What feeds your soul?

I hope this email finds you feeling fantabulous on the first day of November. For any of you in the northeast of the USA, where we?re just closing out on some beautiful fall foliage?hasn?t it been just heaven?! Which brings me to my topic du jour for this fine day?

What feeds your soul?

?Huh? Does my soul have a stomach?!?
😉
Kinda.

When I?m giving my BodyMindSpirit lectures, I talk about why, to my way of thinking, body, mind, and spirit really need to be one word. Once one starts digging deeply into the inner workings of these three aspects of our human experience, it becomes increasingly difficult to separate them. And, in these lectures, I discuss that ?each? (quotes cuz they?re hard to separate) of these aspects wants to be nourished, for us to live VIBRANTLY (my fave 🙂

For instance, our body loves health-building food and adequate, restful sleep; our mind loves stress management and social connection; and our spirit loves prayer/meditation (whatever word suits you) and nature. It?s important for each of us to become connected to what nourishes us, at all levels of our Being, and then to mindfully incorporate these choices & activities into our daily lives. Our health & well-being depends on it!

For me, nature is the big kahuna of soul food (for the purposes of this post, I?ll use ?soul? and ?spirit? interchangeably). Nature is beautiful, blissful, and I feel ?home? when I?m there. Which makes sense, of course, because we?re PART of nature. We?re animals in the complex, interconnected web of the natural world. But we have houses and vehicles and smartphones, so sometimes we forget that. Being in nature reminds us!

Woods, oceans, mountains, meadows, gardens?all and any are splendiferous. And yes, as I walked through the woods as the sun was having its last hurrah for the day, and took the picture that accompanies this post, I did make my way to the ocean that you might notice beyond the trees! Heaven, bayBEEE! And, most often for me, a connection to nature ends up providing me some ?food for thought? about an issue, or a part of my life that is feeling difficult. It?s incredibly cool, and nature is just so yummy and big and self-sustaining. Harmony is one of the many words that come to mind.

Circling back to my earlier thoughts in this blog: because our BodyMindSpirit is so deeply interconnected, when we nourish one aspect, all aspects are also benefiting. For instance, when I plug into nature, not only do I feel deeply interconnected to something larger than little ole? me, but my stress levels go down, which nourishes my mind and my body. My mind becomes more relaxed, focused and creative (and much more!) and my body shifts into the ?relaxation response? which triggers my parasympathetic nervous system and happy, relaxing neurotransmitters. My immunity increases, my digestive system is rockin?, and my bod shifts toward more of a ?build her up!? mode. Sweet!

So. What feeds your soul?

I invite you to give it some thought and tinker with things like nature, meditation, prayer, beautiful music, art, gratitude journaling, or one of the other many ways that encourage us to get closer to our true selves, and to The Big Picture.

And, as always, I?d love to hear from you!

Do you have a favorite Soul Food?
How have you modified your life to accommodate nourishing your spirit?
Have you noticed changes in your life experience from giving your spirit the food it needs?

I invite you to share your experience, insights, ideas, frustrations on this topic?whatever this post brings up for you.

Create Vibrant Health: BodyMindSpirit?!

With love & splendiferous soul food,
Laurie