You might be careful about the caloric or nutritional content of your food, but the vibrational content is equally if not more important. Let’s explore the why’s and how’s of super-powering your foods.
Although many ancient cultures were very conscious of the vibrations of their food, of where and who were preparing it, modern convenience culture hasn’t really given it much importance. Recently however people have become more open to knowledge about energy and that it’s not just food that affects our minds, but our minds also affect our food.
You may be familiar with the work of Professor Emoto. He experimented with the effects of thoughts on water. Labeling vials of water with words such as ‘Gratitude’, ‘I love you’, or conversely ‘I hate you’, ‘you make me sick’, he then took microscopic photographs of the water before and after freezing the water, and observed the shapes that occurred. Negative thoughts, or violent music, tended to create ugly misshapen blobs, whereas, water which had been exposed to positive words, feelings, music, or blessed by monks, formed incredible symmetrical crystalline shapes, like snowflakes.
If you are skeptical about all this, I would suggest reading it yourself, or watching the documentary ‘Water – The Great Mystery’, which includes Emotos’ work. It is suggested in these documentaries that water, amongst all the elements seem especially able to hold the vibrations it has been exposed to. Of course our bodies are made of 70 to 90% water, as are many fruits and vegetables in their natural forms. So, as we move around in our daily life, our vibrations are shaping the water in our bodies and affecting the food we prepare and eat.
From the age of 17, when I started practicing Raja Yoga Meditation I was taught the importance of the energy frequencies in food. The vibrations in food were considered to be a great influence on our consciousness and a lot of measures were put in place to help maintain a high level of pure vibrations in the food. These included, eating food cooked only by yogis of a certain level, eating food prepared in a clean, quiet kitchen, the kitchen was considered a sacred place; a portion of the main meal was also offered to the Divine in a small simple ceremony meal before anyone would eat it.
Some of the experiments done with the water, show that if a portion of a jug of water is blessed by a monk, the structure of all the water in the jug changes even if it is nowhere near the blessed portion. I’m not sure someone can explain how this works, but its implications are huge. The final thing that we all did, was before we started eating we would spend a few moments in silence. It looked like we were just staring at the food, but internally there were many things going on. Certainly sometimes my mind did wander, and I would just be admiring the food, but mostly I would try to still my mind and senses, and spread a little energy of peace around me and into the food before I ate it. Many people have the habit of blessing their food, giving thanks, or even offering it to God or a deity of some kind before they eat it.
I’ve put together a list of 10 ways you might enjoy to experiment with raising your consciousness around food and putting some extra good vibes into your food before you eat or share food with others.
1) Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Emoto concluded that Love and Gratitude were the thoughts that had the most positive effect on water. This is really the meaning of grace. You can make it long and poetic or as simple as ‘Thank You’ but really feel it from the heart to have the greatest effect.
2) Stillness
It can be quite of lot of excitement for the old brain and senses to eat a yummy meal, and therefore being silent for a few moments before eating is a good spiritual discipline, which also helps add some good vibes to the food. Don’t start to eat, until you really connect with the silence within. You can also visualize or just feel waves of silent energy coming out of your eyes into the food. Continuing to eat in silence can also help to remain calm inside whilst eating.
3) Create a food offering ritual
Create a little ceremony where you put aside a little bit of the food, in special dish, tray, container. Up to you. Make it creative, personal, meaningful, and place it on an altar, or somewhere you feel is special and offer it to the Divine, God, Universe whatever suits you. And invoke that energy to fill the food, the food, your cells, the world. Many people have their most powerful meditations in such ceremonies.
4) Say Grace
One that you make up, or one that you’ve been brought up. With. A simple prayer brings an awareness of appreciation for the gift that food is.
5) Enjoy the Food
Not only does slowing down enough to appreciate all the tastes and sensations of the food, activate the para-sympathic nervous system which aids digestion, slowing down brings more pleasure. And i don’t know about you, but pleasure is a sure fire way to energize anything 🙂
6) Where does your food come from – map a mind map about it
This may sound like a strange one, but you might like to make a mind map where you place an item of food in the centre of the map and then link all the associations with it. Especially in terms of how many people contribute to that food being in your mouth. From the farmers, to the fertilizer creators, the drivers, the petrol companies, shopkeepers, and so much more. It can give you a greater appreciation for the interconnectedness of all us and where your food comes from.
7) The inside story
Visualize your food on a microscopic level, the organs, the cells, the molecules, everything doing its incredibly complex and beautiful work perfectly. Then naturally a feeling of blessings and gratitude arises for the food and your body for all the work they are doing to provide you with this wonderful instrument of expression you are living in. These feelings also become part of the meal you are about to eat.
8) ‘I the soul feed the body’
This was a consciousness that many yogis I lived with used to practice. Many of us eat to feed the mind, not the body. We use food to entertain, or comfort, to stimulate or placate our minds. When I use the word soul, I refer to the eternal silent blissful ‘I’ beyond the ever-changing mind. If we move into spirit as we eat, instead of eating becoming an act of consuming, it actually becomes an act of giving. ‘I’ the soul have everything I need, and from a space of contentment I am simply looking after the body. I am feeding the cells what they need, not seeking happiness through consuming tastes and sensations.
9) Cook with love
I once heard a story, purported to be true, about a cancer patient in a village, maybe in China, these stories often are. The doctor of the patient gathered around all the friends and relatives of the patient and asked them who of them loved the patient the most. When the person was identified, they were requested to prepare the food for the patient’s every meal. Because of the loving vibrations in the food, the patient recovered quickly. Now whether the story is true or not, it does make sense that if vibrations are real, and we are vibrational beings, then cooking is not just about providing physical nourishment but about sharing energy. Whether you are cooking for yourself or others, I’m sure we all agree, when we cook patiently with love, the food always seem to taste and feel better.
10) Appreciate all the nutrients in your food
A friend of mine used to have a kind of vitamin bible, in German, which listed all the vitamin and mineral content of each fruit and vegetable. You can also just look up on internet on websites such as: http://www.whfoods.com where they listed bananas as containing. 25% Vitamin B6, 16% Manganese, 14% Vitamin C, 12% Potassium, 12% Fibre 10% Copper, and 10% Biotin. Plus pages of further information about its history and benefits.
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Now I’m not an expert in science and nutrient, but I used to be fascinated at her book, as it listed all the goodness and goodies contained in each food.
Mother nature is so generous, giving each and every plant unique properties which aid our well-being in some way. Even so called toxic plants, can often be prepared in specific ways for use as medicine.
Understanding more about the vitamins, minerals and gifts that each seed, fruit, plant offers us, can add to the feelings of being blessed by the creation and in awe at the interconnectedness of our bodies and the natural world around us.
I hope you enjoyed this list and want to experiement with some of these suggests. I would love to hear from you if have any other methods or experiences around this topic.
