Food, Feasting and Fasting

April is my birthday month and I am celebrating with a few friends where there will be cups of tea, snacks and probably cake while we enjoy each other’s company. Food is often a ‘hot topic’ and can be a ‘button pusher’ for most people in one way or another as strong opinions tend to emerge as so much of our culture is surrounded by food. Social gatherings, advertising, family, friends, the media and our health are intrinsically linked to food and our relationship to it. I felt to offer a reflection about how I see food closely connected to my spirituality.

Traditionally, throughout many religions and spiritual paths, the practice of feasting for celebrations, rituals and symbolic events brings people together in fellowship. The role of fasting is also a recognised practice to enhance a deeper spiritual connection and one I personally value and appreciate today.

Ultimately, my desire to live in a highly vibrational state has led me to adopt a plant-based diet. I have been vegetarian for 30+ years and in more recent years with the rise in so much choice, I have adopted a vegan path. I want to take a moment to share a couple of reasons why I have chosen this as a conscious step and personal practice. Food has a vibrational frequency (or not) and it doesn’t make sense to me that I would spend time in prayer, meditating and doing healing work and noticing my energy expand, only to eat things which I could feel were lowering my vibration. Alcohol also seems to have an effect on my etheric field.

I am not suggesting that veganism is the only way (this is not a political or even ethical approach although there are these benefits including an environmental impact). I am instead inviting you, as the reader, to consider your relationship with food. Are you eating mindfully? If so, do you know which foods serve you? How do you feel while you are eating them? How is your energy afterwards?

When I fast, I feel a change so quickly as the ‘third-eye fog’ lifts and I can ‘see’ things more clearly. Insights land quickly and I feel a connection to the ‘one-ness’ and I remember why it is that fasting is a common practice across many traditions. While I accept that fasting is not suitable for everyone and there may be reasons why not to, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the benefits I have felt by choosing to fast and choosing to adopt a plant-based lifestyle.

Food, feasting and fasting are part of my spiritual practice and I hope to continue to consciously reflect on my relationship to the things I am eating and give thanks for the journey the food has taken to arrive in my hands.

With much gratitude

Pip Lee Meer

Image from Pixabay by flutie8211