252 thoughts on “Food Has Been My Best Friend”

1. What we need to understand here with food is that it is not so much a certain food we hunger for, but a very particular vibration that this food will offer. As strange as it may well seem, we overeat, under eat or go for the foods that will not truly support us to sustain our vitality, in order to counter our ever increasing awareness as we evolve back to who we truly are. But this numbness is very specific according to what we want to achieve. E.g. do we want salty foods that make us harden and feel ‘protected’? Do we want sweet foods that make us feel racy and take us away from out innate stillness? Do we want damp foods that interfere with our connection with our divinity, or do we want foods that dull our awareness and prevent us from truly observing what is really going on? There is so much for us to observe and explore here without getting caught in the trap of what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.

2. Recently I listened to a report on an Italian family in Rome who provide cooking workshops in their family home, so that people get a real experience of Italian life which was much enjoyed by the participants, not just for the tasty home-made food but the sense of belonging to the family. From early on, food is very much related to how we feel and connect with people and thus it is no wonder that food comes to be representative of our emotional and social life. When looking at our food choices and behaviours, we also need to look at our unresolved emotional needs and hurts and the quality of connection we have and long for with people, otherwise working on food issues will always fall short of the much bigger underlying issue.

3. What we befriend in life is not necessarily our true best Friend.

   1. Very true, often is just what we need most to feel safe or comfortable.

4. Food quite often would feature in my day because I would feel a panic or overwhelm, and the comfort of the taste or texture was exactly what I wanted. And being honest about this, with out judgement or critique, but rather to simply let this play out as it will, has brought in to my life a great foundation of understanding, for myself and others and I have to come to understand that we simply all need to make our own steps and choices and really it is only through life experience that anything really ever changes.

5. Food is probably the single most thought about topic on the planet. Well maybe there are other topics too, but food is certainly up there. It drives us every day in the search for gratification. It has become much much more than fuel. Even 100 short years ago the food choices on offer were far less than we have today. Meat and vegetables were a normal meal. These days if you don’t have 3 different sauces, condiments, desert choices, and herbed bread something is amiss! With obesity on the rise it is definitely time to reconsider food in our lives, its role, and its true benefits.

   1. This is so true Heather. And have you noticed how in shopping malls the food hall is taking over from the retail outlets in terms of space and consumption?

6. This is such a wise observation, and amazing honesty here, for you to see how it is not what we consume, but our relationship with it that we need to look at. We can so easily deceive ourselves by swapping a ‘bad’ stuff to a not so bad stuff and think that we have somehow become better, and it doesn’t even have to be food.

7. Food – the ultimate and always easy to justify emotional survival self-medication. Food is probably the most accepted and used legal ‘drug’ in society. We are emotionally starving but gorge ourselves with food instead.

   1. Love this Alex food is probably the most accepted and used legal drug in our society. We use food for everything except what it is meant for, purely as support and to nourish us, not as an emotional crutch to numb us from what is really going on in life. Humanity are now constant grazers and gorgers, overloading their bodies to such an extent that obesity is now a very serious problem world wide and costing the health services billions of pounds in trying to cope with the illnesses associated with obesity.

8. I didn’t want to feel the lovelessness we express in life and from this reaction I can eat when I don’t need to or not eat for a long time, both an abuse to the body which is a resistance to feel our own preciousness.

9. It is the anxiety that I feel about what is going on around me, all the tension and the mental activity that drives me to want to eat, to be numb and to feel like I have some kind of control of the situation or at least of myself. And then the cycle continues where I lament the food I’ve eaten for comfort because it usually makes me feel gross, thus further cementing the belief that I actually have no control at all… But what if there was a different way? What if at the core of all of this there is simply an un-appreciated ability to handle everything, to be still and quiet amongst life and to not let what is imposing or confusing get us down? What if living with awareness actually meant living without anxiety?

10. I would have to say that food has been my best friend also. My new best friend is myself, where I care about what I eat and how it feels in my body.

11. No matter what I eat I can still feel lovelessness it can’t stop what is felt and it seems more simple to take the steps to return to love. When I want to eat lots I know I have things I need to say.

12. Thank you Danielle, I often find at certain times I rush through a meal and I feel terrible afterwards. It feels like I’m using the way that I’m eating to dull and race the body, even though the food is ok it’s the way I am at that particular mealtime that makes the difference.

13. Thanks Danielle for sharing this. I shed a tear today reading this as it brought a deeper understanding to my relationship with food. This relationship is far less complex than it used to be but there is still so much to unpack with it. It is still a strong go-to for me when I am feeling unsure, sad, angry, frustration or also feeling pretty good.

    1. I love this unfolding relationship with my body too Sarah every single step of it.

14. I could relate to a lot that was shared in this blog. I have days when I think about food a lot and plan what I am going to eat. Other days it falls into its proper place, a support for my body but nothing I need or crave. This all depends on how connected I feel and how delicately I am treating myself.

15. What stands out for me re-reading this blog is it is not the food per se that is the problem, it is the quality in which we bring to our living way in every movement and breathe in every day – e.g. how we buy food, how we prepare it and how it is eaten, affects how it is digested and whether it nourishes or bloats the body
    “For example, if I eat a healthy salad or an apple rushed or standing in the kitchen, or focussed on my work or my emotions or driving – or in any way that I’m focussed on doing something else, it still results in a numbing effect, or even bloating.

16. I am discovering that there is a ‘delicious’ essence within me…and within us all too…that is constant and does not need feeding. If I fall for the allure of a tasty treat, then it will often disconnect me from this innate deliciousness – and it is a high price to pay for a few moments of stimulation on the taste buds.

17. Food is an incredible source of comfort and even safety for many. When I go to conferences there are lots of people, and it doesn’t take long until many are looking for food or needing to have something to eat or drink. Understanding why we crave food so much is vital for our health and wellbeing…

18. I still don’t listen do what my body wants and override it with regards to food .. and other things. The question for me to ask with this is simple .. why?

19. Absolutely! I know so many people who have used food in the same way, myself included. It’s incredible when you realise just how much of a drug we treat it as. It’s an addiction that goes a lot deeper than society cares to talk about.

20. I noticed a lot of comfort eating in myself today and that’s why I read this blog. I love how you shared that nothing stops comfort eating, no strict regime or discipline no common sense nothing, only connecting to ourselves and how lovely we really are.

21. It’s great to recognise how we can feel hungry but it’s not actually always true hunger – as in our body may not actually need food in that moment, or not need the thing we are craving and by developing a deeper relationship with our body and awareness of our state of being inside we can be more discerning of whether it is food that we need in that moment (and if so what kind) or whether there is an emotional reaction there for us to reflect on and heal…

22. It’s a biggie this one, our relationship with food. It is literally killing us with so many of us overeating and it is crippling our health system with the rise of lifestyle related diseases. And it is such a personal one as well, as many of us eat as to not to feel and to dull ourselves from this world. This is why I adore Serge Benhayon so much as he is shining a light into this dark recess of humanity and asking us very directly yet gently, what is going for us that we are eating ourselves to death? And showing us a way of living that can lead us out of this – http://www.unimedliving.com/the-way-of-the-livingness.

23. The comfort of food – we’ve used it for so long and it’s a hard one to break. Once upon a time I’d eat chocolate eclairs, a packet of Tim Tams, chocolate bars and so on to try and fill a void or to suitably numb me. These days, I can do the same with almonds, apples and even cucumbers. It’s often not what we eat but the intention behind eating and the energy in which we are eating.

24. We use food as a distraction to cap the level of awareness we are cable of receiving; it is not just the quantity that we consume but also the quality in which we consume it in. Understanding this allows us to be more consistent in our movements to nurture our bodies with what is genuinely needed to serve.

25. When we understand that eating food either supports or distorts our awareness, our obsession with certain foods is seen in a whole new light. Are we eating to dull or are we eating to shine? Do we eat foods that support our evolution back to Soul, or do we choose foods that will thwart and delay this? There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to eat, just an ever unfolding path of discernment honouring where we are at and what is needed at this time so we can make the necessary adjustments to support the health and vitality of our bodies and this beings within in order to get the most out of this life.

26. It’s interesting, because to feel lonely and to need to numb this out shows that you are actually aware of the fact that we are never truly alone because we are all interconnected all of the time and so, loneliness is simply a decrease in your awareness and not the truth of your life.

27. I am finding the following situation rather interesting. On the weekends being busy and focused I didn’t think about food until it came to dinner – and a beautiful dinner was enjoyed. But whilst at work images of food keep flooding in, pangs of hunger wap me in the belly and I’m pretty much food obsessed.
    How come, when that wasn’t the case when I’m not at work?
    It’s so clear that we use food – at least I know I do – to distract from what we don’t want to feel. It’s the perfect satiating go-to for the comfort we seek.

    1. I can relate to what you are saying here Katerina, and I don’t want to generalise, but it would seem that most people are eating not to feel going by the obesity rates we are currently experiencing.

28. My relationship with food was very similar to yours Danielle, I remember feeling angry when I was feeling hungry and felt I needed food to get rid of that feeling of emptiness and irritation I didn’t want to feel. Now, I feel more at ease with feeling hungry and most of the time the hungry feeling was not true hunger, because when I sit with this feeling for a while I don’t actually really feel hungry. I found the hungry feeling is more frequent when I am not connected to my essence and sometimes it can feel like I am constantly hungry even though I have just eaten.

29. Really interesting point you make here that even healthy food if it is eaten in certain way can still make us feel heavy in the body so clearly it is a much broader subject than just the food – it is also how it is prepared, purchased, cooked and eaten that also matters.

    1. Absolutely Andrew. Its intereseting how all the things that lead up to the actual eating of the food is so often overlooked, when in fact how we are during everypart of the process before we eat is equally as improtant to look at and understand if we are to make true and lasting changes to our relationship with food.

30. I have really noticed how food can support my body and bring me vitality or it can drag it down and make it tired, bloated and lethargic or even racy sometimes. Being honest about how food really effects me has been a great revelation of me.

31. It’s so exhausting to revolve life around food! It takes a lot of planning, time, money and effort to make sure one is well fed at every stop, corner and completion of something. Perhaps that’s how we distract ourselves from feeling the depths of wisdom and beauty that is actually within – instead of feeling this we are focusing on food, our next meal and how we will get from A to B without a snack.

