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Food Cravings – my experience

October 1, 2013 By Kat

Hands up who finds it hard once the thought of a delicious food treat pops into your mind to let it go? Does it keeps bugging you until give in & eat it? Most of the time after you’ve indulged the guilt kicks in. I’ve been there too the sugar rush high from a chocolate bar is usually short lived once I remember the empty calories I’ve just consumed. Welcome to the world of food cravings.

If you didn’t already know food cravings are linked to our emotions. It’s in our culture to use food as part of celebration rituals, rewards & something to base a social gathering around. Isn’t it wonderful to use food as a centre point for happy times?

What is not so wonderful is when we try to fill an ‘unhappy’ void with food. Remembering those happy food filled times & thinking food will fix it. In reality it was probably the social interactions & the positive energy exchange between the people that created the ‘happy times.’ The food was just an accessory.

From an energetic point of view to stay clean, clear & centred you need to be fueling your body with clean high vibration food. These are foods that come straight from the earth as nature intended, not packaged in a supermarket. Once I became more aware of how food effects my vibration & cleaned up my diet my food cravings literally disappeared. Why? Because when you are nourished & fulfilled from the inside then you don’t need to fill any voids with crap food.

About a month ago I hadn’t realised that I had fallen into an emotional hole. I was so busy doing what I do I somehow managed to miss some important signs. This is normal you can’t expect yourself to be holier than thou 24/7. Also I hadn’t realised that my spiritual hygiene routine was overdue a change. It wasn’t serving me anymore as I’d literally out grown it (Separate post coming soon). This meant I wasn’t releasing as much dense energy & it was building up inside.

I was going through a huge emotional overhaul in my life. I was right in the middle of working my notice on my day job. Feelings of entrapment and boredom were ripe. Hello food cravings!

First I hit the salty chips. I do buy chips for my partner but I rarely eat them myself. That week I couldn’t get enough, literally ramming them into my mouth as I was cooking a healthful dinner. The following week I turned to ice cream. Again, I never keep it in the house, as I don’t eat it. One weekend I really fancied pancakes with ice cream & strawberries so bought a litre. It never even saw the pancakes! Even my partner commented with disbelief I was eating ice cream.

By the end of that week the alarm bells finally sung out. I opened Doreen Virtues book Constant Craving & if by magic it opened on the ‘crunchy salty food craving’ chapter.

Doreen (who has a Ph.D. degree in counselling psychology) explains when you crave crunchy food, especially salty crunchy food it translates into suppressed anger. You literally need to get that anger out by crunching on something. What do you do when you’re angry? Clench your jaw right? It’s the same reaction, forceful strong biting with the molars.

It made sense to me. I was angry. I’d given five weeks notice on my job & it was too much. I wanted to be done so I could get on with my own work that I was passionate about. The anger was bubbling up over the mind numbing jobs I had to do. Frustration central.

What about the ice cream? Craving dairy products is a sign of depression. Super! First I was angry then depressed (but not to the extent of needing help, just a little down). Again it made sense, anger followed by sadness. Once I consulted Doreen’s book and identified the issue I could take action & deal. It’s not enough to recognise something is wrong and then sit back doing nothing. ‘You’ need to stop it, especially if it’s potentially damaging, before it spirals into something worse. If you are unsure how seek professional advice.

I made sure I was taking more stillness time during the day. Connecting within when I felt the anger or sadness bubble up. During this time I was shown images of the happiness I had in my present life that I should be grateful for. Focusing on the many more positive, happy things I had going on served me better than getting grumpy about the minute things that weren’t. The universe stepped in too like it does & I received some wise words, just two sentences, from my Mentor reminding me also to celebrate how far I had come in my journey. Most importantly she advised me to enjoy my last week in the city job.

Boom! If by magic again the food cravings vanished & I was in control. I’d spent two weeks focusing on the negative hence I was receiving just as much negative back. Once I was back on the ‘happy thoughts’ everything became lighter & brighter again. I embraced my final week in the corporate world with love.

