I am wondering if the increase in emotions I have noticed as a fresh raw food eater ever levels out and then decreases ? I have noticed an increase in emotional response to a lot of things including movies. I don't like to watch movies with a lot of violence in them anymore. Has anyone else noticed changes in emotions since going raw ?

I have also noticed changes in my emotions. For me raw food is not just a diet, but a way of life, because it changes EVERYTHING. I am still struggling with going 100% raw, and thats because of handling my emotions. Trying to keep balanced is not always easy for me, but as I learn more about myself (like I need to be warm and eat protein first thing in the morning), it is getting easier every day. I remember being so emotionally sensitive one day, that I ate a muffin just to make it go away (I would NOT recommend doing that!). Now, I practice breathing exercises and meditation to find my center. Sometimes taking a moment to be alone, talking and listening to myself does the trick. I am sure there are more balanced and experienced raw fooders that will share their experiences.

Blessed!

EZR, I am finding that I become more acutely intuitive. Just reading the emotional word "sad" brings tears to my eyes. Yes, I understand about the violence, thing.

I can also feel others' emotions more deeply, too. I have to shake myself out of it every so often b/c one can overburden oneself.

Yoga or meditation is good so is making sure that one is receiving enough nutrients to ensure balanced hormonal levels. Also reading, doing, thinking, feeling positive emotions to counter the negative is good, too.

Therese

I believe our inherent nature as spiritual beings having a human experience is one of love, compassion and sharing. However you look at the world, there is some level of violence and suffering. I believe being raw foodists brings us closer to feeling emotions that were either repressed or denied to protect us. It is essentially the emergence of the third eye. The leveling out period may simply include a period of time where you're able to swim in the tides of this world neutral to fluctuating energies and false belief systems, be they negative or positive. I think you discover your true self this way. When you know who you are, you discover with great peace it's both okay to feel emotions and to not be at the mercy of them and other people's lives and experiences. Emotions serve a purpose and bring us closer to ourselves as does this raw lifestyle in my humble opinion. I'm still learning myself, but this is how I perceive it as I experience very strong emotions to things I never even batted an eye at. It's a beautiful thing and makes me feel alive. Like the foods I'm eating. :-D Meditation and being outdoor near trees, hiking for example will help you immensely. Much peace to you.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/2008 11:53PM by rawangel.

I can relate to everything said here.
For the most part,raw eating lately has given me a grasp on depressions I have struggled with for years,and given me clarity to see things from all angles.
On the other hand,I also feel great sadness at recent troubles in my relationship.
I feel it all.
But it sure beats being intoxicated all the time.
Its nice that I can feel a connection to things again like I remember years ago that give me peace...something as simple as sitting in the sun and watching a bird.

Brian



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/2008 12:38AM by Raw1228.

This is a good talk for me. I understand the mentality of eating a muffin to stuff the feelings back down. I started to feel different emotions and just did not know what to do with the new feelings. Eventually I stuffed them with loads of bread foods, however I became very negative and eventually felt like I was a basket case of emotions. I don't suggest eating to hide those emotions that we begin to feel. I understand what rawangel says about the third eye in some ways it scared me to become of that third eye. There are so many things I just don't understand but one thing happened to me when I ate raw was a fear I never knew I had left me and I quickly became very positive. During this time I have been drowning myself in cooked foods I don't feel that lack of fear. I hope this second time for me to eat raw I will use a different strategy and nuture other aspects of me like the emotional and spiritual and physical rather than only focusing on the way I eat. I to would watch a movie and become very upset with the violence and have to walk away I also noticed myself becomeing more vocal concerning violence and other things. It is not normal for me to be so vocal so I was moveing out of my element and that made some discomfort to those around me because they were not use to me acting that way. One step at a time I am going to work my way back to eating raw perhaps this time around I will be prepared and know how to coap with the emotions that awaken. Life is good when eating fresh food. I do believe we are never tempted beyond what we can handle and we can accomplish much with a positive mindset.

I've always found it impossible to watch violence in movies. I don't even like to read about it. And everyone tells me I am too sensitive. But I was always that way.

Raw food helps me feel closer to "rightness." I don't want to call it righteousness, that sounds too religious.

