“Anything you think is influencing you. So many of the health people believe you are what you eat, and I believe you are what you think.” Said André Bernard, the educator, in an interview printed in the book Ideokinesis, A Creative Approach to Human Movement & Body Alignment.

Which reminds me of something I once wrote on my Instagram. I most always eat plant-based, so I wrote “They say you are what you eat, therefore… I’m a vegetable.” I thought that’s funny. But am I really a bowl of steamed rice, a block of tofu? Am I a carrot?

To what degree does what we eat (and how we eat, and when, and where, and with whom etc) define us, and to what degree does thinking do the same thing? I like to think, just as it is with food, the answers come when getting more specific. And because we know so much about food it should be easy to draw comparisons:

How is the taste of the following thought, taken from the book Ideokinesis: “The shoulder blades are floating like boats down the river”? Interesting? Bland? What is its nutritional value? Should we eat it often, that is repeat it often, like an affirmation? How about I say Up instead of Down, “The shoulder blades are floating like boats UP the river”? It’s just a small change in one ingredient, but maybe a big change for the overall dish, thought and effect? How about I remove the direction altogether, and say “The shoulder blades are floating like boats anchored at the shore of the ocean, gently rising and falling with each wave”?