Next time you get a craving for something you don’t usually eat. Check in with your emotions through stillness or meditation. See if there is something you have suppressed that is now showing up in a food craving.

Love K xx

p.s. Please seek professional medical advice if you have any strong feelings or symptoms that are physically effecting your health or daily life. This post is my personal experience of a very mild energetic block that I treated myself as a qualified holistic practitioner.

Energetic Exercise

September 9, 2013 By Kat

Over the past few weeks I’ve really noticed when I haven’t exercised as much as my body needs too. Just like stale air in our home can build up if we don’t open the windows & make the place feel yucky energy in our bodies can get stale if we don’t clear it out. I’ve been feeling sluggish & heavy within my body, not a good sign. We need to be flushing out our systems & moving the energy through to prevent a build up which then can manifest into physical symptoms. Exercise is perfect for that.

We are constantly evolving and what worked for me a year ago may not be having the same effect today. This is very true for how much exercise I need. I’ve pulled back on my yoga practice to a ‘maintenance’ level as far as my physical body is concerned. I’m not practicing half as many classes a week as I used too.

Another shift for me is that exercise is no longer about keeping the kilos off. This has been my biggest “ah ha” moment of late. In the past I’d slog it out at the gym, group fitness classes & at yoga with the aim of loosing or maintaining my weight. Epic fail. My weight was constantly yo-yoing. Once my focus shifted within & I ‘gave up’ focusing purely on weight loss magic things happened.

All the work I have done spiritually has made me realize how essential it is to work all four of my bodies in unison – physical, emotional, mental & spiritual in order to be balanced. When I was just focused on the physical body and disregarded the other three of course I wasn’t going to get anywhere. Inside had to change first in order to manifest on the outside. Once I realized this & listened to what my Soul was telling me literally my physical body took on the shape it was meant to be with a lot less effort and complicatedness. Soul is simple.

Sorting out my emotional baggage, getting on my spiritual path & focusing on doing what I love has been the best diet & weight loss program ever. I no longer need a layer of padding around my solar plexus to hide behind. The self-doubt has gone & so have the kilos. It was that straight forward for me*.

For the past year easing off the hard-core exercise has been good for me. It’s been about maintenance, relaxing, nourishing and taking it easy. It’s time to ramp it up again. As I mentioned above physical exercise goes far deeper into the invisible plane. I’ve started to notice the more healing & teaching work I under take the more exercise I need to be doing.

Why? I need to clear my system of any stale energy or emotions that might attach to me from my work. No matter how much protection or spiritual hygiene one does before or after a session a physical release is also needed. Exercising is part of my spiritual hygiene now. Energy, especially emotional energy, can get stored and stuck in every cell of our body. A physical flush out helps release this.

The Bikram Yoga I practice & teach is an amazing release for me. I can literally feel the blockages being sweated out my pores & left on my mat. Yoga of any kind is beneficial. Yoga asana work deep into the body to a cellular level. It’s not muscles and joints that get worked out, the respiratory, circulatory, lymphatic & endocrine systems get a good going over. The constant compression and extension of every part of our body inside & out helps flush fresh high speed oxygenated blood through it. Within this blood the stale energy is released & pushed through as well.

For example different energies get stored in different parts of our bodies. Self-doubt is stored in the stomach and fear in our kidneys. During a deep backward bend by compressing into our kidneys that fear is released. Ever get a bit scared when backward bending? It’s totally normal as its all that fear being released.

It’s important to keep our physical body strong & healthy in order to bring in more light. Light (love) raises vibration & assists greatly in the connection with Soul. Recently I’ve started getting headaches & feeling really lethargic. Signs I have not been releasing as much energy as I need to be. This has kept me away from the yoga room. When what I needed was to get in there! My vibration was lowering, as I wasn’t keeping on top of my practice.

