“Ayurveda stresses the importance of living a balanced life. It emphasizes nutrition and lifestyle as the basis of health. Medicine is given a secondary place next to these two pillars of health – eating right for your individuality and living a lifestyle that has exercise, creativity, joy, challenges and a routine that optimizes your personal performance or creative ability.”
— Vaidya Atreya Smith
It is a time of urgent national and global crises. Truth must be spoken, irrespective of those who do not want to hear it, which is most everyone.
People do not want to be awakened from their slumber. They might begin to see more clearly, understand what is being asked of them, and then have to face the challenge of effective, constructive action. The truth is we will have to change quickly or suffer escalating negative consequences.
Mine is not the voice of an alarmist but of someone who has pursued medicine and healing over decades and sees clearly what we have been up against as individuals and as communities.
The unhealthy modern American way of life, with its hustle and bustle in pursuit of the American dream, prevailed throughout the 20th century. It came to become the dominant model for successful economic development and comfortable living throughout the world.
During this first quarter of the 21st century, the health of the human mind and body has continued to deteriorate. The living environment has been increasingly poisoned by genetically modified organisms and by chemical and plastic pollution generated by producers of industrial food, pharmaceutical, and personal care and cosmetic products. The nexus of interrelationship and interdependence linking humans with the beings of the natural world has been compromised by ravenous consumption of non-renewable resources and wanton destruction of the very foundations of healthy co-existence with the animals, plants, and other living beings.
In the last 100 years in the “developed world” or richer nations, dietary habits were taught to us by parents, schools, and public health officials who often did not have a real clue. They passed on uncritically what they were told by purported experts in various fields. Information about foods and what constitutes a healthy diet was validated by a materialistic natural science and medicine in which important factors were not even thought about, let alone understood. Further, data was often gathered and/or interpreted in professional studies so as to appease one financial or industrial interest group or another. This led to distortions and fabrications.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness has become a buzz word in more recent times. Why? More and more people are going about their daily lives with less presence of mind more and more often. Many people’s real lives have become increasingly monotonous, socially isolated, and unrewarding while their virtual lives, generated by electronic media, have become more exciting and fulfilling. Surely you can see this is a trap.
People consciously practicing mindfulness represents a healthy response to outer influences that have been created by the profit-greed of corporations with the collusion of corrupt government officials. People are being systematically manipulated and controlled in their conscious and subconscious lives to benefit a small number of selfish individuals who have accumulated enormous wealth and power. Not all rich people are riddled with vices, of course, nor are all poor people full of virtue.
Let your practice of mindfulness begin or increase immediately. Be present as you go about your day. Pay attention to what you are thinking and feeling. Let your speech and actions become deliberate. You are exercising your divine right to pursue a free life in which, with effort, you will become more self-determining.
Eating Mindfully
The modern and post-modern ways of life have robbed us of many of the real benefits of eating. Factors to consider when beginning to eat more mindfully might include:
- What food you grow
- What food you purchase and from whom
- How you put together and cook your meals
- In what kind of inner and outer atmosphere you eat it, including with whom
- What activities you engage in right after eating
In a culture of fear, mounting stresses and general anxiety about the challenges of the future, chose to take back more control over more aspects of your life.
Nutrition from Subtle Sources and Organic Foods
Regular spiritual practice to contact greater aspects of your whole Self and of the greater Divine Reality will provide you with subtle forms of nourishment to strengthen and vitalize your spirit, mind, and body.
Next, resolve to engage in conscious eating as often as possible. This will provide you with more intelligent life-force energy (prana, chi) through the act of eating, and you will reap multiple psychological and physical benefits in the present and the future.
Put in the time and effort to educate yourself more about food and nutrition. Investigate ancient and modern, Eastern and Western approaches, to develop a broader understanding. Why? You will need a solid basis from which to draw your own conclusions when presented with health information. This will also assist you in choosing a health care professional to guide you in making nutritional, herbal, and lifestyle choices based on your constitution, age, current state of health, etc.
Through making right choices now, you will also be contributing to a healthier society and planet in the future, which in turn will benefit you and your loved ones.
May you be blessed with Divine Guidance and Protection,
Joseph Michael Contrada
Copyright ©2018 Joseph Michael Contrada. All rights reserved.