Consciousness

A Key Element

4 reasons why nourishing your consciousness are vital on your journey to better health and happiness.

#1 Compliance

One of the biggest drawbacks we face when undertaking any nutritional/lifestyle program in an attempt to make a positive change in our lives is compliance. Here are just a few examples:

• Not enough time to learn, cook, exercise, or meditate.

• Changing the way we eat can be difficult especially if we have blood sugar issues or cravings causing you to deviate or suffer with hunger.

• Your diet is different then that of the rest of your family.

• Your job requires you to entertain clients often.

• Food selections and recipes are plain and boring.

• Emotional eating

Overcoming obstacles is possible… They are just part of the process and I do have effective ways of addressing most of them. One of the most powerful ways, if not what should be the seed, is to consistently cultivate your mind, making that a staple in your process. If your mind is aware and in consistent tune with the reasons you are undertaking the transformation of your health and life, it makes the likelihood of an undeviating and constantly evolving lifestyle change absolutely attainable. Your heart and mind may be in the right place when you begin but it is the human condition to forget or get distracted along the way so it is important to find proactive ways to do that on a daily basis. Nourishing your consciousness will keep you focused and ensure success!

#2 Digestion

It is well known that some of the serious heath issues we face today are from stress. Aside from the stress, we put our bodies through improper nutrition, environmental toxins and emotional and mental stress. Some examples are work, family, relationships, finances, etc...  It is an accumulation of different stressors. You get the picture.

There is portion of the nervous system that controls the visceral (the more deeper and internal parts) functions of the body called the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system is controlled mainly by centers located in the spinal cord, brain stem, and hypothalamus (which coordinates both the autonomic nervous system and the activity of the pituitary, controlling body temperature, thirst, hunger, other homeostatic systems, and involved in sleep and emotional activity). There are two divisions of the autonomic nervous system that are responsible for regulating the body's unconscious actions, the parasympathetic system is responsible for activities that occur when the body is at rest commonly known as “rest and digest”. The sympathetic system responsible for stimulating activities is known as “fight or flight” In sympathetic mode we are having a stress response that shuts digestion down in order to deal with something it perceives as an emergency, life or death. To our central nervous system stress is stress. It does not know the difference between getting chased by a tiger or breaking up with your boyfriend. The anxieties, fears and stress of daily life is stimulating enough to keep your sympathetic nervous system in the drivers seat. To put it simply and make my point… Digestion starts in the brain while in parasympathetic mode. Breathing slowly, allowing yourself to relax, being stress-free and “mindful” during the act of eating is absolutely necessary to properly digest your food.

Nourishing your consciousness allows you to create that awareness to calm and balance you when you need it.

#3 Energy and drive

Not only does stress affect digestion. It can affect other systems, i.e. cardiovascular, endocrine… etc. That being said, if its affecting your systems, it IS affecting your organs. Having your sympathetic system activated for an extended period of time prompts the body to release large amounts of stress hormones like cortisol from your adrenal glands. Chronically elevated stress levels wreaks havoc and imbalances on all other systems of  the body because in order to help you survive it has to take priority and borrows nutrients from your other systems of the body to help it pump out the hormones necessary to keep it fighting. This depletes your organs, throws your body off and causes other health problems,  for example (just to name "one"),  Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome which symptoms include:

insomnia, chronic fatigue, joint pain, exercise intolerance, brain fog, sugar intolerance, diabetes, dry skin, feelings of being cold, slow metabolism, inability to lose weight and more.

Adrenal fatigue is VERY common in modern society because of our stressful, fast paced, demanding lives and because it is so closely tied to blood sugar it can most definitely be addressed nutritionally but you can’t rule out outside mental and emotional stressors as part of the healing approach because as I mentioned before, it can be an accumulation of stressors. Nourishing your consciousness will aid in the process of removing stress and regaining the energy and drive you need to lead a more fulfilling and optimal life.

#4 To find real inner happiness

Whatever your goal, be it healing, weight loss, aesthetic fitness, etc...  if your sole focus is meant for happiness through physical gain you will limit yourself.  For example, you could do all it takes to look your best cause it makes you feel good and I would never argue with that. I too enjoy looking my best and frankly I struggle with getting older sometimes, In fact I’m not jumping off the wanting to be in shape and look good train anytime soon, however, if I didn’t have all those outside or physical things to depend on to make me feel good then what would I “really” have.  At the end of the day I do believe real fulfillment comes from more than that. I’m not saying feeling free of health issues isn’t a blessing. It is. I’m not saying not to have goals or strive to be better, yes! Always! All I’m saying is that real inner happiness does not stem from anything outside of you so building real inner happiness will always be the key to your success because from real inner happiness anything is possible and your quality of life is ALWAYS guaranteed. This starts with consciousness. Learning and proactively doing things that help you evolve and cultivate that part of yourself is essential. Are you obligated to do it? Nope. Does it make a difference? Big time! Will you not be able to attain critical changes without it? Not necessarily but why limit yourself to superficial changes if you can do so much more? If you are not open to it, it dosen't have to be part of your program but if you are I believe the process and the end result could only be more effective.

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There are more reasons than these by far....

So how do we nourish our consciousness outside of nutrition? There are effective ways to do this. One main way is meditation, my favorite! With continued practice it starts to spill into other areas of your life as an added benefit. Cultivating your mind varies from person to person but there is a way that is right for you. I address this because my goal and vision is to help people nourish “the whole”, therefore I believe the mind is a necessary component.