Everything in nature is about digestion.
We eat and drink, our bodies process and absorb the nutrients and eliminate the waste.
Waste, in it’s natural state, isn’t something bad – on the contrary, it provides the basis for new life to grow. Everyone who has ever had a garden knows this. Shit is pure gold. It is the most valuable thing we have. It feeds the ground, transforms empty soil into a rich, fertile substratum that is capable of producing tons and tons of food for generations of humans and thousands of species of animals. Waste is priceless.
We breathe in the waste products of plants and they in turn live off ours. We are in the middle of one gigantic feast and we are the consumers, the food and the waste product at once.
As we all know, digestion happens on more than one level. It happens in our stomach and GI tract, in the liver and in every cell of our body. Each single cell is a minute being with it’s own digestive organs and organs of elimination.
And even on the most subtle levels digestion continues. Our experiences are the food we ingest through our sense organs – our eyes, ears, nose, taste buds and skin. We digest and process them by means of our nervous system and eliminate them through our organs of action – our hands, feet, speech and our organs of elimination and reproduction.
We express the waste of our impressions through our actions in life. What we do, what we say, what we create is the waste product of our mental and emotional digestion.
And as all digestive waste, it becomes the basis for the experiences of the rest of the world. Generations feeding off each other, building layers upon layers of top soil in our minds, our hearts, our soul.
And as it is with all kinds of waste products – it only becomes toxic when it becomes stagnant.
Stagnant waste is like a sewage tank. It too becomes the basis for life, but what kind of life? Disease-causing bacteria, viruses, parasites and other organisms that are a potential thread to human life are breeding there like an erupting vulcano. Artificially sterile environments vs overly concentrated breedings grounds are not what nature had intended. What we need is a continuous flow of energy. Water that can run it’s course through natural rocks and underground will eventually be clean again. Emotions that can flow freely and express themselves openly and honestly will eventually transform. Even Trauma, the mental and emotional sewage tank, can reverse itself back into the powerful, clear river it was meant to be, flowing gracefully toward the ocean.
As long as we are keeping the channels open. As long as we don’t close ourselves up, hide behind a mask of pretence, stuff ourselves full of experiences – or food – we cannot process and end up with mental constipation or diarrhoea.
March is a great time to cleanse. A wonderful time to detox. March is the time of spring cleaning houses, gardens and bodies alike. This year, let’s include our minds.
Let’s investigate our input – how much can I take in? How much of the news can I actually process AND eliminate? Let’s take the current situation, this war we all wish wasn’t happening.
If I listen to the news every day, inform myself about all of the gorey details of this strange expression of some peoples accumulated waste, how much of it is being transformed into actions? How much of it can find expression in the world? Am I transforming the mental energy I take in into an action that becomes the basis for new, better life? Am I becoming an activist? An artist? If not, then maybe the diet I am living on is too heavy for my constitution.
Maybe I should consider a lighter diet, one of inspiring talks and meditation for breakfast, practical information or new skills for lunch, so I can eliminate the outcome of my learning to contribute it to a new and better world.
Meditation is a way of mental fasting that allows the mind to rest.
Let’s rest a while and help our own digestive processes. Let’s rest our minds, our hearts, our souls.
If you aren’t hungry, you loose your appetite, it’s usually a sign your body is detoxifying, busy eliminating waste that is threatening your health.
If you aren’t motivated, listless and resisting action, it is usually a sign that you are mentally constipated, things aren’t moving, you’ve been takin in more than what you can digest.
Let’s get things moving again.
Moving the body, moving the mind, eliminating, creating, taking, laughing, expressing.
Let’s get things moving again so that our mental digestion flows like a clean river toward the ocean of consciousness.
It’s only the first step that is the hardest. It’s the first step that is the most imortant.
A phone call, a date, a date, joining a new group, sitting for meditation, a Yoga practice. Getting your journal out, your paints, a dance, a peacefull kind of activism.
Which step are you taking today?