This week’s steps were more metaphysical than what I have done up til now, and I was curious as to how using woo-woo guidelines rather than specific rules would play out. Turns out that they were wonderful!
Basically, I used the vague notions of Love in the Kitchen and Peace in the Home to guide the decisions and actions I took in those areas of my life this week. I didn’t have a set plan to implement them; rather, they were a filter I used throughout the week when cooking (or tempted to not cook) and interacting with my home environment. Having a vision statement in place for these areas of my life was actually more effective and easier to maintain than specific dietary or behavioral rules.
Or to put it more concisely: focusing on the why of my actions made the what and how of my actions come more naturally.
Love in the Kitchen
Shining the light on WHY I am trying to chose more nourishing foods for myself and my family made the choices to prepare and eat nourishing foods automatic.
For example, one night my son suggested that we order out. He wanted comfort food, and asked for me to go get Panera bread bowls for us. While I might otherwise have been tempted by that idea of comfort food that I didn’t have to work to prepare, especially at the end of a stressful day, I knew in my core that a large amount of mass produced bread filled with mass produced soup, while tasty, wasn’t going to be as nourishing as the meal I myself could make. My homemade Mjeddrah, which I served with balsamic and honey glazed Brussels sprouts, was prepared with more loving care and took me less hands-on time than driving to Panera would have.
It also helped me really experience how eating foods that weren’t as nourishing felt meh. We did do some take out Saturday night. I had done my long run that morning, which tired me out (training for a marathon post-Lyme does take a bit more out of me than it used to), and so when I found myself with a houseful of teenagers in need of dinner, I agreed to order pizzas. While I had the local pizza joint’s salad pizza for myself rather than a regular pizza (think a cold, open-faced cheese sub on pre-cooked pizza crust), I could tell that it was made without real care for the wellness of the person eating it. It was food. It was tasty. But it didn’t offer the deep nourishment that I’m looking for now.
Peace in the Home
I started the week’s work by tossing out some half-dead houseplants that have been limping along, barely clinging to life for months. I’m sorry, dear ferns, but I just can’t figure out how to get your to thrive, and I don’t want that half-dead energy in my home anymore. I want vibrant life. After that, I fertilized and pruned the rest of my houseplants to help them bring more life to my space.
The rest of the week I’ve slowly done a bit of decluttering and taking stock of the natural elements in my home. Turns out that I had automatically placed items from all the Feng Shui elements on my meditation table, which was interesting to me. I had instinctively included metal (my singing bowl and chime), wood (the stick for the bowl and my mala), water elements (sea shells and a picture of a wave), earth (love me some sparkly crystals), fire (incense), and air (that chime and bowl make sound, incense sends smoke into the air). I created this space to help me relax into meditation, which tells me that I already knew deep down that these natural elements promoted a peaceful mind for me.
I made very few minor changes to the rest of the house, like putting a scented candle in the living room and working to clear the algae from the fish tank, mainly because totally redoing my home in one week isn’t a reasonable action. I am now more aware of how these natural elements can come together in balance to help promote a sense of peace in my home, and I’m sure going to keep this mindset to drive my decision in my home going forward.
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