Craving

Have you ever had that craving for someone that ran so deep that you felt like you just couldn’t breathe?  I have and I mistakenly thought it was love any number of times throughout my life. Have you ever had a craving for a thing and pursued it thinking it would make you happy only to learn that when you obtained the thing, the craving still lingered?  I’ve done this too in the past and was surprised but oh so very grateful to learn that there are some cravings that cannot be solved with anything in the material world.  I’m happy to say that this feeling doesn’t descend upon my consciousness with me lacking awareness anymore because I have learned that cravings are only desires and desires seem to me to be born only from those things in my limited perception, I might think I lack.  If I sit down and think really hard on the matter, I can say there is nothing I crave that I cannot find sustenance for in a healthy way.  I think I have come to learn that any form of craving means that I am seeking outside myself for sustenance or a feeling.  There are some things we need outside of ourselves for sustenance.  An example would be water.  We can only live a very short time without water.  Another example is nourishment for the body to keep it moving.  We burn fuel as we think, breathe and use our muscles.  Outside of those things, there is nothing any soul could give us that would sustain the feeling of a craving pacified for long.  Oh, well, except for one, the soul that teaches you that these more nebulous cravings for people and things are an illusion.  We have what we need to sustain us within but until we learn this, we will buy expensive cars, fancy homes, develop shopping addictions, relationships or substance additions that will seem to fulfill the craving for a time, but really, only a short time.

The craving for a person or a thing is an illusion.  The thing you think you crave does not exist in the way you perceive it.  Your craving is not a message that you must obtain something.  Rather, it is a message to you from you that something within you is amiss, something is off-balance or something needs some inner attention or maybe even healing.  Cravings cannot be truly satisfied by cheese burgers and French fries, the perfect romance, a shot of your favorite alcohol or chocolate, etc.  These kinds of cravings are really just messages.  If we mistake these messages for a need requiring external action, you may temporarily seem to satisfy the craving but if you have missed the core of what is generating the message you may instead end up with other problems…extra pounds, maxed out credit cards, disappointment in love or lingering addictions that have become physical dependence.  Not fun and not a good way to resolve the cravings.  We are not taught how to become still and quiet and engage in a true and loving internal dialogue.  We are taught to go after the quickest fix we can find to stop the gnawing seeming cravings that seem to run through our beings from unhealthy thoughts and lifestyles.  But, what we must learn if we wish to find true happiness, true and lasting love, and even better, serenity, is to go within and pick through the thoughts and feelings for that one at our core that creates the cravings.

I cannot tell you what your cravings mean.  I can tell you that cravings are a signal from either body, mind, spirit or soul that some attention is needed in a very important way.  At some point when we become truly fed up and tired of chasing things and people for a feeling that never lasts, in desperation we seek out the inner voice and naturally learn to listen and start to free ourselves from the negative and harmful thoughts that breed negative and harmful consequences for us.  More time should be spent teaching our children that instant gratification is not the goal, nor is delayed gratification.  The true goal is to seek what the message inside of us is that seems to push and pull us to engage in behaviors that will reward us with consequences we ultimately find wholly displeasing.   Eventually we do learn and we have all the time we need to learn.  As I have said before, we can learn these things in this life or decide not to and maybe try the next time around.  All actions have a consequence in this time-space.  Until we learn that it is the choice of our actions that creates the consequences for us we do not like, we will only ever do the same things we have always done.  The very cool part about how our thoughts create magnetic energy and draw to us those things we think about is that the same set of actions and consequences will present to us over and over until we truly learn to see beyond egotistical illusions, get still, quiet and oh so very lovingly listen to our small and quiet internal guidance.  Once you tune in once, you can always find your way back again.

I do not crave things or people as once I did.  I’m human and love chocolate or French fries sometimes like the next person but when I satisfy that craving with a piece of chocolate or the French fries, I know that it is actually something else calling to me that needs attention.  I can no longer just go for the object of my craving and believe with any amount of certainty that the object of a craving will fulfill the core need for any length of time.  When cravings arise, I realize that there is something else going on within that needs my attention.  I will spend the time to find it’s source because I know the consequence of too much chocolate and French fries!  (smiles)  I don’t care for having to burn extra time exercising because I lacked control.  There is always a consequence for our actions.  Going within and figuring out what a craving really means and why it is present is a better expense of your energy and time.  Then, you won’t have to deal with the consequences of temporary pacification.  Pacification should only be used for the thing it is…fleeting and temporary alleviation of a craving.

What is it that you crave in this moment?  Is it a person, a thing, a snack, a car, fancy shoes????  If you grab only that thing or chase only that person to alleviate mental suffering, you have not solved the problem.  What is the problem?  Can you find it?  Can you see it and fearlessly step into the heart and soul of it?  Can you own it?  Can you look at yourself full of love and gently seek to solve the source of what creates that craving?  If you can do this, you can solve the core that creates your own suffering.  You can educate yourself and try new things not to just temporarily pacify but to heal and to grow.  In a normal work-a-day world, these things are not considered enough.   Without this consideration we create endless cycles of our own self-inflicted punishment in a way.  It’s a very tough way and a very unloving way to go.  You are beautiful human beings with light so bright, you deserve the best.  Start within by giving yourself the best time and attention you can.  Seek to heal what ails you, to understand what vexes you and keeps you pursuing quick fix and pacification outside of yourselves.  Or, well, don’t.  There is free will in this world and this advice truly matters not to those not interested and that is just perfect too.  But, if you are suffering and you want to find a way out, within you lies the answers to that mental suffering you are experiencing.  Find the source, heal the core and stay in conscious contact with all internal messages that come your way. Just some food for thought.  ~Blessings of love, understanding, healing and serenity beautiful souls.

(c) 2013 Jaie Hart (photo, very fortunate internet find - giggles)