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A method for working with strong cravings
person
Don't believe everything you thinkThe liminal space Veteran
I heard Reginald Ray talk about a way to approach strong cravings that I hadn't heard before.
If there is a craving that you're not really able to resist, like say there is a pint of Ben and Jerry's in the freezer calling out to you, take 3 minutes to sit with and explore the feelings, get to know them and then go ahead and give in.
The wisdom in it I see is that over time you would be more comfortable with the feeling of the craving and may learn to resist its call more effectively.
I haven't tried it out yet, does anyone have any experience trying something like this? Or maybe just an opinion pro or con?
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I have no experience - yet - on that method, but it sounds like a good one. Any time you spend exploring your inner self, motivations, feelings, etc., is time well spent. I mean, we're going to be putting our 'focus' on foods that have that siren call anyway, why not figure out why that particular one has such a pronounced draw. Makes good sense to me. I think I'll try it on um, pizza, my latest craving.
there are a lot of different types of cravings. Some are biologically driven by nutritional requirements. Some are driven by what amounts to as addiction. Some are purely in the mind as a memory of pleasure. It is quite possible to be in touch with the body well enough to know which it is, and once you understand that, it is much easier to make the wise decision, whatever it is. Then it is less of a power struggle with yourself. It doesn't mean you always choose the salad over the ice cream. It just means you know when you choose the ice cream you are still making the wise choice for that moment. Last night I had a chocolate malt with my son and his friends after their doubleheader baseball win. it was absolutely the right choice. But that doesn't mean that it is the right choice every time it comes up. This, of course, extends to things other than food. But it is quite possible to not be owned by cravings.
Yes, actually, I have. I became addicted to toasted corn snacks, and would happily wolf my way through a couple of bags a day. They're intensely moorish, and I am a 'savoury' person, and don't have such a sweet tooth...
Well, one day, I ran out, and the shop I normally get them from had none in.
Goodness, that was a blow.
I hadn't realised until then how strongly I had been craving them.
All I could do was work through it. I had no choice, but literally to observe ans analyse the desire to crunch.
I love 'crunch'.
I have no idea why. I just love something really hard and crunchy to get my teeth into.
I have even been known to dry bread in the oven with the sole purpose of crunching it.#
So, faced with the prospect of being unable to have any corn snacks for at least a fortnight, it was down to me to go through the craving to the other side.
Now, I can have 3 or 4 packs in the house and honestly, I'l forget I've got them....
Corn addiction, that's a tough one. It's seriously degrading to vegetables and its only gotten harder to kick with the internet and cyberpopping now.
I am diabetic and my wife has a sweet tooth the size of the earth - so I have had a lot of practice with this technique. After a while, it is not necessary to actually sit and look at the craving for any length of time - the whole process becomes almost reflexive. Craving arises, rotate eyes to back of skull, look at craving, see the still place back there where craving has not arisen - then choose what path to take. This is called the skillful eating of goodies, or maybe "right eating"
Really, it is no different from how we try to deal with any form of reactivity - look at it, see its arising, see its ceasing, see the path.
On a related note, I will add that my experiment with extended resistance of an open bag of the Netherlands' famous "cocktail nuts" is still ongoing. Said nuts are still in my cupboard, though likely now inedible because the crunchy coating will have gone soft. Coming up on the one month finishing date in a week!
And I have added a second tier, which is mindful eating of cashews, my second favorite snack. I have basically decided to only ever eat these one nut at a time, which certainly cuts the rate of consumption.
I tried it for drinking cravings a long time ago, but not on its own without other methods. It seemed to work just as you described. I got the idea from Gangagi. She talked about addictions and one thing she said was to 'crucify yourself' and that if you could go just one extra bit longer before giving in then it was worth it.
Doesn't work for me. I just enjoy the ice cream after three minutes, partly as a reward for three minutes of abstention.
Some of us require stronger motivations and disciplining.
Techniques I have used that work for me:
Probably forgot quite a few ...
All good methods for resisting. What Reginald was saying though was you could give in after the 3 minutes. His meaning was a way to take advantage of the feeling without killing yourself. I suppose ultimately the objective is to gain control over it and not give in some way down the road. Maybe you're saying that the somewhere down the road never really happens, which I was kind of wondering about.
^^^ What I am asking is what are you craving?
Sugar and dairy? Sex? Love and attention?
Existence is Dukkha and we need every 'trick' available. Well I do.
Love, affection and cheese on toast
For me a long walk in the countryside, with thought of a nice hot cup of tea on my return. Cravings occur when I am restless, not a good time for seated meditation, but walking & chanting silent mantra is very grounding, and fresh air brings on cravings for heaps of fresh veg.
[Lobster faints]
Sounds like a plan ...
I personally crave simple things. I toast bread, put olive oil and cheddar cheese and sweet chilli sauce on it and briefly microwave. Or cheese and onion ... oh yeah ... Add cup of tea ... Happy crustacean ...
As for love and affection. Smile inwardly and outwardly and they come shining back ... is my experience ...
Craving veg ... now you are talking ... yum ...
@person
Without some cravings being almost too hard to resist, just imagine how much more arrogant and hubris bound, your average Buddhist practitioner might otherwise be.
