The Hemp Connection:
religion

Every year when Lent comes around, I'm reminded of my years working in an eating disorder treatment center. It was the time when my patients viewed the holiday as an excuse to indulge their disease. Over night, everyone seemed to become Catholic and want the special dietary rules to apply to them!

I decided to have a rule that other than the"fish on Friday" tradition, all Lenten sacrifices would have to relate to something other than food. After all, Lent is supposed to be a practice of sacrifice, and making it easier to live in your comfort zone is not really what Lent is about.

Here are ten sacrifices to consider that may indirectly have to do with food, but in a way that may allow you to come out of Lent with a new healthy habit that benefits you long after the 40 days it felt like a sacrifice.

Any behavior change is hard. The purpose of Lent is not to punish yourself, but to pull yourself out of living with a focus on yourself and turning it toward others. The healthier you feel, the more likely it is you will want to interact with others. And social support can, over the long haul, help to balance your hormones.

The beauty of Lent as compared to a New Year's resolution is, you only have to commit to 40 days. Then you can re-evaluate. There is something about the permanency of a New Year's resolution that almost insures its being broken. Lent is a way to try a new behavior on for size and evaluate if it works for you.

1. Give up negative self-talk

2. Put away excessive weighing on the scale

3. Instead of spending money on that nail job or that new eye shadow color, buy the fish oil. And take it!

4. Go to bed at a regular, earlier, hour.

5. Get up early and get to that yoga class on time.

6. Pack your lunch.

7. Limit your social networking time (Facebook, Twitter) and attend a new meetup group once a week. A group that has absolutely nothing to do with food, exercise, fertility, or PCOS.

8. Practice a daily random act of kindness.

9. Do something daily that has no purpose and is just plain fun!

10. Spend a little bit of extra money on organic household cleaning products.

Twice in the past week comments with somewhat of a religious energy about them have been sent my way. One set of comments came from someone who was using the Bible to try and argue that something we were doing at inCYST was not appropriate. Another came from an atheist who felt that we should not be incorporating religion or spirituality of any kind in our work.

Both sets of comments came unsolicited, and it is timely that in that same week, a post from Dr. Gretchen that she had scheduled weeks before went live with thoughts about God and spirituality.

I figured it was my opportunity to share where we stand on that. Actually where we stand on quite a few things.

We at inCYST are here to help. We have Christians amongst us, but we are not a Christian organization. We also have Buddhists, and some of us are Jewish. And we do have an atheist or two.

We do not identify ourselves by our religion. We do practice religion or lack thereof, but it's not what we use as our identity.

Whether you are Hindu, Atheist, Wiccan, or Catholic, you have a pancreas, lungs, and a heart. Most of you have a uterus. All of you have brains. Last time I checked, an Atheist brain worked the same way as a Christian one did…the only difference is the thoughts and emotions those brains generate. It doesn't matter to me what those thoughts and emotions are, I care most that the brain is operating in a healthy environment and to its fullest capacity.

If Christianity is your spiritual perspective, we seek to understand how it supports your path to wellness and to incorporate that into our recommendations. If you're an Atheist, then we'll work to understand and support that as well.

We'll do the same for Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, lesbians, heterosexuals, transsexuals, 25-year-olds, 65-year-olds, men, women, Latinas, African Americans, Caucasians, Hungarians, Australians, people living in the city, people in the boonies, people on an island.

We don't look for reasons to separate ourselves from you. We look for ways to connect and support.

We work in health care, with anxious and hurting people. We really don't have the luxury of dividing people into piles and deciding which ones are more worthy of helping. When they come to you, and you have information and resources that can help them, you use them on behalf of helping them.

To the person who used the Bible to scold, I don't think that the Bible was intended to be used as a means to scold. To the Atheist who asked us not to incorporate spirituality, I'll kindly not force religion on you since that is not something you wish, but for those who ask us to consider their spiritual path in our work together, we will gladly honor their request.

Everyone who comes to this blog comes for a reason — they need help. And every single one of those individuals is valued…and welcome.