Food Rituals

 

Unexplained fatigue, weakness, low energy despite good food is really a common symptom these days. 

Many a times, supplements also fail to meet our expectations.

Bloating, indigestion, constipation, headaches are some other symptoms. If this relates to you, your body might be weighing under the burden of unwanted elements. Not all food that we consume is procured directly from nature; it undergoes lots of processing and preservation adding on some artificial ingredients. This reduces its vital elements, and when this food becomes a part of our body, it starts showing the negative effects over a period of time. Therefore, an important element of Yogic lifestyle is consuming fresh food and adding ingredients in their natural form.

Food is one of the sources of energy for all living forms. Another important element is the energy derived from breath. Deep and regular breathing imbibes a lot of positive energy into the body which is strong enough to nourish and heal the body. This is why yoga practice teaches us the art of breathing correctly.

Yet another important element of energy is derived from connection with the nature. The more we ground ourselves to mother earth and connect to mother nature, the more our energy levels enhance. This came natural to early man, but needs to be practised with modern life style.


Some basic food rituals to practice on day to day basis include:

If we ever observe our appetite, we ll see that most of the times, we are eating without any body requirement. Either we eat because of boredom, or since its time to eat or social eating. So, the most important food ritual is to let the body ask for food rather than overfeeding it.

We are blessed to have abundant availability and variety of food in our houses and in supermarkets. This makes us take food for granted. We not only start eating for fun, but also waste a lot of food, in process losing the gratitude for it. A prayer of gratitude for the mother earth for blessing us with food not only enhances the flavours of food but also brings in more awareness about how much we consume in proportion to the appetite.

When we sleep, our body gets time to heal itself. However, consuming the dinner just before sleeping increases the load on the body, diverting the work towards digestion thus hampering the healing. This also increases the chances of weight gain . Therefore, we must allow 3 hrs gap before the last meal and sleep time.