When I was lying in bed on Saturday morning just relishing the fact that my first obligation didn’t start until 3pm (our end-of-year class pool party), I looked at the bookshelf next to my bed and spotted a book I haven’t picked up in a while: Integrative Nutrition: Feeding Your Hunger for Health & Happiness.

It’s a dense book–not one that’s amenable to skimming–but I decided to skim it anyway. I found a chapter on “Primary Food,” and this quote resonated with me:

“Primary food is more than what is on your plate. Healthy relationships, regular physical activity, a fulfilling career and a spiritual practice can fill your soul

I’ve been trying my best to make a clearing for myself. I fill up my days with so many to-do items.

If I stop and ask myself why I’m such a doer, an answer starts to emerge. Why do I do, do, do? Well, it’s because I want to achieve, achieve, achieve. And why do I want to achieve so much? Because I am seeking affirmation and validation from other people. Why do I seek so much external affirmation and validation? Well, that answer is a little more complicated.

First, my biological father didn’t want to have anything to do with me when my mom found out she was pregnant. … Read More

Stress. It’s a topic I come back to quite often. It’s a topic that has even earned itself a category heading in my other blog’s sidebar.

I’m always seeking to free myself from the tight clench of Stress (even as I willingly climb into his hand time and time again). I decided to enroll in a two-hour class entitled “The Tao of Stress Management.”

The presenter started the workshop by emphasizing the direct relationship between stress and nutrition. He argued that when we eat processed foods, we put unnecessary stress on our cells. He railed against refined sugar, flours, pasta, etc.

Then he moved into a segment about accepting personal … Read More