Have you come across Yogananda’s remarkable “Autobiography of a Yogi”? It tells of his early years as a young spiritual seeker travelling through mystical India in search of his teacher, his guru. In ancient times, long before calling cards and websites, spiritual leaders had to prove their abilities to validate their standing and draw followers. They did this in various ways, but commonly by developing siddhis, or signs of spiritual attainment. Yogananda recounts many astonishing feats he witnessed, among them “the poison eating saint”. This man’s demonstration was to consume poison and broken glass and remain unharmed — that is, as the story goes, until he repeated his siddhi on a day when his mind was agitated, and he died on the spot.
In my experience, these matters sit on a spectrum, as most things do. Some people genuinely have strong minds and strong constitutions and can cope with a wider range and quality of foods. Still, being able to eat any old rubbish and remain unaffected is a high level of accomplishment — especially over the long term.
For most of us mere mortals, what we eat dramatically affects our health and our capacity to heal. Poor eating is linked to six of the ten major causes of death, as well as to MS and rheumatoid arthritis. Eating well supports long-term good health and gives powerful assistance to recovery from illness.
So the challenge with food comes in two parts. How do you know for sure what is good for you, and how do you enjoy eating it so that you keep on eating it?!
Simple. You need sound information and the right state of mind.
It all begins with the mind. Our mind decides which food to buy, how to store and prepare it, how much to eat, and the state of mind we are in when we eat it.
So how do we put the mind to good use? First we use our mind and our wits to gather sound information; then we train the mind to serve us — to follow through on our good choices and to take the lead in deciding what we eat and how much we enjoy eating it.
Here is the kicker. Here is the real secret so many people I met in the past were not aware of, but who on learning of it changed their lives dramatically for the better. Here is the secret to enjoying what the theory says is good for us:
Whatever you do often enough, you grow used to. Nothing stays difficult once you are used to it. Anything you choose, you can set your mind to and enjoy doing. Deciding the state of mind you will do something in is not such a great accomplishment. With just a little willpower, most people can manage it.
So use your intelligence. Pick the salad — and choose to enjoy it!
Here’s to happy, enjoyable, healthy eating.
COMMENT OR A QUESTION?
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RESOURCES:
Previous Blogs:
Mind Training 2 CD set by Ian
Cancer nutritional information from Ian:
- Book: You Can Conquer Cancer
- CDs: Eating Well, Being Well, and Eating for Recovery
MS:
- Book: Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis by George Jelinek
Lifestyle-based programs and counselling for cancer, MS disease prevention and wellbeing:
This is quite a problem. It is easy to eat what I feel like and doesnt that do me good if I like it? Its not always easy to enjoy health food at least for me.
ReplyDeleteDo people really find they can just decide how they feel about enjoying things? I would like to know how to do this and what other people do.
I began a wholefood vegetarian diet [ with juicing ] after witnessing the positive effect it had for my younger brother who survived for 6 years with metastatic pancreatic cancer. He had refused chemo & radiation & suffered the usual rejection from his oncologists who gave him 4 - 8 months to survive. He did more than that.. he thrived! Rather than being the typical sickly cancer patient, he went diving, sea-kayaking, hiking, camping & back to work as a wildlife guide part time. He also was pain free until the last month of his life & even then had only two bouts of liver pain. [ due to secondary cancer ]
ReplyDeleteI have turned around a lifelong bowel disease that required frequent antibiotics & was heading me down the road to colon cancer by eating what I call " the kind diet." That is, kind to me.. kind to animal welfare & kind to the planet. I wish I had been better informed earlier in my 61 years, but we live in a culture that ignores diet as medicine. These days my wife & I plus one of our sons choose to eat mindfully. We were all once typical meat eaters, but today don't even regard meat as food, so absolute is our conversion to plant-based nutrition. Eating this way becomes a way of life, it affirms philosophic values & there is no struggle to maintain it, as it has become who we are, what we believe in. Thus in the act of eating mindfully you offer a kind of prayer for a better tomorrow.