Spiritual Nurturing

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” ~Teilhard de Chardin

We human beings tend to think of ourselves as being either healthy or sick. We act as if there are only these two options. In fact, spiritual wellness is not limited to these two opposite extremes.

Wellness is more of a spectrum. There is optimum health on the one side and poor health on the other. But most of us live, moving back and forth, somewhere along the spectrum, feeling healthier at times, and not so well at other times.

What is the definition of Spiritual Health?

A Healthy Spirit means so many different things to different people. For me, spirituality is a sense of wholeness, a sense of knowingness, and a sense of something far greater and more wonderful than what I see in front of me. When we get sick we have two paths we can take; we can shrivel up and succumb or we can open ourselves up to a new journey, a new rebirth.

Making the choice to be Spiritually Healthy

In life you make millions of choices. Each day you make thousands of little choices. Each choice leads you either toward wellness or toward poor health. You make choices about where you live, where you work, who you live with, what you eat, whether or not you exercise, how much you sleep, etc. All these choices affect whether you are moving toward or away from wellness.

You also make many choices about whether or not you invest in yourself spiritually. Nurturing your spirituality involves knowing who you really are and living a balanced life that is meaningful to you. On an energy level, spiritual wellness involves being present in your body and creating balance and flow through your personal energy system (aura, energy channels and chakras). Doing things like learning to meditate, receiving spiritual healing and spiritual counseling are spiritual investments in yourself. These practices support you in knowing who you are and what you need to do in order to create balance and flow in your life.

Here are some simple ways to nurture your spirit and ensure optimum spiritual wellness:

Prayer

Prayer is an inside route into tapping the Divine Power that surrounds us at all times. The conversations you have with God in prayer, in themselves help your spirit cleanse itself. Immense clarity of thought and positive directions become apparent if you pray and ask for guidance. Especially when we are most uneasy, prayer offers ease and comfort to the soul.

Meditation

Meditation is the ultimate way to know yourself. By learning how to meditate you can pull back from the world and focus on what’s going on inside. With self awareness you can clearly identify where you need to restore balance. With the self awareness developed in meditation, you can also go back into the world and make choices that are healing for you and your life. On an energy level, meditation supports you in being present in your body, releasing unwanted energies and creating flow in your spiritual energy system. To receive the long term benefits of meditation, it is best to practice regularly.

Spiritual Healing/Aura Healing

Spiritual healings support you being grounded in your body, releasing unwanted energies, and getting your own energy flowing so you can heal yourself. Healings can be miraculous, but rather than expecting a ‘one shot miracle’, healings are best approached as part of a regular routine. You would not meditate once and expect to be at peace forever. In a similar way, regular spiritual healings support you in moving toward, and maintaining, spiritual wellness.

Spiritual Counseling

A Spiritual Counselling literally means “a reading of the soul”. Through spiritual counseling you can gain tremendous insight into who you are and what you want to do. The best spiritual counseling sessions offer useful reflections about your life while still giving you room to have your own truth and make your own choices. Receiving regular readings also supports you moving toward, and maintaining, spiritual wellness.

With spiritual wellness, like many things in life, you get out what you put in. If you spend all your time making money and put no energy into spirituality, you might get rich, but you will probably end up spiritually unhealthy. If you spend all your time making your family happy and put no energy into your personal well-being, you might meet your family’s needs, but at the expense of your own spiritual health. It is necessary to make a commitment to healing yourself in order to create spiritual wellness…

Our spirit is our essence. And it also tends to be the one thing we neglect the most. We have to make time everyday tofeed our spirit. When we take care of our spirit we find the path to our authentic self and ultimately to living the life we were intended to live. Find your own definition of Spiritual Health.

True spiritual wellness is not about denying the body or ignoring other parts of your life. Spiritual wellness involves nurturing yourself on all levels of being. That includes taking care of your physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual needs. Paying your bills on time, having a healthy life, and giving back to the world are also part of living a balanced, meaningful life and part of nurturing your spirit.

Spiritual Nutrition

For millions of people food instead of being a source of nourishment it has become an area of conflict and confusion- endless weight-loss dramas, eating disorders, cravings, addictions, body image obsessions, and never-ending searches for the 'best' nutritional system.

With the hectic pace of everyday life, most of us have lost our spiritual connection to food. Food has been reduced to "fuel"- a listing of nutritional "value." But the human body is not a machine, and many of the food-related issues that plague us, can be traced to our lack of awareness of the relationship between body and spirit.

