What Does Your Soul Eat for Breakfast?

What Does Your Soul Eat For Breakfast?

by Linda Heron Wind, Ph.D.

They say that breakfast is the most important meal and I certainly would not think of skipping it. My body seems to need that boost of protein first thing in the morning to get going after a long night's sleep. For some time now, however, I have been feeding my soul breakfast before I feed my body. If I had to choose between the two, I think it would be to feed my soul.

So what does my soul like for breakfast? Some prayer and song for appetizers followed by a little yoga, Qi Gong, and Tai Chi with a side of inspiration and meditation. Different souls, like different physical bodies, seem to thrive on different kinds of food. Some different possibilities might be walking in nature, beauty of any kind, chanting, listening to music, deep sharing with a friend, certain places that feel powerful, ritual, or whatever makes your heart open and your spirit sing.

We live in a materialistic culture that does not openly acknowledge the soul in the work place, schools, or even in our homes. Rituals that feed the body and mind have replaced those that feed the soul. The soul cannot be fed through thinking alone. Only when the heart opens in response to thought is the soul fed. Joy is a sure sign that soul-feeding is in progress.

Souls can be fed through things outside us, like a beautiful sunset, or things inside us, like feeling unity. Those things that feed us from the outside can be temporary or infinite. The temporary ones make us feel joyful for the moment but then the joy fades and doesn't return again with the same thing. For example, you may want a material thing and once you possess it you feel joy for a short while. It soon loses its ability to bring you joy. Sunsets and rainbows, on the other hand, cannot be possessed but bring joy every time you encounter them or even think about them. Thus, outer beauty is a more sustaining food for the soul than outer possessions.

Inner soul food is more of a choice of how to see the world. You can have two people in the same situation where one is fed and one is not. For example, I might walk down the street and admire each yard filled with flowers, allowing the colors and plant spirits to feed me. Another person walking on the same street may not notice the flowers because they are thinking about the next day or what happened yesterday, or how neat the lawns are and what kind of car is in the driveway. The inner response of what you choose to notice and how you perceive it can feed the soul in any situation. Innocent perception or perception without labeling or judging is one inner attitude that feeds the soul.

There is also innate soul food. Horses have always fed my soul from the first time I saw one. I like their smell, the feel of their noses, the sight of them running. Just thinking about them feeds me. Everyone has something like that just like we have our favorite physical foods. Take the time to find out what your innate soul food is.

The path of joy, then, requires that we feed our soul each day. Perhaps the tendency for our culture toward being overweight is not an Atkins diet deficiency but instead our attempts to feed our souls with physical food. The hunger is not a physical one but a soul hunger that we have misread. So try a gourmet soul breakfast of inspiration and beauty and see if your hunger pains subside. My physical hunger is a much better reflection of what my body actually needs when my soul's belly is full.

My soul eats beauty
It thrives on inspiration
It snacks on laughter!

If you have comments on these articles or ideas for future topics, call Linda Heron Wind at (585) 924-5620 or send e-mail to LHWind@aol.com.

Page last modified June 29, 2004 by RMC