Hello again 🙂
I have been involved in the health and wellness arena for about 10 years now, and I can tell you that I have heard pretty much all the theories that exist concerning what the 'right' way to eat is.
I have found that navigating the waters of healthful eating about as much fun - and as helpful - as trying to stop your hole-y canoe from sinking by trying to scoop the water out with a bucket - rather than just filling the hole.
I firmly believe that tuning into your own body, your own mind, and your own heart will provide you with the exact answers you need to fully nourish your body. I also believe that this will help you to nourish your mind and your spirit. There is really no separation between the layers that are you - so a lifestyle that suits one will suit them all.
The world of yoga offers us some amazing tools for tuning in and assessing what is right for us. I have used the teachings in the Yoga Sutras to help me find my happy place with food - and I feel that you may benefit from its teachings as well.
When we consider the yoga of eating, most people will turn to the Yamas in the 8 libs of hatha yoga - as written by Pantajali in the Yoga Sutras. When read the Sutras we discover the concept of Ahimsa - or non harming. It is taught that we are to be non-violent beings, causing the least amount of harm and suffering as yogi's and yoginis. From the concept of Ahimsa it is very often extrapolated that as a yogi or yogini you should adopt a vegetarian diet in order to align with the principle of not causing harm to other beings.
The New Ahimsa
As yoga has become more and more popular in the West, we are seeing that people are taking the concept of Ahimsa and re-interpreting it a little. We see people who are choosing to continue consuming animal products as a way of not causing harm to themselves. They are mindful about the meat that they consume, and do so in a way that causes the least amount of harm overall, considering their own biology as a part of the picture.
I believe that in both cases the practitioner is doing their best to avoid harming another life, and I feel that needs to be acknowledged and honoured. We do know that we are all at different places in our lives, in different states of health, and inhabiting different biology, so we cannot say that there is a one size fits all diet.
What Does Ahimsa Look Like For You?
So how is one to decide what the yogic diet - or a non-harming diet should look like for them? I feel that adopting a way of eating because one feels as though they "should" is not the root of what Pantanjali was trying to teach us through his words. Looking to the sutras as a guide for how to live ones life is wonderful, but a degree of genuinely wanting to do something is absolutely necessary for long term success. This is what changes the act of eating something because you feel that you "should" or that this is the way it has to be into a genuine heart felt expression of Self.
Turning In For The Answers
Turing from doing something that was taught to you towards doing something out of the call of your inner Self is a powerful change. It is not to say the changing the way that you eat in order to align with the teachings of the Sutras is wrong, it is actually fantastic. Making a shift in your eating due to a desire for a higher connection with your body, with the other living beings that inhabit our earth and with the Divine is nothing short of beautiful. You will undoubtedly learn many valuable things about yourself and this world through this action.
You may also find that sometimes the path to truly feeling something is through acting it out first. For me, it is when the decision to eat in a certain way comes from a stirring in the heart that it becomes the least harmful act. I believe that nothing that comes from the heart can be harmful. So next time you are wondering which is the "right" way to eat, sit with your heart for a moment. What feels truly genuine and authentic to you? How can you best express yourself through your eating?
Self Love Is They One And Only Key
I personally choose not to consume any animal foods, and for me this causes the least harm to me and to the planet. I must also tell you that this way of eating more or less found me - rather than my finding it.
I was on a path of self destruction before I found yoga, before I found its teachings, and before I found a plant based diet. I continued on my path of self destruction for a time after I discovered these things as well.
It was not until I knit together the concepts of self love, with the concepts of diet, nourishment and self care that I finally found my happy place.
It is possible to turn teachings of love and compassion into another excuse or reason to inflict pain and suffering upon yourself. This is what I believe is the true secret. If you are eating or doing any other behaviours in your life from the vantage point that you are not good enough as you are, and that there is something that must be changed or manipulated to make you worthy then you will continually struggle.
Your authentic diet must be birthed from a place of self love.
It must be birthed from the KNOWING that you are perfect, wonderful, deserving, beautiful, and everything you will ever need to be. Self love is the key. Period. Bar none. It is the answer.
Seek within to see if you are trying to align with some way of eating, with a certain weight, a certain image, a certain outward or inward picture because you feel that at your core you are not good enough without living up to that thing. If this is the case, I would suggest that changing your diet is not what you need. Changing how you feel about yourself is your first step.
Remember that there is no one way, there are several paths all leading to the same place. Find your authentic heart based relationship with food and watch it transform your life.
