By John Foreman | Uplift Connect
How to Feed Your Soul
It’s no secret that modern life can be stressful. There are so many things competing for our attention in this technological age that more and more of us are living in a constant state of stimulation. We’re on edge and forever ‘wired.’ For many of us, meditation is a beautiful way to find stillness and quiet the mind, but many people find this quite challenging. They can’t get past the racing thoughts and fidgeting body. What a lot of people don’t realise is that the food you eat plays a huge role in your ability to reach that deep meditative state. That your nervous system and brain simply will not allow you to transcend your body when certain nutrients are not present, or when you’re in what I call a state of nutritional stress.
‘You are what you eat’ is the old cliché that you are no doubt familiar with, but have you ever realised just how profound this notion is and applied it in your life? As a culture, we tend to generally accept that some foods are good and some are bad for us but beyond this level of understanding, there is no deeper meaning behind the way we eat. We eat habitually and not intentionally. We eat without conscious thought as to what this food is doing within our body beyond the momentary taste sensation in the mouth. And all because we have become so disconnected from the natural world and where our food comes from.
We have somehow come to a point in the human experience where we no longer intuitively know what is correct for us to eat. Let that sink in for a moment. Why is it that we are the only species on Earth to have this problem? There is not a single animal living in its natural environment that is overweight or suffering a chronic illness as a result of their diet. They just know what to eat. They are in touch with the innate intelligence that drives their food choices, and as a result, they thrive. If this alone doesn’t show how spiritually disconnected we have become, I don’t know what will.
To keep the body in good health is a duty, for otherwise we shall not be able to light the lamp of wisdom, and keep our mind strong and clear. – Buddha
Connecting with Food, Connecting with Source
So how does this all link to our practice of meditation? The answer is simple. We are not eating real food anymore. The problem we now face is an overabundance of chemically laden products masquerading as foods, and a system that makes it difficult to acquire quality plant food, which is what we require most. We are eating ‘food like products’ that our biology does not recognize, which results in a state of physiological stress that keeps us trapped in the primal aspects of our physical body and unable to transcend into that infinite stillness of meditation.
If we fail to give our beloved nervous system the critical nutrients it needs to function optimally and remain calm, we can become stuck in the primal, reactive way of living, unable to transcend into higher levels of awareness.
To truly grasp the role of nutrition in our ability to enter deep meditation, we must first understand what is happening in the brain and nervous system; it is, after all, our interface with the world around us.
Our brains are brilliant, sophisticated and complex organs, but for the purposes of consciousness/spirituality, I am going to focus on three parts of the brain that determine how we live, how we interact with the world and how far up the ladder of awareness we manage to climb.
The Neocortex
The neocortex is the part of the brain where enlightenment becomes possible. Where we want to journey to during meditation. It is the area that facilitates creativity, learning, imagining our future and experiencing our interconnectedness. This part of the brain is hardwired to experience unconditional love, see the beauty in the world and allow us to discover who we truly are and our place in the universe. It houses the pineal gland which secretes DMT, the spirit molecule that essentially allows us to feel connected to all living things. The neocortex can, however, be a difficult place to reach in our modern fast-paced lives that are fuelled by toxic convenience foods. When we don’t take the time to give the neocortex the nutrients it needs, we find ourselves operating from the more primal parts of the brain: the reptilian brain and the limbic brain.
