Nourishment:The Density of Food and our Human Emotions

After working closely with Ayahuasca, and studying her spirit for the last decade, I've been blessed to witness many of the practical functioning relationships that exist in the human system. One of the most impactful experiences I've noticed has been the relationship between food and the emotions. Living in North America, this is a difficult and regularly strained relationship; we are surrounded by non-nutritious options around every corner, and even the ones that are seemingly healthy are still often too full of sugar, or salt, or other refined preservatives. It's very rare that we encounter something that is truly nutritious for the body and the soul, without having to create it from scratch ourselves.

The phrase, "you are what you eat" is so true it's astounding we don't take it more seriously. Our physical tissues are a direct manifestation of the physical nutrients we intake. Our brains, our minds, our emotions, all controlled by electrical impulses in the physical dimension, are a direct result of the care we give to our physical bodies. The matter is tangible and observable.

As the layers of our beings are simply superimposed, one onto the other, every aspect of our vessel is effected by every other one; our spiritual bodies and our physical bodies, our emotional bodies coexist to create our whole being.

When we wake up in the morning and practice Ayurvedically, rising with the sun and practicing Kryias and Yoga, our systems are rested, clear and absorb the energy in its pure form, Prana ("life force"). Our minds are vibrating in a quiet way, simple and easy. Our neuron pathways are pulsing steadily and rhythmically, our pulse is slow, our breath is even, and our beings are free of anxiety. The tension is released, and in the releasing of the tension, our DNA is able to uncoil like a luxuriating animal in a bath of safety and light. The first foods we put into our bodies are crucial; naturally, if we are vibrating high, it is very difficult for us to be slowed down. But if, like many of us, we are resonating at a low level frequency, it's easy to become sluggish, lazy, tired, lack energy. And our foods impact every part of us this way.

Ayahuasca, and many other plant medicines, require an astringent dieta before undertaking any ceremony. Prolonged work with these medicines, as shamans do, requires a prolonged commitment to these dietas, and the reasons are as practical as they are mystical. Of the many things one must abstain from when entering an Ayahuasca Ceremony, a few include salt, processed sugar, alcohol, caffeine, and often, animal products. People often cry, "no, wait, our bodies need these things in order to live!", at least when it comes to salts and sugars. But what they don't understand is, one, the simple fact that these things naturally exist in healthy foods if we eat a balanced diet to begin with. And secondly, the density of these things in the body is actually causing both a physical and psychological addiction habit, and lowering our density.

Take a week in the countryside, camping, or at a cottage. Eat nothing but fruit and drink nothing but water on your vacation. Enjoy the sunlight and bask in the natural circadian cycles of nature - feel at one with your breath. Now, return to the city and drink a coffee. Stop for a sandwich, something with cheese and salt. Eat some cookies, French fries, even grab a pre-made salad from a local restaurant with dressing made from dense oils high in salt for flavour. Watch how quickly your energy changes, how quickly you pick up on the anxiety of the city, how quickly you become numb to the subtle body frequencies living with the dragonflies had you so harmoniously synchronized with.

Take a morning and drink nothing but organic cold pressed fruit juice. Meditate and breathe. Practice yoga. In the afternoon, eat something you might normally eat, something dense, something salty, something gratuitous. Watch where your thoughts go. Watch how your body feels. Pay attention to the stiffness and fluidity of your joints, pay attention to the consistency of peace in your mind. Pay attention to the texture and hydration of your skin, to the clarity of your own eyes. Notice the texture of your tongue - is it smooth and soft, or is it ridged, chalky and dry?

The human body's ability to heal itself is incredible - the things we are capable of bouncing back from, and the rate at which we are capable of doing so, is fascinating to anyone willing to notice. We are walking miracles, and it's a marvellous blessing to behold. At the same rate, the amount of toxins we are capable of intaking, and the amount of stress we are capable of living in is, to say the least, impressive, and to be frank, absurd. We don't really notice just how broken we are until we have the experience of feeling whole and good in our physical vessels and can feel things comparatively. And the idea of ever going back is often terrifying once we get there, but reassuring, too, knowing what we are able to heal from. And when we are awake to how broken we physically, psychologically and emotionally are, it's such an honest wonder how long we were even able to live in such visceral pain, numb to our true needs.

Food and nutrition is a conscious choice that, once made, is easy to fall into good patterns with. Once we develop the habit of eating the hydrating thing, or drinking the anti-inflammatory probiotic, or choosing the things with the most colour and the most organic labels - a priority to be made, at the sacrifice of the frivolous things if one is on a budget, but worth it when one experiences the sheer difference in energy - we can see these changes, and feel them too.

Soon, what used to seem normal now seems like torture; we start to notice the brain fog and emotional apathy that accompanies eating processed meat and high density salts and sugars. We start to notice the inflammation in our muscle tissue and the dehydration in our mouths. We start to notice our body odour changes, from sweet to sour, when we drink sharp, caffeinated things high in acidity. We start to notice our self-talk, our mind patterns, our emotional energies and responses, shifting and changing from high and uplifting, positive, objective and calm, to anxious and attached, dark and heavy, addictive, toxic and destructive. We make excuses for bad behaviours we would previously not partake in. We let people determine our self-worth because we lose it for ourselves. We feel our boundaries slip in ways that lose self-respect, and instead of compassion, we find ourselves lost in frustration and even anger.

We feel physically heavy again. We feel tired and lethargic.

Take two weeks to purge with an Ayahuasca dieta, and watch everything fall back into place again, in the right ways, in the light ways, in the easy and effortless ways. The brain is retrained, the body is remembered, and the internal organs are given a rest. The inflammation decreases, the skin rehydrates and the soul starts to find itself again. It's a story that is not only one of rejuvenation, but of resurrection from apathy, and of rediscovery of the self in its most natural, simple and holistic form.

It's a blessing.

And it's a wake up call.