Spiritual Care For These Crazy Times – Ep#016

0 (1s):
Welcome to the Soul Science Nutrition podcast, where you’ll discover that when it comes to your health, you’re so much more powerful than you’ve been led to believe. And now your host, she’s a holistic nutrition and lifestyle coach, chef author, and Yogi, Christine Okezie.

Christine Okezie (23s):
Hello, and welcome to the Soul Science Nutrition podcast. I’m Christina Okezie. Thanks so much for joining me today on this special solo show of the podcast. I want to explore the missing element in most standard nutrition and wellness systems, and that is spiritual self care living in these rapidly changing times. We really need to care for more than just our mind and our body. We need the medicine that comes from nurturing our spiritual dimension. Now I’m not necessarily referring to religion in a can look different for all of us.

Christine Okezie (58s):
I’m referring to any activities that you would engage in to feel a connection to a higher power, to feel more in the present moment, just to nurture that part of ourselves that naturally seeks greater meaning and purpose in life. I personally like referring to it as being connected to my soul. He see what I’ve noticed is that if you’ve been trying to navigate everything, that’s unfolding around us these days through the thinking mind alone, using willpower as that primary fuel to get things done well, you’re probably finding yourself incredibly depleted, having a lot of emotional reactivity and basically feeling at the mercy of your environment.

Christine Okezie (1m 42s):
What’s missing is the energy that comes from having an expansive sense of what you really are. What’s missing is a connection to the divine intelligence in all of us. See, there’s a lot of heavy, dense energy right now. Fear, grief, anxiety running super high, and it’s taking an enormous toll on our health and wellbeing to navigate wisely requires nothing less than shifting our consciousness.

Christine Okezie (2m 14s):
In other words, we need to ask our ego or our false self, our personality self to step aside and invite our soul, our higher self to lead and guide our way bottom line is if you want more peace, calm, and compassion in your daily life, we have to go to the source and that source is within us. So what’s required is connecting to the more subtle aspects of our mind and body going beyond this predominant identification of ourselves as physical beings.

Christine Okezie (2m 52s):
Think of it is cultivating the connection to your sacred self, your sacred nature. When we experience ourselves as something beyond these physical bodies in this physical world, we tap into a powerful source of inspiration, a sense of purpose to take care of ourselves and a clarity for what really matters to us in life. This shift in our state of being certainly cuts through that cultural obsession with body weight and body shape the pervasive toxic belief that we’re flawed, falling short or at best a never ending problem to be fixed.

Christine Okezie (3m 34s):
See when your mind lives exclusively, when your psyche lives exclusively in the dense realm of the physical. In other words, this physical body is all that I am well when pain or conflict or disruption happens. There’s no where to find refuge. There is nothing subtle. There’s literally a loss of the spirit of life when our foundation is built on the material, physical existence.

Christine Okezie (4m 6s):
So of course, there’s going to be a lot of emotional reactivity self-harming habits and behaviors. And of course, a lot of blame and shame, but we have another option. And that’s when we cultivate our mind to live in the subtle realm, or the realm of the sacred. When you build a foundation for your existence in the subtle realm, the more your psyche is able to perceive the truth of who you are, which is pure love.

Christine Okezie (4m 39s):
And from this new state of awareness, you have a completely different experience of life. So instead of feeling powerless, amid the uncertainty or upheaval, that’s going on, you live with an inner knowing. Think of it as a beautiful happiness shield. It wraps you in a blanket of contentment, peace and safety. Now it doesn’t mean you don’t ever experience pain, rather, there’s this beautiful alchemy that becomes possible.

Christine Okezie (5m 11s):
You see, when you connect to this innate divine intelligence, all the challenges, difficult emotions that normally might fester get stuck and threaten our wellbeing. Well, these are transformed. They’re transmuted, and they actually help us expand and grow even more. They pull more you out of you, so you can experience even more of your true self. We really do have to interrupt this habit of looking for things around us, the people situations and circumstances to be different in order for us to feel okay, it’s not the circumstances or the problems that we have that shape our lives.

Christine Okezie (5m 55s):
It’s really how we view and respond to them. So the moment you shift from feeling like a victim to knowing that you are a cocreator of your life, is the moment that you’ve connected to that divine intelligence that lives within you. It’s why I’ve come to understand spirituality is at the heart of all healing. Another way to think of that is that self love is at the heart of all healing, more than ever. Spiritual nourishment is exactly what is required to shift us Biochemically neurologically energetically in the direction of thriving, not just surviving, cultivating this connection to ourselves as sacred beings, you might say is truly the most important health skill.

Christine Okezie (6m 43s):
Bottom line, staying healthy in these crazy times is a powerful invitation to up our game. As humans, we have an important choice to make continue living in survival mode, allowing our primitive reptilian brains to run the show or have the self discipline to develop our frontal cortex, the higher centers of our existence. It’s really awesome that we can step into this powerful knowing through the lens of neuroscience or on the spiritual path, both are equally valid opportunities to embrace a new definition of health.

Christine Okezie (7m 24s):
Embracing a connection to our divine nature elevates our consciousness, which is what will help us steer clear of drama, reactivity. And most importantly, live from a space of intention. Connecting with our soul, taking the guidance from our higher self will be how we manage this crazy level of uncertainty, process, the horror and the grief that’s coming to the surface and not get overwhelmed with negative thinking.