32. ‘Food has been my one and truly reliable best friend that is there in any moment that I need, to comfort and make me feel better.’ And you are not the only one who has this best friend. When I see how many places there are nowadays where you can buy food and snacks, how you can eat and drink something in a shop while you are trying on some new clothes, or buy other things that are in no way related to food. People are seeking to numb or reward themselves, to fill an emptiness they don’t want feel and it is considered normal to do so, that’s the most scary part I guess.

33. I’ved use that good excuse as well, that I need to have food on me because I can’t eat a lot of what is prepared at most shops and I might get hungry. Well what happens most the time is that I end up eating not long after going out just because it is there. It’s super powerful to expose how food is no different to drugs or alcohol if we use it to numb or dull ourselves or plain and simply hold ourselves back.

34. Oh, I can so relate Danielle to the meticulous and ever so impressive planning that I can go into about planning my next meal intake. If I brought that level of genius planning to all of life – well, I probably wouldn’t need to be so obsessive and compulsive about what my next meal will be…

    1. This is true Katerina and I notice how much time is required to prepare meals, then sit down to eat and clean up afterwards. By cutting out a meal or two through listening to my body would be supportive. Most of the time I eat because it is meal time or I have just prepared food for my family. But if I truly listen to my body I am not actually always needing to eat.

35. Had we followed the advice of Socrates, “to eat to live and not live to eat”, we would not have the plague of heartburn, indigestion, obesity, bloating, etc. that we are at present experiencing worldwide. We have turned food into a numbing device, into a reward, into everything we think we need it to be rather than nourishment for our body.

    1. That is exactly it, and now fuelled more and more potently by a lucrative food and restaurant industry that is lapping up on our obsession with what has become one of the smartest entertaining devices ever created.

36. We go to food for so many distractions, not only to not feel what is really going on, but we layer it with comfort and food that then doesn’t allow you to want to feel what is going on.

37. Food and emotions go hand in hand. If we really fed our bodies to sustain it our fridges wouldn’t be so full, we wouldn’t have frenzy shopping when there is a public holiday. It’s already started the war between the supermarkets as to who displays the first Christmas-y food and who allows themselves to be caught up in this? Once upon a time, I was until I realised how it had a hold of me, and then made different choices.

38. Food is probably one of the largest single issues in society. It has turned into much more than a way to provide nutrition to the body, it is a way of life, available at our fingertips, there to provide the solution to all our woes, or to provide a way of celebrating with friends and family. What if our woes could be healed by looking at them more clearly, what if our celebrations could be had by connecting with one another’s company? There is another way other than our daily lives revolving around food.

39. Danielle, my relationship with food is the same as my relationship with people, it’s developing to a level I had never seen it play or affect my life before. It is so easy for people to go about their life on their merry way to even consider the choices they are making.

    Your blog has made it even more clearer to me some of the relationships I have or had with certain textured foods and who would have thought once upon a time that it was because we didn’t want to feel what was coming up for us.

    Water is crucial but food we can survive without for a month or so. What I have started to appreciate is when I attend any Universal Medicine workshops, I give my body rest from breakfast and lunch and sometimes I can feel the stomach protesting. But when I have my evening meal, I appreciate it more instead of eating because the clock says so.

40. “Food has been my one and truly reliable best friend that is there in any moment that I need, to comfort and make me feel better.” Yes I have also begun to realise that my relationship with food has been based a lot of what you share here. But the question is – is that really the kind of friend we really want in our lives?

41. Well said Brendan, a great analogy.

42. Food becomes our blood and the the very cells of our bodies so in a sense whatever we eat is what we become and, as you say the food itself can come with an attitude, the attitude we are in when we eat it and the attitude of the people that have been responsible in bringing it to us and making it for us. No wonder then that our bodies react to these impositions with bloating, dullness, raciness, numbness, lethargy, excitement. Our bodies are very sensitive and, dare I say, sacred so when we treat them with the respect they deserve they blossam and find their own natural shape, size and weight.

43. We have become very clever at dulling ourselves with food, of course there are the obvious choices but also we have the subtle choices of food we go to in order to avoid feeling what’s there to be felt. Being honest with ourselves and honouring our own light is the way forth in developing a relationship with food that is true and supportive of our own evolution.

44. I could so relate to so much of what you have shared here Danielle, food has been my best friend also. Even when my body has been screaming at me to let go of foods that were no longer serving me, I would typically dig my heals in and eat what I wanted, just because I wanted to. Then I would feel the impacts on my body and usually they weren’t good. It has taken for me (and is still an ongoing process) to actually listen to my body and ‘lovingly’ make food choices and adjustments that feel self honouring and nurturing.

45. ‘I now feel how wonderful it can be to just sit still, with me, feeling a light body, not a sugar rushed or bloated body. So it’s crazy to want to use food to numb who I am deep down’ So true Danielle, it is so lovely to feel the clarity of a light body, and the vitality that comes with it.

46. Great read, thank you. Yesterday I only ate what I felt like and there were no snacks or emotional eating, and I awoke with no guilt. When I have eaten something the day before that I did not need, I awake with a sense of guilt. It is a fascinating subject to explore and I agree that it is only with Universal Medicine’s support that I am beginning to lovingly explore my relationship with food. I have come a long way (also lost about 15 kilos) and there is more to go, it is a loving work in progress.

47. It is easy to use food as a comforter, we all know exactly which foods to reach for depending on the situation, yet when we truly allow ourselves to feel what is going on, we are able to make more loving choices, which means we don’t need to reach out for comfort.

48. It is interesting that we think we need food to give us energy when so often it can sap our energy.

49. It’s possibly a big step for some to see food this way but if you have a look you will see there is more to food then just a meal. Look at when you eat what you eat, not as a pressure of even with the thought of doing anything else but just look and ask why that food then. I remember and still have foods I eat at certain times for certain things. If I am out and about, the end of the week as opposed to the beginning, the morning to the night, if you’re feeling lonely to when you don’t etc etc and the list and detail can go on and on. What the key is that you allow yourself to at least open to what is possible, not just with food but with anything. The more awareness and understanding you have, the more you allow yourself to see what is there anyway.

50. Over-eating is not necessarily grossly eating beyond what we need in order to keep evolving. It can be subtle as well. The subtler it is, the more we wrap around with things that appeal to us and our ideals, the less we can see the extent to which we are using food in order to dull ourselves and make sure we do not really feel ourselves. We use ‘under the radar’ techniques to support our decision to fly ‘under the radar’.

51. I am so done with food!! I can really relate with what you say when we plan our day etc around food and I have subconsciously been doing this for a very long time. I am now starting to choose to plan my day around love and service. Food is not the first priority in my life yet I have let this been so now I am starting to lovingly say no. As you so rightly said we use food for a treat, comfort but I would say this is the main reason we use food … not to feel what we are feeling or to dull our awareness ‘Not only do I use food as a treat or a comfort, but also to try to not feel at all’.

52. If we don’t judge or condemn ourself by our past choices it’s easier to be truly honest with ourself about what we have been choosing and from there have a platform from which to change. Bringing in more real love and acceptance of ourself gives us a foundation from which we can build more love in every aspect of the way that we live.

53. Thank you Danielle for sharing about foods and how they can affect you and certainly too how we can use foods as a means to cope with life and to bury how we feel. How sad it is that we have such a false relationship with food – why can we not have a simple honest relationship with food rather than use food and abuse it and in the process abuse and shut down our body? I have done the same and often catch myself still doing it. For example I will also plan my day ensuring I have access to foods that support me (this is a very caring thing to do!) but then I will over eat or stuff myself when I do eat. I also tend to use food as a reward, so I might end up stuffing myself at the end of a big day as a means of patting myself on the back for all that I have achieved! Once again, this exposes the type of relationship that I am creating with food, one that is not based on mutual love and respect and care for the body. Much food for thought here Danielle! Thank you for sharing what you have experienced and have been working on!

54. For me it was not so much about eating sugar foods and the like, because my foods are gluten, sugar and dairy free so no dulling from the types of food I am eating but i did notice the other day when I ate more food than my body needed how much dulling and numbing I felt in my body, so what was it I was not wanting to feel, even eating the amount of good food is some thing to be aware of.

55. I have always “loved” food and to be more accurate, I have loved using food to stop me feeling things. Its been a great way to distract myself from other things in my life. Lately though, I have really noticed how certain foods make me feel, it is actually a really unpleasant feeling when the foods are sugary. I feel it tingling in my head and rushing through my blood, I cannot think straight until it has worn off, its almost like waiting for a drug to leave my system, its cool though because I never thought I could quit sweets but it seems they are quitting me.

56. This is such a great offering. I have been noticing how I have been overeating nuts almost every day. I come home and eat my dinner and I am full, yet I reach for a handful or two of nuts. As I have already been exposed to some knowledge about our relationship with food so I try to look back at my day, and what I am finding is it is impossible to isolate a moment or an incident that would be the cause of that – a day is a continuous one big long moment that is how it is because of how it was the moment ago. It is an ongoing observation for me – the one that reveals so much about the ‘me’ I didn’t want to accept.

57. It is interesting how we use food to stop ourselves feeling what we dont want to feel, and how we can interpret what we call hunger, for something completely different. I had a day recently which started early in the morning, and was very full, to the point where I didnt actually have time to stop and eat anything until the evening. The remarkable thing was that although I felt a bit hungry at afew point during the day, I did not keel over and fall to the ground due to my lack of food, but every time I felt the ‘hunger’ pangs I had a drink of water. I worked hard throughout the day and did not feel exhausted at the end of it. This was a real marker for me, and showed me how much I use food often as a crutch to ‘keep me going’. Although there may be some days when we do need ot eat more often it brought a greater awareness of my own continual dependency on food, and that there can be a differnet way to look at the food we eat and the way we eat it.

58. We can survive quite a long time without food. I’ve questioned in myself whether what I associate as a feeling of hunger really is hunger. Or is that just what I think hunger is and have labelled it so? Perhaps that empty feeling in my stomach is not hunger. And does it really need to be avoided? Is that feeling really so bad, or is there more going on?

59. I can relate to your blog so well. I used to get very grumpy and even angry when I was hungry. I didn’t understand why but would eat to get rid of that feeling. Now I don’t feel like this anymore because my relationship with food has changed and I have developed more loving choices. I now eat to nourish instead of numbing and allowing myself to feel what is going on instead of ignoring it. It’s made a huge difference to how I relate to people close to me and this supports me to be myself more and more.

