Nourishing Your Soul

You can eat all of the kale and broccoli in the world, but if you don't have proper nourishment first and foremost in your relationships, hobbies, career, and spiritual lives, then all of that green goodness won't make a damn bit of difference to your well-being.

Haven't you known people who thrive and are genuinely happy, but seem to eat way more junk food than is "good" for them? On the contrary, haven't you met those who are eating a textbook "perfect diet" but are miserable in their lives? So what's really going on here?

The important factor is a concept that Joshua Rosenthal (the founder of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition) coins our "Primary Foods." For our greatest well-being and health, we must fulfill our innate hunger for supportive relationships, inspiring careers and hobbies, and a strong spiritual connection.

As we fill the "plate" of our lives with these primary foods, we in turn feel inspired to make the healthiest decisions for ourselves. Our innate and intuitive sensors for what is best for our unique bodies is then ignited. For instance, take someone who typically binge eats in the evenings. Do you think that this same person would feel inclined to overeat if they returned home from a career that they LOVED and were passionate about? Or if they had someone to hug when they walked through their front door? Or if they had an engaging and rewarding hobby to look forward to in the evenings?

Of course these things are all still outside of ourselves, and will never replace the importance of self-love, but by building this solid foundation of inspiring relationships, rewarding careers, and spiritual fulfillment, we make the process of cultivating self-love a whole lot easier.

Is there one aspect of your "primary food plate" that seems to be starving for your attention? Are you craving unhealthy foods as a substitute for not nourishing yourself in one or more of these areas? If the answer is "yes," rather than feeling frustration, or even fear that you're not being nourished here, take a minute instead to congratulate yourself for NOW recognizing an imbalance. Awareness is always the first step towards transformation. Once you've celebrated yourself for being brilliantly aware of where you would like to see change, grab a piece of paper and a pen. I'll wait...

Okay great!

Draw a vertical line down the center of the page. On the left hand side write “Contrast” at the top of the page, and on the right hand side write “Clarity.” Under the Contrast side we will write down all of the things we dislike about our current "primary food" that is out of balance. This is our chance to rant and vent all of the things we are not happy about in regards to this area. After we have exhausted our contrast list, we will read through each item and ask ourselves, “What DO I want instead?” Then we will cross off what we do not want on the left side and list what we have determined we DO want on the right side, under Clarity. By using this clarity through contrast technique we will have a better understanding of our dominant thoughts regarding our primary food, and we will determine what we want (clarity) by listing what we do not want (contrast).

Once we have become clear on what we want (clarity), we are going to write out a Desire Statement. A Desire Statement is an effective tool for raising our vibrations on the chosen topic. It allows us to stay focused on what we desire, and to begin retraining our old negative thought patterns into new and refined thoughts that will serve us in a beneficial way. Remember, the more positive attention and energy we give to our desires, the higher our vibration will be. The higher our vibration, the greater our alignment with our authentic selves, and the more in "the flow" we become with the Universe.

There are three parts of the Desire Statement: the opening, the body, and the closing. If relationships is your primary food that you wish to develop, the opening statement could be, “I am in the process of attracting all that I need to be, do, know and have, to attract my ideal friendships.” The body is where we will write down all of the qualities that we want regarding our ideal body, the clarity that we achieved through our contrast. In other words, we will be using all of the statements on the right hand side of our page. We will turn each clarity into a desire statement by phrasing it in different ways to make the statements most believable and achievable for us.

For instance: “I love knowing that my ideal friends...” or “It excites me to think about being...” or “I've decided that...” or “I love how it feels when...” Finally, the closing paragraph is, “The Universe/Source/God/Divinity is unfolding and orchestrating all that needs to happen to manifest my highest good.” This process can take some time, so let's really allow ourselves a good quiet and focussed 30 minutes to an hour to create our Desire Statement.

Now that we've found clarity on this particular subject, what is one small (or large) action step (that feels exciting to think about) that can be applied today and throughout the week? Let's write it down, post it where we can see it (bathroom mirror is a great spot), and then have fun acting on it! As always, let's have fun with this process, celebrating each moment of our transformation towards our highest selves.

I am sending you love and light :-)