One of my favorites is “V” for victuals. I love opportunities when I talk about nutritious and detoxifying food for the body. There is less talked about in my field in terms of nutrition. I think this is mainly because of the resistance in my profession because this would require mental health professionals to make changes to their food choices. Mental health professionals would have to want to be healthier. Here is what I mean, I know doctors who treat heart disease and cancer, and they smoke cigarettes. I know doctors who treat obesity, and they are overweight themselves. I know doctors who say one thing, doing something different in their lives. Therefore, mental health professionals who treat mental illness, depression, anxiety, and personality challenges struggle with this without getting professional help themselves. I say this not as blame or to be critical; that is not who I am. I mention this because we need to understand more about what is going on and less about judging and criticizing others. I, to fall under this category. I say, “I am perfect just the way I am, and being perfect for me means finding balance.” I am not 100% vegan; I am not 100% raw vegetables; I am working on balance without having to put all these labels on myself. Yet, in the same breath, labels are used to cluster people together and as a place to communicate an experience. So, I may indulge in a vegetarian pizza with cheese. I know that I will need to add more detoxifying foods like herbs to help the body process. I may order something, like French fries at McDonald’s, and I know this is cooked in the worse form of oil, and they use animal fat, so I may need to balance it with other foods that will break down these ingredients in my body. It is about balance. I usually stop eating for a day or two if I go this route.
I wouldn’t say I would eat meat, but this is a personal choice, but if it gets into my diet because of social or environmental situations, I’m not going to drive myself crazy. When I was sitting with some indigenous families in Australia, they offered me some Kangaroo stew. I tried it for the experience and out of respect for these families and their culture. I also followed this with a detox blend of seeds and herbs, which I usually keep accessible. I find balance, and this is what I am suggesting for you in terms of learning about the connection food has with mental health.
If you wake up in the morning and need your cup of coffee, you may choose to add sugar and creamer. If you notice your anxiety going up, there are irritations in the mind, uncontrollable thoughts, your body as the jitters, or a boost of energy followed by fatigue; you need to find some balance. Now I would not encourage more than one cup of coffee unless it’s a one-time thing. Coffee is a stimulate. Sugar provides a false sense of energy and is followed by a drop in blood sugar resulting in fatigue. So, if you have your coffee, work one cup a day, preferably in the morning. No white sugar, but you can consider some natural, less toxic sweetness. Then give yourself some protein, maybe a hard-boiled egg for some, and others may be hummus and pita, spinach salad with hemp seeds, or avocado with a dash of black salt. The protein in these items will help to balance the caffeine. After some time, start to slowly move away from the coffee and try wheatgrass with glutamine; this gives me so much energy I can do strenuous activities early in the morning, coming off a breakfast. Too many “stimulates” in your body can cause it to be overloaded, resulting in agitations in the mind and body.
What I will suggest now is not based on research I have been able to justify but on asking questions from thoughts of mothers who have children with symptoms like attention challenges and hyperactivity. Parents who drank coffee and caffeine sodas during their pregnancy daily often reported these symptoms in their children. This leads me to think more deeply about the impact coffee and other stimulates have on the infant’s developing brain. Let’s transition and discuss other options to support mental wellness. My morning routine for energy and preparing the mind-body-spirit for the day is a glass of warm water with a bit of lemon, warm herbal tea with nothing added, or wheatgrass with glutamine. So you have to ask yourself if you are moving towards mental illness that can result from being out of balance due to excessive “stimulants” needing to be digested by the brain and body, or are you moving towards mental wellness, which is finding balance with these agitations.
Coffee is not alone in substances that cause agitation, but there are these food items we prepare for breakfast. It is incredible that schools and families give children breakfast items that are so toxic to the young body that the intensity of their symptoms is increasing in terms of intensity and frequency. More children are being diagnosed with Autism, ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Dx, Conduct Disorder, and even bipolar disorder, and we are not looking at our children’s morning routines. Let’s say the parent offers a child a pop tart or stops at McDonald’s to get pancakes, sausage, and hash browns. These are like the foods provided to children at school for breakfast. There is a relationship.
These foods are toxic to the mind-body-spirit. They are filled with toxins, pesticides, stimulants, sugars, and salts the body cannot process, and kids can have food-delayed reactions—no wonder why children are struggling in school. I have sat in on hundreds of IEP (Independent Educational Plan) meetings, and the question is dismissed when I ask about nutrition. Schools will not change your breakfast items unless laws force them to. Thanks, Michelle Obama, she pushed for more vegetables and fruit options for lunch and snacks. This addressed the rising political concerns of obesity, but it must not stop here. There is a bigger danger on the rise for young people, and as a society, we should ask are moving our kids towards mental illness and not wellness.
I suggest another consideration, something I have found on my journey. Breakfast is about breaking a fast. If you have ever fasted for some time, you know the body needs foods that will help wake up the digestion, not send it right into overload. A friend told me she goes into her garden and picks her breakfast directly from the garden. Wouldn’t that be beautiful if children woke up in the morning and grabbed a hand full of spinach filled with protein, or thyme, an herb known to calm the central nervous system and good for preventing Dementia disease because of the natural lithium compounds. Yes, lithium not the toxic lithium used in extremely high doses made by the pharmaceutical industry to treat the bipolar disorder but the beneficial aspects of lithium, a mineral from the earth that soothes and calms the mind.
Let’s get the kids involved and learn to make fruit roll-ups. Purchase an organic watermelon and blend it to a water consistency. You can add a little black salt and a little lemon. Get your dehydrator sheets out and pour the liquid on the sheet. Dehydrate for a few hours, maybe at 105 degrees, flip it and dehydrate more until it can maintain a shape. Roll them up and place them in a BFA-free container, and there you got your healthy breakfast item for the kids. You can blend fruits and try other fruits alone, making fun and getting the children involved.
For adults, try 1/2 avocado and one tomato, and you can dehydrate the tomato the day before for a different taste and release some of the nutritional potentials. Cut them up in a bowl, top it with black salt, squeeze a little lemon, and add some fresh herbs and cumin seeds. You got a breakfast item satisfying all the six tastes, and your gut will be pleased. It is also alkalizing, and keep in mind to get organic; you don’t want to create this nutritious breakfast and fill it with pesticides.
I have saved the best for last, and it’s simple. When you are anxious, you know you are going into an anxiety situation. It may be work that causes you anxiety. It may be traffic, which was my issue in the past. It may be life in general or the need to remain calm during intense situations. Prepare and prepare more. Try Lemon Balm. You can start to grow it in your home. It can grow indoors and outdoors. You can purchase it at the health store in a tincture to ingest, smell, or as a rubbing agent; you can get it as an aroma, a candle, incense, or oil for a diffuser. You can also get it in pill form if that meets your need. You can add it to water, tea, or food. I use it as a seasoning. I grow it in the backyard, wash it, dehydrate it, crush it, and put it in my herb container. I add it to meals weekly to help maintain my balance. Lemon Balm is something simple, I love it, and you will enjoy it.
V is for Victual, and it is about balance and finding ways to heal the body with no side effects. Food can cause illness, maybe not immediately, and for some, it is hard to see the direct correlation because there may be some resistance involved, but it does. Food can move you towards wellness now and down the road. When you are ready to move towards wellness as part of the Octaves method, I encourage you to consult with an organic nutritionist or someone specializing in healing the mind-body-spirt through natural and integrative means.
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