Tell Giselle: To Medicate or to Meditate

“I see you have written about health and diets, and how many times you have been asked how you stay so thin. A relative who needs to lose a lot of weight because they have health problems is considering weekly injections. What do you tell people who want to go to extremes to lose weight?”

G: Let’s start with the concept of extreme. What may look like an extreme to one person is the norm for another. There was a time when I was curious about fasting, and how it has been used to induce healing as well as spiritual experiences. For centuries fasting has been a normalized practice in many cultures and it continues to draw adherents for different reasons, including losing fat.

There are many who will not partake of food or water for a day, such as observant Jews on some of their “holy” days. But many others consider every day to be holy and think that to do without food and drink is extreme, and a violation of natural bodily functions and energetic needs. Everyone can claim their right to believe as they wish.

There are so many variations to the idea of what is best for our bodily health and our spiritual practices that I am disinclined to make a blanket statement that says all extremes are necessarily good or not good. For me, extremes all depends on the context.

Those who suffer from dysregulation, whether it be with food, alcohol, sex or spending, need space and time. Those two things are part of a natural healing formula, not only for self-discovery, but for learning through experience. That’s how we discover what the tradeoffs, risks, rewards and consequences are of actions, as well as any inaction.

There are those who may feel like they have no other choice but to try a weekly injectable. They are being driven to this because they are hoping it will quiet the constant mind chatter about food and wanting to eat. Some are driven to it because they are overwhelmed with the shame or guilt or the dyspepsia that they live with day in and day out because of their inability to fix their problem.

It is not my place to tell anyone what they ought to do in terms of their food choices. However, I am frequently asked why I think I do not have food issues, like how is it that I am not even tempted to overeat.

What I know to be true for me, that I believe can be true for everyone, is it has always come down to a choice: you can medicate or you can meditate.

By that I mean, whatever it is that is an issue for you, whether it be an emotionally troubling relationship, financial problem or something you fixate on to the point of dysregulation like with eating or drinking, you have two clear choices.

You can choose to self-medicate as some people do with molecules that are found in nature, or those compounded in a lab.

The other option is to meditate. By this I mean to open up the space and time to pause, and then to examine what is underpinning the problem, the frustration, the pain, the compulsion, the disordered behavior or belief of what is or is not possible.

That is where the work of living well, living consciously replaces ignorance, mal-adaptive ways of reacting or relating to others or situations, or urges that arise.

Long ago I made the choice to eat to live rather than live to eat. That’s not to say I do not enjoy the taste, texture and smell of food and drink. I just don’t want those delights to override my motivation to live life fully, and in great health. So, no, I am never tempted to eat or drink anything to excess.

‘I can think, I can wait, I can fast’ is a line from Hermann Hesse’s novel “Siddhartha.” When I read that book so many decades ago, I was inspired to contemplate the value of each practice. What fasting helped Siddhartha do was to be able to look at his hunger, and deeply feel what it was pulling forth in him, and ultimately laugh at it, as hunger no longer could dominate his response and distract him from arriving at his goal of enlightenment.

I later embarked, over a number of years, on a series of fasts of varying lengths. From just one day, to three, to five, to eventually a 21 day fast.

Each fast broadened my self-awareness and heightened my appreciation of countless things.

So, for those who are struggling to lose weight, before embarking on an injectable, I’d suggest having a conversation with a physician about a supervised fast. It may or may not be advisable due to health restrictions.

Regardless of whether or not fasting becomes the tool that helps to correct or manage a weight problem or health issue, for those who are medically cleared to fast, it can open your eyes wider not only to the suffering in the world, to all those who are food insecure or who are literally in famine, but it can broaden your ability to know what gratitude at the cellular level feels like.

It may also dissuade some from ever again taking more than they need, of anything, quelling all urges to be gluttonous or ravenous to the point of dysregulation or disease. Instead of stuffing oneself with more than enough, the choice can be to give all that excess to food banks and relief agencies.

Chew on that.