NOURISHING OURSELVES
Do you feel well-nourished? Balanced, supported, and peaceful? Do you have the energy throughout the day to fulfill your responsibilities, connect with loved ones, and care for yourself?
We consume, the Buddha says, four different sources of nutrients: every day, we draw energy from volition/desire, consciousness, sensory impressions, and edible food. We consume every moment, so we *should* feel nourished, right?
In a world as challenging as ours, it's not surprising that we feel depleted or bloated rather than nourished and balanced. Some of what we consume can be shifted easily toward cultivating happiness, and some of what we take in every day will take concerted, collective effort to shift from oppressive and harmful to nourishing and loving.
As engaged humans, we're here for all of it. We have agency. Here's a nudge to use it:
THE FOUR NUTRIENTS
Actively creating the circumstances to nourish ourselves with truth, peace, connection, and vitality starts with awareness.
The first nutrient, volition, comes from desire to create movement and engagement in life. Volition ignites vitality, which is good, but we need to get very real about the roots of our desires. Ego-feeding pleasure-seeking desires can be dangerous, of course, if they can cause harm or keep us distracted from truth. Is your desire, for example, to keep a roof over your head rooted in ego (comparison), fear (exclusion), or love (a peaceful refuge)? Getting to know our own patterns of desire + daily activity can reveal places in our life where we are nourishing the opposite kind of energy that we want.
Changes in perspective can be simple, and can create new patterns that nourish your own peace and happiness. "What would this feel like if it came from a place of love?" is a good place to start.
The second nutrient comes from collective consciousness. You know that feeling when you walk into a room that is filled with anger, resentment, or disrespect? Your body, heart, and mind take that energy in, and as we consume that energy, it becomes a part of us. In a world of injustices, we often come together in our collective rage. Understandable, but is rage what we want to consume? (because let's be honest, that's what we're walking into). Will rage work to create the shift we want? (full disclosure: this is a tough one for me!)
Being mindful of both what we consume and what we contribute to the collective energy looks something like this: 1) processing our anger before showing up in community so that we can step in with compassion; 2) standing up for, rather than fighting against something; and 3) co-creating communities that support and nourish the loving, healing energy within us. This last one is really important - we need to take care of ourselves as we keep showing up for change (activists, healers, and caregivers, I'm looking at you).
The third nutrient comes from sensory impression: the movies we watch, the sounds of voices and cars and guns around us... all of this becomes part of us as we consume through the senses. Just reading that last sentence probably produced a mental list of "consumables" that you question, right? Pause here, and remember your agency. Will you continue to consume that which feeds the doubts, fears, violence, and disconnect that you already feel within yourself? Or will you start to create new patterns of sensory consumption? (sunsets are a nice place to start!)
Consider this message an invitation to bring mindful awareness to how your body, heart, and mind feel in response to what your senses take in throughout the day. Change what you can, then focus your self-care on restoring and nourishing your peace and happiness if you can't change everything at once (get on your mat/meditation cushion, replenish your energy in nature, take some time away on retreat!).
The fourth nutrient is the edible food that we consume. The equation is straight-forward: consume only that which nourishes and brings peace to your body. Of course, for many of us, the resources to live that out are simply not available because of unequal access. Then there are the patterns... Start where you are with the resources you have.
Learn about where your food comes from to inform your choices, and because active disruption is always encouraged here: 1) take it a step further by growing some of your own food in the space that you have; and/or 2) support the agricultural workers in your area in any way that you can; and/or 3) talk to someone about your own food consumption patterns that are harming you.
We CAN shift our patterns towards healing and happiness. Do the small things, do the big things. Keep nourishing yourself and the world with mindful agency and love.
© 2022 Jennifer Winther Yoga
