Science has identified at least forty essential dietary building blocks for a healthy mind and body. These include ten amino acids (protein), a couple of essential fatty acids (fat), thirteen vitamins and fifteen minerals. Sunlight and water are also basic needs. As are lifestyle factors like exercise, adequate sleep, stress reduction, education and meaningful work. But, in my own experience there is one source of nourishment that trumps them all, and I've seen it work miracles.
I've taken the liberty to call this overlooked source of nourishment vitamin 'L' for love, for it too is imprinted in food that is lovingly prepared. In fact, sometimes it appears we are overfed but malnourished because the food we are consuming is mass-produced for profit, not to lovingly nourish us. Metaphorically, we keep eating hoping to satiate our need for vitamin 'L', because food, like feeling loved, elicits the rest and relax response arm of our nervous system.
We are all familiar with the research that revealed how neglect and lack of motherly love, for orphaned Romanian children, resulted in stunted growth and emotional distress. The Centre for Disease Control and Kaiser Permanente's Adverse Childhood Experiences(ACE) Study also sheds light on how unresolved childhood abuse and neglect adversely affect later-life health and well-being.
David Hawkins MD, PhD attempted to quantify how emotions can expand or contract our state of being as depicted in this diagram. According to Hawkins, different emotions produce different frequencies which can elevate us, and others, or spiral us down to the depth of despair
The founder of Transcendental Meditation (TM), Maharishi Mahesh predicted that if one percent of a population meditated with a certain high vibration intention, the coherence of the group would have the capacity to improve that local population's quality of life. Apparently, his prophesy was first proven right in a study published in 1976, showing a 16% reduction in crime rates, when monks mediated in a crime-ridden community.
Harvard's Herbert Benson MD, a pioneer in mind body medicine, quietly and skeptically initially, conducted research to assess the spiritual aspects of healing. Recognizing its worth he now invites us all to take a moment to elicit the "relaxation response" through meditation; as does his colleague Jon Kabat-Zinn.
More often than not, when my food and lifestyle medicinal prescriptions fail to enhance healing, and I settle for just being there for my friends and family, listening non-judgmentally and loving unconditionally, I experience miraculous outcomes.
Often the miraculous healing starts with forgiveness of self and/or others - no longer seeing another as the source of one's pain. As is often quoted in one version or another:
Holding a grudge, or feeling resentment, is akin to drinking poison and expecting our enemy to die.
Not feeling good emotionally overtime translates in not feeling good physically. By radiating the frequency of love, we inspire forgiveness, kindness and compassion not only in ourselves but others too. A positive emotion has a higher frequency than a negative one and can elevate those in our surroundings.
Love is the antidote to fear. Fear elicits the fight or flight arm of the nervous system. While it may have served us well historically, when our survival was at stake daily, today it can be debilitating when the threat lingers only in our every thought, word and action.
Many have suffered trauma in early life. What they crave is tender loving care. Let us not judge them for their behaviour. Love them unconditionally and they will pose no threat. We can bring out the best or the worst in others. There is innate goodness in each and every one of us, and we will find it if we look for it. When we find ourselves blaming others for our demise, we must pause; see the pain triggered as an invitation to address our own self-limiting thought or belief. Then we need to express gratitude for the embedded life lesson. For example if we are feeling unloved by another, perhaps what we need to learn is to love ourselves. Love is the best medicine.
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