Nutrition isn’t all just about food – spiritual nutrition is a whole new way to think about nourishment. 

Before I became a meditation teacher, I studied nutritional therapy and saw that often people were all trying to ‘fill’ a hole inside themselves with food or other substances – and not successfully. They were starved of spiritual nutrition.

This is a guide in how to nourish ourselves to get the best out of meditation, and a look at other forms or nourishment that are not food related.

Eating for Meditation

Food affects our ability to meditate. If you consume sugary food and stimulants, your brain is going to be on fire, erratic and all over the place – not that conducive to a meditation session. If we’re tired and wired from what we’re eating, it makes meditation that little bit harder for us.

The things I’ve seen to be most crucial for Spiritual Nutrition, are:

Eating in a way that balances blood sugar spikes – So, low carb meals that keep you in a more steady state. Switch processed food for wholefoods and loads of vegetables. Watch out for vegan foods that are full of sugar, especially more processed options like muesli bars and cereals –  go for unprocessed wholefoods instead like a banana or apple as a snack, or salads with sweet potato and avocado for something more filling. 

Mineralising the body – Minerals are like magic and I love adding naturally mineral rich foods to my meals. Try adding seaweed to salads and rice to get a super mineral rich hit. Good quality salt is also amazing for this and grounding – I prefer Celtic Sea Salt which has over 80 minerals in it. Table salt has been stripped of all these minerals and is the reason why salt has got a bad wrap in the past.

Adaptogenic herbs – These help align and balance our hormone production, especially when it comes to our stress response – I love Natalia Botanicals herbal blends which you can add to drinks easily like smoothies or warm nut milks and taste delicious.

Grounding food – This is where it’s important to look at the “energetics” of food. I love using the “Yin Yang” principles here. Too many salads, green juices and very yin foods can leave us feeling airy and ungrounded. Yang foods like slow-cooked vegetables with salt and soaked and cooked rice can be very grounding and help us create balance. The Academy of Healing Nutrition covers energetic nutrition on their courses which is amazing if you’re curious to learn more.

Chewing food really well – The golden ticket! For true activation of food, chewing it 100 times creates an alchemy in your mouth with your saliva which makes digestion easy and takes up way less of your energy. It also means you absorb so much more of what you’re eating – simple but true and powerful. Even if you start chewing more consciously (more than 3 times before swallowing) it will make a really big difference in your digestion and assimilation. 

Spiritual Nutrients

Presence – The presence of your own energy, being with yourself at 100% capacity, is absolute gold. This is what keeps us feeling satisfied, rather than having our attention always searching on the outside. So often our energy is pulled outside of us and this is part of why we feel ‘empty’. 

Prana – This is the life force energy that runs through our energy body and all of existence. When we do breathing techniques they are focused on circulating prana in our body.  It’s very liberating and so much of us feeling tired is not about needing more energy, but how we are using what we have. 

Ecstasy –  Non-causal ecstasy is part of our divine make up. When we are not connected to this, we crave it. If the body is deficient in something, it will often absorb a mimic to try to fill that gap – for example, many women who were iron deficient absorb chemical disrupting hormones that mimick iodine. This happens in spiritual nutrition too – if we are lacking something like non-causal ecstasy we will try to absorb a mimic – aka drugs and alcohol – but of course this then blocks us from getting the ‘real thing’. 

Sound – I believe sound is a very powerful ‘nutrient’ for many levels our body – our body uses frequencies to attract nutrients in at a cellular level. Sound is known to ‘align’ our organs when they are out of tune and can aid entering into meditation – not forgetting the pure joy that comes from singing and chanting (which crosses over into ecstasy).

Intuition and Wisdom – Being able to access and allow our innate inner wisdom to come through is also very nourishing. When we don’t listen to this aspect of ourselves, we feel unaligned, uninspired and lost in life. 

Belinda Matwali is a meditation teacher and electronic music enthusiast who is passionate about making meditation accessible and fun for all. Click here to learn more about her meditation courses Addicted To Being + Ecstasy Now. To keep up with what Belinda’s up to, follow her on Instagram.