We wake up
After a period of sleep
4, 6, 8, 10 hours
A new day.
It could be 7am
8am
10am
2pm
5pm
Depending on the rhythm of your life.
We no longer all work the same patterns
Have the same mealtimes.
There is shift work
Freelance work
Juggling jobs
Studying
Family life
Ill partners
Elderly parents
Days when there is no work
Through unemployment
Being retired
Illness
Disability
Physical and mental fatigue.
But we all wake up with a new beginning?
And like a car
A plane
A train
We need fuel in our bodies
To propel us
To drive us forward
On our own tracks, roads and skies
Food is our fuel
And food is everywhere
Social Media
Flashing & changing billboards
You Tube
TV
Adverts between films
Sports events.
Before we even leave our beds
Before the sun light has cracked into our brains
We can see images of food
As the thumb
The fingers
Scroll backwards and forwards on
Phones
Tablets
Screens
Telling us
How
Why
When we should eat
What we shouldn’t eat
And
If we eat certain things
It can be a miracle cure to everything,
To better skin
Improved sleep
Loss of weight
Balanced hormones
A calm brain
A stronger body.
And yes
Yes
Food does balance, feed, calm, nourish and fuel the body
Of course it does
But we can sometimes start our day
Being overwhelmed
Distracted
With these images
Videos
As our senses tune into a wider world
A wider world
That may not be feeding us in the way it should.
That doesn’t allow us to listen to the instinct
Of what your body wants
What your body needs
What if
What if the morning was filled
Filled without the ping
The scroll
The flick of a switch to charge the phone
Without the images of people telling you how to live your life.
What if it was filled with
Flicking the switch to charge yourself
Your family
To find your rhythm.
Just ten
Fifteen
Twenty minutes
To stop
Stop
Even before the day starts
To think how you
You want to spend your day
What you want to eat
Drink
Do
Because it is your day.
Your choice.
Some days are hard
As we walk and drive by cafes, bars, take aways
The smells are pumped out like perfume
To attract you
To get you to make a move
And eat or drink the food that is being sold.
You might have your own lunch in your bag
Know what you are having for dinner
But the smells
Can hit your tastebuds
And you are at the counter
Ordering
Buying
The food you did not even know you wanted.
The familiar signs and logos
Can make us think our life is becoming easier
If we eat and drink their food.
Food that at the beginning of the day we didn’t intend to even buy
Because the sights, sounds and smells arouse our senses.
To control our senses is to be aware
We will always be tempted
Some days we will allow our senses to take over
But what if
What if
The intentions we have
To take our own hot drinks
Pack a lunch
Make a meal
Are there
And when these smells, sounds and sights come in front of us
We stop
Stop
Just for a moment
And acknowledge are senses are driving us.
We have our own ability
Our own strengths to know what our bodies need
To take time is to listen to ourselves
Even on the days we don’t want to.
We have the miracle cure,
To better skin
Improved sleep
Loss of weight
Balanced hormones
A calm brain
A stronger body.
Awareness
We can listen to ourselves and the natural world around us
We can control our senses
With awareness
When we take time
Time without distraction
With our instinct
To feed, fuel and nourish the body with food for strength and calm.