(This is an old post, and I'm much further ahead in my diet. Stay tuned for newer updates.)
I can recall a lecture from Sadhguru where a student had asked for advice on maintaining his spiritual practice while being back home with his distracting family members.
Sadhguru answered, in short, "your spirituality should never be so fragile."
"It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable." - Seneca
I started to come to this knowledge during my own health journey, as I'm approaching three weeks of my Anti-Candida version of the Keto Diet, and also eating only one-meal-a-day to set the difficulty rating on Hardcore mode.
I have failed many times in the past, and I had considered quitting entirely on several occasions, stating that until I moved away into my own place, I would never be able to avoid giving in to the off-menu items my other housemates regularly consume.
I was giving myself an excuse to be mediocre until I was handed the opportunity to be great.
What nonsense. You can't blame people or your environment for your failures.
When I finally reach my goal weight, I would have been the only person to have done it for myself. Likewise, I was the only person responsible for gaining all the weight to begin with. No one else ate the food for me, and no one else could lose it for me either.
Seeing yourself as separate from your environment is a tool for Self-Mastery, as where you are and who you are with will never become a reason to compromise on your principles.
Your environment slowly becomes only yourself, and your abilities, focusing only on the things within your control. And the most immediate thing you can change, in any environment, is yourself and your opinions on the matter.
The bag of chips on the counter, the fresh brewed coffee in the kitchen, and the donuts out on the table; if none of them align with your own personal values, then they do not become part of your ecosystem; They simply belong to someone else.
You can't just walk into any bar you want, the bouncer is likely to stop you. There are boundaries in place that have to be respected. In turn, you must build your own personal boundaries out of self-respect for yourself.
It takes too much effort to change your environment anyway, as it is far too rigid with too many authors attached to it. Conversely, relying on your environment to help you produce results is also unwise as it can prove unpredictable with the amount of variables that are able to run through it.
You should treat everything around you in this life as a total accident, but what you choose to create and consume are complete deliberate actions.
Where you are right now is exactly where you need to be, because you're not actually here anyway.
You're always here. Right here. In your mind!
"Remember that the ruling faculty is invincible, when self-collected it is satisfied with itself, if it does nothing which it does not choose to do, even if it resist from mere obstinacy. What then will it be when it forms a judgment about anything aided by reason and deliberately? Therefore the mind which is free from passions is a citadel, for man has nothing more secure to which he can fly for refuge and for the future be inexpugnable. He then who has not seen this is an ignorant man; but he who has seen it and does not fly to this refuge is unhappy."
See You on the Far Side - Monk Moon Base
Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this content, please consider supporting by buying a coffee and suggesting a new article topic to write about, or leave a tip further below.
Support me for FREE(!) by using my referral link here: https://brave.com/moo427
This article now has a video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goaxhHfC5eM