60. Love the honesty of this sharing Danielle… and the fact that you are seeing the ‘crazy’ nature of our use of food to numb, dull down, and/or distract ourselves from not only what we may be feeling at the time, but essentially, the amazingness of our true nature.
    The way you have described such a use of food leaves me pondering all the more deeply, how we can fuel an anxiousness within that is actually calling for us to become more still, allow the depth of connection with ourselves, and know that yes, we can be who we are in this world.
    It is the depth of our sensitivity that deserves honouring here and the most gentle and loving support, that we may actually make the choice to deepen, rather than go into further raciness or numbing behaviours that essentially keep what is there for us to embrace, at bay.

61. Our lack of contentment in life can’t be quelled with food, but the focus can be shifted elsewhere quite easily. For example, many people struggle with feeling uncomfortable in their bodies as a result of what they have eaten – and as a result, feel a lack of contentment within themselves and their body. If we don’t deal with the rawness of the discontentment from our day – we are faced with it as secondary level of discontentment which appears to be with ourselves, when it is in fact not us at all.

62. I totally agree food can be used as a way to comfort or trying numb what we’re feeling. I know my go to foods when my body hurts, or I’m really tired and they’re certainly not what I would choose to nourish my body normally. It’s become so obvious that the food I want to eat is a direct reflection of how I’m feeling within myself that day.

    1. Yes, I agree. It is so interesting to be aware of our cravings and understanding where they stem from which usually supports us to make wiser and more loving food choices.

63. My relationship with food has changed. I used to control what I ate and how much and as soon I let this ill-behaviour go I noticed a change. The change was that I was becoming honest with my relationship with food and instead of controlling food with my mind I began to notice the times in my day when I felt I needed something sugary and would eat it. I then began to associate the need with an overwhelming feeling that I couldn’t cope with what was in front of me and would reach out for a banana to make me feel better to try and fill the empty feeling inside which didn’t make me feel better but more racy and stimulated. Making a connection with what is going on in my life and food and my choice as to whether I take responsibility for how I am feeling is certainly supporting me to have an understanding of my relationship with food and as I become more honest with myself the more I can pause to reflect on what is going on within and around me.

64. I’ve started to realise how often thoughts of food come in. But I’m now starting to understand, through presentations I attend via Universal Medicine, that these thoughts aren’t truly my own and that recognising this means I can set them aside and turn to my body – a far more reliable indicator – for information on how and what I’m truly feeling. However understanding that the thoughts we receive might not be our own means accepting the possibility that we are fed thoughts from sources external to us that might not have our best interests at heart. This is a truth for me.

65. Weight loss programmes and diet plans are a billion pound industry that does not even begin to touch on the gold that you have shared here Danielle. Will power with food never truly works. Connecting to who we truly are does.

66. Food fuels our body and nourishes its bodily functions. That should be our primary focus of eating but in this day and age we are far more likely to eat for comfort or even indulgence which will always be at the expense of the quality of food we eat. In a world that obesity statistics are escalating significantly which in turn is putting more and more of a burden on our already overwhelmed health care system, this is something we all need to start to get honest about to change our ways.

67. There are many reasons why we use food and I can certainly relate to the many shared by Danielle. Having food as my ‘best friend’ is something that resonates with me. I make sure it’s always there for those times when I need it. What I need to feel into during those times is why it is that I need it and what foods I use and when? I have been away over the last few days and went without a few meals. Now this was not with the intention to starve myself – not at all. But just to observe myself, my patterns and what comes up. What I see is that being alone and being at home are the times when I ‘binge’ It’s relatively easy to not need my ‘go to’ foods when I am away. So the questions are how have I been during my day that I need to ‘binge’ when I am home and/or alone. There is also the thought, well no one will know what I am doing, so it’s ok. But this is not true. We may not be able to see what goes on behind closed doors, but we know that things are not travelling well with neighbours and friends etc. What I am recognising, certainly for me, is that how I use food and the foods I specifically choose highlight very much how I am during my day and how I am walking through all that occurs and how I express in every moment.

68. This article made me laugh as I remembered being a kid and saying things that are mentioned here when I didn’t get what I wanted. It was the same for my children and we all had our little tweaks we made to it. I can relate to a lot of what is said in this article around food and while we still get tagged into a debate around food and hunger this is not truly about this. This is about feeling and not about food alone; it’s about more awareness around how we are with everything and why some are placed on different lists to others. It’s great to see things written and down that bust myths around things and this is one of them. If we keep leaving the world to be as it is then we allow the ‘norm’s’ to walk to a place where the only normal thing about them is that there a lot of people doing them; there is no relationship with quality or with what is truly being done.

69. Using food as a distraction has contributed to the overall ill health we see in our world today. We have the knowledge of what foods are good for us and the portions of which to eat. What has been missing is the love of self and honour for our body that will support us to feed ourselves for vitality.

70. From a young age I have rushed my food, I would race to finish it as a child to make sure I didn’t miss out on a second portion and this pattern has stayed with me as an adult. Breaking this pattern has not been easy to shift particularly when I’ve spent the day disconnected from my body as I use the meal as a opportunity to numb the separation I have felt during the day.

71. The more we love ourselves the less we need to numb what we don’t want to feel.

72. Whilst our ‘go tos’ vary – the reason we go to anything that dulls us is the same – ‘I don’t want to feel’ and thus ‘I don’t want to evolve right now’.

73. An awesome blog exposing how complex and abusive our relationship with food can be. As obesity levels continue to sky rocket world wide, it is more critical than ever that we look at what’s driving us to eat certain foods and the way in which we eat food generally. Are we eating to nourish our body or to numb it from feeling what is truly going on?

74. Thank you Danielle for your sharing. Food is the downfall of many of us and I feel it will be for a while. There is also trust involved here where we need to listen to our bodies and the truth they reveal to us all.

    1. Yes, Roslyn, absolutely, trusting in and listening to our bodies and then honouring how we feel, even if that means not eating when everyone around us is. I know times when I’ve sat down to dinner not really feeling like eating, but because everyone else is, I find myself joining in, to take away the uncomfortable feeling from not eating. The more I override how my body feels like this, the more numb I become to what it is sharing with me.

       1. I have done the same Alison, I’ve done it countless times with cake or eating food which I know is not going to support me and eating when my body is telling me not to to block out the layers of anxiousness that I don’t want to feel.

75. If we connect deeply to the body and feel the delicacy and rhythm of it we would never think of dulling this with food of any kind. Could it be that we tend to dull ourselves with any treat we can find, and of which many are food? When this is true, this knowing could be a key to all the issues we in general experience as a community with life.

76. Food is a huge part of life for many people. I was observing kids playing recently and they were erratic and all over the place- they had eaten heaps of high processed sugar foods for lunch- a daily occurrence that has become quite normal. I was watching it and wondering- it would be crazy to see animals feed their young foods that totally knocked them about yet as humans we don’t really question it. We need to be asking why? Why is this normal?

77. “Food has been my one and truly reliable best friend that is there in any moment that I need, to comfort and make me feel better”. My best friend too and to be honest, now and then I allow this friend to visit me falling for the comfort it is offering me. I am observing the way I am with food (instead of beating myself up for my choices) or better stay with myself and why I don’t want to feel what is there to be felt at any given moment.

78. I recall someone saying to me that food is a controversial area, and I have to agree. There is so much information about food and diets, not to mention the vested interests in food that it is so confusing. What do we eat. This is good for you, that is not good for you. The only person that have ever talked common sense about food is Serge Benhayon in that our body is the guide that will tell us what to eat and what not to eat. I have found it a process over time and like you Danielle developing real honesty with food and eating and there is definitely more to how we are with food that simply nourishing our bodies. The truth is though our food and drink choices are never about our food and drink choices, it’s about our needs, what are we not living or choosing, what are we not expressing. Food and how we choose it and eat it is a great marker for us to see how we are travelling and how we are in ourselves and if we saw it that way, maybe we would see that we actually don’t have any issues with food at all.

    1. History has shown, it’s not in the interests of the “food industry’ to be honest about whether certain foods are ‘good’ for us, or not, or even what our daily intake should be for each food group. The only thing we can rely on to tell us the truth about what we need, is our body, it never lies and never judges. It’s up to us to stop and listen.

79. It is crazy on one hand to eat our self away from how lovely we truly are. But if we avoid our choices to not be that love, that never goes away we have to repeatedly numb ourselves. And from experience, the more we eat the numbing foods the more our thought patterns go from – ‘this feels horrible in my tummy’ to ‘I love this!’ It’s only until we break that cycle do we get to feel that our initial feelings have always been there (the intolerance to the food) underneath the mind that says there’s nothing wrong, just a little bit or ‘I can’t live without it’

80. The spirit is exceptionally cunning when it comes to finding ways to get us exactly what we crave. I recognise in myself the same kind of planning ahead, especially as food choices have reduced, and the same kind of crutch-like dependence as described here. I can feel as I write this my dependence on food is one giant distraction, a way of limiting life so it’s all about the next meal rather than what’s truly needed. Put this way, obsessing about food is a great way to keep playing it small.

81. Boy oh boy, what an on-target article this is in what it reveals and shares about the dynamics we attach to food! Food has been my best friend too, and still is, when it comes down to it. Loosening the attachment to food by accepting more of what I feel – the good, the bad and the ugly – is the way forward, for intellect (‘mind-set’) alone will not do it. The failure of the diet and gym industry to offer any lasting change beyond that which rigid discipline can exert attests to this truth.

82. I can so relate Danielle and it is great to bring awareness to the fact that what we call ‘hunger’ may not necessarily be the need of the body to eat but something else that is going on. The body can easily go without food for a day or even a few days, whilst the mind and spirit can not. So we mostly eat not for nutrition but for comfort and the increasing rate of comfort food in the supermarkets makes this truth very obvious as well as the fact of ever increasing statistics of obesity and diabetes, which clearly shows that we overeat.

    1. Like leaving your cell phone at home and not having it all day at work, there can be a panic or anxiousness about where am I going to find my distraction, my way out or comfort… just the same as if we don’t have our food on hand just when a ‘need’ comes up.

