Our bodies are our vehicles on this planet. And as fastidiously as we care for our cars or bikes with regular tune-ups, oil changes, car washes and tank-filling we must do the same for our bodies, and I would argue, our minds & souls as well.
On a recent trip to wine country in California I had miscalculated the time change which had shifted my mealtimes by a few hours. Even though I had eaten a good breakfast on the plane I skipped the opportunity to grab a proper meal upon arrival. One iced coffee on an empty stomach later my exhaustion and nerves got the best of me and I barely made the two-hour drive up North if it wasn’t for my awesome travel buddy who talked me through the nausea and got us to our final destination safely. Needless to say it was a perfect storm of really bad choices. After some rest and some real food I was restored. But it was a great lesson for me to listen to and honor my body, in this case, by trading the want for caffeine-laden drink for something more sustaining like a large bottle of water or herbal tea instead. That was my gut instinct at the time but I chose to ignore it. And I certainly paid the price for it.
The whole ordeal made me think about the idea of nourishment. What are we feeding our bodies, but also our minds and spirits as well? Is the effect of our choices giving us the results we seek?
It wasn’t until the next morning after some journal writing and meditating on the veranda that my true purpose there was revealed. The cottony fog that had blanketed the land at dawn was now lifted by the rising sun’s gentle hand. A view that had been obstructed now glistened with clarity. I realized my purpose there was two-fold: I had traveled cross-country not just to celebrate and support my friend, but I had also shown up for Me.
I had run myself ragged the days preceding my trip out West. Preoccupied with the 10,000 things of modern life I had stopped listening to my body, pushing it to its limits by getting to bed late, waking up early, grabbing junk food on the go, skipping my morning workouts, barely connecting with my sons and my spouse. Life can be an exhausting running-wheel which I believe many of us are on. So that when it came to the actual trip my body retaliated and forced me to take a break, rest and reset. I literally had been operating in a fog, and now, having fed myself with self-exploration through journaling, anchoring myself in the present through meditation, connecting with nature and being inspired by the community of amazing women gathered that weekend, I had gained clarity and perspective.
It’s so easy to believe that all the other responsibilities of life are more important, more worthy of our time, than the nurturing of ourselves and our loved ones. But the reality is that wherever we put our attention is where we foster growth. So if we’re only attending to the daily grind of emails, work or home projects, fixation on the person who cut you off in traffic then we’ll just get more of that. It’s imperative that we make time to cultivate what’s inside us—what yearns to be expressed-- or else our days become hollow, our work loses any meaning and our connections with each other and our community unravels.
Nourishment is more than sustenance, beyond just supporting our body’s ability to function. For me, to nourish can mean a way of helping our spirits reach its highest vibration, our soul’s greatest radiance, our mind’s clearest understanding of our role in this world.
Everyday we are faced with choices of how we will nourish ourselves. For instance, one friend always chooses a comedy show over a dark-subject show just to balance out the tragedy-pocked, anxiety-ridden climate of our world today. She claimed to need some reprieve from the heaviness of reality. Another friend remarked how she preferred to be around a neighbor who always answered, “How are you?” with “Great! Fantastic!” instead of listing complaints and criticisms of the day. Just hearing his answer uplifted her spirits and made her feel hopeful. Their daily interaction totally shifted her mood.
Their experiences aren’t asking us to overlook the things in our world that need improving or to ignore deep feelings of sadness and misery, but they illustrate the need make intuitive choices that strike a balance to what we take in from our daily experience so that our responses to the world come from a more grounded place within.
As a family we usually unwind by watching television together. We enjoy it, but at some point we realized that television was becoming the default. Now the mission is to integrate other non-electrical ways to connect. Every other night we aim to put all devices away and have a family game night or circle meditation so that we feed ourselves with time and engagement instead of binging on images that are spoon-fed to us.
You are what you eat. Or maybe you become what you feed yourself. So if you’re consistently taking in junk and over-processed foods your energy may reflect that. The same goes for words we tell ourselves or images we spend time looking at. Especially before the holiday season when friends and family gather to share meals and common space take a moment to clarify how you will nourish yourself and each other. What words will be shared? What amount of foods and drinks will be consumed at one seating? What energy will be exchanged? And will these forms of nourishment truly promote growth, health, and self-knowledge? Or are they contributing to the depletion of health and wellness?
I hope that we can all permit ourselves time to rest and restore and re-evaluate how we are nourishing ourselves. By truly nourishing our souls and minds we are able to show up more fully centered in our hearts and with clarity of perspective in a world that is getting increasingly fragmented and misguided by those who would prefer us to stay in the fog.
art/photo credits: “BodyCrash”bodypaint art/EmmaHack, Fog Lifting/Amara Hastings, Brainfood/lekkyjustdoit-Adobe Stock, Kundalini Nourishment/focuspocusnow.com, Vibrant Family/New York Times
Chances are in this modern age you are a family on-the-go! Even when sharing a meal, eating can be a quick consumption without much attention or thought to what’s on your plate. Try slowing things down this holiday season and practice eating in slow-motion.
Nov 30– Taking a Shibori Dyeing workshop with 
