Receiving In The Sweetness Of Life

 Holistic Healing Expert: Carol Lee

A lot of my work is about how sugar and sweetness hijack our brains and catapult our bodies towards chronic ill health.

I love empowering people to change how they eat, to find the hidden sugar in food, and choose natural sweetness instead.

The Sweetness Of Nourishing:

In my individual work, I talk in a deeper way about sweetness; the sweetness of nourishing ourselves and practicing self-care. What I have observed is that when many people crave sweet food they are often not nourishing themselves through fully receiving in the sweetness of their life.

Looking up the definition of nourishment it says something along these lines…

‘Food and other things that are needed for health and growth, what we need to grow in ourselves, to thrive’

“The gift of this season is celebrating abundance and having gratitude for the sweetness of life.”

How many of us are gifted at giving and nourishing others but are somewhat challenged at doing the same for ourselves?

If this is you and you have been worn to a frazzle over the Summer, take a step into self-care in September, the season of nourishment.

Our link with nature…

In traditional Chinese medicine, September in the northern hemisphere is the additional fifth season of late summer and the season of the Earth element. I call this time of year apple and blackberry season, the harvest time. As a holistic philosophy, it views harvesting to be on all levels of our being; body, mind, spirit, and emotions. The gift of this season is celebrating abundance and having gratitude for the sweetness of life.

A Different Perspective On How We Give And Receive:

This energetic perspective of giving and receiving was a game-changer for me. It is so common to talk about giving from our heart, that this is the good and right thing to do. However, if we give from our heart continually without recharging this will deplete our energy and we can start to feel resentful.

Energetically speaking, the heart energy center is there to receive in love, the joy, and sweetness from life. There is nothing more nourishing than that wonder-FULL feeling of the heart swelling with satisfaction and gratitude.

Instead, if we give from our solar plexus energy center in our upper abdomen, our place of power, we are able to be more discerning and in our integrity when we give.

A Little Mantra Of Sweetness:

I have a little mantra that I use whenever I need reminding of this (which is pretty often but less than it used to be).

Hand on heart
Breathe in
I receive, I appreciate
(Connect to my heart expanding as it fills)
Hand on abdomen
Breathe out
I give, I serve
(Connect to my solar plexus area as I offer out with integrity)

When I do this I feel I’m reconnecting to the feeling of empowerment and choice around giving. Try it and see if you notice a difference.

Nourishing Ourselves With Food Is Not Simply About Nutrition:

Obviously nutrient-dense food such as healthy fats, good quality protein, vegetables, whole fruit, water but also …

• Tasty food, tickling all the five flavors; natural sweetness, saltiness, sourness, bitterness, and spicy. Together these satisfy all parts of our palate.
• Sensory eating as our senses need nourishing too; the satisfying crunch of an apple, the sweetness of a sun-ripened peach, the smoothness of rich creamy yogurt, the chewiness of meat, the smell and sound of spices or onion sizzling.
• Sharing food with those we love deepens the nourishment factor of our meal. For many during the pandemic year eating alone has felt very lonely and has emphasized our isolation.

“If we take our cue from nature and the season of harvest.”

Soul Food:

For me this includes alone time, peace and quiet, gentle exercising, stretching, rest, daydreaming and consciously doing nothing… all these nourish an aspect of me and fill me up when I am feeling depleted and exhausted.

Celebration:

If we take our cue from nature and the season of harvest, this is the season of celebration, an inner harvest festival.

Celebrating is nourishing, it means pausing and noticing what we have achieved. Then we can receive in all the goodness that has come our way as a result.

It can be so easy to forget that celebration is part of the nourishing cycle. To quickly rush on with new ideas and goals without fully digesting where you have got to and what you have achieved.

“I set aside an hour when I can really relish my achievements and receive in the fullness and blessings of them.”

Mini Ceremony:

One of my favorite ways to do this is to create a ritual or mini ceremony. I set aside an hour when I can really relish my achievements and receive in the fullness and blessings of them. Recently I did this by sketching a sunflower (I’m not an artist but I did it) and then for each petal I wrote something to celebrate. With each blessing, I paused and allowed myself to fully receive it by reflecting back on the starting point, the growth, the blossoming, and finally the harvest.

So this September let the seasonal energy support you in nourishing and celebrating your wonderful self.

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