Hunger

Your need for what sustains you, emotionally, mentally or physically. We sometimes lose hope, faith or strength, and this hunger represents the inner need felt at such times. See: food.

Often points to things you unconsciously yearn for, but have either repressed, denied, or been unaware of. Your needs, or demands, physically, emotionally and mentally. You may feel the need for success or fame just as acutely as the need for sex or food. See: eating

The solar plexus also links with hunger, the longing to be held, desire to give of yourself, or to be at the real or figurative breast. If these urges have been hurt, we may feel pain in the solar plexus and tend to hold ourselves back from active social expression or intimacy in relationships.

 Example: As I walked past the shops, having fasted for days, I found a sudden great enthusiasm for a packet of figs, as if they were wonderful, and I ought to buy them here and now. Then, thinking about this, I thought, “But I have a packet of figs at home, and do not need any more yet.” It was only then that I realised how the whole train of thought and desire had arisen from my hunger. With other shops also, the same thing happened. I was led to consider buying foods, without at all realising where the urge had arisen from, and to see this only later.

It seems likely, considering the above, that other things we repressed, such as our sexual needs, love and our need for something more from your life, also emerges subtly into consciousness in a similar way as hungers.

 Example: I noticed a large rag doll on the floor. I seemed to know the doll belonged to Joan, and was unconsciously used as a substitute for her deep hunger for a son. I held out my hand to the doll, with love, and it came alive and crawled to me. It came to me as a lonely child might come into ones arms hungering for love. I held it close to me, and Joan came over and I held her too. Then all barriers seemed to melt, and everything disappeared from view. All that existed was me as a united being and consciousness. It was, I felt, beautiful.

A person describes their experience of this hunger.

I had been exploring my inner world and here I took time to eat. I had prepared some oats before starting. When I ate them I experienced the most wonderful awareness of hunger and absorbing, not just the oats, nuts and seeds, but also the environment, and all that I had learned and taken in from the woman I loved. I mean by this the total environment, earth, air, water, culture, history, people. I felt like a hungry animal, cramming food in my mouth, loving it, and knowing I was feeding Life as well as myself.

I felt that if we have the courage, we are a firmament of experience. By exposing ourselves to experience, and allowing ourselves to really feel the pleasure, the torment, the passion of what we meet, we are feeding Life. But we are more than a mouth, we are also a way of gaining insight, of integrating experience, and that is the real food of Life.

I felt this is the real human work on the planet – consciousness, integrative sentience. This, I felt, is certainly my work, my function. It is to feel, to experience, to cry, to laugh and certainly to love. But in the midst of all that, to connect, to learn, to ask why or what, to gain insight and knowledge even if that is a struggle. Life, ones life, places, are situations where we can feed. Life says, “Take this in! Take this in! Experience, feel, ferment. Then show it to me. You are my digestive organ.”

Useful Questions and Hints:

What to you long for?

Is what you hunger for shown in the dream?

Have fulfilled your dreams or longings?

Do you feel hunger emotionally or is sexual attraction?

Is it a hunger and need of the body or of the soul?

See Learning to Allow Yourself  – Inner World – Exploring Dreams Techniques to use – Hungering