The road to spiritual realization, as well as, the road to optimum health should not be about denying yourself joy or about torturing yourself to heal yourself. This particular kind of thinking is really a part of the old paradigm, the one in which we are filled with varying degrees of self-hatred and shame. In this older kind of thinking and being, we seek to redeem ourselves by subjecting ourselves to different forms of deprivation usually accompanied by copious amounts of self criticism. Not only does this way of thinking and being not work, but it further entrenches us in conditioned patterns of suffering.
The deepest form of spiritual expansion is one that is motivated by transcendent joy. Feed yourself with emotions, activities and food that gives you the greatest joy and the deepest and most lasting kinds of satisfaction. Breath in the sweetness of the sacred practice of yoga. Feel deeply the kind of joy that comes from giving your heart and time freely and without reservation. Let your cells and senses be nourished by the best and most nutritious foods on the planets.
Don't be in denial of the activities and emotions/thoughts in you that lead to continual suffering. Be aware and conscious of that which leads to pain and suffering on all levels, but do so with kindness and compassion and sensitivity. Don't obsess about these things and use them to justify punishing yourself both internally and externally. If you are primarily motivated by the highest kinds of joy and direct your attention towards those areas of yourself and of life itself, you will find that the negative and destructive aspects of yourself will begin to naturally fall away, without you having to torture yourself over them.
Faith and confidence in who you are and what you are truly capable of is the greatest healing elixir of all. The limitations and fears that often grip us exist no where but in our minds. Remember that it is always easier than you think to realize the ever luminescent truth of who you are.
Jai Ram...!!!
Govinda Kai