Feeding the Hungry Heart....

AuntChris
on 10/20/04 5:41 am - Acworth, GA

Here is an excerpt from Geneen Roth's book, "Feeding the Hungry Heart"...wow, this woman's own struggles with her weight has brought a lot of insight and revelation into my own life -- Most of us walk around hungry; some of us will die hungry. Subtle in its manifestations, nonphysical hunger can take the form of a vague disturbance, an amorphous dissatisfaction, a feeling that there has to be more to life than what we've known or had. If we interpret the hunger literally, we can use food or drink to satisfy it, or more to the point, to dull it. Nonphysical hunger is difficult to tolerate because it is uncorfortable to feel. If our attempts at avoiding it are unsuccessful, the inner gnawing grows, and the discomfort gets more and more unbearable. Some people feel deprived because they are withering at their jobs; they are hungry for work that uses their talents. Some people are living the way they've been told they should, and have never stopped to question whether or not they are happy or fulfilled. When something happens to interrupt their lives -- a tragedy, an accident -- they begin to question the importance of how they fill their time. Some hungers are deeper; they may indicate a need for transcendental or spiritual pursuit of some sort. Many people are troubled by a need to be assertive, to say no when they feel no, to take care of their own wants instead of seeming always to have to look out for others. At a given moment, our hunger might indicate a yearning as simple as asking to be held -- or as complex as the necessity to examine a set of attitudes and responses we have developed in the past that are no longer effective in our present situation. Some key issues may be: the manner in which we express our vulnerability and ask for help; our ability to set limits of behaviour and accept the limits of others; the appropriateness of the people with whom we have become intimately involved -- their capability and willingness to respond to and support us emotionally, sexually, intelluectually; our mistrust of men or women because of a hurtful situation in the past. Hunger is deeply personal -- it is the unanswered side of our dreams; it is born in the need for completion, fulfillment and serenity. When we become aware of what we are hungry for , we can begin to seek the appropriate nourishement. ****Want more?********************************* The above was an excerpt from Geneen Roth's book called "Feeding the Hungry Heart". She also has more great books about being obese and related issues: "When food is Love" "Appetites" "Breaking Free from Compulsive Eating" "Why Weight" I got copies of these books at barnes and noble