Meditation on a Spinach Pie
We all run around like busy bees, making sure we get it all done and then when we finally get to our holidays we are either laid low with a cold or flu or it takes us a full week to wind down before we can relax for a day before flying or driving back home!
Joking aside, did you know that more than 60% of diseases in the western world are related or caused by stress? This subject is close to my heart, as my own father died at the age of 58 from stress-related diseases. Starting with diverticulitis, he went on to develop diabetes and heart disease, then had a stroke. It is a tragedy that he passed away at such a relatively early age, and all the more so because the root causes could have been easily addressed – that is, stress, including misdirected anger, plus anxiety and worry, and all this combined with a poor diet.
We all have our ‘Jamaica’, consciously or unconsciously. The dream of living on a tropical island, metaphoric or literal – our ideal vision or version of paradise. We all yearn for peace and quiet, but how much time do we actually spend there? If the truth be told, probably very little.
But how would it be if we could enjoy the state of mind of calm peacefulness in the midst of chaos, driving through peak hour, finding a park, catching a subway, being a taxi service for our kids? How could we switch on the ‘OM’ effect on demand?
What is the OM?
The ‘OM’ or sometimes written ‘AUM’ when sung it is a continuous moving sound which traverses a range of vowel sounds. The origin dates back centuries and is found in various Asian cultures and religions. They all connect the ‘OM’ to spiritual powers, with the aim of helping the listener improve their well-being. From a more scientific perspective the ‘OM’ possesses a fluctuation of frequencies which can resonate with various parts of the body. Research is being conducted on how sound vibration can have a healing effect on the body. One such study has shown that sound can help heal fractured bones faster. For a copy of the 200 page report, click here.
Back at my florescent lit café in downtown Athens, the spinach pie looks at me all-knowing, waiting for me to get the ‘aha!’ moment. Silently it waits for me to discover the benefits of its nutrition.
I really hated eating spinach as a kid. Did you? My mum overcooked it, and I thought that there was only one type of spinach in the Whole Wide World. And it was of the YUK variety! Christopher Buck, the Editor of OM-magazine, confided in me that when he and his siblings were growing up his kid brother hated it so much he mushed it up with ketchup and mustard until it turned into some awful orange sludge!
