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In this post I’ll take you down the way of nourishment, health and interconnectivity – as I presently understand them – using five core ideas.

We begin with our old friend the nutritional pyramid. By now most of us are familiar with its shortcomings (no spirulina or Guinness), its bleating about 5-portions-of-fruit-and-veg-per-day and its joyless triangular appearance. During my 2014 trip to New Zealand I saw an official government version which, between bellyfuls of cartoon bread and corned beef, earnestly advocated TWO SERVINGS OF ICE-CREAM per day.

With our new pyramid, you can have as many servings of ice-cream as appropriate. That is because the first level, the fecund soil from which all may arise is…. Awareness.

LEVEL 1 – AWARENESS – THE KEY TO BEING EVERYTHING YOU ARE WITHOUT TRYING

Our intelligence is not limited to the cognitive faculties of the pre-frontal cortex – the thinking, rational rolls of neurons calculating furiously behind foreheads everywhere. The entire body – and through a holographic understanding, the entire universe – is available to us for better decision-making, better love-making, better bread-baking and, well, pretty much better-everything.

Let me be clear that while adopting and exploring various dietary advice or nutritional practices can certainly be of use, allowing the body’s native cellular intelligence to awaken is of exceptional importance and usefulness.

To put it another way, eating beetroot and fish for breakfast because you read it on the internet is of limited value. To eat beetroot and fish for breakfast because YOUR WHOLE BODY AND MIND ARE CALLING GENTLY YET INSISTENTLY FOR BEETROOT AND FISH AND YOU ARE LISTENING is a superior and more harmonious navigation through the daily tides.

Anything can be done with awareness, yet it can also be specifically trained (or relaxed into) through various practices such as meditation, breathwork and prayer.

 LEVEL  2 – ACTIVITY – STOPPED WATER BECOMES STAGNANT and UNICORN KIDNEYS

Dear Human Nourishment, I eat all the right foods, read constantly about nutrition from people on the internet and keep informed on the microwaves-cause-cancer-or-do-they debate – yet I feel dull and sluggish and my dance moves lack sparkle. What gives?

I don’t get letters, but if I did this is probably what most of them would say. What gives, dear friend, is that you are not moving your energy. Your cells are starved of oxygen.

Your physical form is largely comprised of water (see level 3 below!), and water needs to MOVE. Stopped water becomes stagnant, allowing disease to arise across the whole spectrum of experience.

The simple fact is that you can eat cracked-cell chlorella and spear-hunted unicorn kidneys all day long but if your body cannot digest and assimilate them you are wasting your time, health and spears.

Appropriate activity is essential to maintaining gut health, which is essential to every other kind of health.

Some suggestions:

• Move your body to about 70% of its capacity 5 days a week.
• There are many non-gym/sport activities which still confer great benefit, such as climbing hills and gardening. Give them a try.
• Find your own balance between relaxed effort and the edge of growth (requires awareness, see level 1 above)
• Learn to breathe properly – feeling belly, diaphragm and lungs – then take a deep breath and release (let go) on the exhale. Repeat 30-40 times.
• Swim in a chilly lake. Very alkalizing, increases metabolism. You may even get to dance with a swan. Which brings us to Pyramid Level 3…

 

LEVEL  3 – WATER – VERY GOOD FOR YOU AND WIDELY AVAILABLE

I love water. I give thanks every morning for its lovely, cleansing presence in my life. I spent an entire year drinking only water that had been blessed, praised, imbued with intention and then left overnight in a jar on the grass under the moon. Now, you don’t have to go that far (you could go further) but you might begin to recognize the potency and usefulness of this most awesome substance.

Again, you will need to find your own balance point here. Get the best water you can and start with a litre or two a day – particularly in the morning. If you’re eating a ton of vegetables, soups and fruits, you may need much less, while extreme desert sports and chugging espressos all night may increase requirements.

A tiny pinch of Himalayan or unrefined (grey) sea salt is a nourishing addition for many people. Add some lemon juice if the only water you have access to is chlorinated.* 

*don’t let the only water you have access to be chlorinated. Industrial chlorine is definitely not something you (or I) want in your body (see here, here and here)

 

LEVEL 4 – FOOD – NO WORDS ARE AS USEFUL OR AS OVEREATEN

Chewed and consumed with awareness, correct food nourishes, build, repairs and energizes. It maintains harmony with one’s environment and lifestyle, connects us to nature and biology and provides immense sensual satisfaction and cellular pleasure. It provides us with strength, clarity, energy, focus and drive.

Food can heal or harm, aid or hinder recovery, supply or deplete power – indeed, in the western world, I believe that excessive consumption is the primary source of illness.

I will offer here Michael Pollan’s guiding principle:

Eat [whole] Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.

A ‘whole food’ has many definitions, one of which is that it has not been processed. Organic Potatoes are a whole food. Instant potato powder is not. Bananas are a whole food. Banana-flavoured yoghurt with corn syrup is not. A mackerel, tiger-striped and fresh from the ocean, is a whole food. Fish fingers are not.

Yet in another way, all is divine! Using rules only if they serve us.

There are infinite intricacies here – hence the preferable ease of operating from a synergy of awareness and information – but the beauty of health is that balancing any aspect of it will have knock-on effects on the rest. For example, if you maintain correct activity, your awareness will clarify. If you eat primarily whole foods (not too much), the energy available for movement will increase. Appropriate activity and good food will create the perfect conditions for our next subject…

 

LEVEL 5 – SLEEP – STOP MOVING & BALANCE THOSE HORMONES

Sleep – as with all the ideas presented here – merits a far deeper exploration than I give it in these pages. Aside from being the time when testosterone is produced, a vast array of essential chemical, hormonal and cellular interactions occur only during the hours of shut-eye.

The liver and kidneys do most of their cleansing work during the night. You know those eye-bags which appear after a night’s non-sleep? Yup, that is one location where your overloaded, unswept body shunts toxins to keep them away from more vital stuff, like the heart and brain.

Experiments for Deeper Sleep:

• Sleep in total darkness. Try an eye mask if light pollution encroaches
• Last meal at least 2 hours before dreamtime
• Sleep naked in a cool but not cold environment
• Use a firm mattress or sleep on the floor
• No screens (laptop, phone…) in the last hour of wakefulness. If you must, use a blue-light filter
• Train hard during the day – sports, strength work, yoga, walking – whatever makes your soul sing
• Try a siesta now and then

 

In Summary:

Our new, (playfully) nutritious pyramid begins with AWARENESS, adds a layer of ACTIVITY, dissolves in WATER, strengthens with FOOD and rests in SLEEP.

Enjoy!