Mercury Retrograde in Cancer: Let’s Eat

By Tom Jacobs

What do you eat, and why?

How do you feel about what you eat?

Is eating for you about sustenance, or is it about something else?

When you eat, do you know how your body reacts to what you’re eating and how you’re eating it?

What does your body feel like as you eat? What are the physical sensations? What’s happening in your stomach, your gut, your mouth?

How much time do you spend eating? Do you eat quickly or slowly?

Do you eat at certain times of the day, or when you start to notice hunger, or when it’s an emergency?

Do you eat big meals? Small ones? Are you a constant snacker? A perennial grazer?

What were you taught about food when you were young?

Do you still believe those things?

What would it be like to be aware of everything that you put in your mouth, and feel good about it?

Do you judge yourself for your food choices?

If you feel accused, understand that there’s a part of you making your food choices that feels bad for what it chooses. The current Mercury retrograde is a fantastic time to get in touch with any and all issues we have with food and how they tie in to our emotional worlds. Any part of you that wants you to feel bad is not really you - underline that. Most of us run our lives via subpersonalities formed in childhood as survival strategies. As Zen and meditation teacher Cheri Huber points out, they didn’t work then and they don’t work now.

If you tie food to your emotional reality (as most of us do) and wish to change it, the first step is to be aware. I ask the questions above to encourage you to choose more awareness in your relationship with food. The opportunity of the moment is to see, learn and understand more. Our mental energy (Mercury) retrograding through the sign of feelings and food (Cancer) can open a doorway to seeing who’s running the food area of your life. In a lot of people it’s a younger version of us that’s afraid of not having enough love, perhaps even an infant version of ourselves. See if you can take in whatever new information comes to you without judgment, just to see what’s happening. Knowing what’s really going on and why is the first step if you wish to change your relationship with food.

For most of us, our relationship with food is a mirror of our relationship with our emotions. Looking at the issues we have with food will tell us volumes about the issues we have with our emotions, whether our actual emotions or our capacity to feel and deal with them. Read the questions again:

What do you feel, and why?

How do you feel about what you feel?

When you spend time with your feelings, do you know how your body reacts to what you’re feeling?

What does your body feel like as you feel? What are the physical sensations? What’s happening in your stomach, your gut, your mouth?

How much time do you spend with your feelings? Do you spend a lot or a little of time with them? Do you recognize their existence in an abstract way, or do you allow yourself to really be with them?

Are you open to emotions all the time, or only when you start to notice something big is brewing, or when it’s an emergency and can’t be held back any longer?

What were you taught about emotions when you were young?

Do you still believe those things?

What would it be like to be aware of all of your emotions, and feel good about them?

Do you judge yourself for your feelings?

Suggested reading: Anything by Cheri Huber.

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June 27, 2007 By Tom Jacobs