DIET & LIFESTYLE MEDICINE: The Necessities of Daily Health

We are in the dark season here in the Pacific NorthWest. Days are shorter, it is colder, light is precious. In the early morning dark my mind is open to the ramblings of deeper thought. Lately and actually, continually, I have been thinking about daily diet & lifestyle medicine. It is an ongoing conversation within the expansive requests of my deeper understanding that sometimes and almost always shares most during these moments of dark. It is a gift of the dark, I believe.

Today was no different.

Today an important story was shared. Today the guidance came wrapped in a bundle of ribbons and roses tied beautifully and presented with deep care and pageantry. Today the message was not accessed through written word. Today the message was the experience.

An experience about how we live and where we rest our gaze. In words there were none but in sentiment the pages of the book of my life filled. It filled with the things that evolve between the lines. The brimming details of why daily life, the mundane details of how we live, are every bit as necessary and important as anything else we do.

It was beautiful and familiar. A conversation that has been looped through my life in various forms for as far back as I can remember. But why now and why in this way I asked?

The reply was crystal clear

It really matters.

It really matters how you frame your day. It really matters how you prepare your food. It really matters what and how your insides talk to your outsides and how your outsides talk to your insides.

It all really matters.

And

Do not forget it. Do not forget even in the busy and the fast and the hard and the mess and the outrageous. Do not forget it.

It all really matters.

In my experience as a practitioner of 30 years in the life sciences of Yoga & Ayurveda, I still think it to be a practice. I am not masterful nor have it all figured out but I know and value the simplicity of showing up. Showing up for myself over and over again in ways that vary like the seasons themeselves, it is the showing up that is the golden part of it all. Because after the newness and the intial strong shifts and gifts happens it becomes something else. Totally unglamorous and often uneventful, the practice is the place of the shift in and of itself.

The practice of rising and sleeping with regularity. The practice of tending to the physical body consistently. The practice of supporting the mind body lovingly. The practice of the practices. There are many and few. They are simple and complex. They are the absolute ground of stability totally necessary for our health, our prosperity and supporting the ever fluctuating channel of the mind.

And while it is true, treatments, herbs and tinctures, allopathic considerations and things for purchase may be a part of the sacred altar to your life, to your heart, to your existence, there is more to it. I know it as a Truth with a capital T. I know it like I know the way of the bones, the sun rising each day and the way water flows over the rocks. Every day health and every day care is not a luxury, it is a necessity to keep oneself stable, well and nourished in mind, body and spirit. If I have learned anything from Ayurveda through the years, it is this. Each and every practice, food, oil, herb or action of its kind is done for a reason that goes well beyond luxury, indulgence or privilege. Rather, offerings and sincerity around how we maintain our health on so many different levels.

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THE SACRED & Mystical PAUSE OF THRESHOLDS

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WHEN THE MYSTICAL & SCIENCE TWINE: Considering Rhythms of Nature for Good Health