Your Buffet of Thoughts

Born and raised in Southern California, Las Vegas was a common weekend vacation destination.

When I think of “Vegas,” what comes to mind are lots of lights, slot machines, noise, people, and of course, big, bountiful buffets.

If you’ve ever been to a “Vegas buffet,” you’ll know what I’m talking about – it’s like foods from all over the world (in amounts that could feed a small country) come together to provide an array of options to satisfy every taste.

But even if you’ve never experienced a Vegas buffet, it’s safe to say you’ve been to some kind of a buffet before, so you know what I mean by “options.”

I was thinking the other day how our mind is like a buffet of thoughts – some healthier than others and at every moment we stand before this buffet and we have a choice of what we consume or leave on the table.

For example, imagine eating at a food buffet every day…

You have all the choices in the world, from the high-calorie/sugar/fat items, to the healthier, “lighter” options.

When it comes to our thoughts, we also have a choice – there are high-anxiety/stress/negative items to choose from, as well as “healthier” options like hope, gratitude, positivity, optimism, and strength, for example.

Like the food items we choose at a buffet, if we constantly pile our plates with “unhealthy” items, over time this will inevitably lead to not only weight gain, but perhaps diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, or simply a shortened life.

On the other hand, as you know, healthy food choices over time lead to the opposite – weight loss, longevity, and improved quality of life.

So understand that any given moment, you are presented with a buffet of “your” thoughts.

However, just like you don’t choose the options that are presented for you at a food buffet, you also don’t choose the thoughts that are presented to you in your mind – they just come in and out of your brain.

If you realize that at each moment you are standing before your buffet of thoughts, then you can become aware of the “cost” of each thought before you consume it and let it do it’s work on you.

For example, when we eat unhealthy foods – once they pass our mouth (where we get all the pleasure), our body now has to deal with the consequences – it has to work to process the food and store it.

The same is true for unhealthy thoughts – dwelling on these thoughts doesn’t stop in our brain; they cause us to release the hormone cortisol.

You can imagine cortisol as your lawyer. You want her around when you’re in trouble; otherwise it’s best if she stays away.

What cortisol does is increase our fight or flight response – which is okay sometimes – but too much of it, too often, inevitably has a tremendous cost.

Being highly anxious and stressed a lot, just like consuming unhealthy foods, leads to weight gain over time because this constant release of cortisol causes us to hold on to fat.

That’s why I stress (no pun intended) the importance of thriving health being not just about your diet and exercise, but also about your mood (lowering your stress/anxiety/overwhelm) and quality/quantity of sleep.

Again, you can start eating healthier and exercising more, but if you continue to put “unhealthy” thoughts on your plate, carry them around with you, and consume them all day, there is a mental, physical, and emotional cost.

I share this with you not to be a downer – I’ll never leave you feeling defeated, because there’s always hope – there’s always improvement to be made (if even a little), and there’s always an opportunity to begin again right now, in this very moment.

But like the theme of this message, it all comes down to a choice.

Each morning you wake with a buffet of thoughts – you don’t always know what’s being “served” today, but know that you always have a choice.

And hey, just like at a food buffet, you may choose (at the time) to put something on your plate that you bring back to your table and later decide that you don’t want to eat it and that’s great!

Remember, the best part is that you don’t even have to wait another minute because right now you are standing before your buffet of thoughts.

You always have a choice…

What will you put on your plate right now?

What will you consume today?

It’s your turn to take care of you,

Don’t “fall” back into old habits this season…  
I’m here to help.