The Happiness Diet
Releasing that which no longer serves you to find satisfaction
Gag. That is the grossest title ever. But sometimes I can’t help myself.
In January of 2016 I cut out all grains, legumes, sugar, dairy, and alcohol from my diet for thirty days to understand if any of the things I consumed regularly could be the source of my chronic health issues.
I was a very cranky girl for most of January 2016 but those thirty days changed my life.
Which got me thinking… can we identify our happiness triggers using the same methodology as an elimination diet to make ourselves happier, healthier people?
What is an elimination diet? Or “how many times I can write ‘inflammation’ in one paragraph?”
The whole idea of an elimination diet is to cut out known inflammatory food groups to lower overall inflammation in the body. Any Instagram foodie or health professional knows that systemic inflammation is at the root of many minor and major health problems.
We might not be born inflamed but the Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) certainly gets many of us feeling irritated right from the start.
When you eliminate not only processed foods but also many of the healthy things that are also known to be inflammatory (beans and dairy, for example), the immune system calms down and your body starts to feel good. From this place of good, we can start to reintroduce food groups one at a time and monitor any changes with how we feel.
The thing about food is you have* to make decisions about it every day. Eating is a constant balance of biology, habit, will, and joy. An elimination diet helps you identify the things to knock you off balance in all four categories. This knowledge empowers you to make food choices with a full understanding of the consequences of consumption.
Knowledge is power, after all.
*Taking a moment to acknowledge my privilege: If you’re lucky, you get to make decisions about food every day. This isn’t the case for everyone.
You are what you eat. And what you think.
My first elimination diet has turned into a twice yearly habit over the past three years. Each time I learn something new about my body and my self. And it got me to thinking — what if you could apply the same concept of elimination to your life in order to limit emotional inflammation and grow your overall satisfaction?
Introducing the happiness diet!
What would it look like to eliminate the inflammatory aspects of your life for thirty days and slowly reintegrate only that which makes you more satisfied aka happier?
Suspend reality for a moment and think of what a sabbatical from daily irritations might look like. Join me in this thought experiment.
Things that drive me crazy on a daily basis include but are not limited to: my addiction to mindlessly scrolling Instagram, waiting for people to text me back, getting cat-called on my walk to work, work in general, putting laundry away, deciding what to eat, and the monotony of it all.
Let’s distill these “inflammatory” experiences into four categories: technology, obligation, decision, and certain people.
You: “Okay, Sarah, this is basically everything about being alive…”
Me: “Y’all, this is a thought experiment. I said suspend reality!”
So what if I took thirty days to get away from these things? In my mind, that looks like escaping to an ashram or maybe a low key all-inclusive resort. I’d then spend thirty days doing anything and everything I wanted. As long as it didn’t involve Instagram, of course.
Sure I would expect plenty of negative feelings to come up — boredom, lack of purpose, loneliness, inconveniences even in paradise. But the practice here, like in an elimination diet, is to take note of what comes up. Record that for decisions you’ll be making for yourself in “life after.”
Assuming I survived thirty days living like a luxurious monk, I’d then need to plan for reintegrating technology, my job, relationships, etc. and noticing how I react to those things emotionally and physically.
Then comes the hard part — making real life decisions to cope with, limit, or eliminate those things that deplete satisfaction. And dealing with the serious consequences of finding a new job, new partner, and new route to work.
Food is much simpler than life, huh?
A more practical approach
One of my meditation teachers tells a story about a student who was super unhappy with her life. She felt stuck, dissatisfied. So she uprooted her life and moved to a brand new city to start over. If you can’t change your attitude, change your latitude right? The problem? She took her same old mind with her.
As much as the outside world is a factor in our daily happiness, it’s our internal dialogue about what’s happening around us that really creates the “inflammation.”
Changing your latitude certainly provides immediate gratification but working on the attitude creates true long term change.
