Self-Healing, Higher Awareness, Cruelty Free Living, Power –Nutrition, Physical Body Wellness, Food as Medicine, Living your highest
Written by Sameera Khan
In this monthly Pure Jovial Series of Nutrition for Conscious Living, we welcome you on an important yet exciting expedition into the world of awareness, maintenance, prevention and cure through something we all love and need – our Food!
Now before we head into the exciting world of Food, let us begin with what actually Conscious Living is. Perhaps you are considering a more Conscious lifestyle or have made the decision to become a more Conscious Being, but what exactly is i tand does this mean only your dietary intake, going plant based or is there more under the surface? Let’s take a closer look.
What Is Conscious Living/ Living in Awareness?
As much as this term is widely used by many individuals searching for a higher awareness based living, it has more of a deeper meaning than just living plant based – food purchasing choices and health is the main context of the first Pure Jovial Series and so we will be focusing predominantly on awareness in purchasing decisions.
If you look at most humans today, most of the time we are living unconsciously, what does this even mean? If you have a look around, you may see challenges facing people today, this could be in the areas of mental health, relationships, or perhaps our physical health is not as we would ideally want it to be. Financial awareness also matters. All this being said, we can conclude that these are the effects of Unconscious living- Unaware thoughts, words and actions with corresponding effects.
So how does one move toward being more conscious and how can this benefit life for all living species on earth?
Everyone is indeed on their own path but these are the common factors when increasing your awareness levels – Various practices such as prayer, meditation, connection to your Guru/Divine in your own way, and even more simply, using your intellect. You can ask yourself these 4 simple questions before you act on a thought or word, this will help you raise your awareness levels and become more conscious.
1: How is this thought, word and/action affecting me (Spiritually, emotionally and physically)
2: How is this thought, word and/or action affecting the people around me?
3: How is this thought, word and/or action affecting the species around me?
4: How is this thought, word/ and/or action affecting our planet earth?
If you are not sure how your thoughts, words and actions affect the above, call upon your intellect to determine if this is causing DAMAGE, VIOLENCE or HARM in all 4 areas mentioned above. This will help you make the Conscious decision pertaining to any area of your life and build up your level of will power in order to make the best choices more often than not.
Benefits of Living Consciously
Being aware of every thought, word and action that emanates from us gives us the power to become more conscious beings, but how does this tie in with our dietary intake and the rest of our lifestyle choices, and why is it important?
Let us look at the benefits of truly living in awareness as this can affect the choices you make whether this is in the area of your nutrition, personal care and other consumables that you use on a regular basis.
1: You are not harming your Physical Body
Numerous studies, not sponsored by businesses directly or indirectly involved in the nutrition arena (Be it vegan businesses or those who are in animal product commerce) conducted and peer reviewed by independent researchers and scientists expose the detrimental effects on the physical body, of consuming animal products. These studies have uncovered a higher risk of illness especially to the heart and its related complications, other inflammatory conditions, auto immune imbalances, endocrine disruption and toxicity levels. One of these studies has revealed that plant based consumers were associated with a lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure than consumers of animal based products. Another has found that plant based eaters had a 24% reduction in Ischemic Heart disease compared with non – vegans. There are many such studies with substantial findings and if this interests you further, you can refer to pure-jovial.com for a full understanding of the science behind it.
When we also refer to the physical body and its conscious care, we will also be referring to what is applied externally to our biggest organ – the Skin. Many Synthetic Chemicals, and even toxic carcinogens (cancer causing molecules) and endocrine disruptors are used in almost all the goods manufactured by major fast moving consumer goods companies today. This is something we need to be aware of and will also be covering in the near future. In all, physical illness is something everyone would like to avoid as much as possible, and this can be significantly reduced by making more Conscious choices in ones life.
2: You are not harming your Emotional Body
It is important to also consider your mental health when it comes to physical health as many of us ignore this major contributor to physical manifestation of disease. Let us understand this better.
Starting with the animal itself, remember animals have more of an awakened 6th sense than some of us and can intensely feel the heavy emotions of fear, helplessness, trauma and pain among others. These emotions being felt by the being becomes a part of them, engrained deeply in their mental and physical body. A human upon consuming the flesh of this being, then also absorbs these emotions into their cells, thus further contaminating his/own emotional body.
Why is this also important to consider? Some may consider this not as important as the physical body; however a large percentage of disease initially begin in the mind. In Ayurvedic practice our emotions are connected to various parts of the body, for example, the spleen is linked with the feeling of worry, the liver with anger, the colon with letting go and so on. What we store in our emotional body is inexorably linked with our physical body. Contaminating our mind can have disastrous consequences not only on ourselves but on others too, let’s continue…
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You are not harming your intellectual Body
Choosing to be conscious really filters out to your entire human constitution and this includes your intellectual body/wisdom body. Being aware of what you expose yourself to on a daily basis can either benefit or contaminate your intellectual body. Concepts, ideologies and conditionings that imprint qualities of judgement, prejudice, insensitivity, non-compassion, indifference, ignorance, selfishness, betrayal, manipulation, violence, comparisons, greed, and others are considered as contamination of one’s Intellectual body. Be aware of sources of intellectual contamination such as books, print, radio, television, social media and people that are unconsciously selling you contamination. Choosing more Conscious sources of media such as your chosen divine scriptures, higher frequency music and entertainment, and the people you surround yourself with, will aid you in living more consciously.
4: You are not harming others:
Conscious living/ living with Awareness is based on the premise of not causing pain or harm to others.This is one question that you can ask yourself when faced with any situation and can help clear out any uncertainty in this area: “Do I want to be the cause of pain of another?” Your answer will then help you make the appropriate decision when it comes to any area of your life including your meal choices.
5: You are not causing harm to Mother Earth:
When we make smarter, more compassionate and healthier choices by not causing harm to ourselves and others, we are at the same time not causing harm to our home- Planet Earth. It’s a win-win situation all round! Let’s look at some of the effects caused by Unconscious Living on our planet Earth.
All of the resources used in the animal agriculture industry are now under scrutiny for contributing to severe greenhouse gas emissions (obliterating our ozone layer), animal waste contamination affecting millions of litres of water in freshwater ways every day, burning of our precious forests such as the Amazon to make room for more animal agriculture, and energy wastage.
Statistics also show that around 821 Million humans do not have basic fresh water and food to survive on a daily basis, while just the grain in the United States alone used to feed livestock can be used to easily feed our fellow humans in famine stricken countries, something Governments and leaders have been trying to figure out for decades.
It becomes even more concerning when we see how other limited resources such as fossil fuel and worrying amounts of fresh water is used in the business of animal agriculture. The former – Fossil Fuel is meant to remain in our Earth’s core, lubricating the Earth and not used in the way that we see it being used today. It has recently become clear to us that approximately 100 000 litres of water is being used to produce 1kg of Beef (considering transportation, animal consumption and so on) whereas 900 litres is used to grow 1kg of wheat and 500 litres for 1kg of Potatoes – some food for thought here!
These are just some of the effects of recent unconscious thoughts, words and actions on ourselves, others and our planet. When one considers the all-round benefits of living a Higher Awareness Life, it is not difficult to see how just one person can make a huge difference for themselves, others and our planet. It iswithin our reach and is possible right here, right now. All we need is AWARENESS and the rest will follow☺
{Pure Jovial is here to support as many people as possible with their all-round Conscious Living choices. Please visit www.pure-jovial.com for more info coming soon! }