83. The effects of certain foods on my body is constantly surprising me. More recently I’ve noticed that when I eat sweet things out of an absolute need to numb something I am feeling, the next day my face is puffy and I look tired the whole day, even if I have had what felt like a decent sleep. Not only do I look tired, I feel a bit lethargic and all I want is more of the sugary fix to keep me going. It’s an awful cycle to be trapped in.

84. Food, food and the things we love to do with food. While replacing foods with ‘better’ varieties has been the push for many years and does allow you a different style of thinking and eating it’s still not the clear and full picture. What is food? What is it to be truly used for? Is it meant to be a focus or just one of many parts of something that is there to support and nourish us in a certain way. We are seeing many more articles about how we cover things with food, feelings, emotions, cycles etc all covered with food. I really don’t think you can ask the current food industry for the truth because there is too much at stake for them. Money currently controls food and in that we will always be fed the lie. Food isn’t what it seems as this blog is saying and settling for a better version of the same thing doesn’t mean it’s still not covering something. By all means eat lighter so you feel lighter but realise this is just another part of letting go of how we are with food.

85. How often we replace the words ‘I don’t want to feel’ with ‘I’m hungry’.

    1. Great point Kylie Jackson and something worth bringing awareness to! Honestly, most of us (in the wealthy countries) hardly get a chance to go hungry with all the food we are eating during one day.

       1. Yes, we can get in a ’tis’ about missing a meal or not having sufficient snacks on us to get us through the day and yet we can survive for something like 30 days without food. I’m not suggesting for one moment that we try but it’s interesting to feel our need to have food 24/7.

86. Honesty about our relationship with food is the first step in healing the ways we use food to numb our awareness and the avoidance of responsibility we all are being called to on our evolution back to soul.

87. Universal Medicine has opened my eyes to see clearly my relationship with food and how I use food to control life ahead of choosing food to nourish my body. I can become complacent because on the surface my diet looks quite amazing from the outside, yet the behaviours are there – the overeating to numb and the need for a treat now and again as a reward. So great to read your blog and feel what is going on underneath.

88. Such an honest and open blog that made me squirm in places as I can relate very well to using food as a best friend and a way to suppress what I am feeling. Even when I am eating really lightly and well there always seems to be thoughts around a ‘reward’ or treating myself in some way, but I am learning there is no greater reward or treat than feeling a lovely connection with me.

89. I could have written this blog myself, almost word for word. It is only with hindsight that I can see how much the food was used in my childhood as a high point, reward, comfort, or to make life sweeter and worthwhile. While my diet remained fairly ‘normal’ I didn’t realise how much I used food to feel or not feel a certain way. I am realizing that the focus on food is really a smoke screen to hide the feelings or behaviours that I don’t want to deal with.

90. It is interesting to observe how and when I eat. I know it’s often when I don’t feel hungry. I use food as comfort stops throughout my day and will sometime feel anxious if I don’t have my meals planned out for the day. I was inspired by your last paragraph. Rather than using will power to drop the excessive eating, I am finding self-care a great way to feel more of who I am so that I don’t need food to numb that empty/anxious feeling.

91. “Food has been my one and truly reliable best friend that is there in any moment that I need, to comfort and make me feel better.” Ouch yep! My ‘best friend’ too especially when I am alone I feel like having the right to spend some time with it. Yet my definition of a true friend has massively changed and someone or something that comforts me instead of asking me to look at my hurts and deal with them is not a true friend. A true friend does remind us how lovely we already are and recommends reconnecting to this.

92. It is very interesting to see how we use food. As we can clearly see in our societies many people eat much more that they need and developing obesity or any other malfunction in the body because of consuming too much food and all the while we champion ourselves as the most intelligent species here on earth but cannot stop this behaviour that easily. As you share in this blog Danielle, there are patterns in us that make us eat not because we are hungry but because food can numb our feelings and level of awareness and will make us unaware of issues we have to work on in this life in order to evolve in life.

93. Food is a fascinating topic as it something we all consume and generally are consuming in bigger and bigger quantities. We see it as a must and also see it as a way of celebrating. But what does food actually do for our body and do we really need the quantities the we currently consume today? Obesity is at very high levels which shows that maybe we are consuming too much, but why? I know for me as you have shared it comes back to trying to fill up something in me, trying to not feel a hurt or a pain – essentially food can distract you away from feeling what is actually going on. I have found whilst the few seconds in your mouth can fulfill the desire the feelings come back and so we only momentarily suppress them and prolong the angst.

94. It’s seems so harmless to just have that next last mouthful of food even when I know I am full and my body is done with eating, yet it always tires me out and makes me feel quite heavy – even just one extra mouthful. My body communicates loudly what is needed, and if I follow I feel light and vital. Food, what and how we eat etc, is an important conversation because the subtleties have just as powerful effect as do the obvious unhealthy choices like eating junk food.

95. Being honest about the relationship we have with food is super important in order to see if we are using food as a way to delay or suppress feeling the higher level of responsibility we are all being ask to step up to or if we are willing to make adjustments according to what our bodies truly need for our evolution.

96. This is really timely for me to read as with food I have been aware how I will let go of one thing that I will use as a ‘go to’ only for another thing to come in and replace it. This has been going on for a while and so while I ‘think’ I am letting go of something the truth is I am avoiding feeling something by using food. Just now before reading this blog I could feel in my body how I need to get to the bottom of this once and for all, lovingly so, so it no longer runs me. I am making an ‘issue’ when in truth an issue is not there. Which then brings me to what you have so beautifully shared that we use food in order not to feel everything that is going on around us. It also shows how food and certain types of foods can be addictive and in turn produce addictive behaviours – ‘Sometimes I get anxious or even angry if I don’t have easy access to the foods that I want to eat.’

97. I can totally relate to this Danielle – using food as a comfort and to numb what I’m feeling, but with the greater self-awareness that I’m developing from Universal Medicine courses the way I am with food has changed massively and is something that I can keep on refining…

98. ‘Eat light, feel light’, still the best advice I have ever been given regarding food, so simple and easy to understand.

99. Gosh, it’s as if I wrote this post myself Danielle. That ‘just in case’ stash is exactly what I’ve done in the past and still do to a degree. Eating out of boredom or when I feel stressed, anxious or if I’m in a situation that I’m having trouble handling, I reach for food as a comforter, and it works, so I believe, for all of 5 minutes,,,Turns out the boredom, the stress etc is still there shortly after, only rather than feeling it and dealing with it, I’ve delayed it a little longer. We are a funny bunch! How amazing though that we are open to observing these patterns and not accepting them as ‘normal’.

100. Our relationship with food is like our relationship with God. Sometimes we say there is a vengeful or nasty God that is against us or a God that does not understand us or has created the mess we have on earth and in our lives. Yet we continue to follow the belief that this God is true instead of listening to our hearts and feeling the true love of God. Food is the same, sometimes we continue to eat something that is not going to benefit us and instead harm our bodies and we know it so……. yet in our minds we think we ‘need’ it.

101. I find it interesting that we befriend something we use UNconsciously against ourselves.

102. Food has been and at times still is an important thing in my life. Planning my day and work around food, e.g. that I need to have lunch at a certain time without the option to have it delayed is still a pattern and I feel is not supporting me but makes me anxious and distracted from what is truly being asked of me.

103. My eating habits have changed significantly over the years. One change is that I feel to eat smaller portions that I used to. Recently I have observed that when I feel anxious I will go food shopping and still buy way too much. I feel settled when the fridge and cupboards are full but what happens is the food ends up spoiling and having to be thrown away, or I will eat it just so it doesn’t go to waste even though I don’t really want it. Something for me to look at.

104. I love coming back to read this blog, ‘food has been my best friend’, it is so true for me. It has been the thing that i’ve used to suppress expression and numb myself from who I truly am. It has been something that I didn’t deeply indulge in, ie. with cakes and chocolates, I was never the sweet tooth, yet, I still ate when I didn’t need to or over ate, this carried on for many years. It is only now that I am deeply taking responsibility for me my relationship with food, looking under the covers, what motivates me to eat and when, what do I do when I feel tension come up in my day, I have and always gone to eat something so to not really feel what is there to be felt. This is now shifting, but slowly, so allowing this to be an opportunity for me to go deeper within myself also.

105. Food is essential to fuel our physical body but the quality of what, how and when we eat it all correspondingly affects the quality of our basic bodily functions and our overall potential and actual health and wellbeing big time and this is a fact we all need to be totally aware of and responsible for.

106. Food is the ultimate drug in our current times, it enables a safe comfortable place for us to reside when the chips are down. It is a place that can be easily justified for being a necessity for survival and nutrition however at the core it is us not wanting to feel what there is to be felt.

107. It is great to contemplate how we can use food to numb or comfort ourselves when we’re not truly content with who we are… How gorgeous to be inspired by it being possible to feel that we are actually enough as we are and to accept ourselves and what we feel fully so that we can change patterns with food that do not support us to know this.

108. The title alone here “Food has been my best friend’ I think many of us can relate to, I certainly can. We can use food for so many things, to dull us, numb us out, take us out of our current feelings. To squash what is really going on etc etc…..the list could go on. The trap many of us fall into is not eating food for nourishment, but to check out or use the excuse we are celebrating, comfort eating and the like.

109. The way I approach food is constantly needing to be refined, and developed… and not listening to the communication from my body leads to bodily reactions that I never had previously. It makes sense that our body is the guage of healthy eating, and not in fact a set rule or food pyramid that can dictate what will or will not work for us specifically.

110. It’s as though we can become so familiar with the raciness, dulling, bloating and comfort of eating food in a certain way, that it can be surprising to feel how lovely our bodies feel without it. And it is not until we experience life without these things that we realise how far we are living from the vitality and lightness that is actually possible.

111. This is such a ‘timely’ read for me Danielle as I feel I am struggling with my diet. Your comment – ‘I’ve begun to see that I can eat gluten free, dairy free and sugar free foods in a certain way and it will still be comforting, cause me to bloat, feel racy, numb or not be aware of what I am feeling’ – this supports me to question what is happening because I am experiencing these symptoms and know although I eat clean food e.g. gf, df, sugar free, I am still using food in a way to numb myself and to not feel what is going on around me. Thank you for sharing your experience and the support this blog is already offering me and others.

