2025 - New Years Nourishment
The new year has begun and with it the messages of diets, cleanses, ways to be a “better, different, healthier, even thinner” new you. We are awash in these tag-lines and subject to the holiday yoyo that sweeps in promoting extravagant consumption only to be followed by the arrival of January where to be ok you must purge and restrict – paying penance for the celebrations just barely passed. In the days since 2025 arrived my inbox is filled with mentions of cutting carbs, photos of before and after shirt-off photos, ads for juice fasts, and links to alcohol substitutes, all suggesting that the current you isn’t enough. Dangling carrots - that just over the hill, right there, barely out of your reach is some more ideal version of you. Just deprive more, push a bit harder, critique yourself a bit more and with that as a motivator anything is possible.
I would be a hypocrite to pretend that this messaging sails right over my head. In my own practice I have led cleanses, work with people on challenging dietary changes, watch how people dramatically transform their lives through changing what goes into their body. In my own life such changes have been profound. We truly are what we eat (and drink and breathe and think…) as what goes in forms the literal molecular structure for our cellular make-up. The shifting of consumption isn’t the issue; the intention and energy behind the change is what can feel so toxic.
Years ago my husband and I joked about me writing a cook book called “Nori For Breakfast”, deciding it probably wouldn’t be a best seller and that perhaps a different title would be more appealing. Title aside, what brought me to suggest such a thing was that as people became more interested-in and aware-of how food and lifestyle choices effected health the word “NO” popped up everywhere. Every product exclaimed it’s no-ness with such an emphasis that I began to wonder what a language of deprivation did to the consumer. “I prefer free,” I said to him, “It feels softer, more full, less harsh.” And it is this very “no” essence that makes me question all of the marketing out there. It preys on a culture of highs and lows, a whole system that exists to promote our not-enoughness to keep the consumer consuming, to perpetuate a belief that a void can be filled with a thing.
In the world of Somatic Experiencing we are taught about the importance of the nervous system (it truly is the magical, complex, brilliant center of everything) and that how what we feel is an entry point into healing. How something feels in the body is key to navigating this tumultuous, fast-paced world that comes at us all day long. In my belief, the study and understanding of the nervous system IS the future of medicine. The more we are pulled from our bodies by external stimuli, the more crucial it is to cultivate a conscious awareness of our internal compass and the radiant way it connects us to all around. When our system detects a threat it responds with a cascade of hormones, messenger molecules, and physical reactions, all of which shape our moment to moment reality and over time our very self. Conversely, when we feel safe, supported, nourished, our system responds with a very different biological cocktail.
Take a moment and play with this concept – when you read the words “cut”, “diet”, “no”, “restrict” what do you notice? For me there is a familiar pattern I have learned – my jaw clenches, muscles move in tightening around my spine, breathing becomes shallow, and abdomen grips in an attempt to brace against a nebulous something. Ouch. Then pause, let that go, take a breath. Next bring in the words “free”, “nourish”, “expand”. Is there a difference? With those words I notice a lightness, a sparkle, the feeling of something vital moving through my limbs, and finally a settling. Words matter and our highly attuned bodies understand this on a fundamental level.
In a recent interaction with a friend we discussed the concept of nourishment versus the tendency so many have to get harsh with themselves this time of year. “Wild that we are so cruel to ourselves” a text said. Yes, wild that to make change we have all been taught the only way to do so is to break ourselves down only to try and build back up. That feels like a losing battle, for how long can one person sustain such a consistent barrage of negativity? Then, in a text chain we were discussing how to start the new year off, one friend wrote “Going to do the no booze…but rather than food, stepping into positive empowering mindset and thinking. Thought-cleanse!” And in finally another conversation a friend mentioned wanting to shift a deep pattern of restricting that would always be undone with the opposite when her rebel self showed up to say “F-it”. Her husband wisely suggested the concept of adding to her life rather than always taking away. There is a different way. One that adds, and empowers and fosters a new alternative mindset. A “thought-cleanse” of sorts.
On a trip to China in 2009 I remember walking through the parks watching a culture that believed in building and cultivating energy for exercise rather than beating the body down. The open space was filled with couples ballroom dancing, people practicing martial arts, friends moving mindfully in groups together, with laughter and connection. The vibrancy was palpable. What, I wondered, would a long run back in Montana feel like if my messaging was around receiving energy rather than using it all up? How would we all be different if we treated ourselves from a place of wholeness rather than lack? If we became experts in making the choices that filled our cups, perhaps the need to engage in behaviors that were harmful would gently fade away. No harsh edges, just a gentle shifting toward alignment. In the new year my hope is that we can all begin with true resolutions rather than restrictions. I am wishing for us all a focus on true nourishment, a filling of cups, and a peaceful emergence of wellbeing.
