True health is more than a label
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True health is more than a label
Health has become the new buzz word of food marketing and it is common to see an extensive range of so-called ‘healthy’ food products flooding the shelves. As our awareness of the importance of health and wellbeing has increased, so too has our demand for products and services that meet the picture we have about what it means to be ‘healthy’.
This raises the question: do we really understand what ‘health’ truly means, or are we just trying to mould our life to fit yet another picture society expects us to be?
Let’s take a moment to remind ourselves what true health and wellbeing actually is. It starts first with our bodies, and the fact that they need lots of love and deep care all the time. In a body that is nurtured, cared for and loved, we are able to flourish and make the most of what life offers each of us each and every day. Left to itself, our body knows how to take care of itself, revealing the fact that inside us we each do know what truly is healthy and supportive for us. Could this be a clue to what true health and wellbeing actually is?
I am sure we have all seen the numerous terms used to sell products these days: low fat this, low sugar/ low salt that, rich in fibre this, rich in protein or omega 3 that. This is all great to be aware of, but does this mean if I eat a diet purely based on foods I have purchased that are apparently low in fat, high in protein or a particular vitamin, that I am now supporting and nurturing my body with what it needs? Well, no, not necessarily.
The truth is we have been told from the world outside us that having lots of fat, sugar and salt is not that good for our health and, keeping our intake of this to a minimum is ‘best for us’. Whilst this might be true to a degree, keep well in mind that this same source was telling us not that long ago that consuming sugar is not that harmful at all and that fat was the element to watch out for. Slowly we have picked up that sugar is not that great either, but it has taken time for us to re-realise a truth our body already knew from the start.
I know for myself that this reduced perception of healthy eating can engender a type of ignorant justification as to why I can eat a certain food. If my favourite chocolate bar is apparently low in fat and has less salt or is gluten and dairy free, I feel great, as I know I can still eat something I know – if I am truly honest – is not that great for my body to be consuming. I can be convinced that eating it is not going to impact my health or my wellbeing as much as it would have if it had not ticked all those ‘healthy’ tick boxes.
Despite appearing to offer a level of ‘goodness’ for our body, many of the so-called ‘healthy’ foods on the market are often loaded with sugars, sweeteners and chemicals that do not necessarily support or nurture our body or our being at all. The ‘health’ labels, whilst they sound great, obscure the true quality of the product they market and can make them look better for us than they are.
It pays to be deeply honest about what our own perception of health and wellness has been modelled to be. Is what we are consuming or offering ourselves truly loving and supportive of our body and being?
Our body does not adhere to a belief or ideal about what is healthy for it or not, for it has to work with the consequences of our choices, so it only knows what is true or not for us to consume. It is our mind that is caught in the world of ideals and beliefs, and hence our mind working in absence of the body that causes these untruths about health to be a common reality.
“In our mind, we can do anything – albeit at the expense of the body that hasn’t been asked whether it can or cannot do it in relation to the love it is impulsed to look after you with.
Serge Benhayon Esoteric Teachings & Revelations Volume I, ed 1, p 606
Mind driven ideals and goals all lead to illness and disease.”
What if, for example, on a particular day our body needed more of a particular vegetable like broccoli and less of another sort of vegetable like pumpkin. However, if we have a perception that pumpkin is better for us because of whatever idealised reason we have subscribed to, and hence choose to eat it instead, we are eating something we do not truly need in that moment, even though we think it was ‘good’ to eat it.
No one in truth can tell you what your body needs to consume, or what it does not need to consume, unless they themselves have a deep understanding and loving relationship with their own body.
Reconnecting with ourself and our body, and learning to live by the natural and innate impulses and rhythms within, is a worthwhile choice to make. It is not only deeply enriching and self-empowering to do so, it is also very simple and is a step towards a livingness of true health and wellbeing.
Filed under
Health, Healthy diet, Well-being
