The Natural Food Revolution of the 2000s may have turned our empty lives into a fullness of a new obsession: FOOD.
It has spawned the everyday peep into a nutrition expert and the everyday fitness freak into a maven in his or her own right and took the expertise out of those who paved the way and pioneered the natural living world in the '60s. But has it changed our minds, the way we think about life and those in it, any better than McDonald's did in the '60s? It is more than food to change your mind. It is an interconnected wholeness and love perspective.
After my first introduction to whole foods during the Vietnam era, I was hooked on anything and everything brown -- rice, wheat, muffins, nuts -- plus anything a revolution was made of. Fresh green vegetables were already happening growing up influenced by the old country foodstuffs my grandparents came from and love. It was whole food, whole family, whole life living and concern for other people who protected us, grew our food, cooked for us -- and that concept made love to my soul and touched my life with everything in it. My 40-year-old dad was my tour guide who took me on a Sunday field trip to what was introduced to me as conscious eating and living. Fresh peanut butter on whole grain chewy bread. Stellar. Besides, he entrained me by questioning reality, quoted Nostradamus and all things astrological -- especially Linda Goodman's Sun Signs collective, which was a new approach to the human heart. I was all in -- hook, line and sinker. I bought into a life off the beaten path, so much so that astrological turned into what some viewed as illogical. Funny how it backfired yet defined what was yet to come.
It was really the heart-centered lifestyle I loved and the integrity of up leveling my life. This sub-culture, if you will, was saturated in alternative thought, new ideas, cutting edge practices with a dollop of self-discovery inside the community of others who felt the same way. The sweetness of sharing a value-based life and its sustainability empowered a richness nowhere else to be found, and it had no price tag -- you couldn't buy it -- its currency was your own disciplined impregnated attention, and it was cultivated... over time. This was like fine wine at its best.
How did all this affect our thinking? Our relationships? Our families? Our health? What were the divorce rates, suicide rates and the quality of living life to its fullest in the '60s ? I question this because in the wake of my life, I look back and see many people trying to get a hit of the juice and wear the yoga vibe clothes, yoga-inspired jewelry, buy the yoga retreat, purchase high-priced gourmet artisan foods just to belong to a current trending sexy moment, called a wellness movement. These peeps need the latest yoga mat, gourmet juice fasts, vegan foods, smoothies -- without even knowing a thing or two about The Principle of the Universe. Huh. Gotcha!
So are our minds any clearer, lives any better because of the boom in educational programs in healthy living, or has it become another thing to identify with? I shop at Whole Foods and do ALL my shopping there. Even my shampoo. Whoa! Are our relationships deeper and more meaningful? Do we spend time with our families and spouses and create lovingkindness with our words? Have we achieved a real change, or has big business taken over the sociological impact of change at the level of the gut, aka the brain. Same cells exist in both. How are we connecting? What love messages is our brain wiring or rewiring for our mind? Love is the answer... ask John Lennon.
The basics fill my soul, pave my paradigm and my ability to connect with others deeper than who knows more about nutrition or which thought leader they got up front and personal with. There is nothing more pure but truth that proves to be basic, universal and timeless.
To quote a great scholar of philosophy to understand how the universe is viewed and understood, George Ohsawa had Seven Universal Principles and 12 Laws Of Change of The Infinite Universe. As stated, these two are supplementing each other in endless manifestations of the changing universe. We see them by our own intuitive understanding and we know them as common sense. Daily, we experience them wherever we are, at any time and no one can deny them. Everything exists in accordance with them, and all phenomena are changing according to them.
I think these can help change your mind to explore the inner terrain independent of current trends or any food. Go inside and trust how you feel when you read these. They gave me a sense of relief when I read it for the first time in the early '80s.
SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF THE ORDER OF THE UNIVERSE
All things are differentiations of One Infinity.
Everything Changes; Nothing is Stationary.
All Antagonisms are Complementary.
All Phenomena are Unique; There is Nothing Identical.
All Phenomena have a Front and a Back.
The Greater the Front, the Greater the Back.
All Phenomena have a Beginning and an End.
Imagine remembering to re-engineer your reactions to situations when these principles prevail as a constant. Redefine life. Up level your thinking with a physical practice as a way into your heart. Like yoga. Any kind. Meet your breath and meet you.
So, it is 2014, and just because one eats better, does it really change your mind? Going deep into an authentic life that gives you an ROI in your life is greater than buying into what's new, hip and hot. Be You. Love Life. Change The World.
And, Go Basic. Honor the Universe and your place in it by getting into the flow of the Moon, the Stars and your Soul. Stat. Ask Linda Goodman.