In my practice, cravings are faced by objectively allowing all of our sense info to freely come and go, where my conditioned responses would otherwise control and be controlled by, that info.
For me, addressing cravings is always conditional to how prepared I am, in each moment, to prioritize the importance my practice of objectivity above everything else.
With each moment, craving offers a new test and score, to show what the priority of my practice actually was or wasn't in the last moment. Always going on, always becoming.
Where ever I step, another teacher seems to be getting under foot.
It's worth thinking about the reasons for the craving/addiction. I have often found that an addiction to something - be it shopping, peanuts, heroin, corn snacks or even cheese on toast - is a filler for something else already lacking.... No?
Roshi Cheese on Toast as a teacher. Yes indeedy.
We can learn from the sub text and potential Buddha Nature inherent in all things in my experience.
Perfect teachers are usually a pain in the butt. As @how says we can continually learn from our experiential milieu as it arises. @federica makes an important point, what is the underlying craving?
'What a head trip'
I take refuge in HH 'toast under cheese' ... (... have I gone wrong again ...)
Please stop saying cheese and toast - it's a lot like pizza!
During meditation I started off by holding off on the craving to scratch when an itch arises, this down period ( the time between the itch and scratching it) got longer and longer until eventually the itching sensation would come and go with no need to scratch (ie, the craving to scratch it weakened)....This practice/ability (down time period) I found, carried on off the cushion and into other aspects of life where the desiring/urging/impulsive mind normally would take precedence...
However now it's more Action> new action, replacing old reaction
It's still a work in progress....and "I" have no desire to rush things....
This is perhaps a subtle difference, perhaps from my dervish ways and daze. I tend towards subjective objectivity. In other words the clinical, laser objectivity of the zennith is no substitute for loving pizza.
To put it in Buddhist Tantra terms: offering cravings, difficulties, hindrances, pizza to a Buddha statue or our inner anchovy demon [lobster approved pizza] is a serious if fantastical practice. Mindful chewing and savouring of sensation is a temporary but very real practice. Yum.
http://www.charliemccarron.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Gail-Kern-A-Buddha-on-the-Road-Final.jpg
Some cravings do serve a purpose. And I am not just talking about cravings for olives by pregnant women. Not having attachments is all very well, but I think that by not paying attention to the desires of the body one can also end up doing damage to oneself. It is a question of living sensibly in balance with the body, and recognising which cravings come from unhealthy conditioning.
I've found that meditation and yoga, for me, have helped me differentiate between cravings of the mind and cravings for nutrition of the body. There's really no chance that my body is craving flaming hot cheetos, coke or a cold beer for nutrition. When I resist and push against it, it just gets worse. But just like in meditation, I can sit with it for a moment and let it go, and then the craving is gone. Nutritional cravings feel different and they don't go away. It's rare that I have them anymore, because I eat pretty well. But despite not being pregnant, I crave black olives like no one's business, and I eat a lot of them. They are my main food when I have long runs, lol. Everyone else is carrying bananas and applesauce and gels and electrolyte replacements and I carry water and olives! And eggs. I crave eggs a lot too. I eat easily a dozen eggs a week.
The other day at the grocery large bags of Fritos corn chips were on sale. I passed them by. Nonetheless one of the old Fritos jingles ran through my mind. Many times. Craving has not flown the coop as I soon developed a strong desire for what is known locally as a Frito pie. A medium bag of corn chips to which is added chili beans topped with cheese.As none were available that day the craving soon temporarily departed. So I had to settle for a king size burrito. Which most certainly is not health food.
We call the Frito pie a walking taco.
I call it a heart attack waiting to happen.....
I eat lots of cheese and drink a lot of whole milk since as long as I can remember. Hoping no heart attack but indeed I eat a diet high in fats including animal fat. I try to avoid simple sugars (monosacharides and disacharides) and bleached starches moreso than avoid calories themselves or fat. I do set 'good' fats as healthier than animal fats but I like cheese so much. And with simple sugars more raw is better. Honey is better than table sugar but honey is not a magical 'nautural sugar' that is outside of the simple sugars. Fruit is better than fruit juice.
[confession alert]
I am trying to eat more seaweed (yuk - apart from suchi) ...
As a karmically dependent fish addict
@Jeffrey ... cheese baked veg, cheese and apple/fruit salad ... eat well, your mind craves a sane diet ... iz plan ...
before dealing with craving, i think, we must know what really is craving
without knowing what craving is all talks about craving is beating around the bush
Yes those are good. Squash sliced and baked with parmesan cheese salt and pepper. Fruit also very good and I like and eat. Brie wrapped with pillsbury crescent dough baked and then served with fruit. Doesn't have to be fresh out of oven so can control portions (humanly possible).
Fish not so much for me but mostly because I only eat fish at a restaurant and usually a taste of someone elses because I will want something else instead of the fish for my own dinner.
Coconut palm sugar looks like light brown sugar but measures and tastes pretty much like regular sugar except it has a slightly caramel taste, which is very welcome in my coffee, along with a bit of half n half. Coconut palm sugar also has a lower glycemic index than the white sugar. Fyi.
I had heard of popularity of coconut oil maybe recently but hadn't heard of the sugar yet.
Hey is this a foodie chat room or what?
You mean talking about nice chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven has nothing to do with craving hehe