Posts Tagged ‘intuition’

“We are indeed much more than what we eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help us to be much more than what we are.” – Adelle Davis

Eating is an act that no human being can truly escape. We eat throughout the day, many times per day, taking in thousands of pounds of food on every year. One way to view eating is simply an act that provides the body with energy. Another aspect is what we eat and how we eat are anchored more deeply into providing insight as to what in our lives needs healing. Even though I am a nutritionist that has been trained to look at food as calories, what I have discovered is that foods and eating are vehicles to our personal growth.  When someone tells me about their eating, I immediately see the connection to the rest of their lives.

This concept may seem far-fetched, but let me give you some examples:

•    Jean eats convenient foods and can’t find time to prepare meals. A common theme in her life is that she is always on the run. She never has time for anything she really wants to do, including something for herself.  She started to heal after taking a look at what she was running from – and asking the question: where does my focus need to be, and what do I need to make time for?
•    Jim binges on sweet foods. He also talks about how his life feels lackluster and that he never quite “gets around” to having some joy and fun? Looking from the outside in, maybe his life doesn’t seem so “sweet” so he needs to get it from other places. He also feels that he can never make sweetness last in his life – something always stands in the way – ultimately leading him to binge.

Since we eat so often, it becomes only logical that our food choices and eating practices start to intermingle with our lives. Therefore, to get some insight on your life, you can begin by looking at how and what you eat. There are seven main areas of our lives that may require healing, and we can jumpstart the process by altering our foods and eating:

(1) Survival: Do you have some “fear” around eating – whether not wanting to eat because you don’t know what to eat, or distrusting your bodies’ messages about eating ? Do you have difficulty with family traditions around eating and struggle with being able to eat in the presence of a community? By letting go of protecting ourselves with food or of any fear of eating, we open up our ability to trust and feel safe. Eating with others in community is healing for this part of us. Foods for grounding and protection: Protein, minerals, root vegetables, edible and medicinal mushrooms, red-colored foods (apples, pomegranates, etc.)

(2) Emotions: It has been estimated that most people overeat for emotional reasons. Have you found that it is more comfortable to stuff your emotions with food rather than expressing them? Emotions are the juice of creativity so when we let our emotions flow, our creativity moves through us. By taking time to create meals, we allow for more movement within, which can ultimately spark our emotional strings. Making meals and sharing with another person can also help to restore flow. Foods for flow and feelings: Fats and oils (especially omega-3s), fish (e.g., wild-caught salmon), tropical fruits, seeds, nuts, orange-colored foods (oranges, tangerines, carrots, etc.)

(3) Energy: Where do we put our energy? Do we give it away to foods that have power over us? Do we deplete our physical bodies by ingesting anti-nutrition (foods that take away and don’t “give” anything) like soft drinks and artificial sweeteners? We can reclaim our power and energy by eating more frequently through the day, and eating foods that sustain our energy like low glycemic carbohydrates. Foods for power and transformation: Carbohydrates (complex), fiber, whole grains, legumes, yellow-colored foods (yellow sweet peppers, yellow lentils, corn, etc.)

(4) Love: Rather than allowing love to flow from our hearts in an unconditional way, do we substitute by feeding others food? Do we use food as the only way of showing love? Are we able to give and receive love in a healthy way? We can embrace love in our lives by sharing our food with others, being grateful for foods, donating to food banks, and infusing love into our food and water. Foods for love and compassion: Vegetables (especially cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, kale, cabbage, and leafy greens), sprouts, raw foods, foods rich in chlorophyll, any green-colored foods .

(5) Communication: Do you convey mixed messages about foods – saying yes when you mean no? Do you become a victim to your environment when it comes to eating, unable to stand up for what you need? Do you find yourself gulping your food down or talking while eating? We can uphold truth in our lives by honoring our bodies’ choices at a deep level. By eating mindfully, we communicate to our bodies that we give it the utmost attention. Foods for communication and truth: Seaplants, soups, sauces, juices, fruits.

(6) Insight: How do you listen to your intuition? If you have a strong sense that you need to eat foods or exercise, do you act or do you let something else stand in the way? Do you keep your mind and moods on overdrive with foods like caffeine and alcohol? We can heed our internal insight by taking time to listen deeply within.  Respecting your mind by taking care not to push its limit with external substances is one way to enable your intuition to be heard. Foods for intuition and insight: Spices, tea, purple-red foods (purple potatoes, blackberries, blueberries, purple grapes, etc.)

