America's Sensation Diet
Sensation (noun) - the operation or function of the senses; perception or awareness of stimuli through the senses
Sense (noun) - any of the faculties, as sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch, by which humans and animals perceive stimuli originating from outside or inside the body
We are nearing the end of the 2016 American Presidential election cycle and boy-oh-boy, what a year it has been, complete with willful verbal missteps, political wrangling and accusations of fraud and disenfranchisement, enough sound bites to deafen every child of a small country, the closest a woman has every gotten to being Commander-in-Chief, Russian hacker espionage, shortsighted political movements based on race and age, circus acts regarding minorities that have embarrassed the most sensible of all of us, and, and, and, and, and.
What can also be said about this election year is that it has been like none other in the course of American history.
I'm greatly dismayed by the American experiment of a Trump presidential campaign. But a Trump run shouldn't be a surprise. It is my long held belief that energy, thoughts, and feelings (whether good or bad), if not circumvented and/or abandoned, must coalesce into a physical manifestation. That is the power that the human mind, heart, and spirit have. "As within, so without" dictates that what one mediates (focuses) on will eventually, in due time, manifest in the physical. Trump's run is the eventuality of many of our collective thoughts, feelings, and focus.
What you focus on expands!
"But, I Wanna Feel Something!": The Trap of Un-reality TV!
In my work as a Sex and Intimacy Coach, the fundamental issue that affects most of my clients is their loss of sensate focus - their ability to perceive the gross and subtle energetic flows of energy throughout their body. So many in our culture are painfully disconnected from their bodies and this epidemic has translated into how we think and treat ourselves, others, and the planet. We are disconnected from our bodies, and without that basic tether to "home" we are consistently trying to find it elsewhere. Many of us try to find that sense of "home" in others, thinking that a connection with another human being will provide the sense of "home" that we are missing in our own bodies. Some of us turn to drugs, food, alcohol, sex, media, etc. for that "connection" only to eventually discover that we're throwing energy into a hole that has no bottom and has no end.
At this stage of our cultural awareness, I am very concerned with our use of electronic media. I think we are quickly losing our ability to control the tool and are finding that the tool is controlling us. I find it very interesting (and not all too surprising) that at this juncture, a rising media mogul has taken the reigns of our geo-political discourse and with the help of exceptional American journalism, has fanned the flames of almost every phobic shadow and projection we could consciously conjure for a 21st century world!
It has been stated that Trump plays the media for his gain. He knows what to say, how to say it, and when and where to say it to get the most effect and greatest news and media coverage. And the American people love this shit! We love the drama. We gobble it up like a fat turkey at Thanksgiving dinner. It feeds our addiction of disconnection. We are more satisfied with the drama of un-reality TV - living in a fantasy world of another person's unrealistic life, than turning inward and making our own life matter! We are grasping like blind, deaf, and dumb children in a black room for a black cat that's not there. We bump into things and figure that pain and discomfort is better than not feeling anything at all. So we grasp for more and more in the hopes of finding what it is we are looking for, what we are sensing for. Ourselves! The treasure we seek is already within us. And no amount of external stimuli will compare to the adventure of journeying within.
Sensation + Journalism = Sensationalism
It should come as no surprise that American's diet for media and sensational drama, that is more and more bogus and more and more over the top, mirrors our cultural health crisis. We regularly consume mentally, spiritually, and physically that which is unhealthy. There have been documentaries, articles, and countless books about the foods we partake and how much of it is no longer suited for our health and prosperity. I am not a lefty-hippie-vegan-gluten-free-political activist, but it is my deepest belief, as someone who, over the past few years has been discovering that some of the food that I consume does not bring me a deep sense of "homecoming," that many of our physical ailments can easily be alleviated by being more conscious and embodied about what we take into our bodies, our minds, and our hearts. Essentially we have lost the ability to properly gauge how to live sustainable lives on this planet and promote sustainable health within our body.
Our spiritual diets, mental diets, and physical diets have acquired one thing in common, they have consistently skewed towards greater thrills and deeper chills in lieu of sustainability, longevity, and life. One could even argue that we have entirely lost our desire to live at all! We just don't seem to care anymore! Hence our insatiable hunger and craving for more seasoning.
Seasoning Gone Askew - Our Silent Killers
There is something to be said about "everything in moderation." Many of us have lost the willpower to stop ourselves in what we take in through our mouths, ears, eyes, and hearts. Let's just briefly review the affects of the over-consumption of salt and sugar for starters:
Salt: Over-consumption of salt can lead to a host of health issues. According to the CDC and a Havard study, the abuse of salt intake can lead to an increase in blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, heart disease, heart failure, stroke, heart attack, cancer, kidney stones, and osteoporosis.
