I recently was awarded the 2020 Thumbtack award for ‘Top Professional’ specifically for my unique coaching approach to Intuitive Eating.

Here is a lnk to my Thumbtack profile page with awards, and 34 reviews.

I wanted to reflect on my journey up to this point so far …

You can also download the audio version from the Eating Enlightenment website here.

Do you see the Buddha statue behind me?

Do you see the light bulb find me on the other side?

Today I have no tips to stop binge eating or how to stop emotionally eating, I just wanted to share with you about my love for symbology and spirituality.

1 – I Began Binge Eating When I Wrestled In Highschool – dieting and binge eating seemed normal in hindsight

2 – I Discovered Intuitive Eating When I Lived As A Monk – I was miserable with my eating, so miserable I lived as a monk. Fortunately there I was exposed to mindful and intuitive eating practices

3 – I Stopped Binge Eating Once I Felt My Emotions and Ate More Regularly – I was so disconnected from hunger due to wrestling, but after a period of training where I felt my emotions and physical sensations of hunger, I transformed my eating habits

(If you want training tips on a variety of eating topics, you can start here by reading a recent article about how to get rid of a sweet tooth)

Right now I’m reading books by Joseph Campbell and other writers like Carl Young, who talk about archetypes and patterns on humans.

I find this stuff absolutely fascinating. So I dig it, and I love it!

And… I’ve also had an attraction to light which I’ll explain more in a moment.

But for me, the symbol of the Buddha stands for so many different things. From exploration and discovery to independence and freedom, to practice and discipline, to compassion and kindness, this simple is central to who I am.

In fact the other day I was following Carl Young’s advice and writing in my dream journal and interpreting my dreams. I actually had a vivid and powerful dream of a Buddha statue. I’ve never experienced this before.

So that’s why I wanted to make this post – because I had my first Buddha Dream!

My Commentary:

This was the first dream in my life that I’ve had such a powerful and vivid Buddha statue dream.

I thought this was really important, because from Reading Carl Jung, I know that there are two types of dreams.

Some dreams are just about every day living, but another dreams are about powerful primal archetypes which are the main ultimate truth of the universe.

This was the first statue dream I had of a Buddha, I just wanted to talk about it. You know there’s this word enlightenment.

And it’s like… What the heck does that even mean practically speaking? How does this relate to mindful eating?

Because I spent a year in the monastery driving more like. But then I realized I had spiritual bypass. I was trying to avoid my problems by meditating.

And you could say that I was running away from my problems. That’s when I stopped believing in enlightenment, at least in the traditional sense of the word where all your problems go away.

I was really just trying to make all my practice go away. I thought I could make them go away by meditating. But perhaps enlightenment has a different meeting.

Perhaps Eating Enlightenment is more of a process. A process of what?

I like the analogy and symbolism of light. That’s why there’s light over my shoulder.

I love the image of a light bulb because the light bulb stands for insight. Or realization like a light bulb moment.

And symbolically speaking light, perhaps the practice of enlightenment, is about growing our light and shining more light into the darkness. And so we have these insights we have these realizations that allow us to see more of reality.

So there is an insight meditation center that I go to up in Redwood City.

There’s a 20’s and 30’s group that I go to on Sunday evenings, we meditate in this style called insight meditation.

Mindfulness is a training that can act like glue to help reduce mindless automatic eating.

It’s a pretty fairly straightforward style a lot of breath work, a lot of noticing things and a lot of mindfulness. And by practicing various forms of mindfulness, I’ve come to realize different things about life.

And these insights they add up, pile on top of each other, the light grows, and I see more clear picture of reality. This is what I’m coming to realize enlightenment means to me, and it can mean a different thing for you.

But for me it’s a process of self-discovery, and I don’t think it will ever end.

Carl Young and Joseph Campbell they all talk about an ongoing hero’s journey. Where even after you expand and grow and evolve, there’s a new challenge, a new shadow, a deeper potential.

So I think enlightenment is really just and ongoing process, not some final destination.

That’s the meaning behind these two symbols and how it relates to eating and health. Health isn’t some sort of plan or prescription that you can just follow.

You truly do need to investigate, and have insight into the relationship between your mind body and food. And this might all sound very very good intuitive and new-agey, practical and grounded.

That’s what I like about Buddhism and mindfulness, is that it’s useful for everyday life

And so the same thing with an eating exploration. These concepts can help you reconnect with your mind and body. So I just wanted to share with you some things that are just going on in my life and I’ll end the video here.

Let me know if you have any questions or thoughts I’d love to hear from you thanks.