Each week in The Wisdom of Change blog series, I share the original artwork and unpack the insights and meaning behind one of the 44 cards in The Wisdom of Change oracle deck.
This week’s card is 16 Nourish
Creating the change in life I desire (and managing the fallout of unexpected change) has required me to continuously seek out game changing new approaches; as the saying goes what got you here won’t get you there. What I’ve learned about how to nourish myself has been nothing short of miraculous in my ability to shift state and move forward.
Profound personal change happens incrementally and on a number of levels; physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Our body is our vehicle in this lifetime; the physical form that enables our soul to realise its passion and purpose on earth. What we do with our body is the foundation on which everything else is built.
For decades I felt like I was ‘in the wrong body’. The way I looked didn’t match the way I felt inside. I was full of optimism and ambition, but I felt out of alignment; trapped in a body that was overweight and experienced energy drops that needed regular propping up with caffeine and sugar. Having tried the well-worn routes of calorie counting, unsustainably high amounts of exercise and various slimming clubs, my physical improvements were variable at best. I sought out the wisdom of an holistic nutritionist when all the logical, traditional routes had me scratching my head from the lack of sustainable improvements.
My holistic practitioner introduced me to the idea that we can be calorie rich but nutrient deficient; essentially starving in an overweight body. A course of high-quality, vegetable-based protein, dense vitamin and mineral powders and a powerful anti-oxidant drink had me feeling amazing in a relatively short time frame. I realised I was on to something as my cravings for the wrong types of food began to diminish and my energy levels and appearance improved considerably and consistently.
Subsequently signing up to a business coach who had begun her journey as a nutritionist, deepened my understanding in this field. I learnt about the powerful influence of ‘emotional weight’ on our ability to get our message out into the world. We may be eating to fill a gap that we aren’t brave enough, or equipped to satisfy in other ways.
I learnt that we can hide behind weight to keep ourselves safe. Our excess pounds are a subconscious way to ‘hide our light’, keep ourselves playing small and ensure that we remain safely out of the spotlight. Safe from ‘failure’, perhaps, but at a distance from all that we can be in this lifetime. The juxtaposition is painful in ways we don’t consciously comprehend. It explained my previous inability to join the dots and gain the results I was so desperately seeking.
Unwanted body fat can also act as a physical barrier to buffer us from being emotionally hurt. Fat cells are there to protect us; keeping unresolved trauma, stress and other emotions locked away safely until we give our body the right conditions to detox. I was encouraged to thank my unwanted extra pounds for all the good they were providing me. A light went on in my understanding about why I felt so misaligned with my physical form. I experienced a deep gratitude for the body that had worked so hard to keep me safe while I found a way to process what had been holding me back from all that I longed to experience.
With professional guidance, I removed alcohol, refined sugar, caffeine, gluten, diary and soy form my diet. I got tested for food intolerances and learned to love myself enough to remove the foods that were causing me harm. The unwanted body fat melted off me like it was never there. It was a ‘falling away’ of what was no longer necessary as my awareness of the cause and effect of my excess weight landed.
The way we do one thing is the way we do everything and I soon found myself saying ‘no’ to non-food related aspects of my life that I realised I was no longer OK with. It felt incredibly liberating to take back control. It felt empowering to establish healthy boundaries. I was no longer OK about selling out on myself, ‘putting up with things’, stuffing low vibrational food into my body and allowing damaging cosmetics to come into contact with my skin.
As I committed to only eating food that packed a nutritional punch, I noticed that I was starting to except nothing less than treasured friendships, high quality relationships, good feeling thoughts, resourceful self-talk and satisfying contracts and client work. Anything else felt like selling out on myself and that no longer felt good enough.
I could write a book on my journey with nutrition, but for today I’m reminded to return to what I know. My life is busy and complex at the moment as we craft our post Dubai return to the UK. It would be easy to ‘let myself off the hook’ allowing lazy food choices and one too many glasses to slip through the net. But I know better and I am deeply grateful for this powerful level of awareness.
I wonder how reflecting on how you nourish your beautiful body may serve you too at this time 🙂
I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s connection to your inner wisdom.
As always, I’d love to hear your comments below.
If you’d like to learn more about The Wisdom of Change oracle deck you can find out more here.
If you'd like to find out more about a Wisdom of Change reading with Wendy please click here.