Think for a moment of a food from your past, one that makes you feel great after you eat it, for seemingly no good reason. Maybe it is macaroni and cheese, slow- simmered tomato sauce, ice cream cones or potato pancakes. Eating a food like this, even though your rational brain might not consider it highly nutritious, and even though you wouldn’t eat it every day, can be incredibly healing.Food has the power to impact us on a level deeper than just our physical wellbeing. What we eat can reconnect us to precious memories, like childhood playtimes, first dates, holidays, our grandmother’s cooking or our country of ancestry. Our body remembers food from our past on an emotional as well as cellular level. Eating this food connects us to our roots and has youthening and nurturing effects that go far beyond the food’s biochemical make-up.

Acknowledging what different foods mean to us is an important part of cultivating a good relationship with food. This month when we celebrate lovers and relationships, it’s important to notice that we each have a relationship with food—and that this relationship is often far from loving. We restrict food, attempting to control our weight. We abuse food, substituting it for emotional well-being. We ignore food, swallowing it whole before we’ve even tasted it.

What would your life be like if you treated food and your body like you would treat your beloved—with gentleness, playfulness, communication, honesty, respect and love? The next time you eat your soul food, do so with awareness and without guilt, and enjoy all the healing and nourishment it brings you.

Filed under: Healing, Relationships, Soul and Spirit