what should i eat when im sick?

there's a lot of talk this winter about how to stay healthy. here's what the Angels suggest for if or when you do succumb:

what to eat when you are sick depends on what kind of illness you have. fluids, such as teas and clear broths, like chicken soup, are usually beneficial no matter what kind of bug you've got. for common colds and flus, to prevent them from becoming worse, nourish yourself with teas, juices, and chicken soup. chicken soup contains antibacterial agents that make it nature's antibiotic. additionally, teas with lemon, lemonade, and orange juice are all good for colds.

avoid heavy dairy foods - even yogurt can be too much when you are fighting a cold. a scrambled egg might be a good white-light food choice, for example. you don't want to tax your system, you want to stay hydrated and you want to ingest as many naturally derived vitamins, minerals and antioxidants as possible.

the Angels remain neutral on the use of supplements. however, for women especially, additional B vitamins - water soluble so they can't be o'd'd on... can be beneficial when you feel stressed or under assault from cold germs. sunlight is extremely important this time of year - 20 minutes between 10 and 2 with appropriate sunscreen depending on how fair you are is a good idea as often as you can.

chinese herbs such as astragulus root can be added to stews, soups, casseroles or teas. one good rule of thumb the Angels suggest we might all remember is that to strengthen the body's energetic system, strengthen the intensity of the colors you eat. cranberries, squashes, lemons, spinach and elderberries are examples of intensely colored foods in their chakra categories...and if all you ate were these five through the winter you'd be nourishing yourself quite well.

ninth guideline - eat as locally and organically as possible

The Angels understand how difficult it can be to make healthy food choices. As Karen's post so eloquently pointed out, we're a world of people on the go. As much as so many of us WANT to slow down and take time for ourselves, it's not always that easy.

However, food - like anything organic - has an energy vibration, and the higher that vibration, the more holistically nourishing that food is going to be. thus, fruits, grains and vegetables grown and harvested in a manner that respects the land, the water and the air, as well as the people who do the work, and animals who are raised humanely and slaughtered with respect for the process have a much higher vibration inherently than mass-produced, mass-engineered and mass-packaged meat and produce.

Everyone needs to decide for themselves how locally they wish to eat - here in New England as winter closes in, I'm indulging in the last of our local harvests, but I am planning on continuing to eat bananas. On the other hand, Barbara Kingsolver's book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, is an inspiring account of her family's decision to eat only locally raised foods for a year.

Whatever decisions we end up making, the Angels wish us to be mindful of the effect our choices have on the wider world around us all.

eighth guideline - eat like a baby

... nourish your Self every three hours.

babies come with remarkable sound alarm systems that let everyone know when they need to be fed. in the process of learning more socially acceptable ways to signal others when we need to eat, we lose the fundamental connection between feeling hungry and knowing its time to eat.

frequently, in our busy lives, we feel hungry but suppress the urge, because it's not "time", it's not convenient, or it's not congruent with fitting into our skinny jeans. for me, as for many women, NOT eating was more of a problem than overeating. i can literally "forget" to eat for hours.

when i finally stopped to take a look at what i was doing to myself, i realized i was treating myself in a very mean way. i was literally putting my own needs so far at the bottom of my daily list of what was important, i was forgetting them. of course i needed to eat, i realized, i had just got really good at ignoring my body's own signals.

consequently, when i asked the Angels how often i should eat, or when i should eat, They gently suggested to "eat like a baby." as They explained it, all the needs of the baby i once was still exist. feeding myself on an "infant schedule" or every three hours reminds me to take care of myself. it provides opportunities throughout the day for me to stop and do something kind, something nourishing and necessary for myself. it also helps me stay mindful, not simply of the state of my body-mind, but of those of the beings and circumstances around me.

on the other hand, for those of us for whom not knowing when to stop is an issue, eating every three hours allows for more opportunities to pay attention to the signals your body sends when it has had enough. for some people, just knowing that they "are allowed" to eat again in less than three hours helps. One friend decided she didn't need to spend more than 20 minutes eating out of every three hours. Soon she was paying attention to the kind of food she was eating in those 20 minutes. Eventually, she began to make the choice, more often than not to eat a healthier alternative. Now, she's feeling better, eating less in total volume and making much kinder, gentler choices.

The Angel Way for Moms (in a hurry!)

I've really been struggling with the balancing act these past few weeks. My girls are at two different developmental stages and my mind is persistently split in two directions.

We always seem to be on the go, even on the days that I don't plan to go anywhere or to take a trip to the library. We're eating on the road, in between activities, and I'm not enjoying, not even tasting, most of what passes my lips. I'm not use to this and I don't like it. Even when I choose healthy foods, I'm totally out of synch with the process of honoring and enjoying-- and I rarely feel satisfied by anything. (Thank heavens I can stay away from sweets with ease or I'm sure i'd have packed on the pounds). I miss the colors of summer, the fruits of the season; i am struggling to get a daily rainbow in my diet, when I was eating 3 a day! As a result, I'm gettting run down, sick and tired more often.

