Food for Thought: You Are What You Think

Many of us are aware of the foods we put in our mouths. Businesses have been created around this very concept—choosing the proper foods to nutritionally support the body, and becoming aware of when and why we are eating. But TCM delves deeper. Instead of looking at the nutritional content, we look at the essence of the food. Will this food help energetically support your body? And we go a few steps beyond that.

How Does Food Impact the Body?

On the energetic level, a strong digestive system helps you get the maximum benefit from your food. When your digestive system is working optimally, it is able to use the essence of the healing foods you ingest to give each organ system a boost of Qi. This Qi is what helps each system work at its potential. But without a strong digestive system, you may have trouble extracting and processing even the physical nutrients needed to heal and support your body. To maximize the healing potential of food, your digestive organs must be in a state of balance and function together harmoniously.

Many organs themselves also depend on good digestion to run properly—if they don’t get enough Qi from the food you digest, one or more organs can also become weak or out of balance and impair the functioning of your entire digestive system.

It’s Not Just About Food!

How do we fall out of balance and harmony to begin with? It’s not just about the food! While years and years of bad eating habits will affect your digestive system functioning, years and years of negative “thinking” can be much more damaging!

Many people have heard the expression, “You are what you eat.” While this statement is true, there is a higher level that many people are unaware of: “You are what you think.” Sometimes we feed ourselves a steady diet of negative thoughts and emotions, which we then associate with our body, mind or spirit. Our thoughts feed our spirit; our emotions impact our body and our health.

Support your digestive system and give your body its best chance to process food, absorbing what it needs and letting go of what it doesn’t (including excess emotions and weight!). Try consistently “feeding” yourself positive thoughts and emotions. Cultivating a lifelong habit of releasing negative thoughts and emotional stress can go a long way toward creating digestive health.