No matter how much we work on ourselves spiritually, our diet also plays a very significant role in how we feel. A heavy, chemical-ladened diet can actually make even the lightest spirit feel heavy. On the other hand, certain other types of meals can rapidly boost someone's spirit, mind, and heart. Many spiritually minded people receive intuitive messages to delete certain foods or beverages from their diet. Others on the spiritual path lose their tolerance for low-frequency substances such as coffee or sugar. They develop sudden adverse reactions to ingesting these substances.

SPIRIT: THE MISSING INGREDIENT IN FOOD 

Food is a dynamic force which interacts with humans on the physical body level, the mind-emotional level, and also the energetic and spiritual level. The study of spiritual living nutrition is the study of the interaction and assimilation of the dynamic forces of food by the dynamic forces of our total being.

We need to explore the fully range of our relationship of nutrition spiritual life, to expand beyond the present definition of nutrition that includes subtle energetic principles.

A FEW QUESTIONS FOR US TO EXPLORE:

What is the purpose of nutrition?

What is it we call nutrition?

What is assimilated?

What is that which is assimilating?

What is the relationship between the nutrient assimilated and spiritual unfolding?

REFLECTIONS & CONTEMPLATIONS

How does your relationship to food obstruct awareness of your spiritual nature?

How can food serve as a reminder of your spiritual nature?

If you had only one week to live, how would your relationship to food and your body change?

If you were reborn tomorrow, what advice would you give yourself about your relationship to food and nourishment?

There are four aspects of food: biological, psychological, spiritual, and social nutrition.

Biological Nourishment: the nutrients in optimal foods have the power to heal and balance physical health.

Psychological Nourishment: food influences mood; conversely, mood, emotions, and feelings often affect food choices

Social Nourishment: dining with others in a pleasant atmosphere affects well-being.

Spiritual Nourishment: eating with an awareness of the mystery of life in food and connecting with it via mindfulness, appreciation, and a loving consciousness may enhance health.

Since the beginning of time food has nourished us multi-dimensionally; it feeds not only the body, but also mind, soul, and social well-being. They are secrets because this understanding has been part of humankind's relationship to food for thousands of years, but in the last century, most of us have lost and forgotten about them.

In the 19th century, chemist Wilbur Olin Atwater told us that food is fuel, the body is a machine. About the same time, the industrial revolution gave us refined, processed food. In the late 1800s, Puritan values still predominated, which meant that food was often perceived as sinful, or as good and bad; in other words, we projected moral values onto food. Today, we relate to food mostly in terms of how it can be objectively measured. The meaning in food has been stripped away along with its nutrients during processing. Every time you look at a label in the supermarket and you see numbers next to nutrients, you are witnessing the affect of Newtonian science in action.

The best to eat way depends on an individual's personal health and nutritional goals. The way to use nutritional science effectively and optimally is to ask yourself, do you need (or choose) to eat to prevent a health problem for which you are at high risk, to manage an existing health problem, or to reverse an ailment.

Optimal health depends not only on what we eat, but also on how we eat. What we eat has been the singular focus of nutritional science, but how we eat also affects our health and well-being. One healing secret tells us what to eat for optimal health; and the other healing secrets show us how to eat for health and well-being. 

The healing secrets tell us about how to eat include: feelings, mindfulness, appreciation, connection (love), and socializing. Here is an example of how, let's say, eating mindfully influences health. So many people eat while task-stacking: in front of the computer, watching television, driving, and walking down the street, but eating mindfully, being present in the moment with your food, may actually affect the way the food is metabolized and ultimately, your health and well-being. When physician Donald Morse of Temple University did research with female students, he asked them to meditate for 5 minutes before eating, then also to do mental arithmetic for 5 minutes before eating. When the students meditated, they produced 22% more of an enzyme in saliva called alpha-amylase, which helps you break down carbohydrates and B vitamins in food. This suggests that if you eat in a relaxed, mindful, present state of mind, you'll absorb more nutrients, and in this way, may improve health.

MOTIONS, MOOD & FOOD

In the 1970s, Drs. Judith and Richard Wurtman discovered that when animals consumed the carbohydrate-dense foods of potatoes and sugar they released a naturally occurring hormone called serotonin, which calms and relaxes you. Other examples of carbohydrate-rich foods are pasta and bread. On the other hand, low-fat, high-protein foods (such as nonfat yogurt) release another hormone called norepinephrine, which keeps you mentally alert. It's not a stimulant; rather, it simply makes you more alert. The key concept with food mood research, is what is commonly referred to as psychological nutrition, is that food influences emotions, and inversely, that our emotions and feelings often influence our food choices.

