Nurturing By Nature
Nourishing and Healing with Whole Foods through the Childbearing Years!
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The Foundations of Health & Wellness
-Breathe, Drink, Nourish, Love and Move
There is much to know about nutrition in the modern world, yet we must be aware that the focus on diet and the never ending claims, counterclaims and controversy surrounding what constitutes a good diet, is the result of our having tampered with nature.
If all of the food available to us was local, natural and not processed, we would not be so confused. If this were the case, food would not be an issue- aside from whether it was available or not.
All of our food choices would be healthy and our individual cravings would lead us to the foods that would best serve our nutritional needs at any given time.
It can not be overemphasized that the foundation of good health is not any specific diet, but rather that health is built on certain lifestyle practices and a nurturing context; all of which are easily cultivated, available and accessible to the average person.
Without this foundation, our good food choices can be lost on the inability to provide for our basic human needs: oxygen, water, nourishment, love and movement. On each of the aforementioned necessities of life, we can survive without, for longer than the one listed before- but inevitably in the absence of one of our five basic needs, we begin to whither and die. Our health and well-being rests on the life essentials, all of which enhance digestion-the seat of health- and to one degree or another, enhance our life force or vitality.
1) Breath- We have to consider the possibility that the creator made oxygen our basic sustenance and requirement for life, because it is the first and foremost basis on which we draw our vitality, prana, chi or life force. Yet, we most often, we take it for granted! We know that we would die without it, but few of us have been taught that we can consciously cultivate our breathing to maximize our life force and vitality.
We can do this by breathing energy into our energy body, via intention. The practice is referred to as “sink the chi into the Tan Tien, in Tai Chi, breathing into the Hara (the vital center just below the navel) in Zen meditation or Tibetan Vase Breathing (Bum Chung); or breathing into the Vase of Immortality (four finger widths above the naval and four finger widths below it).
We may do this practice anytime of the day or along with a sitting meditation practice.
First, recognize that you are more than a physical body and that you have an energy body as well. Begin full abdominal breathing as taught in the yogic traditions. On the next inhale, intend vital force downwards while tightening your anal sphincter muscle upwards and then release it. By tightening your pelvic floor you are forming the vase on the energetic level to collect more life force. There is no need to keep tightening the pelvic floor.
Continue to breathe into the abdomen in a natural way, with the intention to continue breathing energy into your own energy body.
Traditionally, one would take a pause before each exhale, but it is recommended that pregnant women instead slow the exhale down at a comfortable pace.
As with mindfulness meditation, continue to bring your self back to awareness, but understand that you are not just meditating, but that you are breathing energy into your energy body. If you are pregnant or breastfeeding acknowledge that you are feeding your baby this living elixir as well.
Continue breathing effortlessly into the vase by intention. To deepen this practice, please refer to Robert Bruce Newman’s books Calm Healing-Methods for a New Era of Medicine or Calm Birth- New Method for Conscious Childbirth. You can also purchase guided audio practices for pregnancy “Calm Birth-Empowering Preparation for Childbirth” and the postpartum practices, “Calm Mother- Empowering Postnatal Self Care Methods”. For more info see the official website: www.calmbirth.org
2) Drink-Be fully hydrated! Few people realize that they are living in drought management mode and that many uncomfortable and chronic symptoms can be relieved by being fully hydrated. You may have heard it said that you are what you eat, but in fact it would be more accurate to say that you are what you drink! Our bodies are made up of70% water! As without, so within; the surface of the earth is also 70-75% water.
Water has a great impact on our digestive and energy generating abilities as well.
Water is the main solvent for all foods, vitamins, and minerals. It increases their absorption and bioavailability, while also being a catalyst to break food down into smaller particles (hydrolysis) for their eventual assimilation and metabolism.
Just as water externally provides us with hydroelectric power, water internally energizes food, allowing these food particles to be able to supply the body with this energy during digestion.
According to Dr. Batmanghelidj, author of You’re Not Sick, You are Thirsty and Your Body’s Many Cries for Water, food without proper water balance has little energy value for the body.
3) Nourish- Mindfully!
i) Chew your food really well- this is the first step in the digestive process and without proper chewing, digestive organs and enzyme systems become stressed. When these channels are stressed, foods are not entirely broken down and less nutrients can be extracted, causing nutrient deficiencies even when the diet is rich in nutritious foods.
ii) Slightly undereat-overeating is another way that we stress our digestive organs and impede our digestive capacities.
iii) Follow your body-decode your cravings and find out what they are telling you about your state of health and extra nutritional requirements. Follow your intuitive food longings, rather than specific diets. Amp up the quality of your food, before making drastic dietary changes. You may find that your health and energy levels increase phenomenally just by eating solely quality whole food 90% or more of the time.
If you have digestive issues, please understand that it is imperative to put healing strategies in place with the assistance of a holistic nutritionist or please refer to the following books if you are a “do it your self er” in order to derive optimum nourishment from your food; as well as to pass on balanced microflora and fully digested and easily assimilated nutrients to your breastfeeding baby.