The other day, my three year old says to me "Mommy you need to eat more rainbows so you can have a healthy body and not be so fussy." 

So, how do we Mom's eat the Angel Way-- even in a hurry?  I'd love to hear from you and I'll be back with some ideas of my own, as well as Annie.

KMR

seventh guideline - everyone needs a little cushion

the Angels want us to understand this literally as well as figuratively. everyone needs a little cushion, in terms of resources - of all kinds.

according to the Angels, fat is not bad. fat serves important functions within the body. it helps regulate our temperature by keeping us warm, it helps provide cushioning in between our joints. the intake of fat signals our bodies that we are full. this is one reason low-fat foods can make us eat more calories.

just as with sweets, its not the fact we want to eat fatty foods that's the problem - it's the kind of fat we eat. fats like those found in olive oil, dairy products, and nuts are preferable to the artifical kind like margarine.

the Angels urge us to take the time to understand why we crave the foods we do. if you find yourself craving foods that are high in unhealthy fats, perhaps you may wish to examine if there are areas in your life where you might feel the need for a bit of "cushioning." (you can read about how food cravings can be a signal of other energetic issues or needs in the post entitled Here's An Example...)

there may be other ways to "feed" this need than with food. for example, creating a rainy day fund by putting aside every five dollar bill you get, might be one way to create another kind of "cushion" in an area where most people would like to have extra padding. or, another area where many people can feel squeezed is time - so scheduling more time between activities may be another way to create a "cushion."

as we begin to make these kinds of connections and observations about our lives, we may become more aware of why we make the choices we do about food. by becoming more aware, we can learn to make the healthier, nourishing choice more often than not.

sixth guideline - everyone needs a little sweetness in their lives

frequently we crave sweets because we crave sweetness in our lives, and the taste of sweet is the easiest way to get it. each person's individual health needs have to be taken into consideration - diabetics, for example, need to monitor their blood sugar very carefully - but very few people can or should eliminate sweets altogether. and considering that most people enjoy sweets, why should we?

another point to consider is that advertisers who want to turn "sugar" into the enemy ignore the fact that sugar is what our bodies turn all our food into, in order to use the energy from it. to constantly claim that "sugar" is bad for us runs counter to the wisdom of the body.

that said, it's important to be aware of the kinds of sweets and sugars we choose. the more natural the sweetener, such as honey or maple syrup, the better. however, even simple white cane sugar is preferable to artificial sweeteners of all kinds. your body knows what's real and what isn't.

the Angels on empaths (and brown foods, too)

Empaths are getting a lot of press lately. Lately everyone I know is claiming to be one, or know one, and one even showed up on this season's Ghost Whisperer. (I used to love that show - used to being the operative phrase.)

An empath is someone who is extraordinarily sensitive to the feelings of others AND is able to transmute those feelings into something better. you leave the presence of an empath feeling better about yourself or your life, often for some reason you can't quite name. Empaths - at least evolved ones - don't spend a lot of time being afraid of anything. The reason for this is that their natures are like deep sea sponges saturated with so much divine love and grace it spills over to everyone.


Such evolved empaths are still relatively rare. However, ALL people have the ability to develop their empathy skills - empathy, after all, is a fundamental part of our human nature. children who fail to develop empathy turn into serial killers, narcissists, and sociopaths. part of the Big Waking Up as the Angels sometimes call the process we are all going through is that more and more of us are aware of our empathic abilities.

Newly aware empaths will sometimes turn to foods - specifically brown foods* full of cushioning fats and softening sweets - to create a natural buffer between themselves and a world they feel too intensely. This is why many lightworkers, especially as they begin to develop their abilities, develop some extra cushioning. Women at menopause typically put on a few extra pounds for many reasons, and among them is that psychically, a woman is entering her most sensitive time of life.

The energy of brown foods is grounding. There are many indigenous cultures that believe that infants, until they're weaned or turn a certain age, aren't fully "human" and may not even give them names. What this reflects is that until a child eats "brown" food, his energy body is not fully anchored into his flesh.

Just as under our skins, we have a kind of spider-man suit called the fascia which holds us all together, there's a similiar layer of energy that connects the energy body into the physical body. This layer is directly nourished by brown foods energetically, so eating brown foods literally grounds us into our own flesh. (No wonder eating too many of them will make us fat faster than any other kind of food!)

Thus, all evolving empaths must learn to fill themselves not with brown foods or other people's emotions but with an awareness of the Divine Love that emanates from the spark of Spirit within all of us. When a sponge becomes saturated with clean water, it can't pick up much of anything else from anywhere else. That's how evolved empaths are meant to move in the world - as sponges, but so saturated with awareness of love that their very presence affects any negative people around them.

An evolved empath is able to shift and lift the energy all around her, and is not brought down by the presence of negative or sad or depressing people. Such a person might never ENJOY such people's company, but she is not affected personally.

Therefore, it's especially important for empathic people to pay close attention to the brown foods they eat and to eat brown foods with awareness of the kind of energy they contain. Wholesome grains and starches provide not just fuel for what we do in the world, but also energy to nourish the connection between our physical bodies and soul-bodies as well.