112. This is so exposing… food is there as a constant background noise to let my issues play out: when I get overtired, when I’m excited, emotional, a bit down. There is a well known range of foods that will just help to take the edge off these feelings rather than simply allowing myself to feel them. As an alternative, if I let myself feel them then perhaps I can go making different choices?

113. Thank you for the great insight to how things are not what they seem with food or anything for that matter. I stopped eating gluten and dairy a long time ago but have taken up many substitutes that are similar. These things served me for a certain time while I was needing to come off gluten and dairy, but now they affect me nearly just as much, with the same side effects. With the risk of sounding dramatic I liken these substitutes to Methadone for a Heroine addict, it’s a great tool if it is what is needed to break a habit, but long term it has been a solution for me.

114. It is amazing how manipulative and crafty we can be with food. I have also cut out gluten, dairy and sugary foods as my body feels so much better without them yet I have found a way to replace what these foods achieved – a heaviness or a numbness to not feel, raciness to avoid being present and with myself…on it goes. If we really look at food with full honesty, there is much to be exposed.

115. Oh wow, your blog made me a little uncomfortable. I use food in all the ways you describe. I have known this but I kept my awareness of this in the shallow end and hadn’t been willing to admit how deep the issue really is. This is a fantastic blog Danielle – it allows for no hiding whatsoever.

116. Hi Danielle this is a great discussion to open up as food is a great way to dampen and dull, ourselves down and to numb and rev our selves up. To ensure a steady connection with our self and others it makes sense for us to develop a steady and loving relationship with our body and therefore with food. By trial and error I have found I can know exactly what to eat and when to eat or alternatively if in reaction or avoidance know why I am eating what I am eating. It is in fact a commitment to a conscious awareness that is not based on judgments of right and wrong or good and bad but on observation and understanding as I see it as an opportunity to learn to tune in to what I am feeling so that I can begin to face all I am feeling. I also learn what nourishes my body and what does not. The body certainly lets me know in no uncertain terms.

117. We can use food for a multitude of reasons, we can use it to numb ourselves, to be our friend, to comfort us, to entertain, to celebrate. It is interesting, when it is for the latter purposes, it can be under the guise of connecting with people and making it about that, but in actual fact, that connection always starts with us, how we are with ourselves.

118. It’s interesting to consider what we have used as our best friends through our life to help us cope with difficult situations. It could be food, smoking… or drinking, or drugs. All these coping mechanisms that stop us from feeling the truth. For me another method I have used to ‘cope’ is working. Hiding away in the office keeping myself busy and not having to really look at what is going on.

119. “So it’s crazy to want to use food to numb who I am deep down.” Great blog Danielle. I too used to take some food with me- especially when driving- just in case……In the Western world very few of us are ever really hungry – it’s what we crave and then choose to eat that can dull us or make us racey – taking us away from being the amazing people we really are.

120. Now that I have seen that almost every single time I have wanted food it has been a craving rather than genuine hunger (the body can go way, way, way, way longer without food than we think) then I can use those moments as alarm bells and offerings to look deeper at what might be at play. It’s super cool and I’m just beginning to develop a fun relationship with it. A zillion miles, like you, from what my relationship with food used to be. Thanks to what I have learnt through Universal Medicine.

121. I remember growing up the first thing I would think about when waking up was food and when and what I could eat, I couldn’t wait to have my sugar hit, whether it was chocolate for breakfast or very sugary cereal. This has completely changed now and I hardly ever feel that desperate need now, though there are still some mornings I can find myself upon waking up thinking about food, this just shows me where Im maybe exhausted or took to many things on the day before it can also be a distraction for not wanting to feel what is coming up for me on that particular day.

122. Danielle, your blog reminds me of the saying ‘Food for thought’ which has a different meaning when we realise that we can use food to keep us away from feeling and just think we are filling the physical emptiness.

     1. Mary I’d never clocked just what that saying meant before, and what exactly are we inferring when we say something is ‘food for thought.’ Thinking about it (pun intended!!) food has many similarities to thoughts, both take you away from feeling the truth of a moment in time.

123. Danielle, this is a great article, I have been feeling for a while that I overeat and that this can be for many reasons, I always want to have food close by and use it for something to do; to make me feel safe and sometimes if I’m feeling really amazing I use it to dull me, as you say ‘it’s crazy to want to use food to numb who I am deep down.’ Thank you for bringing more awareness around this subject.

124. A great sharing Danielle, and one I can relate to very well. Food has always been used in my life to comfort me in someway, letting go of this pattern in my life has felt empowering and has allowed me to feel a lot clearer. Still a work in progress as there are times I trick myself into feeling I need to eat something when in truth there is something that I don’t want to feel so I use the food to dull myself with.

125. It was so easy to compensate with food, especially convenience foods like chips and sweet things. I found it easy to look at most foods and harder to look at the patterns. However, it is something we can clearly look at, it is not hidden, it is clearly in front of us and a good place to start. A lot of our food choices are great and nutritious and it is also an area that we can appreciate how far we have come and appreciate the love and care we take with food and therefore the love and care we have for ourselves.

126. Food is such a huge one for us and all I can so relate to what you have shared. That food really does become our best friend. It is there for us when no one else is, we can rely on it, we don’t feel it lets us down, it is always there for us. But in those moments, it is always masking what is truly going on, so to get myself out of that momentum, I had to bring a lot more honesty to myself, this is a daily choice and commitment.

127. Danielle great blog for us to reflect on why we eat certain foods, opening the conversation like this and bringing awareness is the first step in healing the root cause to why we do such things. I know for me I eat a lot of the time for a reward for myself yet as I start to celebrate and truly appreciate me I am dropping more and more these behaviours.

128. This is a conversation everyone needs to have with themselves. We need the space in our lives to honestly look at what we are doing with food. We also need to address why most people do not feel great about themselves most of the time. This seems so sad and no wonder they don’t want to feel it. How lovely it would be if people could feel how lovely they are and appreciate themselves more.

129. Food is such a huge one for most people, to allow food to be a nourishing, healthy fuel for the body, as opposed to how most people across the globe view food which is for indulgence, snacking, rewards and the like. It is such an easy one to reach for to make ourselves feel better, comforted, happy. But none of those things make you feel better, empowered or joyful, food doesn’t make anything go away or to heal anything. It is certainly a daily and ongoing discovery relationship. Feeling into each day what my body requires, deepening my awareness, then being able to take more responsibility.

     1. Absolutely raegankcairney. Food is most people’s acceptable drug. It is the cheapest, most convenient and safest fix as well as giving a good buzz in the mouth and a numbing in the body, it certainly is a hard one to heal if we are not bring a deep level of honesty, love and truth to how we go about using it

130. I realise how much I have been catering for other people at my own expense. I have been buying food for when so and so comes to visit because that is what they like. Some of these foods are not foods I would choose to eat nor would my body thank me for. Less and less do I enjoin and partake of these foods with them and more often the foods are going beyond their sell by date or becoming impacted with ice in the freezer and I am having to throw them out. This is a waste of energy and money and am choosing to give up this old habit. If I just keep what I feel is true for me then if someone else wants something different in the future we can deal with it then. In writing this I realise I did used to live like this for a while, so why have I fallen back on wanting to cater for the world again? Something to ponder on.

131. Thank you Danielle and evamariafoertsch, I agree, I eat my only meal of the day at night and I tend to over eat and numb myself.

132. Absolutely Danielle, foods for me replaced cigarettes, and while I was using cigarettes I had the same addictions as you describe such as crunch, creamy, sugary/sweet, etc. So after stopping cigarettes I over indulged and put on weight. Now thanks to the presentations of Universal Medicine by Serge Benhayon, I no longer feel to eat in the same emptiness that I was trying to first fill with cigarettes and then food.

133. This is such a common story for so many of us, that there is an ongoing and continual changing relationship with food. I so agree it is not just about what we eat, but ‘how’ we eat it. The difference when you are standing up vs sitting down, eating in a hurry or choosing to be present and eating slowly. This is always an ongoing choice and bringing awareness to the process.

134. I overeat when I’m super tired so I don’t have to feel how painful it is in my body. Sitting at a desk all day struggling to stay awake is painful. But overeating makes me even more tired. I have also observed in my office that people do the same thing and have huge slumps not long after.

135. Deborah you make a great point. Will power doesn’t work, you have to feel it in your body and honestly and lovingly deal with the emotion that is holding you to ransom with that food item. Will power is just another emotion holding you back from the emotion you are wanting to avoid. So as soon as you hit a small bump in the road these emotions come tumbling down and you are worse off than before.

136. Danielle you have written a blog about me. I do everything you have spoken of. The road trips are a challenge indeed. I panic if I get into bed and realise I don’t have anything organised for tomorrow’s lunch. Who would have thought you can still use gluten, dairy and sugar free products to numb yourself. Our minds are magicians and we can turn anything into a rabbit if we allow it.

137. Love your honesty Danielle. I know when I am not feeling enough I go searching for food to fill the gap, which of course doesn’t really work, for I am really using food – healthy food of course – to check out instead of dealing with what I am feeling. No matter the food I know I am not supporting myself when I choose to use food in this way. I have found that my issue with food begins if I entertain the thought that pops into my head. The best thing for me is to cut the thought immediately before it has even the tiniest chance to take hold and then it’s gone, the more I do this the less these thoughts are occurring.

     1. I had this experience today. I was anxious at work and during my lunch break I felt like something sweet. As soon as I accepted that the sugar craving was an outcome of my anxiety the craving disappeared. When we are honest and truthful with ourselves we expose the lies we have been living.

138. Food is such a huge one…..I know for me it has been my friend, my comfort, my nemesis, my regret at times, my celebration, my ‘i don’t want to feel this’ so will eat it anyway!! It is an ongoing process to truly connect in and make loving choices, listening to my body and choosing from that love that is there. Having a consistency around that is still unfolding.

139. I can relate to what you have written about your relationship with food Danielle. It is something that I am now aware can be my ‘go to’ solution when I am feeling disturbed in some way in my body. As I am learning to recognise this, I have come to realise the choice I have in any given moment and the more I chose not to dull myself down, the more supported I feel with myself.

140. And that’s been a block for me, to ‘simply accept where I am’, especially if it’s a place that’s not so emotionally comfortable. Thank you for stating it so clearly, Anne.

141. I can very much relate to eating food to get going instead of feeling how tired or simply more fragile my body is. I have observed that without the food or sometimes just less food I don’t push myself so hard instead I stay more gentle and in rhythm with me.

