Below is a discussion  about some of the social challenges that practitioners of the Mucusless Diet Healing System often face in the beginning. 

Dealing with Social Anxiety on a Mucus-free Plant-based Lifestyle

Wrote on February 4, 2013 by Tony

Hey Prof. Spira, I have been having an experience for a while now that maybe you can shed some simple advice on. Just your thoughts. Often times I get to talking about the diet–really the scientific reasons why we don’t need protein, etc.–and about how the transition and diet helps so much.

I can be a convincing talker, but often times I will be talking to someone who’s heavily toxic, especially my family and friends. And then I go away and end up feeling anxiety because I know the persons not ready to eat healthy right away and that I also don’t have the ability to walk them through it, especially in cases like my mother’s where she eats well but has taken tons of medicines for years.

It just gives me anxiety and makes me wish I had kept the diet, enemas, and everything to myself. Instead, everyone has known for a while what I do and as I get more and more healthy and energized, I get more anxiety that they completely don’t understand, and somehow feel down…u know?

Not sure if it made sense. But I get nervous that I’m pushing people or convincing people to change when I know they don’t have the interest to really study the science of it and practice the transition like I have diligently been doing. I’m one of those people who can really sense my body, but many are not, like you said in your book Spira Speaks, you were not able to when you first started.

Any thoughts on the importance of being quiet about it or the anxiety related to sharing this information with others?

-Tony

Dealing with Social Anxiety: Taking Steps to Avoid it

Response by Spira on February 14, 2013

When I first got into the mucusless diet I did not talk about it much with others, as I knew that ‘misery loves company’ and that I would need to get myself healthy first.

When I tried to tell friends and family I would often get burned pretty badly. They did not mean to hurt me, but the could unconsciously react with fear or disdain for the new lifestyle without really understanding it. There seemed to be a natural tendency to pick at and attack what I was trying to do.

This caused me to have a very militant, “Huey P. Newton or Malcolm X if they practiced the mucusless diet,” attitude about practicing the diet and relating it to others.

This was a kind of defense mechanism that kept ignorant people and bad vibes away from me. Yet, as I found creative ways to express myself through music, formal writing, and poetry, I felt a lot better. When I started to really clean myself up I noticed that people who used to attack me were being very respectful, and even getting into aspects of the diet.

Leading and influencing by example over a long period of time has proven to be effective. One of the reasons that I put up the websites, Youtube videos, support groups, etc., was to give myself and others resources to help communicate information about the diet.

Now, instead of buying dozens of books for people and giving it to them for free–which I used to do–after a good introductory discussion I just send people to the website or some of my videos.

If people are interested, they can continue to research for themselves. If there is no interest, then they should not feel pressure to continue learning which should result in little to no strain on our relationship and no social anxiety.

I’ve learned that if people are destined to hear this information, we will be compelled to share it with them, even if we are in a period where we are choosing to not speak out about the diet much. I kind of speak when spoken to about it with most people, and usually just bring the diet up when asked about it in normal conversation.

The thing is that it always seems to come up, because the foundation of our social fabric revolves around eating. Take a look at any conversation you have and see how long it takes before someone brings up food in some way. My tactic is usually to downplay the diet like it is the most normal thing in the world.

This seems to normalize it when talking to strangers and generate intrigue. This often results in them going to my website or Youtube channel on their own for more information.

Overall, just do not over tax yourself. If you feel like sharing your knowledge, don’t hold back. But don’t let folks drain you. Sometimes less can be more, and you leave people fascinated and ready to do their own research.

I used to overwhelm people with too much information in the beginning, and I can still do that if I’m not careful. I want to throw out just enough information to captivate people. It is also a great idea to start putting together educational tools such as informative videos, blog posts, etc., that can help them once they are interested, which is a great use of your own creative energy.

I hope this helps.

 

Peace, Love, and Breath!

Prof. Spira

 

 

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