A few days ago, I happened to read an Internet article authored by a well-known expert on nutrition in his well-circulated newsletter that made the assertion that fructose – or the kind of sugar contained in fruit - is “bad” for you. Unfortunately, just a few paragraphs later, the very same article by the very same "expert" recommended the consumption of high quantities of berries for their antioxidant qualities.
Just this afternoon, I was sipping tea in
Passiflora when I happened to overhear a lady asking the owner, an ayurvedic consultant, for advice about what she should be eating. Unfortunately, this customer had an excuse why every suggestion Karen - the owner - made was wrong for her. “I have to do everything the opposite of what I’m told to do,” she announced. Clearly, this was an individual suffering from, among other things, authority-overload.
One of the most important aspects of the Angel Way Guidelines is the Angels’ insistence that for adults without serious physical, emotional or financial challenges, the power to decide where, what, when and how to eat is theirs alone. However, as simple and as self-evident as this may sound, our choices about food are often a complex mix of our body’s needs, our minds’ beliefs, our emotions and our spiritual cravings…not to mention environmental and cultural influences!
Sorting through all this is not easy.
We are not generally encouraged to turn inward to seek information about ourselves. From a very early age, we are taught that the authority to make decisions about what's best for us lies outside of us somewhere: in our parents, in a Diety that stands apart from His creation, in documents written hundreds or thousands of years ago, or in the pronouncements, conclusions, hypotheses, and theories only a small number of very highly educated scientists can understand. For most of us, this sets us on a life-long course of relying on someone else to tell us what we "should" or "should not" do - or, in this case, eat.
This is not to say there's anything "wrong" with seeking knowledge outside of one's self. When it comes to you as a unique manifestation of the Divine, it is not a complete approach. Nor does it always reinforce or nurture the understanding that the ultimate authority on you - is YOU.
The Angels assure us that the Answers are as much within as without, that we are all manifestations of the Divine and we are all connected, almost like a great internet. As more and more human beings awaken and embrace their sixth senses, as well as experience their connectedness to Source and to each other, it feel more and more natural to seek the answers within. However, it took me some major readjustments in my thinking to be able to do that. The Angel Way Guidelines are meant to help all of us develop more confidence in trusting this innate wisdom.
Physical and emotional conditions can affect the choices we need to make in order to truly show ourselves how much we love ourselves. This is why it is important to understand that the Angel Way Guidelines are meant to serve as a framework upon which to build your unique and ideal food plan.
As you proceed with Eating… the Angel Way, keep the following in mind: Your body provides you with a great deal of information about what nourishment it needs. According to
Donna Eden and
Michael Feinstein, in their book
Energy Medicine, “Your body will cause you to crave the nutrients it needs, when it needs them.” The key for so many of us is learning how to trust and correctly interpret the body’s signals so that we can respond appropriately.
The Angels understand that none of us set out to become unhealthy. None of us intend to make less than optimal food choices. Most of us, however, become confused when the outside authorities contradict not only themselves but sometimes their own information, AND when the source to the ultimate authority on you – YOU – is cut off. No wonder we don’t know what to eat.
The Angels never told me what I was “supposed” to eat. The Angels encouraged me to discover what it was I WANTED to eat. No one was more surprised than I to discover that what I really WANT to eat is very fresh, very organic, very local and mostly very good for me.
When I tell people that eight or nine times out of ten, I make the choice to eat the healthiest food possible, because I want to, not because anyone has ever told me I have to, many look at me in disbelief. “I could never trust myself like that,” they say.
I didn't think I could, either.
It has taken me years of patient practise to come to the point where I know I can "trust" myself like this. It is not a place of denial, and it is not a place of self-doubt. It is a place of power and a place where I meet any expert on equal ground. I, as my five year old daughter once declared - when it comes to food, at least - am the expert on ME.
This second Angel Guideline,therefore, isn't meant to be understood that we are all unique. This one says that the intuitive understanding of what’s good for us and what tastes good to us is something we all come into this body to experience. Food – from farm to table – forms a central part of our humanity. It is not intended to be the experience of deprivation, guilt and anxiety it has become for so many of us.
Thus "what you eat is up to you" is an invitation to reclaim the power inherent in accepting full and total responsibility for what you feed yourself.
Over the next two or three days, continue to keep track of what you eat. If you choose, consider adopting one of the other guidelines into your diet. You might choose to “eat like a baby,” – ie every two - three hours. You might choose to “eat a complete protein at every meal.” Try whichever one feels most natural and easiest to you, and don’t worry about doing anything “right.”
