Physical health and conscious eating

In this post I want to touch on physical health. Everything I share in this post is my personal experience. I am not sharing anything that I have not experienced personally. I am not telling anyone what to do, just sharing my experience and personal opinion through my experiences.

The reason for me saying that is because nutrition is a touchy subject for so many, and it is always changing every year in the universities and so on. Something is good for you then they say it is bad or vice versa. 

I would like to share a story.

About 3 years ago I was at a conscious living expo sharing information on the Love peace harmony movement when a man approached me with a question. After about 2 minutes we where getting into a deep conversations.
The man was a nutritionist and had been for over 20 years. As nutrition has always been a big part of my life and I personally have tried everything from huge amounts of meat, being a  vegetarian, a vegan, a raw vegan and so on, I asked the man this question:

"If you could sum up everything you know about nutrition in a few words what would you say?"

The mans answer was awesome! He said 

"We have totally lost our connection with ourselves and our bodies. We must regain that connection because our bodies speak to us all the time but we don't listen. When we eat foods, our bodies tell us whether is good for us or not. If we feel sluggish, or we get heart burn, or dry mouth then that is our bodies saying "no good, stay away from that food." Yet if we feel clean, energised, fresh, light, happy, and satisfied, that is our bodies saying "Thats good! keep it coming!"

In my opinion this guys answer nailed it! That is exactly my conclusion to nutrition. Also I believe 100% in Karma, so everyone is individual and every persons bodies reacts to food differently.

I would also like to share that I have read a book called "You are the Placebo" by Dr. Joe Dispenza, which shows how the placebo effect works. In a nut shell if our minds believe something (anything!!) then our bodies will create the chemistry to match our belief which will then give us the result we believe is true.

I share this because I am aware of this when I go into anything, so I try and stay as neutral as possible.

Personally in my life I like to try everything and anything and I won't recommend something unless i personally have experienced it. Believe me I have tried everything! My friends at work call me a mad scientist.
But in this post I want to talk about nutrition and conscious eating.

I have always trained hard my whole life, whether it be boxing or weight training or cross fit. Then when I found my spiritual journey I swapped physical training for meditation. 
That was five years ago! and although I have a physical job to keep me relatively fit, I still haven't trained properly for five years which is huge for me.

After being a strict vegan for a year or so I felt very clean and clear, but I didn't like being so strict with my diet. I find that many vegans can be very attached to being a vegan and it takes over their life. Also vegans can be pretty aggressive in defending their food choice.

Anyway to cut a long story short I started to be a conscious eater. To me that means being conscious of where your food comes from and how it ended up on your plate.
The research from Cleve Backster shows very clearly that plants feel physical pain as well as having emotions. They feel peoples intention and get scared. This is what I mean by conscious eating, because whatever you choose to eat you should show your upmost respect, appreciation and gratitude to the soul of your food. By doing this the soul of the animal or plant that is on your plate has been appreciated for their sacrifice.

This is a teaching from the great Zen Master Thich Nhat Hahn:

(In my words and as I understand it) 

Whatever we eat may seem like it is just what is on our plate, yet their is a whole world of interconnectedness in our food. The whole family tree of the animal or plant is within our food. The sun, the rain, and the earth are within the food on our plate, because without them the food would not have been created. Even the person who killed or picked our food is within the food. Their parents and grand parents are within the food because without them the food would not end up on our plate. At the same time, the way the food was killed is also in the food. The pain, suffering and terror is within the food.

By looking at our food this way we become conscious and appreciative.

I personally don't believe that the human species is a meat eating species. I now many will argue with this but when I look at it through the eyes of pure common sense we are not meat eaters.

On a physical level, Our intestines are huge, and meat eaters intestines are small. We have to chew each mouthful 60 times and that is based on fruit and vegetables, where as meat eaters don't need to chew. They bite, rip then swallow.

Our jaws move side to side, and meat eaters don't.

I heard an analogy: If you place a infant in a cage with a strawberry and a rabbit the baby will eat the strawberry and stroke the rabbit. Yet if you did the same thing with a tiger it would attack the rabbit and not eat the strawberry. We are not born with "animal instincts. 


Also whenever I speak to friends and family who defend eating meat and dairy I always notice a common link with them all. They all suffer with the same condition. They all take medication for acid reflux. This is a clear sign something is wrong.

Now after saying all this I want to share that a year ago (last winter) I started eating meat again. 
My outlook was to have no attachment to what I ate, and also whatever I ate was an opportunity to bless the soul journey of that food by showing my deepest appreciation and also sending the soul of my food my deepest love and compassion and asking the saints to bless the journey of the food.

Over about a 8-10 months period I was eating meat at least twice a day. In that time I put on a belly, I always felt lethargic and my shoulders and joints where always in pain. Also I felt very foggy and dense and my spiritual eye and spiritual sensitivity in general decreased.

I then decided to stop eating meat again about 3 months ago. Just by doing this I started to feel more energy and less aches and pains.
Over the last 5-6 weeks I have started to train again. Nothing crazy, just basic training (body weight training). 

