When an animal is starved, it’s forced to lower its expectations of what it will eat. What would never seem appetizing to a well-fed stomach become luxuries when hungry.
It’s not unlike starving to understand Who You Are. What matters to you? What calls your name? What makes you sad, happy, angry? What are you running from, and what are you running toward?
Not knowing how to self-reflect can lead to a state of inner starvation.
Our hunger for awareness makes anything seem appetizing when we’re strangers to ourselves. One opportunity makes our mouths water, and another does just the same. We identify with one thing then turn around and identify with its opposite. We drool at anyone who’s a potential lover, and every warm body becomes a close friend.
Sometimes we find ourselves stuck in a cycle of starvation when what we’re consuming isn’t filling. We find ourselves continuing to eat rotten bits just to subdue the hunger, but what’s rotten only increases the hunger.
We let ideas, things, opportunities, and people pass through us like a revolving door. We lose our ability to decipher between what’s nourishing and what’s not because our hunger deceives us into believing that everything is equally appealing.
In this state of being, we consume anything just to survive.
When we’re not starving, we can be more intentional about deciding what’s nourishing. We can detect and pass by what’s not and have patience for what is.
To quell inner starvation, you must stop seeking for scraps of food in everything outside yourself. There is an endless supply of nutrients within your own mind and soul. They have always been there, and they always will be. What you feed yourself is a choice. What choice are you making?