Eat Feel Heal: A Sacred Food Journey
Burnout isn’t about exhaustion—it’s about losing touch with your body, your breath, your truth. This essay is a call to come home, through food, feeling, and presence.
As forests burn and soils collapse, our bodies mirror the Earth’s distress—through inflammation, anxiety, and disease. This essay explores how ecological healing begins within us, and why our bodies are sacred reflections of the Earth.
“Healing isn’t a rescue mission; it’s a rhythm.” In life, we can either wait until something goes wrong, and then try fix it, OR . . . we can prevent things from going wrong in the first place. In this post, we go deeper to unpack the Science of Ayurveda; to understand how an Ayurvedic Lifestyle can help us put the structures and foundations in place today, to protect our health and wellness – physical and mental – from going sideways tomorrow.
Because Prevention is Better than Cure
In December 2005 I was in a car accident in very rural Zimbabwe, and sustained ‘severe head and brain trauma’ following a 3-day coma. Then in 2007 – unrelated to the car accident – I was diagnosed with a ‘rare and incurable autoimmune disease.’ For the brain injuries there was ‘nothing surgical or medical that could be done,’ I just needed to re-learn and re-program . . . and allow the process and the brain to heal itself. For the autoimmune condition, I was prescribed a lifetime supply of ‘industrial strength’ corticosteroids, just to stay alive. It was a confusing time.
For the first time I am aware of, even if only in an infantile way, I began to feel my body. Truly feel into my body . . .
My mother says I started following her around the kitchen, aged 9 to 10. That was 1986; I’m forty-eight now and it’s 2024. I didn’t know it then. And it would take decades of exploration — across continents in the outer world, and galaxies of my inner world — to eventually realize that what was a simple joy of eating, tasting and licking my fingers, was actually the early germinating of a seed carried over generations by my ancestors and planted in me to birth into this world, just as my mother birthed my body into this world.
At the very core of our being, here, in this body, lies the most profound connection into the most ancient of truths. And it is this connection, and or disconnection, which sits at the very center of our human experience – individually, collectively, and in terms of our relationship with planet Earth.
What if there was a lifestyle approach—not a temporary or symptomatic treatment—that could bring true balance and resilience across your body, mind, and spirit?
Living Ayurveda is that lifestyle. It’s not a quick-fix treatment or just a system of medicine but a profound, timeless way of living that brings us into harmony with nature and cosmic laws. By nurturing Right Digestion and a balanced Inner Climate, Ayurveda aligns the Body-Mind-Spirit system, activating the body’s natural healing processes and deepening our relationship with self, others, and Earth.
In recent years, gut health and the gut microbiome have gained well-deserved attention, not only as key players in physical health but as foundations for mental clarity, emotional well-being, and even spiritual balance. What may be new in modern science has long been understood across generations and cultures worldwide. In Ayurveda, the concept of right digestion and maintaining a balanced, healthy inner climate is seen as the root of wellness—and the source of dis-ease when neglected.
This post explores why a healthy relationship with our gut is at the core of aligning Body, Mind, and Spirit. We’ll dive into the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual effects of gut health, revealing how a consciously cultivated, loving relationship with our food, digestion, gut health and gut microbiome sits at the center of self-care, self-love, holistic balance and harmony.
In a world overflowing with connectivity, many of us still feel deeply disconnected. This restlessness comes from fractures in the relationships that anchor us—to ourselves, others, the Earth, our ancestors, and even our perception of self.
At the heart of this disconnection lies an opportunity: the power of healing relationships to transform our lives. When we heal these bonds, the ripple effect extends into every area of our being, fostering personal and collective well-being.
“Every act of eating, is a choice between disconnection and harmony, between chaos and alignment. Food is not just sustenance; it is the path back to wholeness.”
This post dives into the historical context of our food practices, the road we traveled to reach this space of Disconnect, and a clear call to Reconnection, through one of our most fundamental and ingrained lifestyle habits – Food: What and How we eat.