Defining nourishment as taking in anything that causes you
to THRIVE is a very GOOD place to start. I highly recommend
getting your paws on a really ripe pear.
The way I see it, NOURISHMENT is more about the ‘taking
in’ than it is about the ‘substance’. NUTRITION
is a word that makes my face do strange things just in the
saying of it, and brings up immediate notions of milligrams
of vitamins.
If NOURISHMENT is about the ‘taking in’, then
it has to be about our SENSES, not merely about our digestion.
It’s as much about what we get on our faces and dig
our fingers into as it is about what actually goes into our
mouths.
I’ve never been a fan of capsules for much of anything,
which has made working at a few health food stores a little
dicey. Grinding a perfectly good herb into DUST, locking it
in a capsule and tossing that down my gullet without tasting,
or smelling or having any sense of what I’m taking,
never felt quite right to me. Having this tiny pile o’
dust being released SOMEwhere in my digestive tract just seemed
confusing both to the dust in question and the digestive tract
trying to figure out what to DO with it. These were my ‘gut’
feelings, based on very little.
Recently, Susun put forth a very good explanation of all
this, somewhat in answer to questions as to why herbs that
have been safe for thousands of years, are now getting all
this ‘bad press’ for causing problems. It’s
not the herb’s fault, it’s the way they’re
being taken. Capsules leave out important parts of the digestive
process. The taste, smell and feel of FOOD sends messages
to parts of our digestion further down the line. Herbs were
meant to be used by our bodies as FOOD, even if they are used
medicinally. Capsules take them way too close to the bloodstream
without full digestion and so, turn them into drugs.
But we’re still putting things into our MOUTHS here.
NOURISHMENT is so much more than that. If capsule-swallowing
constitutes non-nourishment, the next step up is M.F.S.: Mindless
Face-Stuffing. Ever been eating while you’re doing something
else and looked down to see the food in question is gone and
you don’t even remember eating it?
THAT is M.F.S..
Did your body still break whatever it was you just ate (as
you start searching through the crumbs for clues) into usable
‘nutrition’? Not completely. Those sensory ‘take-ins’
actually send chemical messages to places like your liver
to, as Susun says, get out the chemistry kit. Your liver really
HATES that little post-it note that says ‘Unknown Foodstuff’……were
you just NOURISHED by that little M.F.S. episode? Not hardly.
So. If this is all true, guess what, we can flip it all
over. If you can bypass the actual NOURISHMENT of a possibly
nourishing food, you truly can NOURISH yourself with absolutely
anything that feeds your senses. And I don’t mean just
PLEASURE yourself, I really do mean NOURISH….as in “Cause
To THRIVE”.
Ah, our senses….taste, touch, smell, hearing and sight……how
do we ‘feed’ THIS crowd? Best we ask my Grandkid,
Jicaiya up there in the photo. He’s GOT it. Everything
goes into his mouth so he knows how it tastes and FEELS. He
looks at things with his FINGERS. He’s learning to talk
by mimicking the sounds he hears. We can get back into much
of that without NECESSARILY needing to smear pear all over
our faces (but don’t discount that ALL together). We
just need to tune our AWARENESS.
So, while you’re busy being a grownup, just ‘tune
in’ to one of your senses….let’s say sight,
and give a little thought as to what FEEDS that sense….color,
texture, shapes….beautiful. The easiest one to go for
is color. Right where you are, look around you. My calendar-holder
is bright red. Just ‘take in’ red. Don’t
TALK to yourself (we did that last month) just TAKE IT IN.
Absorb. Something just STIRRED in a lot of places. Keep going.
Now I’ve got a shiny, shimmery green on a book cover.
I can FEAST on shiny, shimmery GREEN. Feel it? It even works
while you’re driving, suddenly you’re so aware
of the different colors of the other cars. Or the TEXTURES
around you, or the shapes of buildings and trees. What makes
it nourishing and not just some New Age Whacko Awareness Exercise
is this whole ‘taking it in’ thing. Just let it
IN. THAT is nourishing, to every part of you, including your
emotions and aura and nerve cells and brain and heart and
you GET the picture!
Want a better night’s sleep? FEEL THE BED. Feel your
body supported by the mattress, cradled by the pillow, softly
covered by the covers. Wow. Who knew. Think about the FeastFest
a SHOWER could be, or being in the garden or yeah, a really
GOOD meal, or a SINGLE potato chip.
How many different sounds can you hear right this second?
Don’t JUDGE, just take them in. FEED on the sounds.
This all gets to be GREAT fun….and y’know what?
FUN is incredibly nourishing. What say we go out and PLAY?
~~~~~~ LadyB
CONVERSATIONS
with YOURSELF
with
Lady Barbara
August 14, 2004
I am an herbalist, hypnotherapist, and belly
dance teacher
with a rowdy reverence for life's dancing.
The first step to caring for yourself is the
ability to listen to yourself and trust your inner wisdom.
Using the tools of Self-Testing, Guided Visualization, "Granny
Unconditional" and Reading Symptoms, LadyB will set you on
the path to becoming your own greatest ally.
1 day: $50-$75. $25 deposit.
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