***Breastfeeding from Mother Earth: the Food-Body-Spirit Connection

Have you ever known a mother who couldn’t breastfeed her child?  Maybe you’ve been there yourself.  When my niece gave birth to her second child, she naturally started nursing her beautiful baby boy.  It’s a natural desire for every mother to provide nourishment for her child. 

However, his body didn’t take to the milk too well.  He had serious digestion problems – she was even noticing blood in his stool.  Soon, my niece found out her son was allergic to dairy.  She immediately cut dairy from her diet – even the cheeses she loved so much – and her baby’s digestion and health improved.  He’s now a healthy bundle of energy and joy!!
Every mother realizes that what she eats affects her breast milk, which in turn affects her baby.  

Mothers care for their children.  There is an indescribable bond between a mother and child.  A mother knows she is not separate from her child in body or heart.  Beyond body and heart, there is a special mutual bond – a soul connection – that drives the unstoppable instinct to provide and protect, and to love no matter what. 

After we are weaned from the milk of our human mothers, we rely on our Mother Earth.  Our Mother Earth is the body that provides our food, the nourishment that sustains our lives and keeps us healthy.  

Just as a human mother’s milk passes through the child and is integral to the health and development of the child, the food from the earth passes through us for the rest of our lives as it feeds us.  Its nourishment is absorbed into our cells and affects our health and development. 

We are not separate from our Mother Earth in body or heart.  We have a special bond – we cannot live without the connection.  We depend on this connection to nourish our bodies with food and provide shelter for protection.  We depend on the natural heartbeat - the rhythms of the earth – to nourish our hearts and souls.

When the mother-child relationship drifts apart or becomes hardened or numb – both hearts are broken and the bodies get sick.  Likewise, when we live and eat unconsciously, our bodies get sick.  Our planet suffers and so do we. 

We cannot continue to eat unconsciously.  The earth passes through us – it is a part of us.  It sustains life for us.  It provides nourishment for the physical body and also the natural rhythms that feed our hearts and souls.

And yet, it’s challenging in our modern culture to maintain an aware connection with the earth.  We rely on foods that don’t have any resemblance to the earth.  We’re bombarded with radio waves that interfere with the natural rhythms of the earth.  Our senses are distracted by radio, television, internet, chemicals and pollutants of all kinds.

What’s more, we’re in a hurry – driven to get to the next thing on the schedule – to do more, to have more, to be more – just to keep up.

Our connection with our Mother drifts apart, becomes hardened or numb.  Hearts become broken, and bodies get sick.

We need to return.  It’s time to restore our relationships with Mother Earth.  We are in relationship every time we eat, drink and breathe; when we walk or sit on the earth.  The workings of gravity and the surroundings of nature are like being held in the arms of the mother.

We can be more conscious, but mental awareness – returning in thought alone – is not enough.  We need to feel and experience the connection in order to bring it to life and experience true nourishment and healing. 

We don’t always have time to head to the mountain top or the beach, but most of us we eat every day.  The foods we eat are connected to the earth, and we can remember and experience our connection with the earth, our bodies and our souls every time we take foods into our bodies.

I would love to help you experience this connection on a visceral level.  That’s why I’m offering free teleclasses every Monday in May – “Food-Body-Spirit: Integrating Food Choices, Self-Care & Spirituality for Better Health.”

Please join me for a teleclass to learn how to have a more conscious connection with earth – food – body – spirit.  Learn to develop a stronger connection to your Mother Earth through conscious eating, self-care and spiritual reverence for the provision that sustains your life.

Register online at www.JoyfullyLivingWellness.com.