142. Great blog, Danielle. My relationship with food, what I eat and how I eat food is still something I am working with. Without any effort I don’t drink coffee or alcohol, don’t smoke or use drugs, but certain foods can sometimes be very tempting especially when I don’t want to feel what I feel. I noticed recently how a silent fight between a father and his son in the room where I was, made me want to eat nuts instantly. Stay with what is there to feel and don’t go for numbing, reward or a sugar when I am tired is on my daily program.

143. Awesome blog Danielle and I can’t help but feel the truth from what you have shared that its not only food that we can use to numb us but anything can – from drinking alcohol to exercising too heavily, from getting caught up in the busyness or the dramas of life. The mind must actually boggle at all the possible distractions it can have!

144. ooh it almost stings to read this article because food had been my best friend for a long time!

     1. haha hilarious “same defensiveness as a drug addict”

        But it is true to a point, because as a society we only see food an issue if it leads to a chronic disease. We don’t consider food a vice to deal with our anxiety until that translates to a physical appearance of obesity (this is only 1 example). Food is a very big topic and one could say it has become a modern religion. I draw attention to the mountains of cooking shows and demand for hip coffee shops, gourmet street food and flavour transcendent experiences.

145. Your words “attachment to food” triggers something in me. I’m asking myself, when and with which food I still want to numb myself ? That is huge. I know I’m already complete before I start to eat, but sometimes I still use food to feel better. It is an ongoing journey with food for me.

146. What I eat is a very clear indicator for me of how loving I feel about myself – often I will go for a quick snack when I get home from work in the evening, even though I know I will be eating dinner very soon, and consequently eat more than my body needs and go to bed feeling full. It is a way of distracting myself, of avoiding how I am feeling and the responsibility of my days choices.
     The days where I come home and make the choice to lay down and rest for a few moments first, to check in with my body and how I’m feeling, sets me up for a completely different evening where the meal I then make and eat is far more supportive for my body; I don’t overeat and go to bed feeling nourished – and loved – by me!

     1. I agree, Paula. It is far more nurturing to take the time, rest and feel what the body truly is needing.This is an awesome blog, Danielle.. I know the dulling of myself with food and it is very healing to receive more awareness of how my eating patterns are.

147. Thank you for sharing this Danielle. Food as a comfort or a temporary numbing has always satisfied my sense of survival. My body needs food in order to survive. It is only since listening to presentations with Universal Medicine that I have become more aware of how different foods affect my mood and how my body really feels after eating. i have gradually been refining what and how I eat and listening to my body as to what supports my true vitality and what numbs me or makes me racy or lethargic.

148. Thank you Danielle for sharing your journey with food. I still use food to comfort me at times, I use it as an excuse when I have visitors or visit others and I take something along to share. I appreciate that I have a way to go yet before I can say I have considered what it does to my body.

149. Great blog Danielle, very exposing how we give ourselves away to food. I can relate to using even “healthy” food as a comfort or to numb what I feel. I also noticed that I do not necessarily use food when I am not feeling great or tired but sometimes also when I am doing so great and surprise myself with how amazing I am. It is still a work in progress and in developping this relation with food and my body, the signs my body is giving become more clear to me….

150. I love how you have exposed that food can be used to avoid life and not feel what is going on or who we truly are… and that healing this requires a true willingness to feel and accept how lovely we are. For it is when we truly feel and cherish this connection with ourselves we are less prepared to alter it with food.

151. ” Food has been my one and truly reliable best friend that is there in any moment that I need, to comfort and make me feel better. Not only do I use food as a treat or a comfort, but also to try to not feel at all, to not feel how tired I am or to not feel what is going on. I have learnt this from a very young age.” How many of us do this – or have done in the past until we have seen through what food is actually doing to us all. Given sweet treats as a reward can set in a lifetime of wanting such celebrations, thinking we deserve a treat. I remember being given a small chocolate bar every time I visited my Grandma – and sugar rationing had only just ceased in the UK. We are not taught the truth about what sugar and other numbing foods can do to us – our parents didn’t know either.

     1. So true sueq2012, food is ever present in all cultures as a form of treat, comfort and reassurance. We say we deserve to have it, but never question why we crave something that can be harmful to the body.

152. When I look back at my relationship with food as a child it did not set up good patterns to eat for nourishment. It was used as a reward, a treat, celebration or as a way to create a feeling of family connection. Never was food used to support the lovely feeling of lightness that is within.

153. I agree Danielle, it is crazy to want to numb who we are deep down. Our relationship with food really needs to be seen for what it is – and that is a relationship. Rarely do we just eat the food we need for energy and nutrients as food is associated with all kinds of other life attachments – like family, culture, tradition and religious beliefs. All of these things, plus the relationship with ourselves will govern what it is we put into our bodies, and whether that actually serves the vehicle we are living in every day or not. It really has been amazing for me to connect to my own relationship with food, and therefore deeper within myself. I have learned so much in the process and am constantly observing and learning still.

     1. So true Amelia, very rarely do we talk about the relationship we have with food, it is always talked about in a diet sense…..who is on one or who is not? what sorts of foods do we like or not like? what comfort foods do we like to eat and or to boost us up when feeling down. Instead of what you are sharing, what food we need for energy and nutrients and the like. It is truly an ongoing process to learn to feel into what our body needs and not what our head is telling us we need. Forever unfolding.

154. Whether we eat gluten free / diary free / sugar free or not – it seems to come back to the quality we are in when we cook and eat. Is the food there to nourish us and can we enjoy and appreciate the meal and how it supports us?

155. Yes it is crazy to consider that we feel how lovely, light and beauty our bodies naturally are and can be when we make the choices that support that yet we feel the comfort in trashing something so pure and precious as our body? Crazy!

156. I can relate so well to yours and Tony’s blogs having been a smoker for 30-40 years and used both food and alcohol to do all the things you describe. Like you both, through Universal Medicine I no longer need to numb myself and instead address what is underlying my feelings and love being with me. With deep, deep appreciation to Serge Benhayon and all those associated with Universal Medicine.

157. Great blog Danielle, and isn’t it interesting that with gluten/dairy/sugar-free foods that they can still have an adverse effect on us if we eat them in excess or if we are in a rush or do not listen to whether that is what our body truly needs. I feel I am learning at the moment to look more deeply at my relationship with food, especially with foods that I consider to be healthy – and it turns out I can trick myself into thinking that I can eat as much and as often as I like because it’s ‘healthy’! I’m realising that healthy foods can still be used for comfort or distraction and it’s a great start to look deeper into why I might want to use food in this way. Thank you for sharing.

158. Danielle, great blog, and one I can really relate to, food has also been my ‘best’ friend, my comfort, and what I use as both reward and to numb and I’m quite a master of it as many are, and you recount here. Now I’m learning to be more honest and to look at what might taste great in my mouth, or smell great (often), but which after will feel horrible in my stomach or make me racy. A question I’ve started to consider is does this food support the whole of me, or just my taste buds, and of course taking another step and looking at if I’m really hungry at all or just wanting to distract myself. This is all a work in progress, one I learn more about daily!

159. Danielle it is awesome what you are sharing here. This is something for me to look more closely at in my own life as I use food as a comfort and to numb myself at times. Thank you for the timely reminder.

160. Awesome article, Danielle and so true. I question if there is anyone who hasn’t, at some stage, struggled with food issues. For me food is a very effective form of sabotage. Once I am in the momentum of wanting to eat something that I know is not what my body wants or needs, I have found it’s very hard to stop. I’m learning to ‘outsmart’ myself and the trick is very simple, to be mindful of always choosing food that IS going to support me. To think ahead and ensure that I have what I need in the fridge. If I start to feel some tension brewing in my body and the idea of corn chips pops into my head, that’s a stop moment to question what’s really going on for me, what has led up to me feeling this way. It’s all a work in progress, but I feel I’m moving in the right direction!

161. Thank you Danielle for your honesty which has been exactly what I needed to read this morning as I have been recognising how I can still use food as a comfort and a way to avoid feeling. I really relate to always having to have food with me in the past just in case, and am gradually experimenting with trusting that I don’t need to do this now I am more ready to look at why I have needed food constantly on tap just in case awkward feelings came up that I didn’t want to deal with.

162. Great blog Danielle. Your sharing exposes how easy it is to substitute non healthy food options for healthier ones, but continue to use them to numb the body.

163. Such an awesome and honest blog Danielle – I really love coming back and allowing myself to be honest in how I too use food as my sly best friend. Yes this friend is always there ready to comfort me, but the consequence of this is me loosing out on connection and feeling anything at all. Through using food in this numbing way we rob ourselves of understanding and growth and clarity to change or feel what is needed. Thank you for the inspiration.

164. Amazing and awesome Danielle. Isn’t it funny, really funny, how often, and food is a great marker for this, that I make myself less with food. It’s a daily “chore” to make myself less !! Why ?
     Instead of, if I have purpose to be more in my day, and to do my best to stay feeling great, and keep confirming this greatness or know if something has come up to feel, to deeply honour my body and support it with the right food to be able to accept and / or let go of much easier.

     1. Very well said Rik Connors, that is exactly it, in this way we can actually support our body with everything that goes on and with what we are feeling. To keep on serving our body to life it the greatest healthy, vital and joy-ous way! And to stop slowing it down!

     2. Wow Rik, I really relate to the daily ‘chore’ … it’s an undercurrent, a relatively unconscious mission from a part of me to undermine and minimise myself. Thank you indeed for writing these words … has started a deep pondering in me.

     3. So true Rik! We often use food to dull ourselves from feeling what’s truly going on (which can equally apply to ‘healthy’ food) instead of using it in a way that allows us to actually feel and ‘be’ more. How many other things do we use – such as exercise, hobbies, work, relationships etc – in the same way? It really does highlight that it’s not necessarily the food (or exercise etc) per se, but how, when and why and to begin to observe these details much more closely.

     4. You’ve touched on something here Rik that I have not appreciated before. I can feel foods that are dulling even if they are considered ‘healthy’ if its from a basis of numbing then it will numb regardless of what it is. But the bit that jumped out was – feeling into foods to support us with what we are feeling to either accept or let go. Thank you.

165. First thing that comes to mind is the cookie monster…. How crazy he would go for cookies!! Reminds me of how quickly we can go for something when things aren’t working out the way we want.