Raw does seem to make us more sensitive to our environment, not just emotions, but overall awareness.

I find even seemingly 'minor' things, like enjoying the melody of birds singing, especially the soloists who seem to 'forget' it's way past their bedtime or those that start very early in the mornings; the subtle but impressive difference in the ambience when the day is grey and overcast in contrast to a bright sunny day; even being attutuned to the energy of other people in different settings, both as individuals and as a group.

Wishing you vibrant health

I certainly came to understand that food is no substitute for knowing what you want and doing it. Heh...heh.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

Mmm I have experienced similar things to what has been said here. For me I think it is more like the emotions I already have, have become sharper and more present. I think that violence is a part of life and would be easiest to understand if one accepts it without resistance or critism.

I'm not implying anything by this comment other than that it makes sense to me, to not add more anguish to a painfull action by fighting it emotionaly. I think that eating a raw diet connects you with yourself in a clearer awareness the cleaner your body gets. So everything that you have inside will eventualy express itself until you let go of it or change it.

EZ rider Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't like to watch movies with a lot of
> violence in them anymore.

Me neither. I stopped watching TV completely and virtually stopped watching movies (maybe one a year at the absolute most!).

For me, this kind of thing just gets stronger and stronger, all I want to do is live outside in harmony with nature with no possessions...

Rob

--
Rob Hull - Funky Raw
My blog: [www.rawrob.com]

The last time I turned on the tv (which was 11 yo and 13" was for 9/11. I gave the tv to goodwill a couple of years ago because I never watched it. I can't stand the commercials.

I will sometimes check out a movie on dvd from the public library. But I find I don't have the patience to get through most of them. There is something excruciating about being subjected to somebody else's vision for 1.5-3 hr if it isn't a beautiful, thoughtful, potent one.

I, too, pine for a simpler life.

EZ rider Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't like to watch movies with a lot of
> violence in them anymore.

Ditto.

I don't watch adverts any more, don't buy magazines. Don't watch much telly - and certainly nothing violent anymore.

I think it's dangerous to be around such a violence, even in a movie.
I don't think it fosters compassion and love in anyone.

--------------------------------------------------

[www.azurastorch.blogspot.com]

From my experience with raw foods, I think that the typical SAD diet numbs our nerves to intuition and emotions that we don' think we can face, and eating raw opens that up. The first time I experimented with a high raw diet was in the early 80's. I was 21, newly married with a new business and a new mortgage. I was already having doubts about my marriage, and other issues relating to my childhood were going through my head. I never really put it together until the last year or so (when I have again seriously started eating a high raw diet), but I quit eating high raw largely because I felt spiritually and emotionally uneasy, like I needed to deal with things that I wasn't ready to yet. It is kind of like fasting in that respect. I knew no one who was adopting this kind of diet and lifestyle, there was no Internet, and I could only find two books on the subject (Walker's and Kulvinska's), and they didn't really address the emotional and spiritual aspects of the raw foods lifestyle, so I really didn't feel suppported. Now I have a couple of friends locally who are raw foodists and all of you Internet peeps, so it is a lot easier to maintain the level of raw "foodness" that I feel is right for me now (75% for this year and moving to 100% as of this week). Also, my current partner is more supportive, making the world's greatest slaws and growing the most magical garden. Pretty interesting topic!

I can totally relate!

Some days, I will cry when I am exposed to something totally beautiful or profound--artwork, nature, etc.

I had to excuse myself and go to bed last night because my boyfriend and my roommate were getting voyeuristic with hate videos on YouTube, and there was a Simpsons episode playing in the background about electroshock therapy. Couldn't do it. There was another time my roommate put on Rambo 4 while I was trying to eat. Couldn't do that either. I quit the telly when I was 12--it's all so scripted and out of touch with reality.

Occasionally, I will find a QUALITY movie to watch. The Fountain comes to mind (especially if you're into the emotional/spiritual aspects of raw/nature!).

