The following is derived from Chinmayi’ Dore’s best-selling book, BodyMAGIC! – an End to Emotional Eating Forever, available on Amazon.
How to honour the hand that feeds us
Connecting with nature applies to everyone who feels that there is something missing in their life, whether they overeat or not. For me, it has been what people call ‘finding themselves’. It is reconnecting with what is real, traditional and natural, whether that is:
the food we eat,
the water we drink,
the air we breathe,
the exercise we perform,
the sleep we have,
the medicine we take,
the healing we need,
the cleaning we do,
the beauty we seek
and eventually the work we do, where we live, the friends we choose, even how we bring up our children.
Mother Earth is far from just the planet we walk upon. Like all nurturing mothers, she uses the resources of the sun with its light and heat, with the seeds of the earth and the water from her clouds to provide our food and keep us warm. She grows trees to take away carbon dioxide so that we may breathe the oxygen we need. The forests are her lungs, the rivers are her arteries and the relentlessness of nature to provide for us is at her very heart. She gives us what we need until our bodies come to the end of their days, and then she takes us back to her bosom as dust.
Traditions all over the world have honoured her gifts as long as humans have existed. They clearly knew the importance of her workings to their lives. Of course, now we have advanced. We can build shelters to withstand all weathers, process and store food with ingredients to make it last years, push a button for heat, buy a ticket or a tank of fuel to go anywhere we please. The world has become smaller by convenience, but its natural magnificence has somehow been forgotten.
One thing that has facilitated all of this change is money. Instead of ethically gathering her resources and sharing them with the poor, the sick and the world, we want more and more. We will do anything to get the money to buy things, when all we really want is more joy. Nature holds this already and most of it is just outside our front door.
I’m not suggesting that you give up your job, your home and belongings, and go and pitch a tent in the wilderness. I’m asking you to explore some neat ways of connecting with Mother Earth and allowing her to help you to heal. It’s what she has always been very good at since man evolved. Our bodies haven’t changed that much at all in the last 500 years, but our lifestyle, values and consciousness have changed beyond recognition. Small adjustments to these will help us to realign with who we really are – millions of atoms of energy, hyper-sensitive beings, super-intelligent minds, spirit-connected souls who can achieve just about anything, including joy. I have come to realise that when I don’t get what I desire, it’s usually because it’s not for my highest good and not in line with what is around me.
When you realise just how amazing you are and the capacity you have for change, overcoming overeating will have been merely a sign-post in your life, directing you back to what is real, traditional and natural. That kind of health, healing and happiness is what is meant for you. Always has been. Always will be.
What does all this have to do with BodyMAGIC?
The biggest shift I have found is when I have turned to nature for help. To get up close to nature, as often as possible, is really like seeing your mum or someone else who has had a great positive influence on your life for advice, guidance and motivation. It can start as a simple awareness.
In Chinmayi’s book BodyMAGIC! you will be shown how every aspect of your life can be more connected with nature and why this can be such an important practice in overcoming emotional eating. The chapter “Nature Calls” is packed with practical tips and backed up with thorough research.
Chinmayi includes how to eat and drink more naturally, how to breathe better, exercise and sleep more naturally, even how to clean your house with nature and establish a more natural beauty routine.
