Food and Life. Or perhaps, food IS life. Even if you don't live to eat.

What’s been coming up recently with my clients is food: they want to talk about it. 

Considering that what and how we eat impacts our energy, state of mind, digestion, weight, shape, and sense of self, it seems pretty vital to make friends with our relationship with food. 

Food isn’t just eating. It’s planning, cooking, and cleaning. It’s nourishment. And that which nourishes is life. One of my amazing teachers told me that. And he added: the rest is just busyness. 

Making friends with food (and self-nourishment)

I’ve been practicing sadhana, or daily spiritual practice, since 2003. Over most of this time to date, my sadhana consists of meditation and yoga practice. The first sadhana I ever practiced, however, was a cooking sadhana, and it changed my life. It looked something like this: I’d wake up around 5:30, do my morning ritual of brushing my teeth, etc, and then practiced five minutes of sun salutations to get my body circulating and connected to my breath. I then moved my practice into the kitchen, turned on some Deva Premal (sacred music), lit my beeswax candles, recommitted to breathing consciously and moving intentionally, pulled out my food ingredients, and for the next 60 to 90 minutes, began washing, prepping, and cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was full focus on cooking, no multitasking other than silent chanting to Deva Premal and breathing and expanding into my solar plexus. 

This was a daily practice, and my days went without the food stress and without energy crashes. I was Steady Eddie. The food was magnificent, and my family was healthy. 

The energy you put into the food you eat determines what energy you bring into your day and your ability to digest, or take in, your day. So it’s important to use your prep and cooking time as a meditation practice rather than something you have to do - deliberately, one-tracked, lovingly. While it doesn’t have to be first thing in the morning, it does set the day up beautifully. 

Food takes more time than you have?

Before I started this practice, I remember ruminating on how long it took to plan, shop, prep, wash, cook, and clean, many of these steps having to be repeated with each meal. Alas, eating - the best part - seems to take up only a fraction of that time.

The truth is, many of us eat too fast while we’re looking at our screen, so we rarely have a chance to fully enjoy our meal and are left wanting and still “hungry” after we’re done. Even if you eat out, the time it takes to choose a place, get there, wait, pay your bill, come home… it really doesn’t save you that much time, and it’s typically less healthy and more costly. 

That’s the time myth around food. Here’s the truth: 

The time you take to prepare a nourishing meal - every part of it - saves you much much much more time in your day because it not only provides the kind of stable energy you need to make clear decisions, you’re less distracted by the need to snack or artificially stimulate, and you’ve boosted your immune system. 

Also, when you’re prepared, you won’t “forget” to eat, rush eat, stress about what to eat, or eat something you wouldn’t have chosen. Which means, you won’t get indigestion, food coma, mess up your metabolism, or run on fumes and then gulp down on a “healthy” food bar. You won’t have all sorts of cravings throughout the day, or feel like you have to graze. 

Your nervous system and your mind becomes stable, and you feel nourished and prepared throughout the day. You’ve planned your ultimate self care, one that puts grounded energy into your body, and you did it deliberately. You feel fed because you fed yourself. 

You don’t have to do a daily one hour cooking sadhana to benefit. 

Just a weekly meal plan and carving out time to prep so all you need to do is the final putting together of your meal when you’re ready to eat. It will save you money, energy, and grief in the long run. And your body will thank you for it. 

I haven’t even gone into what to eat. Which is important, but not as. The important thing to get is that when you plan, you don’t plan the worst. You don’t plan junk food. This is a big deal, and it gives you a lot of grace (margin of error) to work with when choosing your meals. 

Try it. Here are some suggestions.

If you need food first thing in the morning, make yourself something light - either fruit, soup, warm bread, no cereal. Work with fresh or fermented things you get to lightly prepare that don’t just come straight out of a box or can. 

Prep two full, nourishing meals a day so all you need to do is to heat it up. Take the time to heat it up in the oven or on medium-low over the stove. About the microwave: my argument against this is less about whether it’s good or bad for you and more about the mindset of not rushing your cooking and carving out the time to prepare and nourish your food. Microwave is used for convenience. Because we can't be bothered. Bother. Please bother with yourself. Yes, food needs nourishment too; a little bit of love, energy, discernment, and gratitude. It gives back exactly what you put into it. 

Sit down to eat, and chew your food. Enjoy the display, the aroma, and the colors on your plate. Rather than slopping food on your plate to gulp down, take a moment to arrange it beautifully. It brings in the secret element of joy and a moment of pause to look at what you’re about to take in. That in itself is a prayer. A practice in gratitude. Say thank you for my life as your final blessing. These simple acts can elevate the vibratory frequency and digestibility of the food you are eating. You might even start getting less food sensitive and start being able to eat bread and raw salads again… 

You can do a version of this when eating out. The idea is to not rush the process and instead to nourish it. 

You’ll notice the difference. Not only will it save you time, you’ll enjoy the time you have. 

Love, Savitree