SPIRITUAL NUTRITION

Spiritual nutrition is about the mystery of life inherent in both food and human beings. All food contains and gives life, and we human beings are also life giving and life containing. Also, both food and human beings depend on the elements, the sun, the earth and soil, water, and air to live and thrive. Spiritual nutrition acknowledges the interdependence and connection among plants, animals, human beings, and the mystery of life, and connecting to this life force. The way to access and derive the health benefits of spiritual nutrition is to implement the three healing secrets of spiritual nutrition: mindfulness, appreciation, and love, each time you eat.

KEY CONCEPTS

The key concept for optimal health and optimal eating is that what and how you eat hold the keys to physical, emotional, spiritual, and social well-being.

INTEGRATIVE NUTRITION

Integrative nutrition merges Western nutritional science with Eastern healing systems that include nutrition (such as Ayurveda), and also timeless food wisdom (from world religions and cultural traditions). Integrative nutrition is about holistic eating and total nutrition, a relationship with food that is capable of healing body, mind, and soul.

BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN ANCIENT WISDOM & MODERN SCIENCE

Humankind for millennia has turned to food to nourish physical, emotional, spiritual, and social well-being.

KEY POINTS

We are more than just a physical body; we are a spiritual source.

By nourishing the body, we nourish the spark of life within the body.

The body is Sacred and therefore, the nutrition of the body is Sacred.

A truly evolved nutritional approach takes us fully into the body and beyond the body,

Our relationship to food teaches us a great deal about who we are and how we live.

"To receive the most subtle particles in the food, you must be fully conscious,

wide awake, and full of love.

If the entire system is ready to receive food in that perfect way,

then the food is moved to pour out its hidden riches…when food opens itself,

it gives you all that it has in the way of pure, divine energies."

-O. M. Aivanbov

"When we look at nutrition from a purely scientific point of view, there is no place for consciousness. And yet, consciousness could be one of the crucial determinants of the metabolism of food itself."

~ Deepak Chopra., M.D.

Peace Be With You!

Something big is about to happen, can you feel it?

You can see signs of this all around the world, revolutions and protests, earthquakes and tidal waves and the failing (government induced) global economy that might lead us into a massive global recession. And do not forget the possible global warming that could put our planet into an ice age, and even if this does not kill us off, we will soon destroy ourselves from overpopulation. We do not have the natural resources to continue to survive the way we are now.

Many people around the globe have learnt and many are learning about something amazing and they are now applying it to themselves and are noticing marvellous changes. Many others dedicate their lives to talking about it and teaching it. Yet we are all, myself included still learning about it.

Mind, Body and Spirit – The sacred trinity that allows us life on earth.

If even one of these three is missing we would not be able to function properly, but we only really understand 2 of them, the mind and the body. We have scientists that have mapped the mind and the body and we understand virtually everything about each of them.

Yet we know very little about the spirit or the soul.
What is it? Where does it come from?

For centuries religion has been the primary source for answers about spirit, but each religion seems to have a different answer about how things work on the spiritual level.

Recently insights have been discovered which went largely unknown to the global community and only select few really understood them, most of these were governments and secret societies that tried to hide them away from the masses.

Although, today this information is slowing beginning to emerge, becoming more widely known around the globe.

What we think, we create.

Thoughts, what do we know about them, we know we can measure them and we know that they all have certain frequencies.  But where are our thoughts held? Are they held externally to out mind? Can we project them into the external World?

We have all had moments when we knew exactly what someone else was going to say, before they even say it. Many of us have a strong shared connection with our partner, a loved one or pet, and it seems you know precisely how the other one is feeling or what they are thinking, even if they are not around.

Have you ever met anyone that you got bad vibes from and your intuition turned out to be right?

We have all had experiences like these, at least a few times, and some of us more than others. There are even some people who can tap into this more easily. We call them Psychic.

Imaging now that when you think of something, anything, that it appears right in front of you, not physically of course, maybe in a different realm that is in and around all of us, but this is something that we are not consciously aware of, for now we can call it “The thought realm”.

Before you do something, we all start by thinking about it, whether you are making a sandwich or building a house, you have to have thought of it first. Even things like walking and breathing are all subconscious thoughts. Our physical actions match the thoughts that we created. We turn non-physical ideas into physical actions. When we get a thought or an idea, we can share them; they are spreadable, which everyone can latch onto.

But they are not separate thoughts they are the same thought. But as we cannot see the thoughts we cannot always know exactly what the original idea was, only the interpretation of what is was which was communicated by actions such as speech and body language. As well as our own intuition, which is how thoughts connect to each other.

