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06


Nourish your heart before nourishing your body


MARK EXPLAINS WHY LOVE, HAPPINESS AND PLEASURE ARE FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANY DIET OR EXERCISE, WITH REFERENCE TO BOTH ANCIENT AYURVEDIC WISDOM AND WESTERN HEALTH SCIENCE. HERE ARE EIGHT TIPS FOR YOU TO FOLLOW FOR BETTER HEALTH, AND NOT ONE OF THEM MENTIONS THE GYM OR EATING YOUR GREENS.


BY MARK BUNN


Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture your heart. [Old Indian saying]


W


ho is healthier: the person who eats the perfect diet but hates their job and is constantly critical of themselves – or the


person whose diet is at best average but loves what they do and feels contented with their lot in life? Who is more likely to die young: the person who exercises for two hours a day and has a washboard stomach but lives in a toxic relationship – or someone who is a few kilos overweight but is happily married, laughs often and enjoys the loving support of friends and family? While it would be unwise to diminish


the benefits of eating well or being fit, if we were to ask the enlightened sages of times past, or even many modern- day neuroscientists, the latter examples would more likely be suggested as the


healthier in the true sense of the word. The reason is that, while diet and exercise are vitally important, the ancients knew that the unseen, non-physical world of our emotions affects our health most profoundly. The Swnwt or ‘Lady Doctors’ of ancient Egypt, based everything they did in the art of healing on their understanding that ‘health comes from a happy heart’. Even back then it was understood that, to a large degree, our emotions create our physical reality. Just as radio waves are unable to be


seen, yet travel throughout space and time creating tangible, concrete effects (like music), the latest discoveries of mind-body medicine show how our thoughts and feelings do the same. Neourotransmitters, or brain chemicals in layman-speak, have been shown to have receptors on immune system cells throughout our entire body. Receptors for pain-reducing opiates exist not only in our brain but in our stomach and intestines. In reality, every idea, nuance of thought, whim or feeling we have is gossiped to every


other cell in our body through the language of chemistry, electricity and vibrational energy in the blink of an eye. Indeed, ancient spiritual masters have suggested that our dominant feelings not only change the chemical and electro-magnetic fields within us but also around us. This may explain phenomena like auras, the so-called subtle ‘emotional energy bodies’ and even how we can feel uplifted, peaceful or uncomfortable just by being around certain people. The ancient Vedic sages knew all about


the power of our emotional state. That’s why for thousands of years before ‘modern science’, the timeless Ayurvedic texts have encouraged us to eat only when settled and happy. Eating when anxious or upset is known to disturb the internal digestive processes, such that even the healthiest food can literally become poison to the body. In Ayurveda, the experience of enjoyment


and pleasure is not only considered of primary importance in terms of diet but in everything from exercise to conception. In former times, to aid conception, the first prescription for any prospective father


and close family members was to make the intended mother-to-be happy. While extensive recommendations about what foods, herbal preparations and even sexual practices to promote conception were also known, in the ancient texts it is said, ‘a happy woman can conceive at any time’. It is understood that when a woman is happy and contented on the deepest level, the subtle channels responsible for the proper nourishment and transportation of reproductive materials ‘open like a lotus’. Everyday suggestions for nourishing the


emotions


CHOOSE JOY While external circumstances can affect our lives, and difficulties, sorrows and times of emotional pain will always arise, we generally have an amazing ability to choose our reality. We can focus on things which nourish our emotional health or those that sap our spirit. We can choose to do work that fulfils our heart or work that merely ‘pays the bills’. We can choose to focus on what’s good in the world or


Experience Gain a fulfilling professional career, train for a


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