Food & Our Spiritual Essence

Over these past few years I have given a lot of thought to our Spiritual Connection with food – what went wrong and how to get back to that special place inside of our bodies where eating, drinking, growing, foraging, fasting and anything related to nourishing ourselves - once again becomes a part of our spiritual essence.

One main thing I have discovered is how much my own spirit has been pushed down – pulled apart and broken off over the years, to reach a place where food was just there for ‘eating’ (pushing something down, aside, keeping things in place) and had little other meaning attached to it. 

It has shook me to the core to be able to think of food in a positive way especially in terms of celebration, ceremony and ritual – all coming from a spiritual place. However, working at dropping these old beliefs and building up something new has also taken me on a different journey inwards….

To the soul.

Whenever you think of the word ‘food’ – what is the first thing that comes to mind? Do you draw a blank or do you immediately feel a sinking, deep heaviness of ‘bad’ buried in your gut?

I’ve asked this question of so many people and have had very interesting responses – unfortunately far too often of the ‘bad’ nature. Or at least when describing thoughts around eating, many of us use mixed words & emotions bordering on disordered.

How we got here is another story, however, what we can do about it is all positive! One thing is certain, we are on the upswing moving away from critical thinking around eating & enjoying good food. Especially where rituals and ceremony are concerned. 

I think it is about time we started to discover joy in our lives and food, especially when involved in  celebration - food is a fundamental part of that essence. Perhaps eating, food and nourishing ourselves, is the door and 'the way' in.....

April

Shadows on the wall - Union Hall, West Cork

Using Clay to Heal & Seal the Gut

Some thing I use a lot of here and cannot recommend it enough, is clay. Of course there are so many different types and kinds of clay; French Green Clay, Diatomaceous Earth, Bentonite Clays, Fuller's Earth, Red Clay, Kaolin and so forth….but their basic use is often the same. 

Clays pull, encourage movement and remove toxins, wastes & debris from both your internal and external systems. They tighten up the membranes while gently sloughing off the uppermost layers of cells as they move along on the inside and pull toxins out of your skin allowing detox on the outside.

In fact on the inside, they work much the same way as a clay mask on your face would do. Only this 'mask' is a moving flow of minerals being propelled along your digestive tract along with your food.

The one important point that I have discovered and then have been able to confirm, is how some of these clays work over time to heal and seal the gut. Remember how I have mentioned over these past few years my observation in myself and many others that our guts were never set up properly from birth? 

Well, this has to do with the fact that the biofilm and internal covering containing the living matrix of bacteria (mainly) are either too thin on the ground,  are made up of some non-beneficial types of organisms and in general have been not functioning in a health sustaining way.

Thus, we see far too much of childhood eczema, asthma, allergies, tummy troubles and then later on – far worse conditions, all relating back to this most basic necessity of a functioning gut. In fact, our immune systems never kick into high gear when our internal environment is not fully operational as well. 

What needs to happen for many of us is to heal and seal these gaps, spaces and places in our digestive tract that have never fully functioned from infancy. Only then will we see significant progress in our health and healing.

Clay is an amazing natural part of any healing regimen when it comes to the skin - inside and out.

Bentonite clay being hydrated for use