If you cannot break the food down properly due to poor digestion, these undigested food particles enter the bloodstream and subsequently the breast milk.
This causes both autointoxication in mother and baby’s (whose digestive systems are underdeveloped) leading to more digestive strain and food intolerances. The immune system launches an attack against undigested food molecules because they are not supposed to be in the blood stream.
For All digestive issues:
Eating Alive-Prevention Thru Good Digestion, Dr. Jonn Matsen, ND
Eating Alive II- Curing the “Incurable”, Dr. Jonn Matsen, ND
For Chrohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Diverticulitis, Celiac Disease, Cystic Fibrosis, Chronic Diarrhea, Lactose Intolerance:
Breaking the Vicious Cycle- Intestinal Health Through Diet
For Allergies and Candida, which are related to Leaky Gut:
Allergies-Disease in Disguise- by Carolee Bateson-Koch DC ND
Body Ecology Diet-Donna Gates
iv) Make mealtime sacred- infuse your food with love! Your intention can energize your food and prayer and gratitude can be used to increase your receptivity to the nourishment your food provides.
When poor quality food is eaten now and then, just pray over it and chew!! It is said that proper chewing is so essential for deep nourishment that one can use it to compensate for a poor diet! That is why people who have very strong digestion can seem to eat anything and have no health problems.
v) Focus on the quality of food- Recognize the energy of the food you eat and eat appropriately to your current needs. What taste would harmonize me today-sweet, salty, sour, oily, bitter or pungent today? Do I need to warming foods or cooling ones?
Emphasize the quality of the food you eat, rather than quantity.
One need not focus on petty and complex concepts in nutrition. Would you rather choose from a variety of whole unprocessed, nutrient dense foods, or would you rather obsess about calories and measurements?
Consider how your food comes to your plate and choose foods that have the least detrimental impact on our planet and on your body- choose organic whenever possible.
Think in terms of nourishment. Ask in what form would this food best nourish me? Is a processed cheese slice with additives going to provide your body with the same nourishment as pure organic cheese, from pasture fed cows?
Consider compassion when choosing animal foods. Do you want to eat an animal that was confined, possibly ill and kept without infection via antibiotics? Or would you rather build the very tissues of your own body, on an animal who was compassionately raised and salughtered-one who was kept healthy because of its living condition and raised on a natural diet?
4) Love- we know that a human cannot survive with out love. And sadly that has been proven by experiments done on children in orphanages long before laws where set up to protect human rights.
What is life without love, laughter, deep relationships and celebration with those we love? Did you know that oxytocin, the love hormone is released as we eat in the pleasure of good company?
As well, consider that without an avenue to give our love, such as in serving others through our unique expression of love-through our passions and gifts that we bring to the world- can also impact our health and ability to receive nourishment. As giving and receiving work in tandem, an imbalance in one area, points to an imbalance in the other. For example, do we give, give, give and never receive? Or are we unable to give and therefore also blocked in our receiving?
Try opening the love flow in all areas of your life and see how it impacts your feelings of satiation and nourishment. Process your feelings. Digest your life experience.
5) Move Your Body!
While we all know that exercise is good for us. Another important benefit of exercise, is that it promotes the development of more blood vessels, thus allowing more blood to bring more oxygen and nutrients to more areas of the body.
This also encourages the elimination of waste products which are continuously being produced, even when the body is at rest. People who do not exercise or who are inactive, a significant number of existing blood vessels are shut down, since they are not stimulated from exercise or activity.
While food may not be the only form of nourishment that has been created for our sustenance, we can plainly see how the quality of our food can impact our health and energy levels. This is obvious by experiencing the difference between how we feel after eating a wholesome meal, vs. how we feel when we eat fast or junk food.
Certainly we can feel the contrast in our energy levels, but it is harder for many to make the connection between our food choices and our health, especially when we mostly make poor quality food choices; in that case we don’t even know what feeling good feels like anymore.
Having low energy, feeling bloated, living with aches and pains becomes the norm.
While there is much more to say on this topic and many examples of how food directly and indirectly impacts our overall state of health. The specifics of a person’s diet, is very individual and many factors must be considered to personalize the diet.
For this purpose, we must undertake our own study of what nourishes us as unique individuals.
Before we consider adopting a dogmatic diet of any sort, it is simpler and more accessible for most to begin address the foundations of our health-breathe, drink, nourish, love and move.
Only after we have infused our breathing, drinking, nourishing, loving and moving with consciousness, will our attempts to restore or transform our health be deep and lasting.
For most of us, infusing consciousness in these areas, will be more than adequate in our quest for greater health and well-being. To make attempts for greater health, without addressing our base human needs for well-being, is to limit our capacity for optimum health, no matter how brilliant our health strategy.
The Yoga of Eating
