Cravings…What Do I Do?

Most people assume cravings are a problem.

After all, we’ve spent years trying to manage them — suppressing, distracting, bargaining, controlling. Using willpower, rules, plans. Sometimes succeeding for a while, sometimes not. Usually feeling like we’re one lapse away from losing the plot.

So when I say this, it can sound a bit alarming:

You don’t need to do anything about your cravings.

Cravings show up when the mind is stirred up.
They quiet down when the mind settles.

And the mind is designed to settle on its own.

Huh? I hear you say!

We’re built with an internal reset button. When the system is left alone, it returns to balance — the same way muddy water clears if you stop shaking the jar. Or the snow in a snow globe settles once you stop shaking it.

What tends to keep cravings alive isn’t the craving itself.
It’s our thinking about the craving.

“What do I do about this?”
“How do I make it stop?”
“What’s wrong with me, I know I’m not hungry?”

Each question adds another layer of thinking to an already busy mind. Completely innocently. But it’s like revving the engine when what’s needed is to idle in neutral.

For years, I tried to fix my eating by doing more — more control, more willpower, always more effort. Each time I was hopeful and each time I was left disappointed. And with that came more thinking. More analysis. More time trying to find the answer.

Looking back now, it’s all because I didn’t understand how the system worked.

Nothing needed fixing.

Once I began to see that cravings were made of of thought — temporary, fleeting energy moving through my mind — the whole experience changed. It didn’t happen overnight, but once I really saw it, I knew the change was permanent.

Change doesn’t come from trying harder.
It comes from insight.

And insight tends to arrive when we stop trying to control the situation and instead get curious.

Cravings are actually a part of our divine design. We don’t need to control them or manage them. They will pass on their own.

But if you’re struggling to allow them currently, you can always surf the urge.