Why Be Mindful of Everything You Consume?
No matter what it is – food, media, entertainment, drugs – you have ultimate control.
Consumption isn’t only about food and drink. It’s also about what you watch, read, listen to, see, and take in.
Ours is the ultimate consumer society. Never before in the history of the human race have the majority been able to consume anything and everything. Overall, people can connect, communicate, learn, and consume vast amounts of anything you can conceive of, tangible or intangible.
Yes, I know some people are suffering and lack consumables. However, historically, that number is the lowest it’s ever been (even with the large total population).
Despite all the news and information about famine, war, economic upheaval, and the like, multiple sources will tell you the world isn’t a dangerous place on the brink of self-destruction. I know I find that hard to believe. However, at the same time, giving it a little mindfulness, it’s not.
I admit that finding a truly unbiased, reliable source to confirm this is nearly impossible. However, pausing to observe beyond the superficial fear-based elements of society, it’s rather obvious. The media loves to share negative news and embellish awfulness because it sells more views, reads, and impressions. That makes the parent company a lot of money.
It’s far, far too easy to get caught up in the doom and gloom narrative. Even something as innocuous as a movie’s performance – in this instance, I’m referring to The Marvels – is embellished to create a specific narrative of conflict to feed the machine. All the negatives of its performance have been virtually shouted from the rooftops. The equally positive elements of its performance are being disregarded. Take a closer look if you don’t know why.
This, however, is why being mindful of what we consume matters.
Junk food for the mind, body, and soul is too readily available
How easy is it to go to a vending machine and get a bag of chips, soda, or a sugary treat? Why are vegetables pricier than processed foodstuffs? How can Fox News continue to blatantly lie to people to the point where they believe a provably false narrative?
The answer is lack of mindfulness of what we consume. This is not just food and drink, it’s everything. News, information, entertainment, advertising, religion, government, take your pick.
It’s imperative to remember that you always have a choice. Whether it’s to eat a cookie or an apple or watch kitten videos on YouTube or propaganda-spewing influencers, you have a choice. What you eat and what you watch will impact your health, wellness, and overall wellbeing. This will be true of your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual self.
It’s all too easy to go down the rabbit holes. Doom-scrolling on Facebook and Twitter (I just cannot bring myself to call it “X”). Getting sucked into the endless reels and vids of Instagram and TikTok. Before you know it, multiple hours of your life have gone and you’re wondering why you feel unsatisfied.
For all the good and legitimate resources available to us, material and immaterial, food or information, it’s readily buried by practically endless junk. That junk is junk food for the mind, body, and soul. It might offer a quick fix for your “hunger,” but it still leaves you wanting.
How do you be mindful of everything you consume?
All mindfulness on every level begins with the same thing. It’s active conscious awareness.
What that means is, rather than allowing subconscious rote, routine, and habit to drive your life, you choose to be more consciously aware. To do that, you address your conscious mind and work more with your mindset/headspace/psyche self. The you that sees the world via your six senses, here and now.
This is one of the greater challenges of mindfulness. It works only in the now, the present. That’s because when it comes to time, the now is the only time that’s real. The past has passed and the future is unwritten and unknown. The now, the present, alone, is real time.
Thus, mindfulness is active conscious awareness here and now. It’s how you be present and aware of yourself at this precise moment.
To engage mindfulness, all you need to do is ask and answer any of these questions, here and now:
- What am I thinking?
- What am I feeling?
- How am I feeling?
- What do I intend?
- What am I doing?
These can only genuinely be answered in the moment. Asked of the past or the future, you can’t know or trust the answers. That’s because the past has bias and experiential pitfalls while the future is uncertain and unknown.
To be mindful of what you consume, you need to ask questions, here and now, like,
- Why or why not consume this news/food/drink/information?
- Will consuming this make me feel good or feel bad?
- Is this consumable good for me or bad for me?
- What value, if any, is in this consumable?
These and questions like them, asked and answered here and now, tell you if what you’re about to consume is helpful or harmful.
Let’s break this down with some examples.
Some questions and answers
Scenario one: Lunchtime. You have the choice between a healthy salad and pizza.
Why or why not consume this? Are you hungry? Do you currently need/desire food for sustenance?
Will consuming this make me feel good or feel bad? How do you feel after eating pizza versus after eating a healthy salad?
Is this good for me or bad for me? Sometimes, the satisfaction of a good pizza can’t be beat. However, sometimes the healthy choice will be wiser in the long run.
What value, if any, is in this food? Is the short-term enjoyment with possible consequences (like indigestion) better than the potential long-term benefit for your health?
Note that I suggest no right or wrong answer. However, mindfulness of the options allows for control of your choices versus subconsciously going with whatever.
Scenario two: Watching TV. You have a choice between a sitcom and the news.
Why or why not consume this? Will the sitcom make you laugh? Or will the news make you happy or sad?
Will consuming this make me feel good or feel bad? For me, even the lamest sitcom is generally better than watching the latest insanity going on in the world and being blown up on the news.
Is this good for me or bad for me? This is all about your mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Is one better than the other for you and your state of being?
What value, if any, is in this program? Do I need to laugh, or do I need too much negative information?
I won’t deny that I have an obvious bias on this topic. But the point remains the same. You get to choose what to consume for your mind, body, and soul. Or not.
What does it take to be mindful of what you consume?
Awareness. Recognition. Acknowledgment. Action. First, awareness that you can choose what you consume, Then, you can recognize what those choices are. After that, acknowledge them as above and how they’ll impact your health, wellness, and wellbeing. Finally, act on it. Make mindful choices about what you’re consuming.
If the average person has over 6000 thoughts per day, you can’t and won’t be capable of mindfulness for all of them. This is why we have a subconscious mind capable of rote, routine, and habit.
Yet you can be more actively consciously aware and mindful of certain specific choices. What you read and watch, eat and drink, and the like. You get to choose when to comment on that Facebook post or walk away and stay silent. (Likewise, you get to choose to read the comments or not).
When it comes to what you consume, more mindfulness of it allows you to choose healthy versus unhealthy options, whether they’ll impact you physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, or all the above.
This empowers you to take the control that is your right for how to live your life. It is, after all, yours and yours alone. Why consume mindlessly and do bad things to your head, heart, and soul when you can consume mindfully and do better for yourself?
Do you see why and how being mindful of what you consume can be beneficial?
This is the six-hundred and twenty-fourth (624) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.
I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-post and share this.
The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out Amazon for my published fiction and nonfiction works.
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