I used to read a lot of alternative news everyday--now I simply have BETTER things to do. It's not that I'm turning a blind eye to the world--I just don't need to constantly be plugged in to a closed-loop circuit of fear and violence. I think mad leaders are just the ultimate manifestation of madness in men, so rather than blaming the Illuminati or whoever, and getting hooked into that loop of fear, anger, and disgust, all I can do is bring love with me, wherever I go. If I don't want hostility in the world and hostility appalls me, I have to stop bringing hostility into my daily life--even in situations where I could "justify" being pissed off. Even the smallest, stupidest situations (I think those can sometimes count the most)...

So I guess what I'm saying is, there is a lot I've become hypersensitive to, but I've been using a two-pronged approach to dealing with it--simply not wasting my focus on negative things I cannot change, and identifying behavioral patterns that upset me, and doing an internal reality check to make sure I don't have those same patterns unconsciously working inside ME.

Being raw has definitely given me the clarity, energy, and fortitude to launch an internal renovation process. If I'm upset by the lack of empathy/respect/patience/forgiveness in the world, I have to find these things inside MYSELF... even at the toughest times. When I feel upset by something now, at least I have some kind of foothold for processing and dealing with the emotions in a productive way.

That's where all this extra sensitivity has lead me, anyway. :O

arugula Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The last time I turned on the tv (which was 11 yo
> and 13" was for 9/11. I gave the tv to goodwill a
> couple of years ago because I never watched it. I
> can't stand the commercials.
>
> I will sometimes check out a movie on dvd from the
> public library. But I find I don't have the
> patience to get through most of them. There is
> something excruciating about being subjected to
> somebody else's vision for 1.5-3 hr if it isn't a
> beautiful, thoughtful, potent one.
>
> I, too, pine for a simpler life.


I haven't watched TV for at least five years and I will also rent dvd's from the library occasionally. I live with someone who is addicted to American Idol which I really don't understand. The neighborhood has parties to watch it and I'm like the alien space creature because I have no interest in it whatsoever. I was asked like 10 times to watch it, even though I explained I do not watch TV. When I tell people don't own a TV they get that glazed look in their eyes, lol. Is it the whole living vicariously through other people thing? It just seems like a huge waste of time to me...if you're that interested in singing, take voice lessons yourself. I don't get it and especially the whole brutal judging aspect of American Idol. Guess it speaks to a lot of social/cultural games that are played consciously and unconsciously. Anybody have any insight into this? I've been curious about it lately as the people in my hood are becoming kind of scary as it nears it's end. It's all they talk about! They know more about who's winning on that show than 15,000 people recently drowning to death on the other side of the world. Sad.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/2008 05:00PM by rawangel.

Negative ANYTHING is a tool to raise consciousness (the quality of your attention and appreciation of the now moment). Some people HAVE to be in a death defying physical circumstance in order to feel that presence. Like hang-gliding or rock-climbing....where one wrong move of NOT being in the now moment spells death.....so one is kind of LOCKED into the now moment. But we CAN experience these now moments....and appreciate ANY moment regardless of content.

So: Negative circumstances....or images on television....are actually a boon to those who would otherwise not be even aware of where their attention is. So those who become 'sensitive' to these negative things.....CAN learn to show compassion, love and friendliness to these things....without condoning or participation or supporting them. If nothing else, the worlds greatest protest is always to express greater love and freedom yourself. Just some thoughts.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

davidzanemason Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Negative ANYTHING is a tool to raise consciousness
> (the quality of your attention and appreciation of
> the now moment). Some people HAVE to be in a death
> defying physical circumstance in order to feel
> that presence. Like hang-gliding or
> rock-climbing....where one wrong move of NOT being
> in the now moment spells death.....so one is kind
> of LOCKED into the now moment. But we CAN
> experience these now moments....and appreciate ANY
> moment regardless of content.
>
> So: Negative circumstances....or images on
> television....are actually a boon to those who
> would otherwise not be even aware of where their
> attention is. So those who become 'sensitive' to
> these negative things.....CAN learn to show
> compassion, love and friendliness to these
> things....without condoning or participation or
> supporting them. If nothing else, the worlds
> greatest protest is always to express greater love
> and freedom yourself. Just some thoughts.
>
> -David Z. Mason

makes a lot of sense and i just shifted my paradigm on the subject. compassion. compassion. indeed.

thanks David!

when is your book coming out? :-)

I think that the people who get into T.V and the related voilence and fear shows do it because they can relate to it in their own lives. What I mean is that for example, people who get into horror movies do it because they have a strong horror aspect to their personality, i.e find alot of things horrifying.

