Mindful Eating: A Call to Heal through Food in the Valley

With a heightened awareness of the vital role nutrition plays in overall good health, I have almost immediately found myself viewing food as purely sustenance ONLY. This is not to say you cannot enjoy food and have things you like right now, but for me things are different in the valley. Remember the valley is a time and space of uninterrupted introspection, self-correction, and recalibration. The valley asks us how we have been taking care of ourselves at our peaks. During this encounter with anxiety, eating has been challenging for me as it’s been hard to find an appetite on some days. Even though the anxiety is crippling when it is present, I promised myself in my private self-talks to OBSERVE most how I am existing within the anxiety. If we are too immersed in anything we cannot observe it therefore we cannot learn from it…so as difficult as some of these days have been, I have been able to maintain a bit of distance from the experience to draw lessons or “pick flowers”. With the loss of appetite comes intense gratitude for the meal before me when I am able to eat. I have found myself sitting with my meal longer and eating slower, which is something called “mindful eating”. Loss of appetite has also resulted in me intermittent fasting which in turn gives me all the divine health benefits of fasting and immune building nutritional practices. The main understanding to gain here is that although these benefits seemed to have stemmed from an unhealthy place, with proper detachment and the ability to observe ourselves in our valley, we can pick those flowers from that fertile soil and gain a brand new level of insight into what our bodies need. We aren’t always able to see ourselves this way, so broken down to our most basic self. When we are adorned with the distractions of the world, we see ourselves not truly how we are but how we wish to be…anxiety has given me an opportunity to view the broken parts and unhealed spaces so that I might do the work to be better. Being objective during this time has switched how I view food on a much larger scale. I think of the times I have sat in front of a rich, decadent meal that I knew did no good for my Highest Self and would not elevate my Divine Feminine Frequency and Form in any way and still indulged because “I’m healthy” and have never been sick. I think of the times I had one more drink because it was simply casual drinks with friends or a great night out (I’ve had many many AMAZING drunken nights) with no regard to the ways in which alcohol interacts with the human body. There is something so alluring about the concept of indulgence that leaves out the harsh truth about the damage done in the long and short term when not living in Harmony with Nature as it pertains to our diets. Now through the lens of anxiety, this awareness shows up as fear of death and dying due to undetected, underlying illness and an array of other instances of FALSE EVIDENCE APPEARING REAL, but with doing my best to remain objective, I have been able to understand what my body is really communicating to me, DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE GAS LIGHT COMES ON TO PULL OVER! Youth is fleeting, beauty is fleeting..all the things that attach us to a false sense of security when it comes to our health. Even the fitness industry gives in to this illusion by filing their fit bodies with chemicals and processed foods in combination with a workout plan. The FUEL is the most important part in this entire conversation…being fit is NOTHING without healthy nutritional habits. Anxiety wants me to see food as an enemy perhaps, but I have decided food is not my enemy, it is my helpmate and my friend but like any other intimate relationship, I must learn to hold it to a higher standard. We put so much weight on choosing friends, lovers and even employers, but a lot of times we don’t hold the minuscule details to our lives to the same high standards. We say “I would never let a man/woman waste my time” which is short-sighted thinking in comparison to the years we remove from the end of our lives with our nutritional habits. In this valley, I’ve been able to ask food “what can you do for me?” “what do you have to offer the highest version of me?” “what do I have to sacrifice for this relationship to work?”. I truly do love food, all of it, but I cannot honestly say that I have done right by myself in my relationship with food. The valley has created a safe space for me to reevaluate my relationship with food, shift all the ways I will decide to honor my temple going forward and challenge myself to stay ready so I ain’t got to get ready when it comes to my health. I have had no alcohol, processed sugar, pork, juice/soda or dairy. This valley has shown me how to slow down, put the fork down between bites, enjoy and savor the food, show gratitude for my meal and understand we are here to eat to live, not live to eat. Let us use this valley as an opportunity to heal our bodies and minds with food. Let us not lose control of the very tool we need most to combat the common enemy we all have in the form of this virus. Let us become more responsible stewards of our Temple and heal it from the inside out. Let us cast out the demon of emotional eating and gorging ourselves because of our psychological trauma and stress.