Bear's Blog

Blessing your food is an ancient ritual, a spiritual and religious practice of gratitude. Saying a prayer before we eat actually drops us into Being – the “rest and digest” mode of the parasympathetic nervous system (versus the sympathetic nervous system’s “fight or flight”.) A moment of mindfulness actually prepares our bodies to receive and digest our food.

I’d like to add an intentional energy component to explore. It’s the ultimate gratitude practice! Here’s how...

1) First, and always, align your Hara (see the Corona Care Kit if you haven’t learned that yet.)

2) Take a moment to appreciate the food you are about to eat. This can be as simple as looking at your food and visualizing all the elements that came together to produce this meal.

3) Put your hands 4-5” above your plate, palms down. Imagine you are thanking your food literally, with energy coming down from your hands.  Stay there for a minute; the energy will build (you can combine step 2 and 3).

4) That’s a good enough practice to begin with! After I started doing this, I noticed I got a “bounce back” from the food. If you sense that, take a moment to receive the energy of the food being offered to you by bringing it into your body, through your hands. It becomes this happy, mutual exchange.

You can do this practice when preparing food as well.

I also observed that my energy, meant as a thank you, could build up the energetic value of the food. I sensed which food had less energy to begin with; what had more energy was organic, fresh, and whole. I’m from Chicago and I like the occasional hot dog. Now I joke that I can “bless my junk food”– and actually increase its nutritional and energetic benefits! It may take a while to sense the energy rebound and increase, but you can - with practice (and FYI, there is a technique for hands-on-sensing in my Jumpstart online course).

For meat, I call on the specific animal and thank them for their sacrifice. The different responses among species are quite interesting. For instance, pigs are still mad as hell about the situation. Fish aren’t really concerned, and chickens are – well, let’s just say it’s almost impossible to make eye contact. Cows have become more conscious over the years. The buffalo’s response is - unique.

I was eating buffalo and acknowledging our exchange when the buffalo appeared to me and knelt down on its knees! I understood that the buffalo – are here on purpose, just for us. I know that the buffalo completely met the needs of Native Americans – for food, shelter, clothing, and more. Yet this gave me an even deeper appreciation of the significance of this relationship. I find buffalo meat has the most potent energy of any food I have eaten.

Enjoy and appreciate all your food. And remember, even the sugary, rich holiday food can be transformed into – something more!

Bear