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Think for a moment of a food from your past... one that makes you feel great for seemingly no good reason. Maybe it's mac and cheese, slow-simmered tomato sauce, or potato pancakes. Food like this, even though your rational brain may not consider nutritious, can be incredibly healing at times.
Food has the power to impact us on a level much deeper than just our physical wellbeing. What we eat can reconnect us to precious memories, like childhood friends, first dates, holidays, our grandmother's cooking or our country of ancestry.
Our body remembers food from our past on an emotional as well as cellular level. Eating this food connects us to our roots and has nurturing effects that go far beyond the food's biochemical make-up. Acknowledging what different foods mean to us is an important part of cultivating a good relationship with food.
This month as we celebrate love and relationships, it's important to remember that we also have a relationship with food, and that this relationship is often far from loving. We restrict food, attempting to control our weight. We abuse food, substituting it for emotional needs. We ignore food, swallowing it before we've even tasted it.
What would your life be like if you treated food and your body like you would treat your beloved... with gentleness, playfulness, honesty, respect, love and communication?
The next time you're eating your "soul" food, try to do so with awareness, without guilt, and enjoy all the healing and nourishment it brings to you.
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