SOUL FOOD

     Modern lifestyles are hectic and fast paced.  Humans are mentally overstimulated and physically dormant which creates dis-ease.  More often than not our motivation to eat healthy or exercise is based on an external fixation on appearance, rather than on true health and wellness.  When it comes to food, cooking is often seen as a burden and is not a priority for many people.  As a result, nutritionally inferior convenience foods have become the mainstay of the modern diet. We are blessed and cursed with an abundant and seemingly unlimited supply of food.  This food luxury is damaging to our health and preoccupying many of us in ways that are distracting and troublesome at best, and life threatening at worst. Humans have now turned pleasurable and life-sustaining food into something rife with conflict, danger, guilt, and fear.

     Plants, animals, even people, are now treated as complex mechanisms with many interrelated, yet separable parts.  Farming has become just another business and food just something else to buy. When we take the sacred out of our lives, including farming and eating, we take out the substance, and our lives become shallow and empty. Yet, humanity is beginning to ask new questions. The old questions of how can I “get” more is being replaced with questions of how can I “be” more?

     Yoga is an powerful tool for transformation because it cultivates a deeper awareness and appreciation of the body’s capacity for true health and vitality. The science of yoga teaches that movement and breath are keys to the intelligence of the body, and that these tools aid in the transition from habitual and often self-destructive patterns of eating and self-care, to more intentional and beneficial actions. 

     Yoga is a way of life, not simply a practice that takes place in a studio or on a mat.  It is about taking all that we learn from our practice and applying it to all aspects of our lives. The mundane details of everyday life become priceless lessons once we learn to see the sacred in everything.  It’s not what we do, but how we do it.  It’s not just what you eat, but how you eat it. Every choice we make (and don't make) expresses the larger truth of who we are.  If we love and respect our bodies and ourselves, we are more likely to make healthy eating choices. If we harbour deep pain or engage in self-criticizing thoughts, we may make very different choices. 

    After starting yoga and meditation, happiness begins to fill us up from within. Why? Because we’ve tapped into the source of fulfillment, which has always resided within. Yoga is a path of healing that starts with the premise that the body is good and that we can trust our own wisdom as we tune into the language of the body.  As we slow down and become still, breathe, and enjoy gentle movement, we cultivate awareness of our bodies and it’s needs.  As we experience deep calm, stillness, and openness in our practice, we can become enamoured with life and with ourselves.  It is from this place of peace and love that a desire to care for and nourish the body arises.  Eating becomes a sacred act of nourishment, an experience of pleasure,  an expression of respect for the body’s needs and desires.

     A practice of mindfulness and healthy awareness extends into all aspects of the nourishment of the body.  Healthy food choices require an active consideration of the sources of the foods we eat.  Who is growing the food, where does it come from, how are the animals treated and fed?  Is the food seasonal, local, or organic?  How are the farm workers treated?  Is the food genetically modified and processed?  A yogic diet can have many different expressions, but it is the awareness and consciousness of the quality of the foods we consume, as well as the consciousness of the person preparing the meal that make eating a spiritual practice.  For as we all know, we are what we eat (and how we prepared it, and ate it!)