This morning, I ate grated sweet potatoes that Mario had baked in the oven with a bit of olive oil. I also had a basted egg and a serving of steamed vegetables: broccoli, cauliflower, pea pods, carrots, cabbage, and garlic. All organic. Before I ate, I thanked Mario, the plants, and the chicken for my food. I thanked the sun and the wind and the water for my breakfast. I put my hands over it all and seasoned it with my own silent blessing. Then I feasted.
The word nourish comes from a Latin word which means “feed, cherish.”
Let’s do a little exercise here. Close your eyes and imagine that you love and cherish yourself. Imagine that you are worthy of good health, worthy of joy and happiness. Imagine that your True Self is filling you up so that you are full of yourself—your True Self who is strong, healthy, intuitive and who knows how to Be in the world. Then ask yourself this: How do I feed and cherish my True Self?
What do you see every day? What do you look at? What are you feeding yourself through your sight? What kind of movies and television do you watch? Afterward do you feel joyful? Fearful?
What do you listen to? What are you feeding yourself through your ears? Are you inspired by what you hear? Do you feel like curling into a ball and hiding? Or do you want to dance and sing?
What do you smell? What do you taste? What do you touch?
What do you eat?
How do you nourish yourself with food?
What we eat can do more for our mental and physical well-being than almost anything. Everyone and their mother has written a book about what you should and should not eat. It often gets confusing. Who’s right? We’ve lost touch with our own instincts. Michael Pollan says, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” His is the most reasonable suggestion I’ve heard about eating!
People ask me all the time about food and diet. I share with them the following: Nowadays it seems to be something each individual has to figure out for herself. Different people have different needs. If we were all eating unprocessed food that was locally and organically grown, I think we’d all be a lot healthier. I encourage people to go slow when they’re first changing the way they eat. Be prepared to be grumpy for a while—be prepared for it to take a few weeks before you notice any positive difference. Or you might notice a change within a day or two.
If you’re just beginning to look at what you eat and trying to eat healthier, I always suggest starting out with Kristina Turner’s The Self-Healing Cookbook: Whole Foods To Balance Body, Mind and Moods. She’s not fanatical. She’s nurturing and joyful. Her recipes are simple, refreshing, and healing.
If you’re eating food that has been processed, read the ingredients. If you don’t know what some of the ingredients are: Don’t eat it. If there are a zillion ingredients, probably not a good idea to eat it. It’s a good idea to read the ingredients every time because manufacturers change what they put in a product.
If you’re trying to feel better and eat healthier, cut out sugar. I find that getting rid of sugar in a diet can help moodiness and depression almost more than anything else. Most Americans have a steady diet of sugar and don’t know what they feel like without sugar.
I think how we eat is important. Mealtime should be a time when we cherish ourselves! When I cook, I don’t listen to the news or have any gory program on the television. I like cooking with joy, with goofy pleasure. I always thank the food and the spirit of the food.
Before I eat, I sit down, I close my eyes, and I imagine everyone who had a part in getting this food to me. I imagine the farmers planting it. I imagine the people who harvested the food and those who delivered it to me or my grocery store. If I’m the one who planted it and harvested it, I imagine me! I imagine the chicken who gifted me with her egg or the salmon who gave up his life for me. I imagine the plants themselves. I imagine the devas or plant fairies. If I’m in a restaurant, I imagine the cook. I see them all and I thank them. Then I place my hands over the food and pour a little Reiki or healing energy over it all. What a treat that all feels like to me.
So tell me: How have you nourished, fed, and cherished your sweet wild wonderful true self today?
The morning began out in my garden, bare feet on the cool earth, bits of sticks and clay and goat heads making themselves known to my skin that is getting ready for a summer without shoes. Her essence begins to enter me there, through my sole/soul, the one that lives closest to the mother.
I pick anise/hyssop, two kinds of mint, monarda, rose geranium…and along with a few pinches of darjeeling tea, I plop them in my ancient robin’s egg blue tea pot that has a patina of brown from the myriad leaves that have swam inside of her, unfurling their herbaceous wings, soaking up every bit of liquid along the way.
The boiling water invites the steam to rise, filling my tiny kitchen with a sweet aroma, calming me, reassuring me that I am here, that I am alive, that I am love, that I am IN love….with these plants, this pot, the water, with my BODY who has carried me this far…