Notes from QueenBee:
What Do You Feed Yourself?

Hello, Everyone! How did the blue glass exercise go? What did you notice? How did you feel? I’d still love to hear from you about your experience. Now, let’s talk about a central theme in personal sustainability, “What Do You Feed Yourself?” Yes, I’m talking about food. But, I’m also talking about mental, emotional, and spiritual nourishment, too.

You Live in a Toxic World

This isn’t the world your Grandmother and Grandmother grew up in. Clean water has become a commodity to buy and sell (in case you didn’t know, water used to be free). The soil is depleted of minerals and filled with residues from toxic pesticides. The air is polluted. My buddies and I ran into someone who works for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission a couple of weeks ago, and he talked about nuclear rain in every part of the world. Not only that, but you are being bombarded with signs of chaos, competing truths, downright lies, and violence every time you turn on the radio and television. No wonder you feel overloaded at times.

You Are What You Eat

It’s really important to help your body/mind/spirit by consciously choosing what you feed yourself. For example decades ago when processed foods were a new, time-saving fad, the environment wasn’t as toxic as it is today. So, your body had an easier time dealing with processed foods. Now, people’s immune systems are so overloaded with environmental toxins, your body can’t possibly break processed foods down into any useful nutrients. Eating foods that your body can’t process is like filling up an empty space with garbage. Yeah, the space is filled. But, it’s garbage.

The same principle applies to your mind, emotions, and spirit. If you feed them a daily diet of negativity, how can you expect to stay in the flow of your highest good? While it might be fun to have a passionate confrontation with someone whose views you don’t agree with, is that “food” that will enliven and enrich your mind, emotions, and spirit? Or is it garbage, too?

Real Food Budgeting Tips

Many readers have asked us, “How do you improve your food quality and stay on budget?” The easiest way to make upgrades to your diet is to buy seasonal, local, organic real food, the kind of food your grandparents used to grow in their own garden or picked up from the local family farm. You can do this and stay on your food budget. For example, did you know that Whole Foods has an app that gives discounts on products? Many farmers markets booths often offer their produce at discounts at the end of the day. Were you aware that seasonal foods are less expensive than foods purchased out of season? I’ve even had community members with more than enough veggies in their garden give away their extra produce. You can take any extras you can’t use and freeze or dehydrate them. What other tips do you have for our readers that would help them save money shopping for real food?

It’s Time to Close the Dump

As I mentioned in my first post in the substainability series, sometimes you just have to turn the television and radio off. Just like your body doesn’t want to eat garbage, your mind doesn’t want to, either. Let’s all take timeouts from the negativity. That doesn’t just mean from the media and politicians. It also means taking a timeout from being the recipient of other people’s stress, negativity, and angst. There’s nothing wrong with telling someone the truth, “I feel overloaded at the moment. I’m not going to be able to have this conversation right now. Can I call you later, and we can make a time to sit down and talk?” What’s miraculous about telling the truth about feeling overloaded is that when you have that coffee break together, most of the time the angst is gone.

Give Yourself the Best Chance of Adapting

Adapting to environmental stress takes intention and support. Give your body/mind/spirit the best chance for easily moving through change by feeding them the highest quality food. It could take changing old habits to do this. For sure you’ll use some of your amazing creativity to make improvements. But, you will feel better and better as you “upgrade”  the support you give yourself in these times of chaotic change. Now, that’s personal sustainability!