When we think of compassionate communication often we think only of words. Words are very important but so is food how we consume our food it maybe even more so, is the spirit or attitude we have in the moment. Whether our health is compromised or not it is very important that we consume healthy food with a healthy heart. As we look at our food, we see the hard work and love that went into the growing of the food, the delivery system and finally the skillful preparations of the food.
How much we love to eat with friends and family when the food is prepared in a loving environment, then our body receives the nutrition from the food and the emotional nutrition infused from the environment. This feasting is always possible even when we are alone. You can have the benefit by changing your relation ship to food with compassion.
How do we do that? We look to the Metta equation (Gratitude over Greed = Quality of Life”. We look at the food and are grateful for it’s just being there and all the handwork it took to get to us. Then we are grateful for our body, that it has the capacity to process this food to help gain and maintain our strength. Then slowly we taste and chew the food visualizing the vitamins and minerals being distributed through out our body to help us feel stronger and comfortable. And as we eat we smile, smiling is so powerful for it release good will for our whole system.
Many of us grew up saying Grace, what a wonderful health generating practice, so this practice is a return for some of us to saying Grace in a new and expanded way to help heal our body with mindful thanks for the whole shebang!
Loving kindness towards our food with a heart full of gratitude helps with digestion and that helps with the distribution of nutrition.
I invite you to dine with a smile,
With Metta
Dr. Barbara Wright