Further assurance came when I took a well over due yoga class. I’ve missed yoga. I need it more than ever now to keep clean & clear. Lying in the pool of sweat, with the lights dimmed after class I was so at peace. Opening my eyes who knows how long later I was alone, content & lighter in more ways than one.

I’m sure my body and Soul will tell me when it’s time for a change again. Something new in the exercise field or just dial it down again. Till then the hot room is calling me home.

Love Seren xx

*Disclaimer – this is my own personal journey/experience. I’m not endorsing what I do is a magic way to loose weight & be healthy. Please seek professional advice before taking on a new diet or exercise program.

Click on image to enlarge  ©Seren Holistic Lifestyles Blog 2013  (please share the love with full credit thanks)

The Solar Plexus

June 3, 2013 By Kat

Most of you will have heard of the Chakra system of the energetic body. Here’s a quick 101 for those who are not familiar. In metaphysics it is believed our life force energy or Prana is held in different centres of the body called Chakras. Chakra in Sanskrit means ‘wheel’ or ‘turning’ as each Chakra is constantly spinning. There are twelve major chakras in total, with another seven to twenty one from the legs down. The middle seven are the most commonly known and worked with. There is a wealth of information all about chakras to be found on the net if you are unsure.

In this post I am focusing on just the third chakra the Solar Plexus or Manipura in Sanskrit. The colour of the Solar Plexus is yellow and its element is fire, this brings a strong association with the Sun our most powerful energy source. Located just above the navel it is the energy hub from which other energy centres draw from.

The reason I am highlighting this Chakra today is from a personal journey I have taken with it. Up until a year ago my life was governed by my crippling self-doubt. I needed to justify everything I did to prove it was worthwhile & to prove myself worthy. Instead of just rolling with it & owning my truth, I doubted and had to back up everything I did. My self-doubt stems from a Soul based desire to be perfect. Not just in this life, from many before. I keep coming back to ‘out do’ myself each time. Nothing wrong with that, we are here to grow & expand after all but the self-doubt was stifling my progress.

How does the Solar Plexus fit in? As the Solar Plexus is located around the stomach region trapped emotions such as anger, frustration, doubt, low self-esteem & worry can affect the organs in this area. For me I didn’t suffer terribly from digestive disorders but I certainly was very uncomfortable. By the end of the workday my stomach would be so bloated and gassy I looked like I was pregnant. I would dwell for days, even years on past hurts. All those emotions were building up inside me and manifesting in physical form around my middle. Slowly my stomach would swell to beach ball size with every emotion I held. Have you noticed when you are stressed or have a fright you instantly go to cover your stomach area with your hands? This area is precious & we strive to protect it.

My turning point happened when I got onto my Spiritual path nearly a year ago now. I needed sitting down for a good talking too directly from my Soul. That is just what I got. The work I did with my Soul Mentor was invaluable. I put in the effort and I got the results. Now I am following my Soul’s guidance to be on the right path for me the crippling self-doubt is under control to near non-existence. By leading from Soul there is no need to question, as I trust her guidance is spot on for me.

Now I have released my trapped emotions and negative thinking patterns my Solar Plexus is very happy & balanced. The result is no more bloating or cramping. I have literally lost kilos from around my waist & stomach. The layers of extra padding that grew to protect my precious energy hub is no longer needed or serving me so it has gone. It is amazing how that invisible energy and emotions can impact you physically. Change that negative way of thinking and wow you can change your life for the better. I am living evidence if you need it.

To keep my Solar Plexus balanced I must not hold on or get attached to situations or the emotions I mentioned above. Learning to let things go & wash through me has been tough. Now I acknowledge a situation has happened, I find the lesson in it & let it go. If I physically feel unbalanced I simply lay my palms over my Solar Plexus or have my left hand on my heart and my right on my stomach. This draws a connection between the two & keeps the energy flowing. A visual affirmation for me is I wear the Solar Plexus symbol on a wrist bracelet. Just to remind me where my energy power centre is if at any point that doubt creeps up on me.

Have a wonderful day everyone.

Love Seren xx

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