Cultivating Personal Power via Skillful Counseling, Emotional Acceptance & Nourishing Raw Foods

Increasing nurturing life experiences can help us get beyond junk-comfort food eating & medication.
by David Klein
Living Nutrition Magazine vol. 12

It’s almost heartbreaking to witness what is happening at this time in history. Our nation’s people have been suffering emotional pains like never before, hiding from their emotions, disconnecting from themselves and life. In the wake of last fall’s terrorist attacks and the anthrax scares, Americans have been consuming record amounts of mind and emotion-numbing junk comfort foods in an attempt to cope. Anti-depressant and anxiety medication use has also been at an all-time high.

Highly sensitive people and trauma survivors (sometimes one and the same) typically feel the pressures of societal stress more than others. Those of us who struggle with stress eating are generally self-medicating to cover painful, often terrifying, unresolved emotions. It is understandable to want to feel better, or detach from feeling at all, when we are hurting. However, food and medicines can never solve psychological-emotional issues. Nutritionally empty, toxic foods and medicines only add to the body’s stress load, and can lead to more difficulties in coping with the next emotional crisis, as well as perpetuating a state of numbness, causing one’s health to decline and eventually crash.

Understanding and Accepting Emotions

We believe that on a path of growing consciousness, the goal is not to “deal with,” or shut down our emotions, but to accept them, allowing them to come and go with a degree of detached self-awareness. This is true personal power. It takes a lot of courage, and can be extremely difficult to face our painful emotions, rather than covering them up; however, in the long run, this can save us from the suffering and expenses of illness.

Emotions are essential energetic aspects of our selves, giving us valuable information and lending richness to our experiences. While emotions are expressions of vitality, the thoughts and stories that we associate with them can keep us mired in turmoil and depression. This is where the use of psychology and somatics is valuable. With the help of a skilled and trusted counselor who understands a somatic (body-centered) approach, working with you on your health goals, and with the eventual goal of practicing meditation or conscious awareness, it is possible to accept and eventually resolve the toughest emotions, and face life as it comes. This route sets us free to live consciously and healthfully in the flow of life. We have found that the more we practice this path, the less frightening and consuming the emotions become.

The Value of Skillful Counseling

Everyone needs support and love. A skilled counselor/therapist knows how to honor and respect their clients’ own deep inner knowing of how to follow their own healing path. The counselor’s role is to support clients in trusting their ability to connect with their innate wisdom which ultimately allows for complete, integrated healing. A good counselor will also help clients invite an increasing number of nurturing, self-loving experiences in their lives. Each person’s unique ways of self-nurturing needs to be gently uncovered with honor and respect. When working toward the goals of building conscious awareness, comfort with all emotions, and maintaining a self-nurturing lifestyle, a dedicated counselor can be an invaluable ally, and well worth the investment.

Healthful Eating

Life on this planet, including the experience of eating, is meant to be pleasurable, satisfying and nurturing. Eating is also meant to be consciousness expanding (not numbing). Food furnishes raw materials for vitality if the food is natural and raw, provided we eat to nourish that vitality rather than for emotional reasons. When we eat when we are not physically hungry, the food does not digest well and becomes an energy robber, stressing the body and leading to illness. When we need emotional comfort it is important to identify the root causes of our feelings. A good counselor and deep self-inquiries can help bring self-nurturing into our awareness, thereby loosening the grip on any tendencies toward eating for comfort or to disconnect from feeling.

When we are craving food, it is necessary to identify what the senses are calling for and choose the most nourishing foods that Mother Nature has to offer -- a positive step toward increasing our personal power.

Providing All of the Essentials of Health

It is important to identify and reduce the stress in our lives, taking the time for nurturing activities, relaxation, fun, sunshine, exercise, fulfilling human connection, physical touch, bodywork, personal growth, and getting extra sleep to restore and keep our nerve energy at a vigorous level. It is not possible to handle stress if we are over tired. Sleep is Nature’s great restorer.

Recognizing the basic human need for these life-giving elements is the first step. When it seems difficult to muster the energy to include them, enlisting a dedicated, loving support system can be a wonderful step towards this ideal. Here’s to health, happiness and peace for us all.

Nourishing Raw Foods

While making the transition to total self-love and self-nurturing, a good goal is to gradually increase the proportion of whole, fresh, organic living and raw foods in your diet. With this in mind, a good guideline to follow is to always include a portion of raw foods (e.g., salad) every time you eat cooked food.

The following vegan foods contain the millions of broad spectrum nutrients needed to completely satisfy our dietary needs for creating and maintaining peak mental-emotional-physical function, supporting personal power. Organically-grown plant foods are naturally high in minerals for strengthening the nervous system and enzymes which feed our vitality. Raw, fresh fatty fruits, nuts and seeds are rich in vitamins and proteins which also support our nervous systems. As an extra-special delight of Creation, tropical fruits are rich in the hormonal proteins which function as precursors to neurotransmitters, soothing our nervous system, naturally elevating our mood, and enhancing our mental powers.

What kinds of tastes are your senses calling for? Light refreshment, sweet ecstasy, salty/minerals, or creamy/fatty? Tune in to your body’s cravings, observe the color, texture and fragrance of the food you are instinctively drawn to, and consciously eat until satisfied, remaining alert to your body’s responses. The natural foods which you find most attractive and satisfying are the most nourishing ones for your body at that time. Remember, the simpler the meal the better the results.

Watery, Refreshing Fruits & Plants
cucumber, lettuce, celery, celery root

Sweet Fibrous Plant-Fruits and Roots
corn, bell pepper (sweet red, yellow and orange), corn (sweet fresh),
sweet pea, carrot (sweet fresh), jicama, beet, Jerusalem artichoke

Sweet-Watery Fruits
Of Vines: grape, kiwi, melons: watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, sharlyn

Of Trees: cherry, apricot, peach, plum, pear, apple, fig, apple, cherimoya, sapodillo, mamea, mango, date, papaya, persimmon, banana, sapote, nectarine, mulberry, orange, tangerine, mandarin, satsuma, grapefruit, pomegranate
Of Bushes: pineapple, guava, strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, loganberry

Sweet Concentrated Fruits
raisin, dried date, dried fig

Salty Fruits, Plaants & Roots
tomato, bok choy, kale, celery, zucchini, squash, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, sea vegetables (thoroughly rinsed), sprouted sunflower seed greens, kohl-rabi, turnip

Fatty Fruits, Nuts & Seeds
Fruits: avocado, durian, carob, olives (unsalted, or soaked and desalted)

Nuts (fresh raw, or germinated): walnut, almond, macadamia, pecan, pistachio, pine, young soft (non-starchy) coconut

Seeds (fresh raw, or germinated): sunflower, squash, pumpkin, flax

FOOD COMBINING GUIDELINES FOR OPTIMAL DIGESTION & STRONG NERVE FUNCTION

Eat watery, refreshing fruits and plants alone or with any other type of food except melon.

Eat sweet fibrous plant-fruits, and roots alone or with watery, refreshing fruits and plants.

Eat sweet fruits (except melon which should not be combined with any other food) alone or with lettuce, celery or cucumber.

Eat salty fruits, plants & roots alone or with watery, refreshing fruits & plants.

Eat fats alone (one kind per meal) or with watery, refreshing fruits & plants.

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