Food is Life. Watch any creature from tiny bugs, birds to jungle cats. Eating is their primary concern.
Food is important because it is the fuel we take in from the world that becomes a part of us. What we eat and how we eat are reflections of our attitudes towards living. All too often we don’t give our food much thought. We eat what is convenient or habitual; we get onto autopilot mode. Food, like life, should never be something that passively happens. It should be a mindful celebration of the wondrous experience of being alive.
By creating an Upward Spiral, we recognize that our body and our attitudes are intimately connected. When our bodies feel better our attitude follows and this creates the momentum in life to propel us upwards. When we feel good, we do good and live fuller lives.
There are two major problems with how we eat food in our modern society. Firstly we have bought into the idea that nutritionally compromised, industrialized food grown for maximum profit is normal. Secondly, we have a tendency to allow what and how we eat to be determined by external factors and not by how we feel after eating.
Health Food should not be the exception to the Rule.
Modern society’s largely unquestioned belief is that industrial food is the norm. Not so long ago before the dawn of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and technology that allowed for massive yields of crops and meat, there was simply food. There was no such thing as health food or organic food.
It was only in the mid-20th century that we learned how to grow more food cheaply; in the same way that we learned how to make fibers out of synthetic materials like polyester instead of continuing to use natural fibers like silk and cotton.
Take a look at most of the food sold in an average supermarket, almost anywhere in the world. It is full of chemicals and has been processed in a factory’s large-scale production lines. This is true of a variety of foods, from meat to cereals to vegetables.
What is incredible to me is that because most people want a convenient life, they don’t question the values of their world but live merely habitually, we now consider this type of food to be normal and have created a special category for health food or organic food.
We’ve got it wrong.
Food should be healthy and health food should never be the exception to the rule. There should simply be food while the special category should be labeled: “Nutritionally compromised, industrialized food!” Let’s drop the term health food or organic! It’s overused anyway.
To understand this, look at what the yogis call Prana. Prana is typically defined as life-force, but let’s get even more specific.
Prana is the experience of something that we can recognize but can’t put under a microscope. It’s like the word mojo, you can’t dissect it in a lab, but we sure can tell when people have it or not.
Let’s view the basic components of organic matter, the cell. Cells are continuously dying, being maintained and reproducing themselves. In the process of maintenance or creation what do the cells need? Fuel. Prana, is the factor that increases the ability to organic matter to reproduce itself in a healthy way. It encourages growth.
To understand Prana even more, let’s look at life experiences that decrease our Prana such as jet lag or being sick. In either case, we feel that not much growth is happening; merely survival is occurring. We are alive, but there is not a lot of passion or zest for being alive. Our cells are protecting themselves and have to overcome more hurdles than when we are healthy or well rested to grow.
I am not suggesting that we should start measuring cell growth to test Prana, it is ultimately a feeling and fresh, healthy food without chemicals makes us feel it more.
The Prana-Meter: Logging the Prana in your food!
How do you determine the Prana in your food? Here are five questions to help. Rate your daily food Prana on the Prana-meter from 1 to 10.
- Is there a factory between you and your food?
- Are unpronounceable ingredients (chemicals and pesticides) used on or in your food?
- Does what you eat taste fresh and flavorful, or bland?
- After you eat, do you feel light, clear and happy or sluggish and bogged down?
- Do you stop for one minute before eating and recognize all the people and beings that contributed to you eating this meal?
Ultimately, what we want to tune into, is how we feel. We want to become aware of body feedback such as energy level, enthusiasm, digestion, and zest for living. If your food is providing you with these nutrients, then you are eating a balanced diet. You will connect to a place deep within that is radiantly alive and realize what balance and harmony feel like. This is your inner Blissologist. Ove eating, undereating, indulging on Prana-deprived foods will not occur when you tune into this state of being. And yes, you will continue along that Upward Spiral.