166. I agree, I can also relate so much to this. I truly loved what you shared, it’s been very inspiring.

167. I can so relate to what you say here, Danielle. This was such a timely read. Refining my relationship with food is an ongoing process for me. I am very inspired by your honesty. Thank you.

168. It was awesome to read the detail and depth and honesty you share around your relationship with food Danielle thank you. Last night I came home feeling amazing, connected to my love and heart, and noticed that it was difficult to stay with myself in that expanded feeling whilst I was alone, and then ate just a bit too much supper to dull myself down, how strange is that, not wanting to feel amazing.

169. Wow it’s amazing how we know exactly what foods to go for to numb or reward ourselves with. When everything is going really well for me and simply flowing I can easily over eat or eat in nervous energy to take me away and make an issue = how crazy is that- learning not to do this is just a choice to affirm the true me.

170. Yes I agree Elodie and Danielle, it is not only the food itself for me as well. It is the way I eat that has an effect on my body and because I am often in a hurry when I am eating my stomach presents to me that it does not like it, but I ignore it – that is crazy.

171. Thankyou Danielle. I too have and still do use food as a reward. The reward is eating it itself, now I may as well just be eating mars bars and cake if I’m going to eat like that. But I too have experienced a true difference in eating. The impulse is to only eat to nourish our bodies and every mouthful is taken already in fullness.

172. “At the end of the day I feel I have eaten in a numbing or comforting way because I have not been content with myself and who I am.” As mentioned in previous comments, it isn’t about the food per se, but the underlying emotion. When I am feeling content with myself, I eat less and eat better quality foods too.

173. That’s so true Danielle. When I used to focus on the actual food, it became more about ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ and never dealt with the underlying cause for why I was eating the way I was eating….which was often from an anxiousness or sadness, using food to dull or stimulate. Always taking me away from what I was truly feeling and actually dealing with the hurts and lack of self worth. Today, I am much more loving with my relationship with food, because my relationship with myself is more loving – but I can still be distracted while I eat at times or over eat on Kale! There is always more to refine – great reminders to bring even more awareness and presence to how I’m eating. Thanks Danielle

174. So often we make it about the food or over eating even when we know before we have eaten something whether or not it is suitable to be eating that food at that time in that quantity – or not. Recently at a Universal Medicine event it was presented it is not the abuse with food per se that is the problem to solve but rather to feel beneath this and discern what is energetically at play. Often I would rather focus on the food I have eaten as the problem rather than understand the truth.

175. Many adults become very grumpy when they are hungry and behave like children (you are not alone, Danielle). We are always surrounded by food (in this part of the world) in this day and age and many people (myself included) have never experienced food shortage as such. As written by Danielle, we really need to feel into how much of what food our body is wanting and why our body is wanting that food.

176. Great blog Danielle, I can definitely relate to using food as a way to not feel what is truly going on for me – from extreme fasts and diets to overeating or indulging in foods that would make me feel pretty sick, bloated, dull or racy afterwards. I also used to carry ‘healthy’ snacks in my bag all the time too – just in case I might faint from hunger! 😉 My diet has changed a lot to allow me to feel more ‘myself’ and I know there is still more to go.

177. I have come back to this article at an interesting time as I experiment with what it is to be hungry, I am much more aware now of when I am just tired and use food to pep me up, as opposed to being truly in need of food for nourishment. When I override the false thoughts of hunger I often find my energy increases and I am better able to deal with my tiredness and have a productive day. Thanks for writing this blog Danielle, I relate to it strongly as someone who played a lot of sport and associated constantly eating food with bulking up and performing well, now that no longer sounds very healthy to me.

178. Thank you Danielle. The first time I read this article (when it was first published) I remember finding it very confronting. I was hoping I could follow a bunch of ‘rules’ about food and keep using it to comfort and numb. I am now allowing more honesty when it comes to food and really enjoyed reading this with fresh eyes and lived understanding.

179. Thank you Danielle for sharing. I can really relate to how you were planning when to be able to eat in the day and what. I also eat gluten, dairy and sugar free but have a quite strong need for food at times. This is changing at the moment though, I feel more space and less control in having to have my food at all times around. Sometimes when I feel my food is not full filling me I go like ‘oh I must be missing me, the most important ingredient!’

     1. Love it liekevanhaastrecht ‘oh I must be missing me, the most important ingredient!’

180. Brilliant article Danielle. Deepening my honesty and awareness with food has been an ongoing process in unraveling the emotions that have been driving me to eat certain foods and in a certain way. And revealing that this is done to simply numb, not want to feel or be honest about the truth of who I am, what I truly feel and what I know. I agree – ‘So it’s crazy to want to use food to numb who I am deep down.’

181. Very interesting Tony, ‘anxiety was not wanting to feel what I was feeling’, I have only recently made the link between anxiety and food, particularly nibbling on those nuts when I don’t really need them and in truth my body doesn’t want them. It’s an ongoing exploration and observation process in order to get to know myself at a deeper level. I am now starting to feel the extent I have used food to comfort me although this is not obvious because I am neither a big eater, nor have weight issues, but I still rely on food in untrue ways.

182. Thank you for writing such a clear description of what is very known to me, it is indeed crazy to feel that I sometimes just wonder why I need to eat a food to numb myself.

183. I find it also interesting Danielle what you describe from childhood and what I know from our youngest daughter that we really train ourselves to always have food. And there is this whole belief system around it that kids cannot be hungry and if they are hungry they have to eat immediately. Our kids have gone without breakfast to school, because they messed with the time and could not prepare anything and thats like a big “how can you do this, let them go without breakfast” but they learned from it and assume responsibility now.

184. I love this blog, its so great to look at what we do to ourselves with food. It reminds me of our youngest daughter. I would always carry tons of snacks and food around, because she would ask for food every half hour until I stopped one day and said no. It was pure anxiety. I was never a big eater so I thought food wasn’t an issue for me, but when I stopped eating anything, I realized that I too had an issue with being hungry and that it was related to not wanting to feel me and that I used food, even in little amounts, to numb me. As you said Danielle, as it is difficult to find something to eat when out, I would always have something with me just in case, but a couple of months ago I stopped this and I have my breakfast and then I leave without thinking about food and when I get hungry, so what, have a sip of water and wait till the next meal.

185. Great reflections Danielle. Yes, I can so relate to how and what I consume as a medication to feeling anxiety or feelings of loneliness or not comfortable with a situation. Or Just plain boredom or just that I feel great. I too have food always at arms length, which is interesting to reflect the neediness to food.

186. Lovely Danielle, I have also had such a struggle with food and needing it to be close. I was at ten pin bowling the other day and looked over at a family that was there beside my lane. Each of them had chips they were munching into, watching the bowling that was happening in front of them. I had to stop and watch them for a few moments because they were all so fixated on the bowling yet shoving these chips in their mouths. It was shocking, and like they were on auto pilot, not actually even tasting what they were eating or enjoying what they were eating. It was like they were just doing it automatically, just for something to do. It reminds me when I used to go to the movies and sit there watching the movie meanwhile shoving pop corn in my mouth as much and as quick as possible. It’s so dishonouring for the body to do this and as you so beautifully share, it numbs out how we are actually truly feeling.

187. Thanks Danielle , it is definitely something I can relate to, in how we use food to numb and distract and to try and quell our nervousness, and the importance of taking our awareness to where we are when we need that food fix, so we can eat in a better way instead of just out of reaction .

188. I love your blog Danielle, I can totally relate to it. I have never used drugs, alcohol or cigarettes to numb. But I recently recognise I use food to numb and not feel. I also get agitated and even angry when I was hungry so what does that mean? I then eat to not have to feel those emotions and then think I am ok again after eating. It didn’t matter what food I ate I just needed to each no matter what. Interesting for me to look into how I feel when I am hungry and explore any emotions that may come up, I can then accept how I feel and then let the emotions go. Slowly I can develop a healthier relationship with food and not come from a place of panic and neediness with food. Thank you Danielle.

189. Thanks Danielle great article. As I read along I was thinking, ‘that is so me, that’s what I do!’ I also eat gluten and dairy free but have found a way to use these foods as a comfort if needed. I always take food with me, and yes it’s really supportive to plan ahead but a part of me wants to know there’s food on hand just in case I feel bad. Very revealing! This has left me much to ponder on, thank you.

190. Upon reading this again I had a memory come up for me; I was around 6 years old at a friends house who’s parents were too busy to make us lunch – I asked and begged my friend to get their parents to make something but to no avail. I ran home (up the road) as my need for food felt life threatening and sat in the outdoor cupboard eating the dry dog food biscuits until my mum came home! The dog food actually gave me the comfort I needed at the time yet I was crying and feeling victimised by the means I had to get it.

191. Thanks Elodie and Danielle. What I have found out for me is that it is not only about how I am when eating, but also very much about how I am when preparing the food that will greatly influence how it feels in my body. For example when I am happy with myself and take the time to lovingly prepare my food it is always absolutely delicious, feels light and easy and only does nourish, but never makes me tired or anything like that.

192. I can relate to that Danielle, that I feel obsessed about eating and that I tend to plan my day by the moments I can eat instead of eating when I feel I am hungry. I can feel that eating in this way does not nourish me at all but it only makes me a lesser me using eating moments to keep me restricted and to build stress in my day.

193. Great post Danielle. I too have come to see that there are many things that I can do to numb or dull myself, to not feel all that there is to feel. When I gave up alcohol and drugs while an awesome thing to do and a life changer for me, I turned to food and used it as a replacement. As I refined my food and no longer ate things that did not support me I still found a way to use food and get the same reactions in my body that I always have. It is really not about food or anything else we may use. It is as you have said all about how we are with ourselves and how willing we are to stay with ourselves.

194. It has been a great realisation for me that although it is preferable to eat certain foods for me(Dairy, gluten and sugar free) that these foods can also cause a dullness or heaviness in my body if eaten the in a certain way. This highlights for me that it is the energy in which I buy, prepare and eat this food which can cause the adverse symptoms in my body. I agree Sandra, it s about dealing with the hurts and reasons we need the comfort of food. Great reflections, Danielle.

195. It’s interesting when we realise that we use food in exactly the same way as we use cigarettes, drugs and alcohol – to numb or comfort ourselves and ultimately keep us separate from who we truly are. Getting honest about why we are eating certain foods can be challenging, but when we eat in a way that nurtures the body, the results are worth the attention we give this important part of our daily lives.

