Finding your clues...

Several readers have asked for more information about how these ‘hungry ghost’ problems occur…

How to know if that is a piece of their puzzle…

What to do if you suspect  'hungry ghost' involvement.  

First… take note of when your problem started... 

was it in childhood, young adulthood or later in life? 

Try not to over-analyze at this stage.  It is just fact-finding for now. 

You will, no doubt, have various explanations in mind just the same.  

So go ahead and note them.

For the moment, let's say that those are the stories we tell ourselves.  

Note them, but don't engage them for now.

As much as you are able, leave any blame and self-recrimination on the side.  

It just confuses things.

Make a list of the foods you struggle with.  Notice your patterns. 

Is there a time of day or night when you feel more vulnerable?

What might those foods be symbolic of?  A certain person?  

Something shared?  A need for comfort?

As you assemble the information you will start to have clues to your mystery.

Notice your emotions around your over-eating, bingeing or lack of eating.

Are you experiencing sadness, melancholy, anger, frustration, pity for one's self?   

Are you missing someone?

Do you find yourself eating like a starving person, or eating like a man 

if you are a woman?  Is there a special food or cuisine?

Take time to consider all the subtle aspects that you experience. 

Is there a sense of being pushed from behind or above?  

A sense of something bearing down or overshadowing you?

Is something interfering with your will?  

If so, do you experience it as creeping up on you or suddenly overpowering you? 

Or do you have a sense of something gnawing or craving from inside?  

If so, where?  In  your belly, throat, etc.?

Try to stay calm and objective.  There is no need for fear or shame.  

We are just gathering information.

Keep assembling your clues. 

Is the food or drink characteristic of you and your taste or is it outside 

your habitual food or drink?  

Let's take a look at your personality...  

Are you deeply sympathetic?  A caregiver?  A sensitive?  An introvert? 

Empathetic?  Spiritually inclined?  

Do you often feel responsible for others’ wellbeing and/or happiness?  

Do people seek you out as someone they can confide in or share their problems with?

Would someone describe you as a bleeding heart sort of person?  

Does a loved one or family member linger in your mind?  

For that matter, does someone that you have had difficulties with 

or unfinished business linger or attach?

You might add to this list...

Do you experience several of the above?  

If so, you may be too open and vulnerable for your own good.

We are the easiest targets for a needy one…on either side of life.

We often are not aware enough of who and what is in our energy field 

and how that impacts us, sometimes against our will.

A little awareness will go a long way here…  

Here is an example…  On a trip to England and Wales some years ago, 

I found myself fascinated by the charming old churches that dotted the countryside.  

I like anything old and I wandered through many of the adjacent graveyards, as well. 

I saw people making grave rubbings and I gave it a try myself, thinking nothing of it.

When I returned home to the states, a friend invited me along to visit an old woman 

who she described as gifted.

The old woman took one look at me and exclaimed “Oh my!  You have been visiting graveyards!

You must never do that!”

She was quite vehement about it.  I was a bit shocked and I must admit I did not understand 

her concern.

She went on to tell me that I was much too open and sympathetic by nature 

and that that sort of venture was off limits to me.

Her observation was that a whole group of the deceased spirits had followed me 

back to the states.  

They sensed that I was a tenderhearted person and they attached themselves to me. 

It never occurred to me that such a thing would happen.   

I knew that I had been feeling unusually tired and a bit weepy since my return…

not my usual self.   What she said made sense... 

I gave myself a bit of a shaking, got back into life and made it a point to resist 

all such influences and I was soon back to normal.

Thinking back on it, it’s easy to see how we experience other people’s ‘stuff’ 

without realizing it.  

Their sadness, their stories, their shifting emotions…even their illnesses.  

It is simply their energies moving through us….much like a weather system. 

In the very same way that spending time with a negative person can drag us down 

for awhile, we can experience the heaviness or infirmity of an energy floating 

in our vicinity.

It just happens quite naturally. 

Women and children often have quite porous boundaries…too open, too soft, too yielding.  

Too unaware.

These are boundary issues that we were never taught.  

In fact, if anything, our boundaries have not been recognized or respected

and that has become the norm for us.  

We can get tangled up in all sorts of unpleasantness.

As we learn to erect those fences and put our boundaries back in place, 

we gain control of our lives, sometimes for the first time.

You begin to experience that it is normal and necessary that you have control 

of your body, your life…even your energy field and that nothing interferes inappropriately. 

You learn eventually to keep all interference to a minimum. 

Your life becomes peaceful, especially in your stomach…your emotional brain.