I recently had a discussion with my beautiful son about right foods for the body. He is extremely conscious of what he takes into his body and will go without rather than put something in that is not what he considers to be right foods for his body.
I am in total agreement with him concerning right foods and how they support and make for a healthy body. We define right foods as foods that have a life force, or prana in them. Foods that have been consciously and mindfully prepared, free of pesticides, chemicals, and negativity.
Eating right foods allow us to feel light, carry less weight, rid our body of inflammation, and even dis-ease. When our physical body is humming along and running at this high vibrational level we have the energy we need to take care of and participate in other aspects of life with a clearer more focused mind.
I am so impressed by my son’s commitment and discipline to feeding his body right foods, and he is setting an example I hope to follow. This discussion led us to another way we consume things, and brought forward the title above, conscious consumption.
As a being with 3 bodies – physical, subtle, and casual (soul), we began to discuss how and what we feed the other bodies, and the affect it has on us as individuals and on our society as a whole.
Feeding the Subtle Body
Our subtle body is our electrical body, the place where we feel things, and it is fed by “right impressions.” I will define right impressions as things that uplift, uphold, and inspire. This can happen in a multitude of ways; through our ears with beautiful music and lyrics, through speech of positive words, or through the witnessing of a beautiful sunset or piece of art.
Our physical body allows us the opportunity to literally experience life, to hug someone, to work, to cook, to play. It is the vehicle we are so blessed to use in this lifetime to act and respond with. Our subtle body is where we experience our feelings, where we feel the hug, where we taste the food, where we hear the music. This is our place of feelings and where we form our impressions of the world around us and begin the discovery of what we like and perhaps dislike, and what we find pleasure in doing. It is the place of impression.
How we share things or how they are shared with us, is felt by the subtle body and where we respond according to how it makes us feel. As we develop our “taste” for things, we are expanding our view and feel for the world. It is why a first impression can be so important, it sets up an initial response from our feelings, and this is happening from the day we are born. As we evolve in our state of feelings we can gain greater control of our responses as we learn empathy for others and choose the state of our response.
Our understandings of what is around us and within us begins the play of interaction and the creation of our world, the one we participate in daily. Our little world then interacts with other people’s little worlds and this is where connections can be made or not.
From the moment we are born we are taking in both physical sustenance to sustain the health of the physical body and impressions that feed our subtle body through our senses.
Setting Up Our Ideals
This is why right impressions are so essential to our well-being, just as right foods are for the body. Because right impressions are determining how we see and view the world, they are setting up our ideals for how we view the world and how we respond to the world, they are informing the soul as to how to be, or not be.
Given the right impressions one moves forward in life supported by ideals that strengthen self and our society. If we feel our society is not on the right track, we can trace back the health of any given society based on the impressions being made. Are the impressions supportive or destructive to the soul?
An obvious example is our source of entertainment. The advancement of technology has led to anything being spread quickly and available for easy consumption, and this holds true for our entertainment. In our homes, our cars, with our phones and our computers we can sit down and take in whatever source of entertainment we wish. If the news is what we wish to entertain ourselves with at the moment, we can turn it on and be fed by it. If a movie or TV show is what we wish for our entertainment, we can very easily watch a show or a movie and be fed by it.
What we choose to be fed by in these forms sets forward impressions being taken in by the subtle body and forming the ideals we carry in our souls. If we desire a society that lives harmoniously and peacefully, then we take care of the impressions we are making on others and the ones we are allowing to be made on us.
This is where conscious consumption becomes so very vital.
Feeding the Souls of Our Children
When I was growing up, we had 3 TV channels, no computers, and no cell phones. The world that I was exposed to was mostly made up of actual interactions with my family, both immediate and extended, and a small circle of friends made at school and the teachers I was exposed to.
I am grateful and feel deeply blessed that much of my world contained uplifting and inspiring impressions. Some people might refer to my young life as sheltered.
I am okay with this analogy and actually grateful for it. I believe my parents did a good job sheltering me not from just the physical elements of the world but of negative elements that could harm and/or damage my spirit. Their fortification left me with a strong ideal of love and compassion.
Now it did not mean there was not suffering in my world, it means that they helped to provide me with enough right impressions to sustain my soul through tragedy and the more difficult experiences in life. I have had my share, some worse than others, and not even close to the suffering some have had to endure.
If I had to put into a few words what my parents did for me, then I would say they helped me view the world as friendly and good, which has allowed me to offer empathy and sympathy to others, because it was offered to me.
I can only imagine a young life without this, a life that began in an unsupported fashion, with negative impressions that caused damage to one’s soul, and how the initial response and reactions to the world could very easily differ greatly from my own.
If my world, both in my home and what I took in through other means, was all negative and even violent, I believe I would view the world as unfriendly and have little compassion for self or others.
Today, we and our youth can have exposure to much at the touch of our fingertips. We can turn on many devices and receive impressions of varying sorts. Much of our current entertainment includes violence. We have moved from the Lawrence Welk era into an era where we sensationalize murder and violence and their repercussions. Like all things seeking balance, we have swung the pendulum from one end to the other. As long as this is what we choose to consume, then the entertainment world will respond accordingly. If violence sells, then violence it is. The power to change the world has always rested in the consumer’s hand. It is not the entertainment world choosing what we will consume, it us, the consumer choosing to uphold these ideals.
I am not suggesting limiting things, I am suggesting awareness and the need for mindful choices for ourselves and our youth. If we hope to live in a world of peace and harmony then consuming that which we hope to experience in our world is necessary for setting up ideals that are reflective of such.
I share this in hopes of broadening the understanding of the value of impressions and how they form the ideals we hold on a personal level and our world as a whole.
Einstein, one of my favorite beings ever, said, “if we want our children to be smart, read them fairy tales. If we want our children to be geniuses read them more fairy tales.”
He understood the value of right impressions and its formation of ideals.
If we think our society needs to change, then look to the impressions we are making. Are our entertainment and media nourishing us? Are the things we are choosing to take in uplifting and inspiring us?
Conscious Consumption is essential for a forward moving, ever evolving, soul and society.
Copyright 2018 Melody White. All Rights Reserved.
Learning to Live with Your Heart Wide Open 