"It has nothing to do with what you're eating."
Decades ago, my younger self was incredulous at hearing these words - declared confidently by the specialist doctor I had gone to see about my debilitating chronic digestive ailments. Impossible, I thought! We are talking about the part of my body that processes what I am eating! This was an important turning point for me, the point at which I took my healthcare into my own hands. It was the pivotal encounter that cemented my growing distrust in the medical doctors. On my own I read, and I read, and I read….all about food, nutrition, and digestion. I even studied anatomy books. I was determined to understand, and to heal.
Ultimately, this intensive research led me to a fruit-based, raw vegan diet (I had already spent years experimenting with many other options, with very mixed results). The happy effects of this new, ultra-simple uncooked diet on my body and my digestive health were rapid, and positively profound. Now, I was incredulous that the medical doctors were not sharing this powerful knowledge far and wide!
When I returned for a follow-up endoscopy scope of my upper GI (having NOT taken the meds that were prescribed for my condition), the previously noted pervasive inflammation was completely gone. I shared that I had not taken the meds, and the doctor acknowledged that whatever I was doing was apparently working - but strangely, he did not inquire about what it was that I was doing (my fruit diet). He didn’t want to know.
It wasn’t until many years later that the truth hidden within his statement, “It has nothing to do with what you’re eating,” began to reveal itself to me. Wisdom born of experience has showed me that truth is multifaceted and multi-dimensional. I think this is a huge reason behind why we humans have so much difficulty understanding and respecting each other. Yet as we are each required to walk through the fires of life’s many challenges, a new humility is gradually born in us. If we allow it, this humility will serve to soften us, and open our minds and hearts a little wider. When we simply allow a more spacious perspective to emerge - without contracting it with our habitual reacting or resisting - we begin to see how big and multifaceted truth really is.
While it was true that the radical change of diet greatly - and immediately - reduced and eliminated my uncomfortable digestive symptoms, my journey to take my health into my own hands had only just begun. At first, I was elated because I believed I had at last discovered THE cure-all! My sleep was more restful, headaches and excess mucous were non-existent, my energy was buoyant and steady, my breathing was naturally slow and silent, and my mood was consistently light and joyful. What a beautiful transformation! The answer suddenly seemed so simple! And I was all-in, with the most steadfast commitment I had ever made.
As my overtly physical symptoms took up less of my available energy, I naturally began to attune more deeply to subtler phenomenon within me. New levels of personal awareness were awakening in me, and becoming more finely tuned. A transformation of inner AND outer life was occurring, and it was unstoppable. These multi-level shifts brought with them the stress of change. During especially challenging times, some of the digestive symptoms made occasional re-appearances. Oh no! How could this be happening on my perfect diet? In some cases, I could see that I had challenged my digestion by over-eating, or consuming more fatty foods when I was stressed. But other times, the physical symptoms were very confusing to me because I had not changed anything about my diet!
In my desire to understand, I looked much more closely at my mental habits and patterns, and the dots began to connect. I learned more about the highly sensitive nervous system I was born with, and also about long-buried emotional trauma. I did an extensive inquiry into my typical and habitual life-response patterns. What very gradually emerged was how much I had ‘sold out’ to other people’s (and society’s) desires and expectations for me — at the cost of not embodying my own natural ways of being. This strong internal contradiction was perhaps the MOST important root cause of my various symptoms and suffering.
I began paying very close attention to the fluctuations in my overall well-being. Though I was steadfast with my fruit-based raw diet, there were occasions when I ate more food or less food, simpler or more complex meals, more fats or less fats. And what I noticed was that sometimes I could comfortably digest a larger meal, a more complex meal, or more fatty foods, and other times I couldn’t ‘get away’ with that at all, without bringing on negative symptoms. Clearly there was more to the story than food!
Through my personal process of quiet observation and deeply honest inquiry, I have learned that my fruit-based raw vegan diet is a powerful hedge against dis-ease, yet it is is just one tool in my large wellness tool-kit. I give diet the prominent spot in my tool-kit that I believe it deserves, yet I never forget that right alongside this tool are the equally powerful tools of mental and emotional poise, and spiritual communion.
These topics are explored in many of my previous blog-posts, but I will say here that mastering these tools is my ongoing journey. For me, diet was the relatively simple tool to learn to use! Once I sorted through all the confusing misinformation and disinformation about diet, I could reduce it to the most obvious simple truth about what is natural food meant for humans. How to implement this way of eating in a modern lifestyle was a bit more tricky, but the basic instructions were something I could clearly see, and practice.
Sustainably shifting my mental and emotional patterns has proven to be a much more dynamic and slippery life-project. My steadily accumulating successes in this endeavor have elevated my vibrational level at least as profoundly as my consistent simple raw diet. I think a person can effectively approach a healthy personal transformation process from any entry point - it will begin wherever it organically begins! For me, the cleansing raw diet was a very powerful catalyst for opening up my emotional awareness, inviting true presence, and providing me access to a clearer, purer quality of energy and enlightenment. My conscious spiritual path was activated in me at least two decades prior to my adoption of the fruit-based diet, yet a whole new joyful clarity and spaciousness emerged with the cleansing of my physical body.
Health and well-being are a journey, and the challenges never cease to present themselves. I can now see a sliver of truth in the doctor’s crazy-sounding declaration, “It has nothing to do with what you’re eating,” because my unbiased observation proved to me how often the discomfort in my body was clearly not caused by what I had eaten. It is also unequivocally true that it can have everything to do with what you’re eating. A paradox? Perhaps. Definitely one worthy of deep exploration!!
Below I have included an inspiring music video by my friend Leo, created recently and dedicated to me, and to the spiritual path we journey on together. Enjoy!
Thanks Ellen for illuminating the paradox of food!