Feeding Happiness

For most of us in the western world, our conception of nutrition is limited to the physical body. We watch carefully what we feed our bodies, abstaining from greasy fast food and excessive carbs, in an effort to live long, healthy, happy lives. Unhealthy foods - we accept without question - lead to increased risk for illness, disease, cancer, and other maladies. We know this. Because the effects of food are physically felt, conceptualizing nutrition in relation to the body is simple, concrete. Food enters your body through your mouth. You chew it. You feel it in your stomach. You see and feel the effects of what you ingest. You physically feel your food.

In his insightful and accessible discussion of the core teachings of Buddhism, Thict Nhat Hanh presents an expanded conception of nutrition, a conception that includes our mind, or consciousness.

In this media driven world, we are on constant sensory overload. Our senses are in persistent contact with stimuli. When we listen to music, watch television, log onto social media, read magazines, we are ingesting. The conversations we have with others, the people with whom we surround ourselves, we are ingesting. This is the food for our consciousness. Thinking about the number of times I listened to a song that completely changed my mood for the worse, watched a movie that made me dissatisfied with my life and greedy for what I do not have, seen something on social media that made me feel anxious and depressed, been involved in gossip-driven conversations that left me feeling empty, I feel like a food-addict with no control over what she eats. While the physicality of food makes us think we have control over that aspect of our health, the transient and abstract quality of our minds and emotions deludes us into thinking we are not in control, that we are prey to external circumstance.

The notion that we cannot control our mental health as we do our physical health is, of course, just an illusion.

The Buddha said, "When we feel suffering, we have to acknowledge its presence and look deeply into its nature. When we look deeply, we will discover the kinds of nutrients that have helped it come to be and continue to feed it." With this practice, we will recognize when we are ingesting toxins like fear, hatred, and greed, and we learn the circumstances that give rise to such toxic states of being. Similarly, we will recognize when we are ingesting nutrients that encourage understanding, compassion, and peace, and we learn the circumstances that give rise to such positive states of well-being. Health is as contagious as disease, virtue as contagious as vice, happiness as contagious as depression. We can choose to feed our consciousness with fear, greed, hatred, ignorance, and pride. Or we can feed our consciousness with compassion, understanding, peace, love, and joy. We have the choice.

The Dhammapada, the most beloved of Buddhist texts, begins with the following words: "All we are is the result of what we have thought." Well-being - both physical and mental - is a lifestyle choice. Happiness is a lifestyle choice. Just as we feed are bodies with healthy nutrients, so must we feed our minds by choosing to avoid the circumstances that feed our suffering and instead pursue the circumstances that feed our happiness, our well-being. 

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