The body is a highly sophisticated ecosystem that responds to everything you place in it, on it, and around it.
Our focus has been guided towards numbers like calories, steps, BMI (weight and height). These quantitave perspectives can be practical, but they often overlook the more subtle qualitative dimensions of health that can be observed and felt more easily through focused awareness than with measures and scales or lab equipment.
??? info "Dive deeper"
The body is comprised of a fine balance of elements in different frequencies and states. These are a reflection of the state of the underlying aether at phases and degrees of motion. For instance solid materials are heavy, dense and even though it appears inert, their molecules are actually moving, albeit very slowly. Whereas when these molecules are heated, they undergo a dissolution of the bonds (which are really not a solid thing either, more an electrostatic coupling), and they 'melt' and move from solid to liquid and eventually to a gas and residue (solid aggregate byproduct). If we take more descriptive names to the states we could say the solid "earth" moves through liquid "water" by a process called "fire" and transforms into a gas called "air". Really all these states are part of one all encompassing consciousness and energy, the essence of which is plasma or "aether" as named in Ancient Greek. Modern science disregards this final point, owing to an experiment in 1887 called the Michelson Morley experiment, however this does not actually disprove the existence aether. You can read more about this at Aether Force Blog
Most of what fills supermarket shelves is the product of monopolized supply chains — processed, preserved, and profited from at every step. The alternative is older and simpler: know who grows your food.
Work with local farmers. Join a CSA (community-supported agriculture). Buy from a neighbor who keeps hens. Trade skills for produce. When you eat food grown by yourself or someone you've spoken to, something shifts — you feel the livingness of the food and the vitality it brings you.
Nearly every aisle in a conventional supermarket funnels money into a handful of conglomerates. The [documentary on monopolies](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLZV5EesNNI) covers how all the big brand food items are owned by a handful of conglomerates and VC firms and is worth watching to see how it is possible that near everything in your Walgreens or 7 eleven has been engineered for profit and without your best interest or health at heart. You could also see Pam Peeke's fantastic lecture on the Hacked and Hijacked brain on how fast food acts like cocaine on the dopamine centres of the brain, and how to reset via meditation. Start by removing one aisle at a time from your routine and soon you'll feel your taste buds catching up to your desire for healthy organic and fresh natural food and drinks.
Fasting doesn't need to be extreme to be effective. Start with one day a week of liquids only — fresh juices, soups, herbal teas. From there, try a 24-hour water fast. With guidance, you can work toward a 3-day water fast, which triggers deeper cellular repair processes (autophagy).
The goal is not deprivation. It's giving the digestive system the rest it rarely receives in a culture of constant consumption.
Gradually replace clothing and bed linen with natural, non-toxic materials: organic cotton, linen, hemp, wool. The skin is the largest organ — what it rests against for 8 hours a night matters.
The same applies to what you put _on_ your body. A self oil massage (_abhyanga_) with a simple, chemical-free oil suited to your constitution — or just pure coconut oil — is a daily practice that nourishes skin, calms the nervous system, and reconnects you to your own body with care rather than criticism.