Likewise the ones that choose to react voilently toward things in their lives, and view things in a voilent light, resonate with voilence and are attracted to it. So when you make choices which decrease these perspectives and behaviours from your life, you become less interested in them in any form. Thats my take on it anyway.

Ditto on the no tv.

Why people want to watch others be tortured, killed, etc., is a mystery to me. I have experienced violence, up close and personal. It is not a form of entertainment to me.

I also don't want to watch others have sex.

I also don't want to watch others make fun of others or be sarcastic or cry about their tragedies to talk show hosts.

I see all the worst aspects of humanity on tv. I would rather focus on becoming the best person I can be and on the best I see around me.

From another "too sensitive" person,


Lee

http:/www.dhamma.org

I feel heartened and uplifted reading all these beautiful responses.

I, too, feel a need and desire to be quietly in Nature.

The way I would explain my experience is that now I feel so good, I don't want to be distracted by TV or even books most of the time. I realize that what was going on before was that I was using TV or books to distract myself from how bad I was feeling, to actually put my mind and thoughts outside of my body.

Now that I feel really, really good, I love to just simply BE and experience all the good feelings and sensations there are to experience. It really is a whole new way to be alive.

: )

Love,
Julie

Some people think they need to feel pain to feel. Some people think they need to see pain to experience compassion. Some people think they need to have their lives hanging in the balance to engage in living.


"Boredom means you are not paying attention."


Nothing like having your life threatened to get you to pay attention. Or you could just meditate and pay attention that way. The latter choice is healthier, but requires discipline, much time over years... and eventually also integrity and compassion.

Our shortcut society doesn't encourage healthy choices. You need to make those choices yourself.

I don't entirely trust anyone who doesn't have a regular spiritual practice and who watches violence or reads gossip for "entertainment."

Besides saving me a lot of what would be completely wasted time, by not watching TV and reading/listening to gossip, I don't fill my mind with negative examples of what it means to be human.


Lee


[www.dhamma.org]

My emotions are more even. I think one factor in that it eating maca everyday which helps to balance the hormones. My monthly cycle used to affect my emotions more. I would sometimes become incredibly upset for no good reason, or my mood would make me find reasons to be upset to make sense of my turbulent emotions. I would think I was upset for this reason or that reason, but it was all really based on something inside (a spiritual imbalance I think). I feel like I now can just sit for hours without any 'word thoughts' in my head. At first it startled me a bit,because as an artist, often creativity comes from turmoil. Now I am feel more in the 'now' (if that makes sense). I feel more at peace with everything and even my art changed. I think I am now the captain of my ship, when before my ship was carried blindly by the restless waves. I always have cried pretty easily though. I don't think that will change.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/2008 08:38PM by Joanne81.

just this morning i stared at a cat that stole into the backyard from somewhere else

it was just looking at stuff in the grass

i wondered what it was looking at so intently

when it moved, it moved with such masterful stealth that it boggled my mind

rather watch a simple cat having their forever zen moments

i feel stronger just looking at the green color of grass

it is so vibrant

or the blue color of the sky

it is so purifying and invigorating

i love to read the most

especially about nature, stories that take place in nature, characters who learn about themselves through nature etc.

but i like great imaginative writers of all kinds as well

my sensitivity serves me well though because i laugh and smile easily ( can't help it despite myself most of the time)

and i can feel easily inspired and hopeful in a hearbeat

the flip side of the sensitivity is that in a hearbeat i can be deeply affected by unseemly news

its not that i choose to be affected

my subconscious plays out the scenarios when i go to sleep ( for instance , if someone told me about a horrible violent thing that occurred, i will have nightmares about it)

so, yeah, i am very sensitive which is why i take great care in

1. who i keep company with
2. what i choose to read
3. what i choose to consume
4. which physical activities I choose to participate in
5. movies that i rent must be thought provoking, powerful and transformative ( though its not always easy to find that by reading a little synopsis)

i think it is especially important who i choose to keep company with

because people tend to "talk" and i am easily affected by the things they say

i had a conversation with a guy a couple of evenings ago
i sensed weird vibrations from him

and my intuition was correct

because near the end, he started saying things that were EXTREMELY crass and offensive ...

