passion and purpose for living, who might appear to be moving very mechanically through life, without heart. For example, Jim was in this situation, with his day-to-day life saturated in one challenge after another, including struggling with his income, keeping a job in a tough economy, and tackling some persistent, deep-seated issues with his father. At times, he wanted to give up on everything. A blanket of depression covered him for several weeks. He admitted to himself that he intuitively felt that he needed to be working with plants, but he did not make the effort. When he finally gave in to volunteering at the local greenhouse, he began shifting his life gradually, yet very profoundly. He ended up coming to peace with his family issues and securing a steady position at the community college teaching botany. All of his stresses fell to the background, and he began losing weight and feeling energized.
Body and spirit desire to be unified. The ability to achieve body-spirit wellness rests in the presence of harmony in our lives—with ourselves, others, and the environment. Our highest choice is to be vibrant, healthy, inspired, and full of bountiful energy to give to the thoughts, actions, and emotions that feed our bodies and spirits in the best way. My experience and observations suggest that there are many paths to finding this freedom; one of them is through the vehicle of nourishment. It may not be everyone's path, but those of you who are drawn to using foods and dietary supplements may find it a particularly appealing approach.
As human beings, we need external substances such as food and water to keep us functioning optimally—the bare basics of calories for energy and water to keep hydrated are mere starting points. Under times of stress, when the body is running on overdrive and depleting all of its basic fuel, we may require specific nutrients over and above what we normally take in to give the cells the necessary raw materials they require to harness sufficient energy and remove accumulated waste products. Vitamin C is one of those nutrients that the body uses up quickly during bouts of stress. If we are too low on vitamin C, we leave ourselves open to infection and possibly getting a cold or the flu. On the other hand, eating more citrus fruits or taking a vitamin C supplement during these times protects us from the effects of stress.
Extra, specific supplements enable the physical body to cope with everyday events in ways it otherwise couldn't. When the physical body can flow freely and confidently with the sense of being in control of its surroundings, it has more energy to give to other, “higher” or more spiritual aspects of living. In other words, when our survival needs are taken care of, we are more likely to have the inclination to examine less tangible aspects of our lives like connecting with our life purpose.
Far more than providing just fuel for the physical body, foods and nutritional supplements feed all aspects of us—our flesh, emotions, ego, heart, voice, intuition, and spirit. They do so through their obvious physical qualities like providing calories for energy or minerals for keeping our bones strong. They also contribute in the form of their inherent nonphysical properties: how they were grown, their color and consistency, and how they were prepared and served. Take an example of a chicken egg—you can imagine that eating an egg is an efficient means to get complete protein and energy for the physical body, but its value doesn't end there. If it was produced on a farm where the farmer took good care of the chickens by letting them roam within a spacious area and fed them quality feed, this egg will impart the cumulative, positive effects of the care of the farmer and the healthy, happy life of the chicken that produced the egg. An egg from a well-cared-for chicken may even have different nutrients; it may taste better or even look more robust compared with an egg from a stressed chicken. All around, you would feel good eating it—spanning from your body to your other nonphysical layers. You might even embody the feeling of care and feel its subtle effects in your heart.
Our being, whether physical or nonphysical, collects memories of experiences, words, thoughts, emotions, and actions, which is why those seemingly subtle aspects about how the chicken egg developed are magnified within our being. Quantum physics tells us that every life form carries a vibration, an energetic signature, beyond that of its physical constituents, but definitely connected to its physical parts. In fact, the physical form may be a direct manifestation of all the indirect influences and forces that went into the making of it, just like was described with the chicken egg. It is this subtle vibration that harmonizes with the ethereal, invisible aspects of our being—our subtle, energetic anatomy.
Essentially everything we do, whether we eat certain foods like broccoli or donuts, or take fish oil supplements or eat candy, carries a vibration that will either add to or subtract from the cumulative resonance of the spirit. Eating candy may give us an initial burst of energy from the sugar, but over the long term, and with repeated use, it sets us up to be physically fatigued and drained. The reason for the eventual fatigue is that we put our hormones, especially insulin, on a rollercoaster ride every time we eat too much refined sugar in a repeated fashion. Once in awhile, our bodies may be able to accommodate a sugar rush, but with constant use, our metabolism will have a difficult time riding the waves of chaos sugar creates in the body. Because of these internal imbalances, our energy will be tied up in trying to remedy our body and bring us back into balance. It will have few resources left to invest in the more meaningful, spiritual aspects of our lives. And back we will go to moving through the motions of life rather than fueling it well so that we are glowing, radiant, and full of purpose. The bottom line is this: eat the energy that you want to become.
Dietary supplements are unique since they contain higher concentrations of nutrients that we may not normally find in foods. Ingesting them is an efficient way for getting what we need quickly, without the body having to extract the nutrient from the food matrix through the process of digestion.
Let's suppose that we need more minerals like calcium to strengthen our bones or iron for making blood. Yes, we could get these minerals by eating lots of animal foods rich in calcium and iron, but we would have to eat an awful lot of food to get the amount we need, especially if we are seriously depleted or have special needs, like someone with osteoporosis who needs a significant amount of additional calcium or an individual with anemia who needs to replenish their supply of iron. Also, digesting all that food would take a lot of energy. (Animal foods can be especially time consuming and energy intensive for the body to break down and assimilate.)
The food matrix is complex, so, along with essential minerals, we are often ingesting other nutrients from foods that can interfere with the action or digestion of these minerals. But a mineral supplement could cut right to the chase, supplying us with what we need with little to no investment on our part or without the interference of other food constituents that may get in the way.
Now imagine that the person who needs these minerals is a vegetarian. Indeed, they could eat plant foods to get what they needed, but minerals are present in the fabric of plant foods differently from that of animal foods. In plant foods, they are bound to other substances that make it difficult for them to be absorbed unless the foods are cooked well, or, as in the case of iron, have some type of acid applied to it. (For example, lemon juice liberates the iron in spinach leaves to make it available to be absorbed by the body.)
Not only is the matrix of plant foods different, but the quantity of minerals also tends to be lower in plant foods. I'm not implying that vegetarians can't be healthy, only that if we choose to limit our diet to certain foods, we have to be all the more diligent about what we are taking in. And that's why dietary supplements can be so useful. They supply what is needed in a streamlined manner—in a tablet, capsule, powder, or liquid. Using natural supplements along with a sufficient dietary regimen and a healthy lifestyle can produce a great synergy for healing.
I would like to emphasize that dietary supplements are not a quick fix for chronic, deep-rooted issues. They are also not replacements for a healthy diet. They are best used in collaboration with other approaches. Many health issues are best tackled from multiple angles, with foods and supplements not only helping to address body ailments but having an impact on the more subtle aspects of our being like emotions and feeling balanced. Other tactics, like counseling, therapy, journaling, and creative expression, may dive into the depths of the problem