Remember the spiritual journey is about purifying the soul, mind and body. If any of these three are out of balance you will struggle to progress. In my experience Yoga is a great form of physical exercise yet I still believe there is huge benefits in getting your blood pumping every day. getting your blood rushing through your body definitely moves stagnant energy within the body and mind.

I have also introduced myself to cold exposure. Every day exposing my body to cold, whether it be a cold shower or a ice bath. I will go into the benefits of cold therapy in another blog if anyone is interested as well as breathing exercises. (I will also answer any questions at the bottom).

Training and nutrition go hand in hand. If your diet is bad and you start training you will just eat more junk because your appetite will increase.

Remember this when you are hungry your body wants nutrition. When we see obese people they are actually starving to death, this is one reason why they are so hungry all the time because they are not nutritionally satisfied.

In just a few weeks of basic training and from cutting out meat and dairy (Although I don't eat much dairy anyway as I believe dairy is even more detrimental to our health than eating meat) I have trimmed up again. I understand that muscle memory plays a role in it too but I feel like a different person.

I have also been practicing a number of different breathing exercises which have been incredibly beneficial, but I will leave them for another post or video.

My personal experience is that I feel better when I am not eating meat. And when I say better I mean better in every single area.
When I went back to eating meat again I was expecting it to taste like remembered it used to, but it was not even tasty. 

I believe everyone should try many different diets and see what works for them personally. Try eating a lot of meat and dairy for a while, then try eating no meat and dairy for a while, try everything and let your body tell you what works and what doesn't.

To sum up this blog post here are some personal tips I suggest:

- Change the way you eat first before training. If you are never going to give up meat just try cutting down on it.

- If you are suffering from acid reflux cut out meat and especially dairy for a month and see what happens

- Get your heart rate up every day, whether its through walking or training depending on where your at.

- listen to what your body is telling you. connect back with yourself and FEEL your body from the inside.

- introduce meditation into your life (It literally is the biggest influence on whether I am calm, patient, relaxed and grounded or the opposite). Simply bring your focus to your breath. If you breath slow, deep, quiet and regular your chemistry and physiology will change for the better. This is one way to judge how you are feeling. If you are stressed in any way your breathing will be fast, shallow, noisey and irregular. By resting your awareness on your breath you allow space in your thought stream, which then brings space in your world.

- become conscious and take the time to think where your food has come from and if it will be beneficial to your body, mind and spirit.

- Always take time to show appreciation, love, gratitude, compassion and light to whatever you are eating.

- when coming off meat, introduce foods that help control fungus in the body such as Reishi mushroom, Chaga mushroom, and Pau Di Arco to name a few. Fungus is a main contributor to illness in the west.

- Never miss the opportunity to ask for forgiveness for any mistakes you have made throughout your entire soul journey.

I hope this post has been beneficial in some way .

I am happy to answer any questions 

All the love I have to give

Nicholas Giannasi

Parents

It doesn't seem like a year ago I posted a blog dedicated to my father for his birthday, but it was!

Again its my fathers birthday and I want to share my love and appreciation for him.

Over the past few weeks alone my Dad has really touched me and Danielle with his love. Just the other day my mum told me that my Dad suggested visiting us to help us work on the bus. He also said he would sleep on the floor or camp in the garden (as we have no furniture left after throwing it all out) until the van was completed.
This deeply touched me and Danielle.

My parents would give us (me, my brother and sister) the skin off their backs if we needed it, they are so selfless.

I heard a teaching from the great Zen Master Thich Nhat Hahn about parenting. He used an analogy of growing lettuce. He shared that at Plum Village (the conscious Buddhist community he started in France) he grows lettuce, and he is responsible for the way the lettuce grows. If for any reason the lettuce didn't grow right, it would be crazy to shout and scream and blame the lettuce. If one shouts at the lettuce and blames the lettuce and neglects the lettuce, the lettuce with wither and die.
So it is so important that a parent nourishes the child with patience, love and kindness.

I share this because my parents have done this for me, and they still do and I am a father and a husband now.
There have been times when my parents have visited me and when we have been having a conversation I have noticed that they may not agree with what I am saying, yet they listen with love an patience. By doing this they lead me by their example.

I notice it straight away sometimes, and other times I will get it days later when I meditate.

I want to share a story, again from Thich Nhat Hahn that is very powerful.

“The day my mother died I wrote in my journal, "A serious misfortune of my life has arrived." I suffered for more than one year after the passing away of my mother. But one night, in the highlands of Vietnam, I was sleeping in the hut in my hermitage. I dreamed of my mother. I saw myself sitting with her, and we were having a wonderful talk. She looked young and beautiful, her hair flowing down. It was so pleasant to sit there and talk to her as if she had never died. When I woke up it was about two in the morning, and I felt very strongly that I had never lost my mother. The impression that my mother was still with me was very clear. I understood then that the idea of having lost my mother was just an idea. It was obvious in that moment that my mother is always alive in me.

