As promised, I’m excited to take you along the journey with me and share some of the big lessons that I’m learning during my time here.
This first week has been jam-packed. Between settling into a volunteer work routine, to getting acquainted with the other 9 volunteers, to finding my personal balance between checking in online and taking time for myself to connect with the nature around me.
To say this place is magical doesn’t even sum it up.
The moment I arrived, I felt relaxed and at home. The garden buzzing with hummingbirds and bees. The ocean lapping at the rocks. The people, both guests and staff, smiling and excited to see me. And most of all the food…
As much as I love to cook, there’s nothing quite like having someone else do all the cooking and cleaning for you. I think I’m getting a little too used to that part! How am I going to adjust back at home after 4 weeks of being pampered?!
Which brings me nicely into the first lesson I wanted to share with you today.
One of the most talked about and celebrated experiences here at Hollyhock is indeed the food. If you’re feeling uninspired by food in your life, this place will crack that inspiration right open! The HUGE fresh salads right from the garden, the famous yeast salad dressing, the variety of fresh and organic ingredients…. heaven!
And with this abundance and gratitude for beautiful food, comes a bit of a challenge for me. I noticed pretty quickly within my first few days that I was gravitating to wanting to try EVERYTHING that was put out at each meal. Unfortunately, this abundance of choice lead me to serve myself full servings of each item… and thus overeating and overindulging.
Just the other day I was chatting with my fellow volunteer as we pruned the salmonberry bushes back off the trail. We got to talking about the downsides of having too many choices and I realized that THIS is what was happening to me.
It’s been proven that as humans, we have trouble making choices AND when we have a lot of choices we eat more than we normally would. I think this stems from our fear of making a wrong decision or missing out on certain things… at least this is my case. I don’t want to have just the porridge for breakfast and then miss out on the amazing omelet that may have been even better.
Too many choices = overindulgence.
I think this applies to most things in life, but for me, it’s been very prevalent when it comes to food.
So, what am I doing about it?
I’ve committed to myself to try everything that I want but to be conscious of taking only a SMALL portion of each instead of a normal serving. The past few days I’ve been happily sticking to this and I’ve been enjoying all of the flavors without the heavy full feeling that comes from overeating. I’ve found my happy balance.
I’m hoping that by sharing my lesson with you, that you’ll start to think about this in your own life.
Where do you notice too many choices leading to overindulgence?
If you want to keep a closer eye on my journey, I will be sharing photos and insights over on my Facebook and Instagram. Come and follow me there!
*Photo by Darshan-Alexander
Love & Abundance,
Dani