thinking that the way we are with ourselves does not affect those around us. For me, part of taking responsibility for my choices includes looking at the effect my choices have on those around me and feeling how I have hurt myself and others through some of these choices. My body offers an amazing reflection of all the choices I have made, these days, I listen to it.
“The pain of missing me, in truth, of not ever knowing who I was.” Thats the biggest ill of humanity that we have forgotten who we truly are. The emptiness that was created by this is massive and if we don’t stop and assume the responsibility that we turned away from ourselves we will go on finding things to indulge in to not feel it. I was so lost and bored of life, even though I had a good and fun life, but I did not know who I was or what was my responsibility to life….. I was just living. When I met Serge and Universal Medicine life suddenly had its purpose back and with a clear purpose there was no space for indulgence.
I too felt the same Rachel. You have described exactly how I was feeling. I was living what seems to be a great life, but I felt a sense of emptiness. I also felt lost and bored of life. It was like I got to a great point in my life, but this isn’t it, it was like I was living my life on standby. When I was introduced to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine it felt like I have been re-awakened from a deep, deep sleep. Now I am ready to fully live and take responsibility for all my choices.
‘How I lived in every moment was represented in the very body that came with me everywhere. This was a revelation and is now an understanding that I live by. This revelation has given me the strength and power over my own choices to make fresh ones, ones that are self loving and that consider all of the people that I live with, work with and come into contact with everyday.’ What a beautiful reflection that is available to us all when we choose it. Thank you for sharing Lee.
I agree completely Helen. The choices we make in each and every moment are so important, as are the choices that we continue to make. Making one self loving choices feels amazing, yet what is the next choice we make? If it is not loving then what are we choosing?
Lee you reveal so much in your recounting of your experiences in the hospitality industry; and the word ‘industry’ says so much about what it has become. To cook a simple but amazing love-filled meal that nourishes body and soul, now that would be a wonderful offering, but is seldom found these days.
An amazing and inspiring turn-around Lee.
It’s so true Lee – indulgence is the new black and everything that is out there in the world is highlighting this – and telling us that we deserve ‘all these little treats’. For so long I was sold on this until in the end it only sustained for the moment. What it was doing was distracting me from all the hurt of ignoring what was underneath all the ‘need’ for these little treats. Now in Universal Medicine I have found a way of living that has deepened my connection to the real me and allowed me to begin to see that I am enough – I don’t need these little indulgences any more.
Responsibility changes ALL- thanks for bringing this up in this lovely blog.
Thank you Lee for your insightful experiences and the trending pattern of how people indulge. I eat in regards to my body, as apposed to entertainment or emotionally eating. I much prefer to prepare my own meals for myself and family.
How can we use so many things in different ways to numb ourselves? Aren’t we intelligent beings? Yes we are – but so far we don’t seem to use our intelligence properly.
I really enjoyed reading your article Lee and totally agree, learning responsibility is truly a revelation!
I love this quote Lee, “How can this all work when illness and disease keep on getting worse?” It’s very true, and why aren’t we questioning the way things are when our bodies are literally screaming for change? As you stay Lee, when you make the body the marker, truly healthy choices become easy. Thanks for the insightful and very supportive blog.
Thank you Lee, I find this article to be very spot on. There is much more to our relation with food, something we tend to take for granted as a simply extension of ME and my particular tastes, hence as something positive. The truth is that there is another part, how we use food to avoid feeling us in a highly refined and tailor made way. I go out of my way to eat in a way that I really love to produce another result I really love (not feeling me). A highly sophisticated numbing tool.
“My body was not a thing that I had to drive, drown and crush, but was in fact the marker for where I was at. How I lived in every moment was represented in the very body that came with me everywhere. This was a revelation and is now an understanding that I live by.” A true revelation to share in this blog, life changing and yes about self-responsibility. Our bodies do tell us so much about the way that we live, we can not fix it form the outside, it has to come from within, food and drink, cigarettes, over exercise, TV etc will not resolve the ache, honesty will – Thank you..
This is what I call inspiration for taking responsibility: “My body was not a thing that I had to drive, drown and crush, but was in fact the marker for where I was at.” And mix that with awareness for where the body really is at, then changes start to occur.
Thank you for your informative blog, it makes sense to stop and take care of ourselves and our body.
This is such a great blog Lee, and love your insights with your words here .. “What drives us to feed so much, so often and without any thought on how it affects our daily living”. And that an absence of responsibility indeed gives one a licence to not deal with consequences of what then occurs to our body. As I’ve experienced too, there is a marked difference when eating to support the body as oppose to indulging it with foods or drinks that reduce its natural vitality, that affect the way we think, behave, work and form relationships, essentially live life.
Lee your blog is so profound. How many of us really consider our bodies on a daily basis. I loved your quote “How I lived every moment was represented in the very body that came with me everywhere” I will remember this as I am listening more to my body, but sometimes I let it down still, but less than I used to thanks to Universal Medicine and the teachings of Serge Benhayon .
Top blog Lee. I feel that this line sums it up quite well, ‘Feels pretty average now, but no responsibility means at least for the moment, no consequences.’ Responsibility is key here and until we make the choices to take responsibility for our actions, there will always be a handy excuse for the ‘consequences’.