I was talking to my dear friend, and fellow health advocate, Carissa Boles this morning. She’s the founder of a super health website www.insidenuggets.com that I highly recommend you check out — once you’re done reading this fabulous post. 🙂
As she and I were trading information on the power of essential oils, and different types of salt for the body, we traveled down the path of organic food. Neither Carissa nor I want to make a ‘religion’ out of food. We want to make our choices out of Wisdom and not Fear. I shared with her the ongoing conversation with my boys as I’m guiding them about the foods they choose,
“Look guys, if you can eat organic, non-gmo foods, then eat those, that’s just wisdom.” They nod, in that 9 and 11 year-old, “Got it, Mom!” thumbs-up, kind of way.
“And,” I continue, “if you can’t or you don’t know if it’s organic, go with your gut and bless what you eat.”
“Food is powerful but the greater power is in YOU to bless the food…” I put a hand on each of their chests, “…don’t ever forget that. The power is in you.”
They do more than nod this time. They sigh.
Because encountering the truth of our power does that to us. It makes us sigh.
Because, truth offers relief from the burden to have to be Mr. Food Inspector Person for the rest of their lives. Yes. I want them to have wisdom in their choices, and YES, I want them to know they have intrinsic power to convert something that isn’t great to something that will serve them.
Their freedom, and living from a happy and loving place, will generate far healthier chemical reactions in their body than if they’re eating in a state of panic and fear about every bite.
Fear kicks adrenaline into high gear.
And your body doesn’t digest when you’re eating in a state of fight-or-flight mode because the stomach shuts down and the blood rushes to your muscles to get you out of the situation you’re in.
Who wants to eat like you’re being chased by a bear?
Who wants to live afraid of every bite you consume?
Who wants to live under that kind of duress?
In the ancient scriptures, there’s a passage that talks about the power of blessing your food and that even when people ate poison, they did not die.
The power to bless.
That’s huge.
Now, I don’t want my kids going around eating poisonous food or playing with poisonous snakes (read the news lately??) just to prove a point. That’s not faith or trust – that’s arrogance and foolishness.
At the same time, I do want them to live in the liberty and power they have to convert any food, from whatever state it’s in, to become their feast.
A few hours after sharing that with Carissa, I got onto a coaching call with a client who’s a friend. I’ll call her ‘Shari’ (name changed to protect, basically everyone.)
Shari was sharing with me the dynamic with her mother – the crazy, controlling ways her mom acts — and how she longs to be less affected by the toxicity in her mom and wants to be able to respect her for who she is.
Toxic relationships. I get it. Really. I do.
Now, this young woman is so amazing. You need to know that. Shari’s got a wisdom and beauty that is inspiring. And she’s enlightened enough that she didn’t want to hear, “You’re the good guy. Your mom’s the ass.”
Which is good because that’s not how I coach people anyway.
Because when you do that – that whole one-sided-support thing – you treat life like it’s a teeter-totter.
And when you elevate the person you’re talking to and put down the other person they’re talking about, you know what happens? You’ve just weighed that other person down with all the power to leave you hanging up in the air.
You can’t live like that and live powerfully.
It’s hard to live powerfully with your feet dangling in the air.
So, our conversations are about restoring our own sense of power and value.
And plus, as an aside, when you put someone else down, it affects all of us, because we’re all connected.
Life’s one big circle of us holding hands
and if I knock you down with insults and judgments, and I’m holding your hand, then, I’m going down too. We’re connected. It’s an illusion to think that we’re not.
So, my heart is to lift people up and then, the person they’re holding hands with, ends up lifted too.
I believe that.
So, back to the story:
Shari wanted perspective on how to be less emotionally affected by her mom’s ways and more empowered within the relationship.
Again, I found myself sharing around that idea of our blessing power.
Shari’s mom’s craziness has brought her daughter clarity.
Her mom’s fear-based living, inspired Shari’s love-based living.
Her mom has been the sand in the oyster of Shari’s life and that’s produced so many pearls of wisdom in her.
And please hear that Shari’s mom is more than a bad example. I don’t love when people are reduced to that and I didn’t do that about her mom. I’m just sharing snippets with you. I’m simply saying that the things that were negative have been useful to Shari’s life because both the great things and the messed-up things from our parents will serve us – if we choose to let them.
Shari has chosen that on some level. Maybe even subconsciously, but it’s there. We were just bringing it to the surface and she was just looking for the next step.
I suggested the power of blessing her mom for who she is and what she brings to her life.
Because, once you bless the situation you’re in, you have stopped judging it as ‘wrong’ and ‘disappointing’ and ‘it shouldn’t be this way because it’s my mom’ – which are all normal feelings and thoughts but they’re just not going to get you too far in your life if you hang out at the last point where someone disappointed you.
And again, I’m not saying, “Go run, deeper into the arms of toxic relationships just to prove you have power.”
I’m talking about when you have something before you, whether it’s a food that you don’t know where it came from,
Or someone’s brand of crazy that you don’t know where it came from —
The power to convert it from something fatal to something you feast on
Is in you.
Bless the food you eat,
The person you’re with
The person you are…
And watch all of life become your blessing – something that you, through your power to bless, will eventually and ultimately be able to use for your good.
Life is going to be
What life is going to be.
The power to bless it and make it your feast?
That power
Is in you.