Welcome to The Celiac Meditations! They are sweet snippets of encouragement to help people with celiacs (or other autoimmune or diet-related lifestyles). A little validation for the crazy feelings we feel. And a little bit of hope that it's all going to be okay. I hope you stick around. Leave comments below and share your experiences! xoxo steph
What if someone told you, you are never ever allowed to go to Africa. In your whole life. Never.
Your response could be something like -- meh, that's fine. Or, I WILL GO - simply because you said I couldn't. The truth is many Americans won't ever go to Africa in their lifetime, but no one is saying to them: "You're not allowed." So we don't feel an attachment or response to it.
We often don't know we're limited until someone tells us we can't.
For instance to us “don’t eat dairy” sounds like a prison, as the chorus yells, "but cheeese!" But the traditional Japanese culture doesn't eat it. And it wouldn't even bother their routine to "avoid" it. They don't try try try to not think about dairy.
As soon as a limitation is put on, our human defenses go up. Even the most innocent of us get defiant.
And I find this with celiacs.
I never liked donuts growing up. Yuck to the max. They tasted like nothing, and did nothing for me. (You're going to say whaa? And I'm going to say, yes. Nothing.)
But of course now, every autumn, I instinctively want a donut. I just want one. It's so random, I don't know where it comes from, but I covetously want one -- even with the fake syrupy chocolate on it and in it. I know I wouldn’t even like how it tastes! But I want it. Mostly because I hear other people want it and I know that I can’t have it.
Mireille Guiliano, the author of French Women Don't Get Fat, says -
“Learn to say no, with an eye to saying yes to something else.”
Who cares if everyone in America says that pizza is the way to celebrate every big event in life. -- Have you ever noticed? Stop eating gluten or dairy, and suddenly you will. -- How do YOU choose to celebrate big events in your life?
Honestly, we all have limitations on our life, whether we recognize them or not.
I mean think about it, you can't eat poison. Ugh. What a bummer for all of those humans who don’t have the gastrointestinal strength to drink arsenic … Sigh. Our grocery stores have to comply with the needs of the masses, and make everything arsenic-free.
Okay, real talk —
What is the yes that tastes so much better than the no?
For me, it’s energy. I want so much energy I jump out of bed like I did when I was 18 years old. I want so much enthusiasm that I laugh at every joke and that I turn every shrug into an opportunity.
That tastes good to me.
To have the energy to accomplish my dreams and vision. To have the kindness and enthusiasm to live outside myself and love strangers. Yes, that tastes better than pasta. And cheese. And even wine.
If you have celiacs, of course you're aware of your eating limitations. But today, what are your yeses? What kind of life do you choose instead?
And for every other category of our life that we may feel limited, boxed-in, imprisoned in ... in every situation (even when we don't feel like it), we have a choice. You may be choosing to avoid something/someone/somewhere, but it's because you're choosing something better. Something more satisfying in the long term.
Write that on your wall. Look at that every day. Because that's an enjoyable life. In all things have the choice of life or death. And today I choose life.
t h e c e l i a c m e d i t a t i o n
I say yes to ____.