Recently, I began eating 100% animal based foods, along with fruit and honey - the carnivore diet.
My whole life, I’ve had digestive problems and health issues.
No diet I’ve tried helped solve them.
I never felt truly well.
I couldn’t live like that any longer.
So I’m on an elimination diet.
I need to take care of myself because if I’m not healthy, I can’t be there for those who depend on me.
In order to make sure I’m well informed of the science, I started reading the Carnivore Code by Dr. Paul Saladino.
This short statement he makes caught my attention:
“Always seek your highest quality of life…always be aware of what nourishes your soul most in the moment.”
He’s specifically referring to slipping up on this extremely strict diet.
However, this isn’t about a cheat day on your diet - it’s about your attitude towards life.
He’s saying: take care of yourself across the full spectrum of life, in each and every moment.
Your highest quality of life is achieved by living intentionally in all aspects of life while balancing it with the moment to moment movement of life.
This idea has deep implications.
Notice he says “nourish.”
Do what nourishes your soul, what enriches you’re life.
He doesn’t say “do what seems right in the moment.”
That’s a dangerous, chaotic way to live.
Nourishment means whatever you do must align with your overall intentions.
It’s not fleeting - it’s a mentality flowing from your fundamental perspective on reality.
Thích Nhất Hạnh often spoke about intentional living and mindfully engaging only in what nourishes your soul.
By first tending to your garden, bringing love and peace to your soul, you will provide love and peace to others as well.
He believed that this way of living was how people would bring the kingdom of heaven to earth.
If your child or friend comes to you, but you are burdened with life and the things you have let creep in, you are not present.
Your body is there, but you are not there.
You are elsewhere, thinking of whatever is weighing on you. You are distracted.
And so your child or friend or lover wants some attention, some affection, but you cannot give it to them because you are thinking of yourself.
Of course you are.
You cannot think of anything else.
You cannot sustain an outward mindset because your soul is in disarray.
That is what happens to you when you do not first nourish your heart.
“Always seek your highest quality of life.”
How can you do this if you are living in such a way that you are poisoning yourself?
You must take care of yourself.
You must take care of yourself so that you can take care of others.
You must nourish your soul and live your highest quality of life so that you can nourish those you love.
How can you speak tenderly to the people in your life (strangers and loved ones alike) if you are allowing poison into your soul?
If you are not tending to your heart, you will be severely hindered in your encounters with others.
I’m on a plane as I write this.
Every flight, they say the same thing - “put your oxygen mask on first before attempting to assist other passengers.”
It’s obvious why.
If you black out while trying to help others, you’re no help to anyone.
Now you’ve become the burden because you didn’t take care of yourself first.
When you have not prioritized filling your soul with good things, it is like you have blacked out.
You burden others because you are deeply burdened.
You are not present and intentional and mindful.
You are full of worry, concern, and fear.
Your anger and impatience seeps out and harms others.
That is a dark place to be.
And you may not notice it.
So you must look inside your soul.
Say to yourself, “I’m living the highest quality of life right now.”
Does your heart object?
Notice where that statement doesn’t feel true.
Start there.
Nourish that place.
Tend to that part of your garden.
You must be intentional with yourself so that you can be intentional with others.
This is not self-centered living.
This is the highest form of sacrificial living.
All forms of love will flow from a soul that has been nurtured, and is full of light and life.
This is such a simple lesson from Thay...yet it is strangely difficult to follow. I'm turning more and more towards simplicity. Every day, notice something beautiful, and every day be part of an exchange of kindness. It can be on the giving end or the receiving end...so long as you notice that kindness has been exchanged.
You have a gift of using a simple idea, digging deeper into that idea and presenting people with different sides, faucets, points of view: thank you. It’s always thought provoking… and I’ve missed reading your posts