Clients come to me with their food journals and they are often pretty darn clean. They follow a real food lifestyle and they are perplexed that they aren’t getting the results they hoped for. The biggest issues they are looking to resolve are:

• weight (and or fat) loss

• digestive issues

• autoimmune conditions

• blood sugar handling

• hormonal fluctuations

• mood stabilization

They beat themselves up for not being perfect. For having a gluten free treat, a glass of wine now and then, a daily cup of coffee, high FODMAP foods, or perhaps the dreaded nightshade.

Here’s the thing. If you don’t slow down to truly look within about what’s going on, dieting harder will only fuel the fire.

You need to stop, take a deep breath, and look beyond food.

Yes, your nutritional template is huge. Getting good quality whole foods into your nutritional template while removing inflammatory foods such a refined carbohydrates, GMO foods, factory farmed animal products, and industrial seed oils is going to remove tremendous stress from your body, supporting your healing journey.

But what about your spirit and soul?

When you are alone with your thoughts, what do you say to yourself? Do you even listen?

Nourishing your body is so much more than food. It takes nourishing your mind. Your spirit. Your soul.

It takes slowing down, presence with the now, attention.

Your thoughts are feeding your mind, body, and soul. What thoughts are you feeding yourself? Would you feed someone you love dearly with those same thoughts? What about a child?

Probably not.

I know all this is easier said than done though. I’ve been there.

You see all over social media “self love” – “love yourself first” – etc…

But, how do you just love yourself when you really don’t like yourself? It’s not like you can just turn on a switch and say:  “oh, okay, I love myself, I’m better now.” It didn’t work like that for me. Intellectually one might know that it’s what you are supposed to do to change. But there needs to be a path to get to that point. There needs to be will. There needs to be a glimmer of hope.

I want you to know that you are loved. I know there is a Divine Love that connects us all and we are one. No matter what you have done in the past, the pain and trauma you have endured, you can move beyond it and have a new life. You can be free of your pain.

One of the most profound influences in my life was when my husband and I participated in the Oprah & Eckart Tolle: The New Earth web series in 2008. Learning to be present when a painful challenge in our family’s life was crushing my spirit. It opened up my heart and mind to explore other ways of connecting with my spirit. I later went on to discover Reiki. What is Reiki? I’ve had a tough time putting it into words but for me, I’ve used it as guided meditation. I learned Reiki from the beautiful spirit, Terry Jordan, a Reiki Master and co-founder of Eastwest Reiki Association, LLC. This is how Eastwest Reiki answers the question, What is Reiki?

What is Reiki?

Ray’ key ~ Universal Life Force or Spiritually Guided Life Force Energy

Reiki (Ray’ key) is a holistic, healing practice for self-care that can also be shared with other people. The form of a Reiki practice includes the placement of hands on or above areas of the fully clothed body. A consistent Reiki practice is a meditative connection that balances our physical, emotional and spiritual life experiences; the innate healing response which is accessible to everyone.

The National Institutes of Health has classified Reiki as a form of energy medicine. There are no known contraindications connected with Reiki, and it does not interfere with any medical procedures or drug treatment that may be prescribed by your doctor.

The hand placements for a Reiki treatment are non-invasive and easy to learn. Reiki can be useful for:

• Stress relief
• First aid
• Reduction or elimination of chronic pain such as migraines or back pain
• Addictions
• Preparation for surgery, chemotherapy or radiation
• Treatment of illnesses like cancer
• Peaceful support at both the beginning and the end of life
• A deepening of personal and spiritual growth

Increasingly, Reiki is being offered in hospitals and clinical environments, yet it is just as effective in casual settings such as your home.

I recommend watching and listening to The New Earth Series with Oprah and Eckart Tolle. I also recommend Eckart Tolle’s book, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. If you can, check out Integrative, Functional, and Holistic health clinics in your area that offer Reiki and experience a session for yourself. Even better, take a class so you can use Reiki on yourself. Practicing Reiki as a guided meditation before bed was a guarantee that I would fall asleep. It might work for you too.

The next step I recommend is learning methods of releasing buried negative emotions. If you are experiencing issues with your health or weight loss/fat loss goals, and have not done this work, then you need to do this! These old emotional traumas are toxic to your body, mind, and spirit. You don’t need to hold on to them anymore. One of the best method’s I know that is easy, free, and you can do without even sharing your personal shit with anyone else if you don’t want to, is Emotional Freedom Technique. I love the work of the brother and sister team, Jessica and Nick Ortner of www.TheTapping Solution.com. I’ve shared about it in a past blog and I can’t recommend this work enough. Try it! I will often do this in the shower! You can teach this to children or even do the tapping on a child to help calm them down. Tapping helps stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system. The state of “rest and digest” when your body can focus on healing. Many people are stuck in sympathetic mode or “fight or flight”. Your body cannot optimally digest, heal, detoxify, or made sound decisions in this state. I believe this is the key to healing. Getting into the state as much as possible throughout the day.

I personally also meditate daily using a bio-feedback device by HeartMath called Inner Balance. It help motivate my competitive spirit by giving me feedback on how well I am doing. It takes practice to learn to meditate but with constancy, your body, mind and spirit will crave that time!

So, you don’t need to diet harder! You need to slow down, breath, be present, and work on forgiving and loving yourself.

I hope you find these tools helpful. You are love. You are beautiful. You deserve to feel joy and to be at peace.

Much love,

Holly xo

Originally published Mar 13, 2016 

I love to post about nutrition and nourishing the mind, body, and spirit. So please follow me on my Facebook Page, Nourishing Excellence by Holly Morello and my Instagram and Twitter Accounts: @NourishingHolly. If you are in Portland, I facilitate the Portland Paleo Primal Network Facebook Page and Group. It’s not strictly “Paleo” but a place where you can learn about local whole food and holistic living resources.

Note: I sometimes have links in my blog posts about products and services and I love and trust. As a thank you, some (not all) of these companies pay me a small affiliate fee. It’s not much but you should know! 🙂

Disclaimer:  The information contained herein is not to be construed as medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any medical condition.  These statements made have not be approved by the FDA, nor should they be taken as a substitute for medical advice from a licensed physician.