735,000 Americans have a heart attack each year (when blood can not get to the heart due to obstruction).
800,000 Americans have a stroke each year (when blood can not get to the brain due to obstruction). Stroke is the 5th leading cause of death in the U.S.
1 in 3 (70 Million) Americans have high blood pressure.
Also, according to the CDC, 75% of all Americans get their salt intake from processed foods and/or restaurant dishes.
Sugar: In recent years there has been a huge interest in how the over-consumption of sugar affects health and for good reason! The list of ailments that follow a diet high in sugar can not be understated:
1. Cavities
2. Weight Gain/Obesity
3. Insulin Resistance
4. Diabetes
5. Liver Failure
6. Pancreatic Cancer
7. Kidney Disease
8. High Blood Pressure
9. Heart Disease
And there are even studies about whether sugar addiction is a thing. Needless to say, a simple google search on sugar's effects on the body are a dime a dozen. But the consensus is that a consistent diet overly seasoned with sugar will lead to a myriad of health problems!
When More is Never Enough! Trump, Our Not So Silent Killer!
Allow me the liberty to indulge in a few projections of what an over-consumption of Trumpism would illicit:
1. Extreme xenophobia (the intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries) potentially resulting in first, an elevated psychological war against other races followed by, secondly, physical violence against said races. But remember, each action has an equal and opposite reaction. If you live by the sword, you will die by the sword.
2. Overt racism (prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior). This has resulted in greater micro, mezzo, and macro violence, legislation, and practices spurned on by a resurgent race/culture war.
3. Unbridled sexism (prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex). Women would increasingly continue to be the fodder and object of many men's disrespect, disdain, dehumanization. Our mothers, our daughter, and our sisters would continue to be fair game for any and all advances by men.
4. Further loss of international respect!
5. The inauguration of "Bully In Chief" void of compassion, care, and love for the people he leads. Incidentally, with a Trump Presidency no parent could consciously tell their children that bullying is still inappropriate. All those with any disability or perceived difference is fair game for ridicule, abuse, and violence.
6. The creation of a national psychic and energetic tear exposing, in full view, America's deep and ugly colonialists and capitalist shadow with no proper or inspirational way of healing and reintegrating this part of ourselves into a healthy national body and image.
And this list is just the beginning.
The Verdict!
Our preoccupation with Trump's Presidential Candidacy is evidence of a larger American dietary issue! We are slowly killing ourselves.
The sensations we have desperately sought have led us towards a perilous fortune, one where our internal barometer of what is healthy and what is not is completely skewed towards sickness, dis-ease, and death - from the inside out. What we have taken in in mass consumption will be our undoing. And we have lost the inerrant and inherent ability of embodying our senses, trusting them, obeying them, and being led to health and wholeness - the birthright of every human. We have consumed, en-mass, physical, mental, and spiritual poison without regard to our health or the health of those around us.
Trump has fanned the flames of our growing insatiable hunger for more sensationalism; more salt and sugar as it were. That which is natural has been abused. We are addicted - unable to stop ourselves from, well, ourselves. The media gobbles, exploits, and milks the "Tale of Trump" for greater ratings and larger profits. And we devour it as if we were at a Vegas buffet at the gold edifice of Trump Tower. Trump is the manifested epitome of White American Capitalism - frail and void of concern, of compassion, of decency, or respect, integrity, loyalty, honor, truth, justice, or love. He is the epitome of egoic self-righteousness, naivety, and ignorance that is afraid of its own shadow - unstable, unsettled, and unsafe. His character is fragile at best, suicidal (self-consuming) at worst. And consume himself he will. Make no doubt about that! He can not give that which he does not have.
Instead of coaxing the better angels of our nature, Mr. Trump has provoked the deepest levels of our first chakra survival fear and has stoked our base animal instincts and tendencies - fight, flight, freeze, and fawn. We are running scared. But, humankind is greater than succumbing only to our base survival needs and impulses. We also aspire to the greatest heights of divinity itself - to be one, not apart, to heal, not destroy, to love, not hate.
It is time to come back to our bodies. To come back home. To come back to our deeper knowing. We have lost our way, wandering in the night of despair and shame, guilt and fear. And we have allowed ourselves to be numbed into accepting whatever is put before us. We have been convinced that there is no other way, no other path. This is not true. All hope is not lost, but we have to wake up and realize that unless we come back to ourselves, individually, there is no hope to change our communal experience. Trump, is a warning sign on our way to the bottom. But it is my sincerest belief that even this warning sign will be heeded. There is still good and light left in us. We only need follow it.
Wake up!