Christine Okezie (7m 55s):
It’s how we’ll find the calm and the clarity amid the external chaos of these times. A beautiful quote from Gay Hendricks captures this, and he writes, “Let’s get our priorities straight focused first on who you are and let your actions flow from the place of self knowledge. Your inner life must be fed and nurtured as much as your physical body do not focus on appearances and external achievements while letting your inner life languish.”

Christine Okezie (8m 29s):
Okay. So how do we practice self care? How can we nurture our connection to our higher self and become more aware of what is, and what is not so important in life? Well, I’m going to share my top four strategies. And at the top of my list as a Kundalini yoga teacher is Kundalini yoga. Kundalini yoga is a powerful technology designed to elevate our consciousness through breathing, mantra, meditation, and specific physical postures.

Christine Okezie (9m 3s):
The practice of Kundalini yoga, literally rewires your system. It tunes our body and our mind to a higher frequency. And you have a direct experience of your soul to learn more about Kundalini yoga. I recommend visiting the website, www.3HO.org, and I’ll put that in the show notes. And now of course there’s meditation and all kinds of flavors and modalities. And while meditation itself may not necessarily have any basis in spiritual practice, the whole benefit of calming your mind, detaching from your thoughts brings you into that contemplated state and creates a space for you to just be.

Christine Okezie (9m 53s):
So I highly recommend that. And let’s say you’re new, or let’s say that you’re trying to reinvigorate your practice. My favorite apps would be insight, timer Headspace, or calm.com. And once again, those will be in the show notes as well. Now the third strategy for spiritual self care that’s helped me tremendously has been reading for inspiration. There is an abundance of books and certainly a lot of internet resources, videos, audios podcasts on personal growth and spirituality.

Christine Okezie (10m 27s):
So my recommendation is to spend some time reading, even just a page or two to give you a hand in maintaining an optimistic attitude and an open hear. Build in just a few minutes, first thing in the morning, or perhaps at the end of the day, or even when you’re taking your walk or driving around from place to place. It’s a great opportunity to tune into some inspirational audios or podcasts. And I’d love to share with you my top five authors who’ve really shaped my development on the spiritual path and the first would be Tara Brach She is the author of Radical Acceptance.

Christine Okezie (11m 7s):
The second would be Gay Hendricks, the author of conscious living, Tosha Silver, the author of outrageous openness, Mark Nepo, the book of awakening and Don Miguel Ruiz, the Mastery of Self. Once again, I’ll put these in the show notes as well. Now, last but not least is the fourth strategy for practicing spiritual self care. And that’s being outside in nature.

Christine Okezie (11m 39s):
The first thing to realize when you’re out in nature is that we’re not separate from it. In fact, we’re an integral part of it all our body is made up of all the same elements, minerals, energy that make up the planet. So just simply being physically outdoors naturally connects you with your extended existence. One of my favorite things to do, to transcend the space time, reality, and create a more expansive experience of myself is to look skyward.

Christine Okezie (12m 13s):
In fact, many civilizations, gazed at the stars, looking for guidance, looking for inspiration. And when you realize that you’re made up of the same star dust, that’s up there, you can really kind of look beyond this mundane physical world and tap into something beyond. I also love staring at trees. I find them to be really captivating, really soothing, and just a beautiful way to feel connected to mother earth.

Christine Okezie (12m 45s):
I often imagine on my walks, that roots are growing into the ground, extending outward from my feet. Just giving you an immediate sense of grounding, safety and security connecting with the beauty of the natural world of the outdoors is such a powerful, fundamental way to really experience our essential nature. And then of course, there’s the moon. Have you ever looked up at the moon for a long time and just felt this connection gazing at the moon, particularly when it’s full or dramatic harvest moon, there’s just an instant connection to something mystical to something sacred.

Christine Okezie (13m 32s):
And of course, when it comes to connecting more deeply with ourselves in nature, nothing for me, beats being near water, perhaps it’s because our bodies are made up predominantly owater being in the ocean for me, or being on top of the water in a sailboat creates this meditative state. You know, it’s actually a calm, a peacefulness. There’s just a sense of general satisfaction with life in the moment, at least for me. So whatever that is.

Christine Okezie (14m 3s):
So whether that’s, you know, hiking in the mountains, walking by the beach, walking on in your backyard, on the grass gazing at the moon, being in nature without a doubt is so good for our soul. So I do hope that this conversation has been valuable to you because I sincerely believe that in these unprecedented times, there is an important opportunity for us to see that the basis of health is aligning ourselves with an inherent wisdom.

Christine Okezie (14m 35s):
That’s within us all. This is why we’re all here after all, we crave this peace, this light, this freedom, and the truth is it’s already within us. So thanks again for listening. And if you enjoyed this episode, I’d be grateful if you could leave a rating and review, and if you haven’t already subscribed to my podcast, please hit that subscribe button. And of course, finally, if you want to connect, you can follow me on Instagram at energetic nourishment, as well as my website, energetic nourishment.com.

Christine Okezie (15m 13s):
Bye for now.