Nourish Your Whole Self

No matter your quest, desire, or wish, you will find this Nourish Your Whole Self card deck to be a guide for your eating journey. They will lead you down a path of nourishment rather than just nutrition, holding hands with you in inspiration and with information, while offering a dash of poetry and practicality along the way. There is such an intricate dynamic between how we live and how we eat. As you use these cards and start shifting your eating, you will find that you begin to dramatically adjust your lifestyle.

Similarly, if you alter any of the seven aspects of you that make up your emotions, thoughts, or your body, you will notice a significant change in your eating, too! By reflecting on a card’s written intentional phrase and inspiring image, you will develop new insights into your eating and/or life in general, ones that you had not had before. Sit with a card after selecting it, and let it nourish you completely. Feel the words and absorb the image in your seven areas, specifically in the area that the card addresses; the card’s color will indicate this area. I wish you a mystical, meaningful, and mindful path with food!

Deanna Minich, PhD, is an internationally known nutritionist, author, and educator with more than fifteen years of experience in the nutritional field. She has combined her traditional academic study of nutrition with her study of health, psychology, and spirituality to create Food & Spirit, an integrated healing approach to eating and living. Currently, she lives in Port Orchard, Washington, where she writes and teaches others about bodily nutrition and soulful nourishment.

For more information: Visit www.foodandspirit.com or contact Dr. Minich at deanna@foodandspirit.com.

The Root, The Flow, The Fire and More

The Root: Who we are, our foundation and ability to survive in the physical world

The Flow: How we feel, our inclination to create and express emotions

The Fire: Our innate sense of ego and ability to feel empowered

The Love: How we give and receive love from others, and nourish our passions and dreams

The Truth: How we speak what is on our minds and in our hearts through words

The Insight: Our intuitive sense that comes from the wisdom of knowledge and experience

The Spirit: Our connection with all of life and divinity I designed the Nourish Your Whole Self Inspiration Cards to help you cultivate your relationship with eating through these seven facets of your being. You will want to use these cards throughout the day, or at specific times before or after eating, to help you tap into your inner guidance about which foods to choose and what your body, emotions, mind, and spirit need in the moment. I hope that as you use these cards, you will find not only that you change your eating, but that you also enrich your relationship with the seven aspects that comprise your whole, complete self.

Fire

FIRE: The fire of our potential burns within us as confidence and empowerment. Often, we feel "burned out" and lack the balance we need for our health. When we harness and direct our inner abilities to transform situations by modifying perceptions or broadening our scopes of thinking, we find ourselves in seats of power and sustenance. Complex carbohydrates that are low in glycemic impact (those that do not significantly impact blood sugar), such as certain beans and whole grains, provide us with sustained energy and balanced power. In each of us, the inner fire element is the dynamic, transformative relationship to the external world, encompassing the sense of self, relationships to others, and relationships to our ancestors. It contains the self and all of its many aspects: the ego, self-perception, and self-worth. Its lesson calls us to synchronize and harmonize our inner selves with the world’s outer self. If you are adequately managing your fire, you will feel at peace with your family, career, and social life. You will tend to handle things with ease and grace. If, however, you overthink and overanalyze your life, and feel like you are trying to do it all, then your fire is either raging or burned out. Now is the perfect time to look at your internal thermostat to see how you can cultivate a healthy fire element.

The Truth

TRUTH: We are most authentic when we speak our truths aloud in the presence of others. Our voices convey the creations of the heart, including our desires, passions, dreams, and loves. As such, your voice is a reflection of who you really are. When we make the best food selections for ourselves in every moment and eat with mindful intention, we live a congruent message. Every time we eat, the opportunity to become conduits of alchemy arises—by catalyzing the transformation of the elements of earth, air, fire, and water. We do this by chewing and mixing the meal’s contents with our saliva, preparing our just-eaten food for entry into the transformative tube of our bodies so we extract the food’s truth for us. Bringing together the elements through high-water fruits, water-residing sea plants, soups—from broths to stews—sauces of all flavors, and fruit and vegetable juices helps bring in moisture to lubricate our mouths and throats, or our vessels of truth. When you communicate and express your honest emotions, thoughts, and feelings easily and authentically, you live a life of truth. This card encourages you to look at the truths in your life. How open are you to living an authentic life? How free are you to express your unique eating truths? Now is the time to venture within your vehicle of expression!