the very next day he sent me an e mail that was " no subject"

i immediately deleted it because I didn't even care to hear what he had to say

i am not curious about things that carry very low vibrations

i am much more fascinated with things that are elevating

if that sounds arrogant, so be it

i would rather call myself "discriminating"

rather than cry about all the stuff that i am bombarded by ( sometimes i do complain about it cuz it seems like the media has a way of blitzing things upon me ( advertisements on billboards, "news snippets" whenever i try to check my e mail, pop ups on websites that are uncalled for, and even freeways nowadays have scare blares about stuff on their big bright electric letter lights, people telling me stuff that i never asked to be "informed" about)

so.... since so much of this stuff is beyond my control

if something is WITHIN my control

i take every opportunity to make it the best

cuz i can

and cuz the mind and spirit are like sponges

whatever watery environment ( clean or polluted) you put that sponge in

it is most likely to soak it up

so yeah... it behooves me to give it the very best "material' to soak up

otherwise i'm just asking for trouble

and i like to be happy ( plain and simple)

EZ rider

great post and darn good question

i'm glad u asked it

people's post here are interesting esp. the one about the "third eye"

I would like to completly stay away from books for a while.I read a lot and sometimes I feel that I'm distracting myself with books like Fruityjuiles said.
Maybe I sabotage myself with books because I get so intense in my meditations that I get scared sometimes.
I'll try to get closer to nature this Summer. I did a meditation with the heart chakra calling the animals to be closer to me and I got my chipmonk friend (the one that lives underneath my varanda) closer to me.That was so beautiful.Sometimes I call him and he comes and stares at me for a while.

i distract myself with life

i'm reading a book called " The Snow Leopard" ( non fiction)
get it



i love it to pieces

i'm on page 118 right now

if the phone rings, i consider it a distraction from my reading LOL

this work of art takes precedence

read it with me, y'all ya hear? !

has anyone else read it?

if so, let's talk !

oh yeah, its by matthiesen

I was really feeling the weight of working my job again last night. I know when I feel angry and shut other people out that something is wrong, and I've been crabby lately... so I had a good, long think about it all... and I realized, I feel like a body of water. I feel like a clear lake that reflects everything. Everything passes through me--thoughts and emotions, especially. Being raw--and being more true to myself!--has *totally* heightened this kind of sensitivity. (I'm also a Scorpio. )

And sometimes, since I am so sensitive to everything around me, I can feel a lot of pain. When I come to work, and my coworkers are angry or upset, I feel it. When I serve tables of sickly, overweight people, and see the disorientation, the weight of chronic ill-living in their eyes, it hurts. Every plate of food I carry out has a dead animal on it, and I feel the death of the animals... the weight of these plates in my arm. It all passes directly through me, I experience it all. There is so much hurting happening all around us--not easy if you're sensitive to these feelings!

When you talk about learning how to consciously eat and tune into your body, the commitment to the lifestyle doesn't start and end with a meal. You are with your body, with yourself, in everything you do every day--this is similar to the kind of presence cultivated in yoga, I think. Your body communicates to you about what you are doing--especially if something is hurting it! You learn how to hear what isn't good, what doesn't work.

So, after I took the time to untangle myself and have a good cry (the stress had been building up again, it hits me hard sometimes), I realized that, with my body of water/lake/river nature, I can let everything flow through me, and I can also become part of the flow. I can't let other people's old tires sit and rot in the bottom of my lake. Energy needs to keep moving... transforming, healing.

So the challenge is not whether or not to allow yourself sensitivity--it's how you choose to handle the more coherent flow of information coming from your body working as a whole, giant, sensory unit. Keep flowing!

Checking into this thread again,as of late I am almost carrying around one of those little packs of Kleenex's.The tears are flowing daily.This has been for about 2 weeks now.Some kind of detox?
I do know tears are cleansing from what I have read.
Its almost a daily thing now....I sit out back,look at nature,and the tears come...
Just feels needed at this time.

Brian