Feed Your Body, Feed Your Soul

Nutrition: The Building Blocks HOW DO WE BRING BALANCE? The food we eat is one of life’s greatest pleasures and represents many things— comfort, nourishment, love, sharing, health, energy and vitality, joy and celebration. Sadly, many of us have lost sight of this joy and celebration of life. Today, our relationship with food has often slipped out of balance to become one of compulsions, fears, anxieties and guilt. To heal this imbalance, we need to connect to our inner awareness and wisdom, and start listening to our body. The simple daily act of eating has the potential to become a profound guide for our spiritual growth. When the necessary proportion of nutrients needed for health is not being met, the body will crave the missing nutrients and often attempt to find them by overindulging in unhealthy foods. If we still don’t obtain them, the result will be an imbalance, which often leads to illness. So how do we bring balance, harmony and joy back into our relationship with food? Your human body has a natural inclination towards health along with an innate wisdom to perpetually strive for balance. When our body is in balance we are in harmony with nature. We are emotionally receptive and open, mentally focused with clarity, physically energetic and full of life—we are open and can stand in the truth that lies within us. When in a state of balance we lose our cravings for sweets, salty foods and junk food, and desire only foods that will keep us feeling in balance. But, when in a state of imbalance, we are agitated, stressed and reactive, and this is when disease can occur. What Is A Balanced Diet—Really? The first ingredient in a balanced diet is awareness and an understanding of the impact our food choices have on our health, and the health of our planet, which affects our society at large. Everything is connected. Food affects our attitudes and beliefs, our spirituality, our relationships and of course the quality of our lives. Somewhere deep inside we all yearn for balance and to find peace with the most fundamental necessity of life—nourishment. The food we eat becomes a part of us as we metabolize, assimilate, and absorb the energy it provides into our own energy, until we become one. Food enters into us, dissolves within us, penetrates our cells, contributes its energy to us and therefore becomes us—it is the most intimate of connections. Therefore, we must feed ourselves with love, and be discriminate as to what we consume. Just as there are many layers to an onion, there are multiple layers to our feelings and relationship with food. We carry complex, deeply rooted, intimate feelings and thoughts about food that come from our childhood experiences and memories, cultural beliefs and emotional connections. A balanced diet is really a balanced approach where you consider the energy of the food you are consuming and ultimately assimilating to become an intimate part of you. Therefore, the thought of eating “junk food” or “fast food” would have no appeal—over time it destroys cells and tissue while robbing your body of nutrients in its wake. A balanced approach is choosing foods that are easy on your digestive system, such as foods in their raw, uncooked natural state that provide a broad range of nutrients. Eating a variety of fruits and vegetables, especially green leafy vegetables, every day will provide you with energy and the nutrients you require. When you begin to really understand the impact of the choices you make, only then will you move to a more balanced approach in all areas of your life. —2— Health and Healing WHAT IS HEALTH? “It is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it.” — W. Somerset Maugham Our Belief System When it comes to our own health it’s interesting to realize we have a belief system or blockages that actually limit us. We see everything through a filter or bias that keeps us doing the same things resulting in the same experiences day after day. Remember back to when you were a child and saw the world through pure, clear, unfiltered eyes. Most of us have had something happen in our life that was personally devastating, like the ending of a relationship, a divorce, a serious car accident, illness, financial problems, bankruptcy or job loss. It’s a wake up call for something, and I believe life gives you clues. It starts with a pebble, and if we don’t listen or make the necessary changes, it turns into a rock and if we are still defiant and don’t listen then soon it’s a boulder. The point is that it’s a wake up call—we need to heed the warning and listen. A long time ago I read a line in a book I’ve never forgotten. It said, “Adversity has taught me to be a better person.” Unfortunately we usually need to get hit over the head with a rock to realize our truth, but sometimes these are the defining moments in our lives—a time when we question everything. We grow stronger and learn the lessons, or we crumble and become paralyzed or stuck in our negative story. Our belief in that story can become so strong that we create patterns that in fact don’t meet our needs, thereby creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. In the book Why We Believe What We Believe, one of the eight strategies is to imagine that the belief you are holding on to is wrong, and then develop a scenario to explain how that could be true. This helps you start to see the limitations of your own beliefs.21 Healing is about letting go. It’s not about what you add, it’s more about what you remove, or purge, like negative thoughts and attitudes, old behavior patterns, food choices, unhealthy relationships, unconstructive habits, stress, toxins, inflammation and so on. Our health is relative to the person we are today, the sum total of all our experiences in every area—physical, emotional, mental and spiritual, stress, age, attitude and gratitude. All the activities of your life including eating, sleeping, conflict, love, attitude, stress, and most of all gratitude—all effect how your genes will be expressed and lead your body towards health or disease. So, how grateful are you? No matter what life hands us, we all have thousands of things we can remember to be grateful for. When you are grateful you can’t be miserable. One of the most important things you can do in your life is to “be here now.” Slow down physically and mentally, and take a breath. Turn off your cell phone and computer, all your devices, and just pause. Eknath Easwaran calls it “hurry sickness.”