(7) Unity: Do you feel interconnected with all of life? Or do you feel that you are longing for deeper meaning and connection with others and nature? Do you feel severed from something greater than yourself? One way to repair your connection with life is by seeing eating as a divine act that connects you with the lineage of field, farmer, grocer, and cook. Using foods as a symbol of connection can help us to connect to that which is sacred and deep. Foods for unification and interconnection: Sunlight, air, love.

Deanna Minich will be on The Explore Your Spirit with Kala Show on Friday, August 21 2009.

More about Deanna Minich….

Deanna Minich, PhD, CN, www.foodandspirit.com is a nutritionist who sees more to food than calories and macronutrients. She blends cutting-edge nutrition information, quantum physics, and the ancient chakra system to guide others to use foods and eating as tools for spiritual growth and nourishment for the soul. With her latest book, Chakra Foods for Optimum Health, she opens your heart, unravels your intuition, and guides you on a journey to inner and outer bliss with every bite you take!

Greetings. I love telling the stories behind my paintings. Some of them are more interesting than others but since they are all my “children” and they each have some history to them. For those of you just being introduced here I am an artist and a psychic empath. I have embodied each of these for as long as I remember. My parents fed me a steady supply of crayons and paper in order to keep me quiet. And I was hooked, And from as early as I can remember I had clairvoyant dreams as well as knowing what those around me were thinking. I just didn’t understand why other people didn’t see the same things as I did. Or “know” the same things I could instantly feel about people or situations. My painting became my “medicine” in that it was the place I could always go to to feel connected or grounded. Their was a lot of trauma that went on in my household growing up so I went as far away as I could and pulled out my art supplies to escape into my own world. It always worked and was the place that was comfortable and safe.

That’s just a bit of background info for you . Now I’d like to tell you about this painting I call “Magic Carpet”. It is a 9″ x 12″ watercolor that was purchased by a couple in the UK after seeing it on my website. By the way, I love seeing where my “children” end up and I like that this one flew over the ocean.

I’ve always loved the concept of magic carpets as a device that could take one far away into the fantasy of one’s own creation. In this way we are free to create the destination or leave it up to chance. I’m not sure which I like the best! Surprises are always fun.. In this image we see the couple ready to go off on their journey together, experiencing the magic of the unknown in a joint venture. In the first draft of the painting I had painted one of the figures with their arm pointing up to one of the stars. But I didn’t like the way it looked anatomically. It just wasn’t right for the painting. I had to paint it out which is very difficult to do with watercolors. Sometimes it works and sometimes not. Fortunately in this case it did. I included the cat because it was there to hold down the fort while they went off to play. I have 4 cats of my own and that is how I feel about them when I go off on my work trips. The shape of the earth below them is rounded to suggest that they may be leaving the planet. I used soft colors to create a feeling of levity in the mood of the piece.

By the time you read this Valentines Day will have passed but I hope it found you with the love that you want in your life and if not, the vision of the love that you would like to call in.

Until next month, Melissa

You can visit my website at www.melissaharris.com to see more of my art and to purchase prints, cards, candles and many other gift items.

More About Melissa Harris:
Melissa Harris holds an MFA and BFA in Painting and was awarded a Fulbright grant to study painting in Paris. CREATRIX is her company featuring her artwork and messages on notecards, prints, and other gift items. Her work can also be found on book, magazine and CD covers as well as calendars. Watch for her new affirmation deck called “Goddess on the Go” soon to be released. She teaches art-making workshops at spiritual centers throughout the US and at her home studio. Melissa finds her inspiration in nature, travel, personal relationships, and dreams. Series include butterflies, women and magic, women and nature, women and dreams, cycles of the moon, intimacy, and more. According to Melissa, “Whatever my subject matter is, I like it to have a certain edge whether compositional or emotional. I like to think that a key word for my work could be “depth”, depth of space and depth of emotion.” More info at: www.melissaharris.com

Listen to Melissa’s interview with Kala on The Explore Your Spirit with Kala Show here: http://exploreyourspirit.com/Media/shows3.shtml#CREATIX