I had always been conscious of my own healing journey, dealing with severe health challenges in childhood, mainly affecting the lungs. I wasn’t aware of it at the time. Still, I was able to master the ability to drop into deep meditative states and eventually, instead of struggling for breath, to become quiet and peaceful, which in turn led to less need for oxygen. Not being able to join in with many games and sports, particularly in the cold, English winters, gave me the opportunity to sit on the sidelines and observe, which is something that I attribute now to my ability to take in the bigger picture and ask questions along each stage of my journey.
An intense sense of care for our world, its creatures, and people kept me up and awake even on the nights when I was well, and so it was natural that as I developed the concept for Sanara, and for the Real Coconut, that both needed to address a dual purpose: to provide a way for myself, as well as our guests and clients, to not only care for ourselves but to also have a positive impact in a greater sense, while we were doing this.
When our boutique wellness hotel, Sanará [which means “it will heal” in Spanish], and its restaurant, Real Coconut Kitchen, was born seven years ago in Mexico, I had no idea of the path of understanding that it would take me on.
I took a recipe for tortillas and chips made out of coconut flour, that I had created after moving to Mexico, to allow me to still enjoy tacos and guacamole while avoiding wheat and corn, and created an entire menu around this, and the concept of digestive health using low impact and underutilized crops. I simply considered what I would want to eat to feel good, while also recognizing the impact of those choices.
Both Sanará, and even more so, the Real Coconut, have taken on their own identities, and their energies have spread beyond Tulum. The Real Coconut’s tortillas and chips (now rebranded as SANA) are distributed across thousands of stores throughout the US and Canada. The way these brands have been received and the number of people who resonate particularly with the food and concept of the Real Coconut always astound me and led me to hone in on the philosophy of ‘Nourishing Ourselves and Nurturing Our World.’
How Can We Nourish Ourselves while Nurturing Our World?
In the literal sense, the concept of nourishing ourselves while nurturing our world can simply imply taking into account the choices we make to feed ourselves and families, to provide the most nutritional benefit, while also looking to understand how these choices affect the more expansive picture of our world. `However, our ignorance, or choice to ignore, what best serves us, and what will correspondingly result in a lower impact or greater collective result, is one often based on time, convenience, financial constraints, or even pure lack of will, laziness or ambivalence.
There are many practical ways in which we can look to care for ourselves, while supporting each other and our world, for example, plant-focused or plant-based eating (I like to promote a plant-focused approach, which allows more flexibility for those who are new to the concept or are not able to manage a fully plant-based diet); choosing organic where possible, being mindful of quality over quality, considering packaging, and more.
Going Deeper…
By awakening into the understanding that all is connected, the concept ‘to nourish ourselves, whilst we nurture our world’ takes on new meaning.
We can expand our awareness into considering that nourishing ourselves does not literally mean what we choose to ingest, but that this ‘nourishment’ consists of each and every choice we make for ourselves.
From the food and drinks we ingest, our consumption habits, the choices of what we expose ourselves to on television, media, news, the people we spend time with, the daily habits we partake in or undertake, and even the ‘way’ we undertake them, all define the concept of this nourishment.
Nurturing our world (or conversely, neglect, or downright abuse) is a by-product of these choices and can refer to not only the ‘world’ as we may perceive it, our earthly home, Mother Nature but also the experience of all beings who reside in this interconnected multiverse.
With this deeper awareness, we can better discern the potential ripple effects of each choice, in each moment. And with even further perception, it becomes clear that the infinite ripples may be beyond our current understanding, but that premise is clear…for every action, there is a reaction, the universal concept of cause and effect. From here, we can make the decision to take responsibility for our choices.
Delving even deeper, for me, there is also an esoteric meaning in the philosophy of nourishing ourselves while nurturing our world. Caring for our Self at the deepest level is to reach a point of pure awareness and silence, which is a direct connection with God, the liberation of the Self into Source. Through this pure connection comes a stillness, a harmony which exudes from the very essence of our Soul, the nourishment of which cannot fail to correspondingly nurture all that surrounds, and which feeds out into the way in which we exist on a day to day basis.
In a way, depending on your perception, this concept could even go as far as to encompass the cornerstone commandments which Jesus shared, to love God with all your heart, and to love your neighbor as yourself.