I opened the door and went outside. The entire hillside was bathed in moonlight. It was a hill covered with tea plants, and my hut was set behind the temple halfway up. Walking slowly in the moonlight through the rows of tea plants, I noticed my mother was still with me. She was the moonlight caressing me as she had done so often, very tender, very sweet... wonderful! Each time my feet touched the earth I knew my mother was there with me. I knew this body was not mine but a living continuation of my mother and my father and my grandparents and great-grandparents. Of all my ancestors. Those feet that I saw as "my" feet were actually "our" feet. Together my mother and I were leaving footprints in the damp soil.

From that moment on, the idea that I had lost my mother no longer existed. All I had to do was look at the palm of my hand, feel the breeze on my face or the earth under my feet to remember that my mother is always with me, available at any time.”

I am very blessed to still have my parents still alive and well, and I have the good fortune of being able to speak with them any time I want, Yet I wanted to share this beautiful story because this is how I feel everyday.

Not that I have lost my parents, but that my parents are very much with me in everything I do. Also my grandparents, my brother and sister, my whole family and all my friends. We are all interconnected with one another. With the whole of humanity and all the animals and our beloved planet.

Whatever I do and wherever I go my parents are with me. They reside in my heart.

I can't express in words the gratitude I have for my parents, and I could never share what they have done for me in this blog. Yet I can share a little of how important they have been in my life.

I am 35 years old in June. I don't hold on to guilt, yet everyday I feel so compelled to create peace in this world because of the blessings I have received.

I have had such incredible parents, siblings, friends, wife, son, spiritual teacher, health, happiness and more in my life, how can I just sit back and say "thanks for a great life!"

For me to do that would be selfish. I would be just taking from life. The fact that I have had such a blessed life is what drives me to give back to the world. The love I have had and still get from my parents is overwhelming. It brings me to tears sometimes.

The deeper I go into the teaching of Karma I realise that I have had many good lives with my parents. I vow to always love and look after my parents in any way possible, in this life and in all future lifetimes.

I realise that some people in the world have not had good relationships with their parents. Maybe you are reading this and you had a lot of struggles or pain with your relationship with your parents. For this I am sorry, and I can't relate to your situation fully.

Yet I can share a simple practice that may help heal your relationship.

The practice is again from Thich Nhat Hahn. Do this practice daily.

Visualise yourself as a 5 year old child. Innocent in the world. See how vulnerable you are.

Now visualise your parent (that you have challenges with) as a 5 year old child. Innocent in the world. See how vulnerable he/she is.

By doing this you can understand that your parent may have had the same things happen to them that planted the seed of suffering in their store consciousness.

By doing this practice we introduce "Understanding" which plants the seeds of compassion within us. Then we can forgive. Then we can love, heal and bring light to the relationship.

When you hold these images of your parents you may repeat the words "I forgive you, please forgive me, bring Love peace and Harmony"

This practice can be done with those that have died also.

Right now we are living in a unique time in history. One that all the ancient traditions have pointed to as "the time of change,"

This is a subject I could write about all day but Im not going to. But what I will say is this, "Its so important that we care right now."

Its important that we care for ourselves, our loved ones, humanity, our planet, the animals and the forests and oceans. This time we are in literally is sink or swim, but don't be afraid. It is as simple as caring. Why is caring easy? because its our natural state as human beings. The only reason we may struggle is because of our egos. Our egos have separated us from nature. separated us from our true selves.

So make the effort to care and lead by example and together we can heal the world.

I want to thank my incredible parents from the bottom of my heart.
I owe them everything.

I want to wish my father a very happy birthday, he is 69 years old.

When I see how influential my parents have been in my life I understand how important it is to be a parent. A parent is everything to the child, and still when they are an adult. My parents have inspired me to be the best father I can possibly be to my beautiful son and any more children we may have come into our lives.

I owe you everything mum and Dad, I will do my best to bring peace to this world and share the love you have given me.

We send all the love we have to give

Nick, Danielle and Beau x

observing the way

What a wonder it is, the mystery of life.

I wonder in ore at the mystery of life.
I observe one reality through the windows called the eyes.
Through stillness I travel the cosmos without moving an inch. I move through it, everywhere at once. Yes this is what we are capable of.

Infinite dimensions, Infinite realms, frequencies and more.
So many different experiences, Yet all sharing the present moment.

Countless universes outside.
Countless universes within. 
All one universal body.

An intelligence holds everything in its place, creates harmony and balance.
I can't see it, yet I am an expression of it?

I feel it looking back at me through the eyes of my son.
Through my heart I experience this wonder, this love.
Name it and its lost.

Just when I think I have it, it can't be had. Yet we are all of it.

I stop attempting to capture it in my mind and decide to flow with it.
Through flowing, there are moments of alignment.

Trees, oceans and galaxies flow with it. My heart, lungs, organs and cells do too.

Experiencing a fraction of the unfathomable wonder behind all things, and the magnificent beauty it creates, I surrender.

Surrender allows me to observe what it wants to experience through me...

Compassion for all things, including myself.
The way of unity with all things...

There is no good or bad, everything contains both, therefore is.

All things are born from it. All things return to it.

How can we possibly be different from one another?

What a wonder it is. The mystery of life.