Good Food For The Mind

My parents have this great phrase. “Good food for the mind.”

The idea is that we are always bringing things into our bodies and into our consciousness through our senses. It’s easy to understand how the food that we eat effects us and so it makes sense to choose foods that will help us function best. But it’s the same thing with all our senses.

It’s good to read and watch uplifting things, to focus our minds on things that will bring us to a more pure state of mind.

The people I grew up with would sometimes also use this phrase to support censorship. There are things we should be “protected from.”

So I have kind of mixed feelings about it.

On the one hand, I think it is critical that we all have the full freedom of choice, to know and discover all that is out there and to make our own choices of what we listen to and engage with.

On the other hand, I know that watching certain shows or reading certain books can make me crabby, snarky, or less compassionate while others can fill me with peace.

It’s a lot of responsibility and takes a strong discrimination to always choose good food for both mind and body. I fail in both cases quite a lot. I find it equally hard to resist ice cream and lurid true crime novels.

What do you think? How important do you think it is to bring only good input into our lives (as much as possible)?