Introducing Perfect Hunger

Feeding your hunger for a more beautiful, more nourishing life

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“When does craving what’s good for you happen?” Josaline, a member of the Sober Soulful community, asked recently.

I love this question—not only because it’s earnest and honest, but because it points to exactly what I wish for you, me, and all of us: to find inner presence and peace, to change unhelpful patterns, to hunger for what’s truly nourishing.

In my mind, we each have an opportunity to cultivate this different, more supportive kind of hunger, free of mental negotiations and justifications, that leads us back to ourselves and our body.

This more beautiful, more perfect hunger is for things that leave us feeling better—not just while partaking, but afterwards. It’s for things that leave us feeling more present, more connected, more complete...and less adrift, less burdened, less empty.

It’s the opposite of hungering for ways to dull, numb, distract, disconnect, or check out. It’s the opposite of—and an antidote to—addiction.

So, when and how does this hunger happen? How did I respond to Josaline? Like this:

I think the answer differs for everyone. Personally, I find that the more I notice and name what feels truly, deeply nourishing for my body and mind—especially in the moment, when I’m actually experiencing it—the more I move towards (and crave) that place and act to protect it.

This is the basis for Perfect Hunger—a new, bi-monthly series about noticing and naming what nourishes our minds, bodies, and spirits.

What to expect from Perfect Hunger

Perfect Hunger is bite-sized nourishment that will arrive in your inbox twice a month.

This new series will blend heart-sourced guidance and inspiration with a holistic, realistic approach to food, body, and soul. Think of it as the perfect ongoing complement to the more robust, standalone Food Noise series as well as additional Food & Body essays and resources I have planned for the new year.

Each edition of Perfect Hunger will include:

• Heart-sourced, no-bullshit guidance related to food, body, health, and well-being. This will give us a chance to look at the guidance I covered in the Food Noise series, but in a way that lets us explore one thing at a time, taking our time, rather than consuming too much at once. I’ll also share personal examples and things that are alive for me lately when it comes to food, body, movement, sleep—all of the lifestyle factors that have a big impact.

• WHAT’S NOURISHING ME and WHAT I’M HUNGRY FOR. Think: the most yummy bites of what’s currently feeding my hunger for a more beautiful, more nourishing life. Sometimes, this will be food; other times, it will be things I’m doing, trying, exploring, seeing, or listening to.

• Prompts to share yours! What’s nourishing you…what you’re hungry for…what’s feeding your body, mind, spirit.

  

My vision is to create a container where craving what’s good for you happens.

Rather than focus on what we’re avoiding or cutting out, I want us to notice, savor, and celebrate what we’re choosing and what we’re pulling towards. Things that leave us feeling better, not worse. Things that make us excited and grateful to be here, as we are, in this body—maybe not all of the time, but more of it. Because, as I told Josaline:

The more we notice and name what feels truly, deeply nourishing for our body and mind—especially in the moment, when we’re actually experiencing it—the more we’ll move towards that place and act to protect it.

Part of this “movement towards” is conscious; part of it (probably the most powerful part) is subconscious. When we notice and remain truly present in moments of ease, our body and subconscious take it from there.

The result? The best, most uplifting, expansive kind of momentum. Also, the freedom that comes with that. And the deep presence that comes from connecting to and caring for our physical body, as well as our mind and our spirit.

From this place, we can remember that our body is our ally, our home, and our refuge.

Why? Well, as my teacher Gil asks: “What if the body is where love is? What if the body is where kindness is? What if the body is where freedom is?”

I don’t want you or me or any of us to miss it.

The first edition of Perfect Hunger will arrive in your inbox this Wednesday, January 1st.

My hope is that it will be an inspiring and supportive way to welcome the new year together.

Thereafter, Perfect Hunger will come out twice a month, complementing Sober Soulful’s other offerings (including new Food & Body essays, the Sobriety Series, and more exciting changes I have in the works).

I’d love for you to stop by, check in, and join me in feeding our hunger for a more beautiful, more nourishing life.

*Talking about our bodies, relationship to food, and health and wellness choices can be a sensitive topic. To provide more privacy and intimacy, Perfect Hunger and most Food & Body content on Sober Soulful will be behind the paywall. You can upgrade your subscription for full access here:

Meanwhile, please tell and entice us!

• What’s nourishing you this week? Anything big or small!

• What are you craving that you already know will leave you feeling better in the moment and afterwards?

With love,
Dana

Endnote on the name “Perfect Hunger”

The idea of cultivating the perfect thirst is found in Sufi poetry and teachings about longing for spiritual wisdom and connection with the divine. Similar teachings are found in many other religious and spiritual traditions.

Senior Buddhist teacher Gil Fronsdal, for instance, encourages cultivating desire for that which is wholesome—whether for our physical body, our mind and inner well-being, or our interactions with others and way of being in the world. And my dear friend Steve passed along this beautiful quote:

“It is our hunger, our thirst, and our emptiness that creates the longing for soul food. If we were full, we would never seek for anything.”

—A. Helwa, Secrets of Divine Love: A Spiritual Journey into the Heart of Islam