Strengthening the Inner Self by Nurturing it Carefully

A friend has been monitoring the quality of her food intake on her doctor's advice due to a recent gastric complication.

The other day as we sat together in a restaurant, I observed how carefully she chose her food, and what attention, therefore, she paid to the health of her body.

I applaud this very much, because of course, if we are not in charge of what we feed ourselves, we soon lose sight of that all important element of our well-being: our physical health.

However ... a few days earlier, this same friend had gone through a very difficult time emotionally due to the nature of the physical complication that was plaguing her, and had reached out to ask for some help, some support, and some encouragement. Again, I also applaud this very much, because our social support network, our family and friends can make all the difference when we are in a difficult place with our physical health.

In the course of our conversation during the lunch, I heard in an aside from the friend's husband that she had had another difficult emotional bout a couple of days before the lunch due to some fear involving the evolution of the gastric complication.

During the general conversation some books were mentioned. My friend was reading a number a potentially interesting ones, but indicated that one in particular was very depressing. She indicated as well that news of TV was discouraging. None of the books she was reading were books that I would put into the category of raising her energy.

We later went to have coffee at her home. Many magazines and books were about. There was much of interest, politically, economically, good literature, and so on, but again, there was little that I would put into the category of raising her energy.

As we stood alone for a moment, I told her how much I admired her for her fortitude in choosing her food, and in not being swayed by a momentary culinary desire to forego the medical advice she had been given. But, I said, in an ideal world you would pay just as much attention to the food you put into your mind, your spirit and soul, as you do to the food you put into your body.

This goes to energy, this is the same message I have spelled out dozens of times in this blog, please realize that what you feed your mind is what gives you weakness or strength when you most need strength in times of fear, worry and stress. So feed yourself well. Look at the menu and choose wisely.