Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.
-William Arthur Ward
The art of kitchen and table Satva
According to Ayurveda, the ancient vedic natural healing medicine, the consciousness of the cook directly affects the food itself. Dr. Thomas Yarema writes in one of his books, “Sattva is the essence of purity, creativity and light. A Satvic chef naturally infuses loving energy into every dish” . I could not agree more, but in my work I see that this isn’t happening in your house, in your kitchen or your table.
I often hear my clients complain about my insistent suggestion for them to cook. We have been exposed to such a negative charged idea of what cooking means. From our upbringing, pop culture and the commercials created by the food industry, cooking and seating at the table to eat is now pictured as punishing hard work or a luxury. This messages are not true, they are limiting believes we have adopted to avoid our greater good, they perpetuate our feelings of inadequacy and powerlessness. To cook healthy, wholesome and simple meals and to sit at the table in reverence of the gifts received is the most powerful thing you can start doing today to get healthy and be happy.
To help you start this practice, we must work on the mind, change the setting and shift the perspective . The following are three proven ways to break that resistance.
- Create a satvic kitchen and table. This means a space that is pleasing, inspiring and beautiful. Keep these areas clean and orderly. This will open the space for inspiration and will make your task of cooking easier and more pleasurable
- Bless the act. I invite my clients to have a candle in the their kitchen and one at the table. Light the candle before cooking and say a prayer, do the same before eating. You can place you hands over the foods symbolically blessing all of it, including the people that harvested and the land where it came from. Use your own words or use one that you know and resonates with you. At the end of this are some of my favorite ones
- Create & honor a routine. If cooking everyday is not possible for you, then create days where this is part of the schedule. Refer to them in a positive manner such as “Nourishing time” “Creative Chef day” “Healing Cooking Time” etc. This will help break the old paradigm of seeing cooking as a burden. Respect this time as you would a doctors appointment, because in many ways it could be more healing than seeing the doctor. Make it part of your weekly routine, and see how after a few weeks you are comfortable in the rhythm of your cooking schedule.
Practice these three things in tandem. There is no reason why you cannot enjoy cooking or why you cannot get better at it. Be grateful of the fact that you have access to foods, offer thanks for having choices, and a kitchen, fire/electricity to cook, a table to enjoy your meal and so many blessings around food and nutrition. Stop and think for a moment about the great act of alchemy that cooking is. As you transform ingredients into tasty meals, you also transform your body, your mind and your future. May you always keep the sacred act of cooking in the highest place and be grateful for each meal.
“Sahanavavatu – Let’s be together. Sahanau Bhunaktu – Let’s share a meal together. Sah Veeryan karvavahai – Let’s be vital together. Teajs vina vadhi tamastu ma vidvishavahai -Let’s be radiant together and dispel darkness and negativity in the world around us. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti – May pace prevail” – Traditional Vedic blessing
“Merciful Father in Heaven, we praise Your Holy Name, we thank you for the food, which we are about to partake. we ask You to fill , each morsel, with goodness for our minds, bodies and souls. Amen” – Christian Prayer
“As this food and its life energy enters our bodies and becomes our bodies, may our minds be opened, our hearts be inspired, and our bodies be nourished, so that our words, and actions be living manifestations of our unique expression of the Divine Love within” – Dr Thomas Yarema
“Spirit, Changing Mother, We are grateful for the two legged, four legged, winged, plant and mineral kingdoms, finned and creepy crawlies, all those that have scarified so that we might be sustained. Four our lives we are grateful. And bless the cook! Daaiina (ans so it its)” – Quero Apache blessing
“We thank Great Spirit for the resources that made this food possible; we thank the Earth Mother for producing it, and we thank all those who labored to bring it to us.May the Wholesomeness of the food before us, bring out the Wholeness of the Spirit within us.” -Rev. White eagle
