The Spiritual Body: Our Connection to Food

This blog is a part of a 4-blog series about the body.
The first blog is about Body Image and Self Esteem
This blog is about the spiritual body;
The third blog will be about the dreaming body;
The last blog will be about the body of poetry.

For me, the spiritual body is the way we relate to mother Earth. The way we feed our bodies. The way we understand plants and trees. The way we relate to the cycles of nature.

So this blog is not about chakra’s or about the soma psuchikon (the animal body which is sown in corruption and dishonour) as Paul describes it in the bible. It is about our relationship with mother Earth. Honouring our bodies as representatives of Mother earth.

 

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If you are like me, you will not ever have perceived your body as representing mother Earth. We know all too well, the humiliation we have felt about our bodies since we have been young. Too big, too small, too fat, to tiny, when we look in the mirror we immediately see what is wrong. When we see a picture taken of us we think: OMGH, is THAT the way I look? I almost always feel so much prettier than I look on pictures…

With this blog I hope to show you how a simple girl like me, not very pretty with weird eyes that are too far apart, a funny turned up nose and freckles started to accept her body. But let’s first explore the origin of the repulsion of our own body: the Mother Wound.

Spiritual Body and the Mother Wound

Food and the spiritual body are interrelated. We learn at a very young age that we can ease pain, cold and loneliness with food.

My own struggle with food began when I was undiagnosed with type one diabetic disorder. I had no insulin, so my body could not process food. I began to become very skinny.

My parents did not notice that. When you see someone everyday that is getting bigger or smaller, at first you don’t notice that.

But I ate chocolate like a mad-woman. I stole chocolate from my parents and ate it all. They were mad as hell with me. From that moment on,in my parent’s eyes I had a complete lack of character. That was very painful for me.

Eating chocolate gave me into a feeling of bliss. The world was kind and good when I had eaten a bar of chocolate.

What has this got to do with the mother wound you ask? Mothers sooth their child with food. You get a desert when you finish up the meal on your plate.

From the days that we are a child, food is associated with comfort. So you can imagine how I have an unhealthy relationship with food (especially chocolate).

And who is responsible for your meals? Yes your mother. She gives you food, she decides if you get that desert, or the candy.

And I dare to bet with you that about 55-60 percent of our mothers struggled with their own weight.

Spiritual Body and Food

In 2010 I started to educate myself again. I had been a stay at home mother for five years and I wanted to begin my own practice. Advising people about healthy food and supplements.

I graduated with honours. But I could not get any customers. Well, i had to become a member of an official institute for my potential customers to get their consults repaid by insurance. And that official institute charged a lot of money.

And after a client was gone I had to get into the whole process of finding new ones. The same thing that has happened to me in this company Mindfunda. The chase, the hunt for customers is not something I am good at.

Let’s get back to the subject of this blog: mother Earth and Food. In my education I found out that you are the stuff that you eat.

Garbage in – Garbage Out. It is not only psychological, it is also physical.

I have written a good blog about how Tryptophan regulates sleep. But bottom line: if you eat natural things your body becomes more healthy.

So I tried, honestly, to get my daily magnesium so I could skip the chocolate.
NOWAY! My body would not let that happen.

When I was approaching my fifties, I began to gain weight. I always had eaten a lot of cheese and chocolate, but now I could clearly see how that was affecting my belly.

I got all depressed because when sitting down my belly was hanging on my legs. I did not feel attractive at all.

I had to adjust to a whole new body image. My clothing style changed too. I used to wear cute dresses. Now I wore the uniform of ladies all over the world. The Jeans-Shirt uniform.

Spiritual Body and Clothes

I was so happy when I got money from my parents to buy my own clothes. Up till than, being the younger one in a big family of 7, my clothes had been wear me downs from older sisters.

It was the time when Madonna was emerging as an artist. She was showing off her boobs, shaking her ass and everybody, even the feminist movement thought she was strong.

I tied a ribbon in my hair, curled it, and I bought a long skirt with buttons and unbuttoned the last ones so my legs would elegantly be shown at each step. I felt reborn.

At my school they felt differently. Someone anonymous wrote some very offensive remarks in my school agenda.

My parents were offended too. “You should not wear make up” my father said. But I loved (and still love) to put on make up. It’s my creation time. I can understand why there are so many transvestites.

Anyway, the story about how I became aware of how male sexuality is tied to womanhood you can read in my first blog.

 

Spiritual Body and Friends

When I was writing this blog in my mind (Mindfunda is the blog by walking around: as soon as I think of a subject I take a walk and start to compose sentences and subjects) I could only think of times I got really hurt and disappointed in friendships.

How has friendship influenced the relationship with your body?

I always had very attractive ladies as best friends. Because I refuse to compete about men. (why on earth would I be even slightly interested in a man who has the hots for one of my friends?)

But it was inevitable that I would compare my body with theirs. And all spiritual schools say that comparison makes you sad.

But let me give you a tip. there is nothing more rewarding than spoiling your weight by drinking and eating and laughing with your friends.

I am glad you made it all the way down this blog! Share it if you have liked it and I hope you will leave a comment.

I like nothing better than to give away valuable information to make your life better. Here are two books to choose from: 10 tips to remember more dreams and a report on Mutual Dreaming