Diet for the Soul

Anybody want to go into business with me? I have a great new concept in diet supplements. It’s called the Sensitizer2000. Most diet shakes are designed to artificially speed up the metabolism. Others will suppress our appetite. This pill does none of that. All it does is super sensitize our taste buds.

This pill does nothing to our insides. All it does is affect the tongue while we eat.
 
If we had really sensitive taste buds we wouldn’t have to worry about calories! For every bite we take, we will feel the sensation of eating three. All of the flavors and textures will come to life in such a way that we only have to eat one slice of pizza to get the satisfaction we normally get in devouring the entire pie.
 
A dietician once told me that eighty percent of weight loss is portion control. If we could get more out of our eating experience, we can reduce the amount we eat.
 
What if applied this concept to other areas of life?
 
Do we try to consume more of everything simply because we don’t get the full experience of what we are supposed to be enjoying? Is it a lack in the experience or is it a lack in ourselves?
 
If there is something deficient about our ability to experience life then all of the creature comforts around us won’t do a thing to make us happier. We will squander our existence pursuing things that will not raise us up for all time as advertised. All we will do is invest added time and energy pursuing more of it in the hopes that eventually the feeling will stick.
 
Let’s try another approach.
 
Can we sensitize ourselves to the beautiful realities already around us? Can we change our ability to take in what’s here right now? Do we have to engage in harsh trials and great tests to do so?
 
The most immediate step we can take to amplify everything around us is to remove our blinders.
 
How do we do that?
 
I just learned how. It was one of the most difficult things I had to do in life but the rewards are immediate and real.
 
Our ability to absorb our surroundings lies in the intellect. The soul is located right there. If we act to take impurities away from our soul, we enhance everything. We acquire knowledge. We become wisdom. With every spiritual growth comes a new insight to the reality around us. This is not merely information. It is something which amplifies our ability to understand it. The wiser we become, the more we receive from every piece of knowledge we acquire. What’s more, the greater ability we have to re-analyze events and information from our past and come up with new observations.
 
If I could make a model of our intellect and our soul, it would look like a room. Inside that room are thirty computers connected to each other. One computer serves as the central processor. It sends and receives data to all the others. This machine has the greatest ability to maximize the performance of all the others.
 
Inside most of us there are maybe six or seven computers working. Blankets cover up the unused machines.
 
When we remove some of the impurity in our lives one blanket falls down. A new computer is revealed. It is more powerful than all the other computers operating at present. It immediately assumes the role of central processor. It starts receiving and sending information at a faster pace, enabling every other computer to function a little better. The whole network inside us is now upgrading our ability to perceive life.
 
As we continue to grow, more computers start working. Each computer revealed is the strongest one. It assumes the role of the central unit and raises the capacity of all the others.

When we take on the laws of personal holiness, we are removing so many barriers to a fuller existence. As we continue our climb in this area, more and more blankets are removed. We see a lot more clearly.
 
Fictional images on television, at the computer, and worst of all – inside our own minds serve as a stumbling block to the real beauty of the world Hashem gave us. It stymies all of the potential G-d placed within us for spiritual and personal greatness.
 
We are far more capable than we are operating at right now. We can do so much more with our lives that we think. Breaking the boundaries of what we feel we can accomplish can become second nature quite easy.
 
This is a lesson that was reinforced to me after I finally went cold turkey on watching television. It took me years to go from 30 hours a week on the tube, to 12, 6, and finally zero. Once I hit rock bottom the miracles began. The challenge of never again watching TV for entertainment purposes is a great one.
 
The rewards are even greater.
 
 
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Dovber Halevi is the author of Sex, Religion, and the Middle East, a book about personal holiness and happiness. He lives in Israel with his wife and three children.