Click here to get a free newsletter Zen and a Way of sustainable prosperity: Balance, financial success, and sustainability with the secrets of the Japanese Omi-merchants.
Since I talked about how to deprogram yourself from the old paradigm in general, let me focus on some specific areas starting today.
As I said before eating is one of the most effective ways of transforming yourself, let me discuss this topic further. We eat three times a day, and changing our eating habit has a significant impact. In fact, eating is one of the biggest areas that we have been programmed. Food industry and medical industry are tied in a way that the former serves to produce the demand for the latter. Food industry influences our agricultural system, and the way we grow food affects the environment.
First, educate yourself with what contains in food sold at supermarkets. It contains all kinds of food additives that you don’t want to put in your mouth once you know what they are. Stay away from processed food as much as possible.
It is always better to buy ingredients yourself and prepare the food yourself. In this way, you get to choose what kind of oil you want to use, what kind of seasoning you want to use, and what kind of sweeteners you want to use.
Eat organic food as much as possible; organic vegetables, organic rice, bread made from organically grown wheat, oil made from organically grown ingredients, and so on. Organic food is not only good for your health but also it is good for the environment since you support organic farming by consuming their product.
Eat locally grown food as much as possible. It is environmentally friendlier since you use less energy to transport it. It also helps the local economy, and economic localization is a shift we need to create a circular economy. It is often healthier, too, since you don’t need to put too much preservatives.
Eat food in season as much as possible. Another word, it isn’t good to eat fruit or vegetables grown in green houses or imported from other climate zones. It is more natural to eat tomatoes and cucumbers in summer, and it is more natural to eat apples in winter.
The human body is designed this way; it fits natural rhythm. The same thing can be said about locally grown food. It is more suitable for our body to eat food which was grown within the same bioregion.
I said it was better to be vegetarian, but if you find it difficult to completely stop eating meat, you may want to apply this method instead. Avoid eating animals close to you the most. It means animals with 4 legs. If you have to, it is better to eat chicken, and fish is even better because it is further away from us.
You also want to consider how meat is produced. Avoid eating meat which was produced through factory farming. If you want to eat meat, find meat that is produced in more animal friendly manner.
Or you can eat less. It is much better to eat meat once a week than every day. Some vegetarians wouldn’t accept that, but I don’t like making rules. All things I said above, you don’t need to follow strictly.
As I said in previous posts, we don’t like to be told what to do, so making rules sometimes have the opposite effect.
Do what you want to do, in a way you feel comfortable and ready. Being a vegetarian isn’t the only way to transform after all. There are many other areas to think about. Even if you are a vegetarian, you could be creating damage in other areas and those people you criticize may be doing better in those areas, and you can’t really tell who is better. The bottom line is, don’t hang up on one single issue. Look at the forest, not a tree in it.
I know it is difficult to let it go if you feel strongly about something, but it is difficult for others as well, when they feel strongly about their issues, and yet can you listen to all of them and practice what they tell you? Probably not, because you only have a certain time and space in your life to pay attention to.
If we allow people to change in a way they feel ready and comfortable, we will have more people engage in the change, and as a result, create a bigger impact.
Anyway, do what you can, and enjoy eating, it is the most important thing. I will tell you more about it in later posts. Meanwhile, have a nice weekend.
One comment