196. I can really relate to what you’ve written Danielle and love reading other people’s comments too. I have made some huge changes in relation to food as I was once a big comfort eater … cheese, chocolate, cake – the works. Now if I ate any of that I would be crippled with stomach pain. I’ve come a long way in dealing with the issues underlying the comfort eating, and the more I let go of old hurts and go deeper with my own love, the less I overeat or comfort eat.

197. I love that you have exposed that even a salad can be numbing or leave you bloated (depending on how you have eaten it)… It just goes to show that our bodies respond to so much more than food alone.
     Food is simple – most of us know what is good for us, and yet we don’t always eat this way. Most of us know when we are hungry or full, and yet we don’t always let this determine how much we eat. Most of us know what foods we react to, and yet, we may still eat them…? So what is going on? Clearly there is more at play when it comes to food. There is something else driving our choices – whether it be to ‘pick us up’, to dull us down, to reward or comfort, to maintain a certain look or body shape, or to avoid dealing with those underlying issues… our relationship with food is often far from healthy. Is it any wonder that we have an obesity epidemic, and eating disorders of all sorts?
     Our relationship with ourselves is the key to making food simple again. Thank you Danielle for sharing so honestly.

     1. Great comment Kylie, I completely agree, It is the relationship I have with myself that determines my food choices. The more I appreciate and deeply care for myself the more my food choices reflect that way of being. If I am in disregard, then my food choices change and I am no longer taking that same level of care in what and how I am eating. With this understanding, it makes me realise how simple food (and life) can be.

     2. Awesome Kylie, all so true and exposing to feel. Thank you!

     3. True Kylie, food has become overcomplicated and most of us have a complex relationship to it. Observation and self-care is the way to go, as you say, building our relationship with ourselves to bring clarity and simplicity to our food habits. It’s an ongoing process, with subtler layers being revealed the more we pay attention to what we are doing, and why, around food.

198. I too can relate to having ‘food issues’. I take far more time to prepare food ahead of time now so when I get home and really need to eat, there is something waiting for me, which stops me from wanting to grab something that’s quick and easy, but will not nourish me in the same way. It seems that people are always commenting on my lunch and how it looks ‘so yummy’, I keep saying, it’s as much about taking the time to prepare something delicious for yourself as it is about the food!!

199. I can certainly relate to issues around food, so thank you for bringing attention to this topic, Danielle. It’s ridiculous how my brain has made so many excuses and reasons to eat foods that are not good for my body. I find that as my awareness develops, so does my relationship with food develop and change. It’s also interesting to read how you experience that it’s not only WHAT we eat, but also HOW. Makes perfect sense, and it’s time to go deeper.

200. I’ve found that even though my diet has changed dramatically from what it was a few years ago, food can still be a comfort in more subtle ways. Those gluten free, dairy free, sugar free desserts that we occasionally have as a ‘treat’, but don’t really need, and suffer from afterwards. I need to feel into the foods all the time and make changes according to how my body is feeling, even though I may miss the yumminess of them.

     1. Hi Peter, I can so relate to: ‘ Those gluten free, dairy free, sugar free desserts that we occasionally have as a ‘treat’, but don’t really need, and suffer from afterwards’. Yes, and the trick is for me anyway, is that oh I can have it, its gluten/dairy/Sugar free, it’s okay to have a small treat now and again… it is the exact same energy as eating a big slice of chocolate cake, because I’m still eating it for a ‘treat’ and for the comfort it brings.

201. Danielle, I can so relate to your using foods to numb, distract and comfort, (particularly so with a past history of bulimia) and to the very subtle ways we do this as we begin to explore our relationship with food on a deeper level. As you say, we can rule out certain foods but then it becomes about how much we eat, or why and how we are eating it. We can prepare a nourishing meal for ourselves and then eat it totally absent, or at a time when we do not even need to eat. Hence still using it to numb, distract and or comfort. Food is a drug not unlike cigarettes as you say – plain and simple. BUT, the reality is that we need to eat to stay alive, so it then becomes all about how we use it!

     1. So true Anna. I smoked when I was young and when I gave it up, I moved to using food for comfort.

        1. The same as well Sandra. These are one and the same, just tools to suppress and numb us, to take the edge off of life. They look different and impact the body differently, but they are used for the same purpose.

202. Yes Danielle, food and diet is huge when we start to listen and feel how it passes through in our body system, and also why we want/need certain foodstuffs. Your words….”I now feel how wonderful it can be to just sit still, with me, feeling a light body, not a sugar rushed or bloated body” are so true and relatable – when I overeat or eat in a rushed or emotional way, or with ill thought/conversation even, my body tells me ‘no’ and reacts with really sharp tummy pain or bloating. But it’s this reaction and pain that has brought greater awareness to refining my diet and make different choices about foods/way I eat and equally how I am in relation to myself – with abuse or appreciation.

203. Thank you Danielle, since attending Universal Medicine I have learnt to be honest and take responsibility of my relationship with food. I too was a food fanatic, and would eat tons under the illusion that it was “healthy food” never really wanting to stop and ask why I was feeling bloated most of the time or what was going on for me in my life that I did not want to feel and so I would turn to food to numb myself. I now have a different relationship with food, where I make time to prepare and choose to be present in my body as much a possible so I no longer overeat as I have learnt to listen to my body when I have eaten enough or when I need to change certain foods as my body no longer needs them and still enjoy the yumminess of it.

204. When I was 12, I started gaining weight. Not really much but clearly so. I remember my favourite phrase at the table: I used to ask ‘what is to be devoured?’ I do not remember using my teeth. Just eating the chunks and send them directly to my stomach to fill me big time. I used to finish eating in a couple of minutes. The hurt of feeling emptiness killed me. Based upon dealing with my needs, I could also say, food was my best friend, but in truth it was not.

205. Honesty for me is a great key to my diet. I used to be disciplined with foods, these days I allow myself to be more honest than disciplined. My diet is not perfect, never was, but I learn to be honest about it.

206. “Not only do I use food as a treat or a comfort, but also to try to not feel at all, to not feel how tired I am or to not feel what is going on. I have learnt this from a very young age.” Those could be my words exactly. I’m so appreciative to Universal Medicine for offering the support and wisdom for me to look closely at my relationship with food. It is a daily learning as I deepen my relationship with myself and come to accept the lightness and exquisiteness of me as entirely natural and normal. Still at times find myself eating for comfort. On those days I can feel so clearly in my body a sense of heaviness and fog but I no longer beat myself up for the choices, just allow myself to feel the ‘why’ I chose foods that don’t support me to be love.

207. The term comfort eating has been around for a long time and used in the last few years, particularly with weight loss shows and the damaging consequences it can have to our health. Your article adds a whole new depth to the term. Just because it’s healthy doesn’t mean we don’t use it for comfort. When food is used for comfort, we will cause harm to our bodies because it simply doesn’t need the quantity or type of food. Putting something where it doesn’t belong always causes disruption and chaos.

208. Than you Danielle for sharing. I too relate to much of what you have written, for me the sweet, crunchy as in biscuits and crisps and of course chocolate were the foods I went for too. Thanks to Universal Medicine my awareness around food has changed a lot and continues to do so, as I listen more to my bodies guide and care for myself.

209. It’s interesting to come back and read this 2 years later and feel what has developed and what hasn’t. The great news is that many of these behaviours with food, have completely stopped! Resulting in no longer feeling controlled by food – or would it be more honest to say no longer controlling my way with food. It’s also interesting to note that there are other insidious patterns, more refined, that I did not see the first time. So I see that my relationship with food is in for ever development and change, as long as I am!

     1. Wow I love what you have written here Danielle, in that it builds upon your blog and shows we all have an opportunity to be in “for ever development” with food. There is always more we can feel and refine.

        1. Absolutely Jade, I’m amazed at one day I recognise something that’s not loving with food, and make a loving change, only to find out a few months or even few weeks later that the loving change is now not loving, and another loving change needs to be made – truly amazing and it’s such a joy to constantly refine.

        2. Thank you Jade and Danielle; there is great inspiration here and truth about observing our ever deepening relationship with ourselves and food.

     2. So True Mary, most people either force the change, in a way that is totaly out of sync to what is needed, or they resist it.

210. I have been playing dumb to this very simple understanding you offer Emily. Wondering why I am still bloated or hazy after eating chicken soup. ‘So I can’t even enjoy that anymore’!
     But as you say, its more then the food; its the why and how I eat too.

211. My goodness Danielle it’s like reading an exert from my life! I can relate to everything you have shared and exposed in this blog. Thank you! I will read this many times as I know there are more layers, I do not yet want to feel.

212. Danielle I can relate to using food as comfort, even though my diet these days does not compare to the comfort foods I used to indulge in years ago. Recently I had the clear experience of being in a meeting where an indulgent brand of chocolate biscuits was on offer. For the first time in years I wanted to have one, but the desire was not coming from my tastebuds – I was not even salivating – but was a definite desire to squash down the emotional discomfort I was feeling on the day. Because I understood this fact (from attending Universal Medicine presentations) I was able to allow the discomfort of the feeling and allow myself to get to the underlying issue at play.

213. Thanks Danielle, it has also been my experience that “Universal Medicine has shown me a way I can choose to reconnect with myself and love who I am from the inside out. “. It’s still a work in process, and continuing to be honest about my relationship with food is definitely a part of this. I was reflecting the other day that the way that I can use food is really no different to the way I used to use alcohol – to celebrate when I was happy, numb out when I was sad, be social and “get together” with friends and family. So now that I don’t drink, it’s no surprise that those patterns or ways of responding to emotions and situations still play out, just with a different substance! Universal Medicine practitioners have been a great support in getting under these patterns of behavior and getting honest about the underlying issues at play.Thanks Danielle, I agree 100% when you write “Universal Medicine has shown me a way I can choose to reconnect with myself and love who I am from the inside out. “.

     1. I love Hannah how you have drawn the parallels between food and alcohol. I no longer drink, but can see how there is still behaviours around food, that I used to have around alcohol. This is definitely a work in progress, as food is just so prevalent and easy to access when wanting to numb or not deal with something that has come up.

214. I know that for me too, building self worth and awareness has helped me to strip away many ways in which I used food that weren’t nourishing!

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