Insight

INSIGHT: We are visionaries, great seers from within. As sages have said, our inner worlds are as vast as the outer world. For each of us, a sense of inner sight provides us with several “stars” in our internal universe. In addition to its ability to give rise to the intellect by processing facts, the mind synthesizes facts within our contextual experiences into knowledge, ultimately culminating in wisdom. Within this world of facts, knowledge, and wisdom lies the timeless sense of intuition, or our inherent inner sense of knowing and vision. When we swirl together all of these facets of the mind, we join our individual levels of consciousness with that of the collective, becoming resonant with archetypes, symbols, and meaningful messages. We seek wisdom by following our insightful intuitive downloads. When we eat intuitively, we are in tune with our bodies’ requirements and our souls’ destinies. Intuitive eating not only becomes an act for the physical body, but takes on the higher purpose of self-realization and reflects our inner wisdom. Purple foods like berries, and spices like turmeric, protect the brain: the keeper of the insightful stars. Chocolate, red wine, and caffeinated beverages alter our moods and perceptions by influencing the production and metabolism of neurotransmitters. If you are open to the abundance of possibilities and are in tune with an inner sense of discernment, then your insight is in alignment. If you perceive yourself as overly analytical and run by your intellect instead of your intuitive inner knowing, you will want to envision ways to tap into your inner sight.

Love

LOVE: The heart is considered the sovereign of our being—the king or queen of our consciousness. In other words, the heart rules our actions. Scientific studies show that the heart generates its own electromagnetic field, which can be altered through different emotional states—when we feel compassionate or grateful, our heart fields open and expand, for example. We also “share” heart fields with others and are influenced by what their hearts generate. Given the heart’s amazing and great significance, it is no wonder that heart disease is so prominent in modern society. We can move our regal hearts out of blocks, stagnation, and abnormal rhythms by transitioning our lives into ones filled with compassion, joy, love, and forgiveness.

This card asks you to expand into more of those heartfelt elements to see if you love and nurture yourself in balance with loving others. Sharing meals, giving and receiving food, and embracing eating and self-care practices open our lotus-like hearts. Vegetables, whether green leafy vegetables or cruciferous vegetables, in addition to foods high in heart-healthy fats, like avocados, keep our hearts in the castle of health. Spend time focusing on whether you can give love yet not compromise your ability to nurture yourself. Treat yourself to a food or activity that makes your heart expand wide!

Flow

FLOW: Our creative, emotive selves are raw, juicy, and want to flow outwards—in feelings, artwork, dance, music, and stories, and in giving birth to new ideas. When we live in the flow of expressing our emotions, we can channel this creativity into the pleasures of eating, preparing meals, and sharing food with others. If you feel blocked and unable to express your emotions, you may feel a spiraling within and a sense of stagnation. We can get into the flow through movement of all types, and also by taking in substances that help us flow, such as fats, oils, nuts, and seeds. These foods contain the symbolic properties of "flow." The most common vehicle of flow we encounter every day is water. Our bodies are made mostly of water: fluid sits both outside our cells and within them. We regulate water balance through our kidneys. Our symbolic sense of flow is nestled in our lower bellies and yokes us to the water element and its eternal state of movement and dynamic change. Reflect on what it feels like to “flow” through life. Does your creative expression call to you without judgment and are you able to “go with the flow” most days? If you can express yourself, check whether you feel that your creativity ripples through your life. What are you sending out and what needs to come forth to flow out?

Root

ROOT: The body houses the soul. Being fully grounded and present in the body is one of the best ways we anchor into our sense of instinct, which helps guide us in synchronizing with our body rhythms—when to eat, what to eat, and how much to eat. Protein, minerals, and root vegetables are types of foods that carry the heavy, earthy properties our physical bodies require. As human beings in the flesh, we connect to the root of ourselves with and through food, and the act of eating is an intimate union with the earth. We have forgotten that being grounded and rooted in the earthly realm is an important part of who we are. Of course, we have to adequately survive in this world, but what does that mean to you? Spend some time evaluating how safe and secure you feel in your everyday world. Aim to stay anchored despite life’s changes and unpredictability. Strengthen your root by dialoguing with your body. Note how your body responds to what is going on around you. Listen intently to what your body is telling you. The root is your foundation for the physical life.