Our ability to digest may be one of our least appreciated functions. It is, in fact, a superpower. Digestion is a wild process of ingestion, mixing, breaking down, moving, absorbing, and eliminating.

It is the process of bringing our external world into ourselves, rearranging the raw materials, and turning them into something new. Into something useful and essential for continuing our work of being alive. And returning what we don’t have use for back into the external world. It is a dance of interconnection for sure. 

And we take in a lot more than food from our environment. Even in the process of eating, all of our senses are involved. Tuning into and being more mindful of what is coming in through all of our senses is essential for beginning to shift our relationship with food. It’s essential, in fact, for reconnecting with the wisdom of our body.

The word nourishment comes from the same root as the word “nurse.” The meaning of this root word is to sustain, to support life. Strangely, eating food is not necessarily equated with nourishing ourselves any more. People turn to food for all manner of reasons other than hunger these days. 

I find it fascinating that we as a culture are so disconnected from the experience of nourishment. We are seeking it, but often unconsciously, so that we have a sensation of constantly trying to fill some emptiness. Looking for that sense of support, sustenance, and connection… in places that don’t always provide it. It can becomes quite the frustrating cycle.

We are turning to food for many reasons other than hunger these days. I certainly have experience with this pattern myself. Food is used as a reward, a pacification of emotions, as a means to numb or avoid feelings… and these days we are often wading through a sea of confusing information about what foods are “right,” what foods are “wrong,” and are led into the trap of believing that someone else knows better than you do about what your body actually needs. 

If you observe carefully, you’ll see how a dysfunctional relationship with food can be orchestrated from a very early age. Children struggling to manage their own emotions are rarely given the space to learn the skills of self-soothing on their own. A sweet treat is usually furnished within a few seconds to calm the storm. Sure, it quiets things down for the time being. But in that child, the associations become deeply etched. Food becomes a way to “deal with” our feelings. 

Or does it? Eating when we’re not hungry is a slippery slope indeed. Our innate intelligence that communicates true hunger can get overshadowed by our reward system that keeps us seeking the next quick fix of a short-term feel-good hormone. Our neurochemistry becomes altered. We grow more disconnected with the experience of our own hunger.

Think about when you last felt deeply nourished. It may have included a combination of senses. It certainly couldn’t be reduced to a printout of nutritional data. It’s about feeling supported, connected, sustained. 

And it didn’t likely happen when you were already feeling full. We can’t experience nourishment without somehow being open to the world. The experience of nourishment is some ways is about the act of receiving. 

Many of us have some resistance in this realm. We fall into a pattern of giving so much of ourselves that we develop an imbalance, an amnesia even, in regards to what it means to receive.

It seems we’re taking so much in, but rarely entering into a state of receiving. We’re often overstuffed, but undernourished. How is that possible? 

In my experience, it’s about whether or not we have space within ourselves for nourishment to land. 

Did you know that there are very few benefits to eating healthy food that is loaded with nutrients if you are eating it in a stressed out state? Just as seedlings require soil to be prepared before planting, we require a certain quality of space within ourselves to be able to benefit from the food we eat, or even the herbs or vitamins we take. Our inner environment is well worth tending to. 

How are you nourishing yourself?
What kind of space can you cultivate to receive nourishment?

My goal here is: 

• to reconnect you with the simple, profound and healing act of receiving nourishment. to help you clear space to receive
• to shift your focus to all that surrounds you that can provide nourishment, beyond the food on your plate.
• to help you find a new relationship with food. So that you can experience relief from the patterns of overeating. So you can stop fixating on whether or not you’re eating the “right” or “wrong” foods. So that you can experience an ease with your choices that comes from listening to yourself, and receiving nourishment from sources other than food.  

I often return to the lesson of the cell when try to reconnect with the natural wisdom within our own being.

On a fundamental level, cells take in what they need and eliminate what they don’t. They communicate. They rearrange and create useful things. They expertly convert energy from one form to another. They replicate themselves. They coexist intimately with their environment. Their health, in fact, directly reflects that of their environment.

In Ayurveda, each cell is considered to be a center of consciousness. The intelligence cells display is extraordinary, eye-opening, and humbling. Studies in cellular biology reveal an incredibly refined capacity for discernment. They selectively allow certain substances in and prevent the entry of others. They possess an extremely sophisticated ability to sense, read and respond to their environments. Studies have demonstrated that cells actively move towards and embrace that which is nourishing to them. And they shrink away from toxins ~ from that which would cause them harm.

In our work together, I will guide you through a reconnection with this natural intelligence you already possess, so that you can redefine your relationship with food and experience deep nourishment through new sources. So that you can learn to show up for yourself and nourish yourself in new ways.

I want to empower you with a way to break free from the various obsessions so many of us have about food. To help you open up to the act of receiving nourishment, as an act of connecting with the support and abundance of your environment. To help you learn how to listen to yourself more deeply and with greater care. And to help you see ways in which you can start to nourish yourself, taking in and truly enjoying the support that our environment is offering.