As the proverb goes, health is wealth. And in this instance we are talking about the wealth of the human spirit. Good food is necessary for our health because our body is able to absorb its full nutrients – it is exactly so with our life. When we accept life in its sum total, relishing all its phenomena and sensations, our soul will be able to imbibe its entire range of ‘nutrients’, comprehending the full meaning of our existence, and letting us live our life to the utmost. Masami Sato shares the secret of living a full life in this excerpt from her latest book, ONE.
Why is it many of us (in fact, most of us) occasionally experience some kind of empty feeling in our life? It is like being hungry. When we eat, we feel satisfied and become less interested in food. But as some time passes, we get hungry again. Then all of a sudden we feel so attracted to the smell and thought of food. We can also feel some kind of hunger when we are not even physically hungry-just after eating something. Some of us stay being hungry all the time.
Perpetual emotional vacuum is not the best of feelings. Then how do we live our lives to the maximum? How can we be more fulfilled forever?
Maybe the answer is easy. Just live our lives totally. The word ‘total’ holds the meaning of fullness. Then the secret to live a full life is just to live it totally.
Let’s start to look at one example of this ‘wholeness’ with something awfully close to our heart-our stomach.
Whole Food VS Semi Food
We are used to the usage ‘whole food.’ People say that taking whole food is the secret to the vigour and wellbeing that we require. How is whole food better than ’semi food?’
A whole grain for example has a life. So, if you soak the whole grain in water, drain the next day and leave for a few days, it sprouts. It has a life of its own. When we eat such food, our body absorbs the full live nutrients. It has all the properties to cleanse, heal and nurture different body cells.
And just like the example of a grain, most traditional eating includes eating whole animals as well. Eating whole fresh fish used to be more common than taking a part of fish and throwing the rest away. It was the same for meat and the same for vegetables.
‘Half food’ sometimes has more sweetness and flavour but not much other nutrition. We like its taste, but we could develop a long-term illness if we only ate ‘half food’ every day of our life.
So, to balance the missing part, we started to take dietary supplements. We have been studying and researching for a long time to find the perfect balance. It gets more and more complicated as we chop the food up, preserve and transport, and even try to balance with other parts coming from different sources, regions and seasons. Some of the nutrients even come from non-food items. They are chemically generated. After analysis and testing, we approve it for human consumption. But no matter how hard we try; we cannot put all the ‘bits’ together to make it come alive.
Half Life-’Sweetness’ of Life
So, if we perceive our life now, much of what we are doing can be similar to eating the ‘part food.’ Just enjoying the sugariness of life but jettisoning the real nutritious part. And if we put our ‘part life’ in water with other pieces and left it in the sunlight, could it germinate and grow into a beautiful complete life?
Whole food is not (as some people view it) insipid. It is in reality very tasty if prepared expertly. But as the demand is minimal, it has become costly. It will in fact prove to be cheaper in the long run though, as we will not have to spend on medicines later on. When more people will opt to have it, it will normally become less costly because it is a simple food with little wastage and processing.
Our life is the same. When we only appreciate the ’sweetness’, and throw away the rest in rubbish bins because we don’t see its value, we may be wasting the most important part. And the part we throw away could have the greatest power for the sustainability of our life and our economy. It also takes more energy and resources to discard it. Better yet, the part we throw away is free.
So, what is that we are not looking at?
Picture a life where we didn’t in fact believe that we were lacking anything there.
The secret is right here. The secret of a full life.
Whole Life-The Complete Life
When it is ‘full’, it does not matter how big the full is. It can spread out all at once. It can still have within it all the components to uphold itself as a complete living thing. Once it develops to a given size, it can continue to live without some portions of it. Like plants can remain alive after birds feed on a little of it or trees survive even after losing their leaves. But if we ignore the equilibrium for a pretty long time, finally it can lead to a deadly disproportion. Then it might become too difficult to revert to normalcy.
We do not have to return to prehistoric times to find fullness. Fullness exists in the present. All that is required to do is view intently; view intently enough to actually find.
When we start seeing our life as a whole and stop throwing away what nourishes our life the most, we start feeling more and more fulfilled without looking for ‘things’ to fill holes and dents of our life. Everything finally falls into place. We now understand the mechanism of our world in a very different way.
Yes, it is now time to learn how we can form (and find) this equilibrium constantly and manageably.
The real nourishing part of our life is what makes us feel good deep down. It is like the part of food that makes our body become healthy in the long-term. Feelings we experience in our everyday life are the real key to our long-term happiness. And there are feelings that make us feel more complete.
The happy faces we see when we give recognition to others. The pleasure we experience when we give presents to others. The affection we feel when we see our kids being happy. The encouragements we get when we feel our life is full of significance ..
Let’s experience these moments of our life fully and enjoy the flavour of our whole life. Then we will see how it is not so necessary to continuously fill our mind (and stomach!) with temporal gratifications-those types of things that make us even hungrier afterwards.
We can actually sense this pleasure, gratefulness and ardour in order to be aware of life as a whole at any moment despite the conditions. It is not about what we find, what we learn or what we accomplish that finalize our life in its entirety. It is about what we ‘elect to’ experience about our life.
Yes, our life indeed is already absolute.
When we initiate taking actions based on this knowledge, we can have real control over the balance creation – enduring health, prosperity, enriching connection and delight.
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Tags: BOGO, business, cause marketing, gratitude, marketing, philosophy, self-help, Spiritual Health, women