Feed your spiritual side.

Image credit: http://eatdrinkpaleo.com.au/paleo-diet-food-list/

One of my passions is eating well and discovering ways in which our bodies and spirit appear to interact. I consider our bodyminds to be limited, contracted vehicles through which unlimited consciousness views what appears to be the material world. This understanding of our shared awareness brings me peace and joy.

Until that is, I have to eat.

I grew up addicted to sugar and processed food--my mom was a good cook, but she had six kids to feed on a very limited budget. Mom cooked standard American fare, however, she sometimes delighted us with traditional Italian and Polish dishes that outshone the regular meat-and-potato lineup.

My family loved her fresh dishes like lasagna, or stuffed cabbage rolls with a zesty paprika sauce, but couldn’t stand tinned vegetables, so I typically fill up on meats and starches. When money was tight, my mother whipped up fried dough with sugar sprinkled on it for dinner. When we had the cash, she loved to treat us with donuts, candy bars, ice cream, and all those other processed goodies with cheesy names like HoHos, Yodels, and shimmery pink Sno Balls.  

In my teens, I worked at Wendy’s and had an undying love for pizza. As I matured, my tastes and sensitivities drastically changed. Once I discovered how amazing fresh vegetables tasted, it was as if the French doors to my gastronomic soul opened and led me out onto the most fertile and nourishing farms, planted just for me!

For half of my adult life, I was a primarily a vegetarian due to my empathy with animals and experimented with veganism due to lactose intolerance, but after going through a scary neurological episode caused by low B12 stores, I finally realized that my body performs best on a high-fat, low-carb, “ancestral” kind of diet.

Eating moderate quantities of high quality, humanely raised (and one hopes, slaughtered) meat and fish has improved my energy stores and maintained my waistline. But how does such a diet affect my spiritual side? How do I reconcile the feeling that dining on my fellow creatures is ignoble?

When I realized that, for the sake of my health, I needed to regularly ingest meat (along with taking B12 supplement shots) I meditated on the subject and was given the vivid image of a mother bear deftly catching a leaping salmon from a stream.

As a mom, the image of a determined huntress resonated with me. As an intuitive, this image spoke to my need for fatty fish and using skills to discover the best foods for myself and my family. As for my spirit, I realized how much gratitude I had for the natural cycle of life in the wild and that we human animals evolved as omnivores more or less, depending on our regions. Our ancestors ate the whole animal and at the same time, honored animal deities.

I appreciated the gift of this image, but intellectually, it felt like a band-aid over my anxiety to justify what I once considered abhorrent behavior. But then again, the mind is where people go to booster their separate selves.

The more I surrender to my non-dual understanding that all apparent objects are made of the same divine consciousness, I’m okay with doing what I can to make the best food purchases for myself and the planet.

Feeding my spiritual side not only means becoming more conscious about my food, but always practicing gratitude. It means I give considerable attention to what I buy and cook, and have profound gratitude for the produce and flesh that fills my fridge and larder.

I’m the slowest chewer at any table; before I lift my fork, I bow my head and give a silent message of love and thankfulness toward the food on my plate and the drink in my glass. I put my fork down between bites and enjoy conversation. Meals are simple and we prepare them with love and care, as the positive energy we use when cooking increases the enjoyment of eating.

I’m thrilled that my diet of fattier foods fills me up and keeps me from the distractions of cravings during the day. Most evenings, I stop eating by 7 p.m. and fast until breakfast the next day, between 9 and 10 a.m. For someone who enjoys food and drink, I can certainly work for hours without having to snack.

I sip coffee, lemon water and tea in the morning. My breakfast may be a mug of bone broth or a cup of a few low-carb fruits and veggies, blended with collagen protein. I bring my lunch to work, and it ranges from salmon spring rolls to a cauliflower pizza stack to Salvadoran guacamole. Dinner with my family is my most carb-heavy meal of the day, and we enjoy wine or beer as well. My sweet tooth is satisfied by a small square of dark chocolate or a few macadamia nuts.

It’s interesting to me that during these past ten years of adding more healthy fats and fewer carbs to my plate, I’ve enjoyed a very steady unfoldment of my mediumistic abilities. Joy is a pretty common feeling for me. At fifty-five, my energy levels and stamina are good and stable, I’m physically active and don’t take any prescription medications. I rarely take sick days, but when I do, I rebound within 24 hours.

It still cheers me today to envision a mother bear catching salmon from a stream. I may get my salmon from a fishmonger, but I honor its existence and the people who helped bring it to my table. Once there, I enjoy it for as long as I can, thankful for its journey and how high it will enable my own spirits to bound.