So because of our intuition we add a little bit of our own creation to the mix, while still working towards the same common goal. People often gather together because they are connected by the same thoughts and emotions as the rest of the people there. People who are studying a college course on design are all there because they al have the same interest in design.

Even if you are using something that someone else made, you are still creating this experience for yourself. You manifested that tablet, car or house or whatever into your experience.

So here is our first big realisation, as thoughts connect to other thoughts, our thoughts are intertwined we are not only connected in the physical realm, but in a mental and spiritual way as well.

We have always assumed that we are only connected in a physical way and that all of our thoughts were totally isolated from everyone else. But we are not.

Think about every creature on earth. What do we know about the bond that connects them? Many birds fly thousands of miles in formation, switching which one flies in front like clockwork, many fish swim in shoals with no form of verbal communication. Our pets communicate with each other without speaking, yet they seem to know what each other is feeling and connect in an amazing personal way.

Almost every creature on earth has this connection within their own species and others have this connection with other species too.

Humans also have this connection, but we have been out of touch with ourselves for so long that we have forgotten this connection exists and we are growing more and more disharmonic not only within ourselves but with others.

Thoughts are just the tip of the iceberg; it becomes more interesting when we begin to look at emotions.

Emotions are far more powerful than thoughts, they pull on you and control your actions and guide you throughout your life, it is not your thoughts that control where you sit in a classroom or on a train, but it is if you like that person or that person smells.

When a couple if together it is their emotions that keep them tethered, and it is also their emotions that can break them apart. You hang out with friends because you have emotional bonds with them.

Now lets look at this on a smaller scale, you awake in the morning and you are feeling grumpy, then you stub your toe and think “this is going to be one of those days” and then find that the entire day just goes really badly, everything goes wrong.

Of the days when you wake up happy and your whole day is then just excellent and even if something bad does happen you are less affected by it, because you are already in such a good state of mind, a good place emotionally.

The reasons for these differences in how your day goes, is because of YOUR emotional state.

How you feel will affect your entire day and also will affect those around you. Yes the world will continue without you, but it will continue in a different way if you were not there. Your emotions will affect not only the outcome of your day but how people around you will react to you.

The people who are most successful are those that talk most about success and those that talk most about illness are ill or will become ill. Illness is also a creation of yours. If you have a low immune system it is because of you.

Typically we like to blame things on a virus going around, but the way we become susceptible to them is from inside. Whether it is some on going negative energy or some bad feeling that we have allowed into ourselves.

So only one thing becomes apparent from all of this. You create your own reality. We are 100% responsible for the situations we find ourselves in and the things that happen to us good and bad.

We are always blaming others, it is his fault for this, or her fault for that, it is everyone else’s fault, but whatever it is… it is your fault!!

Your happiness, your sadness, you fears and your fortunes. Every single experience of your life on this earth is because of you.

Now remember just as you are creating your own individual reality, we are all co-creating our realities as a collective. We are one species and as a species we are creating the realities that we experience together.

As a family you create your reality and each of your and your siblings actions will change what the family experiences. Because of this and because we are not in tune with ourselves it may often seem that we do not have complete control for what we experience.

We are often forced into scenarios that seem out of our control. This happens as a result of our disharmony and lack of connection to our own intuition.

When we become more in tune with ourselves we can feel out certain scenarios and decide if that is a path that we want to take. Maybe it feels right not to take that job, or maybe I shouldn’t go to the party. Beyond this, once you have an experience that was out of your control, it is now down to your to decide what you do next.

You can allow he experience to get the best of you and drain your energy and move into an unhappy place emotionally or you can decide to take it for what it is, an experience, and keep moving forward. Every cloud has a silver lining, no mater how dark they are. If you are looking for the silver lining you will have a much easier time finding it.

Many of us have heard about the law of attraction. Many people are using this to change their lives and to obtain all they desire. But you cannot just sit on your backside and think of something and expect it to appear. You have to think of things and keep moving, continue on with your life, create your emotions in your mind and then move into them physically. But do not let your emotions control you.

How can you change things? Just be good to yourself. Fill yourself up with the emotion of love and of happiness as you go about your day. Treat yourself and try to change your perception of your life, from what others think is best for you to what you think is best for you.

Take a few minutes just to sit down and ask yourself, what do you really want. Sure, many people will think of money, fame, wealth and luxury, those things are great but will they buy you happiness. Beyond all of those things what most people want is to be accepted, appreciated and loved.

By giving those things to others your will in return get them back. And the bond that connects you to everyone around you will strengthen.

You can have, do or be anything you want!