Cooking Consciously – How NOT to Poison Our Food

In the east they say, “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.”

A good place to start is by making sure that your kitchen space is clean, hygienic and well-organised. A tidy kitchen helps to keep your mind clear and uncluttered and the kitchen area energetically uplifted. If you can open a window or door in the kitchen to bring in some fresh air, this also helps to energise the space. Deep cleansing your kitchen from time to time is also recommended including cleaning out your fridge, cabinets, and throwing away any expired items, including spices. Look after and enjoy your kitchen as it is the nucleus of your home and where you prepare cook and eat your life fortifying nutrition.

Next, wash your hands before starting to cook. When we prepare food, we are touching it with our hands and our feeling, and this creates the vibration that goes inside the bodies of our loved ones. It follows then that we should be aware that we are involved in a very delicate process. You start to realise that you can heal or poison someone with your daily cooking.

Be present while cooking. If you notice your mind drifting to the past or the future or engaged in a story line, just gently bring your attention back to the present moment. Staying present will make you aware and conscious and your food will reflect that in both taste and vibration. Cook with love as food is nourishment! To avoid putting too many vibrations in the food, stir the food only when necessary and move the food around as if in the shape of a Star of David. Most people when they cook stir the food frequently and in a circular motion.

Osho said it best: “Be total in your acts, and if you are total you have to be aware; nobody can be total without being aware. Being total means no other thinking. If you are eating, you are simply eating; you are totally here-now. The eating is all: you are not only stuffing, you are enjoying it. Body, mind, soul all are in tune while you are eating: there is a harmony, a deep rhythm, between all three layers of your being. Then eating becomes meditation, walking becomes meditation, chopping wood becomes meditation, carrying water from the well becomes meditation, cooking food becomes meditation. Small things are transformed: they become luminous acts, and each act becomes so total that each act has the quality of Tao.

Then you are not the doer when you are total. Then God is the doer, or the total is the doer — you are just a vehicle, a passage. And becoming that passage is bliss, is benediction.”

– Tao: The Pathless Path, Vol-1

Lastly, eat with a sense of deep gratitude. The food you eat is life and eating with a sense of gratitude will change the way it’s absorbed by your body.

Existence is about nourishing the ones you love. With these small yet profound adjustments to approaching food, you can shift your cooking to promote healing and high vibrations that benefit you and your entire family.