As I spilled a zip lock baggie full of small change in my car this morning I thought about the variety of associations we have with the word.
There's the stuff I had to winnow from the grit on the car floor and there's the change that strikes fear into the heart of the dieter, the retiree, the under employed and the ___ fill in the blank.
Small change with money can add up to a treat of some kind now and then. And the "small" part of change is the part we're looking for when we have to disrupt our familiar habits and comforts with something perhaps unwanted.
Let's take one of those areas most of us have a nagging inkling about that needs tweaking in our lives, health.
We are bombarded with information about disease just to the point that most of us have identified one or more things that we feel we need to do to be more healthy but, darn it, all of them involve upsetting our lives -I might even say, when I think about changing my diet "now how can that be healthy , it would be so stressful to have to deny myself those foods that make me happy" and then I could continue "I work so hard and at the end of the day I want my comfort food and drink -I deserve that" and then I could go into a downward spiral about how life wouldn't be worth living and what's the use -who's to say I won't die in a plane crash tomorrow anyway. And so it could go.
Or, what if I asked myself about the times I have felt stuck in a rut by habits, paralyzed by a lack of imagination that comfortable living can breed? You know that feeling that you want to do something new and fun but you can't even think of what that would be.
Well here you go -a shot in the arm for applied creativity. Small change in how you look at food. What if food were an art form? Not in the catholic school sense of painting the rose so that it looks exactly like the one the nun put in the center of the table, instead what would it be like if you were going to change your diet with the rules being a little looser, #1 It has to be delicious, #2 It has to be whole (minimally processed)food, #3 It has to be fun to prepare?
Except for #2 it's what you've always wanted anyway. #2 adds the bonus of making you feel sure you know what you're eating.
So setting the rules first that are based on what you want your guidelines to be will help you stay interested while you set your other goals.
Hint: something that would satisfy all three, a raw diet. Look up a book called RAW THE UN COOK BOOK by Juliano. The pictures will be so enticing that you may just decide to try something (don't get stuck on doing it exactly according to the directions , take liberties. That is the small change that starts a host of wonderful new experiences. To keep it loose, keep it small.
