Macrobiotics is a way of living in harmony with the present moment — with your present health condition, your present lifestyle, and your present needs and desires. When your health and lifestyle change, you evolve and adjust along with your flexible needs and desires. You incorporate healthier ways of living, because they closely match the priorities in your life in this present moment. As you intentionally choose your path, you experience the healing result that you desire. Your inner awareness guides you to listen to your body and balance your present needs in the moment. The key word here is “you.” Everyone is unique. Everyone finds his or her own sense of harmony in the present moment.
The intention of this book is to help you connect with nature and live a macrobiotic life through mindful food choices. Trusting your intuition will cultivate your connection with your spirit. You will be guided toward a life filled with happiness, freedom, and peace. As your heart opens in a deep and enduring way, this feeling of balance and harmony becomes normal. This feeling becomes the standard for which you strive to bring about continuing health, one baby step at a time.
Macrobiotics is an ancient art of living that is rooted in a profound understanding of the laws and patterns of nature, as applied to the human body. This understanding sees the human body as an integral part of the natural world. Through food, you connect with your spiritual nature and open yourself up to natural healing. Macrobiotics is about living in harmony with nature and trusting your intuition. This Zen perspective incorporates seasonal, locally grown, and energetically balanced foods into your life. The word “macrobiotics” literally means “large life” (“macro” means “large or great” and “bio” means “life”).
Along with a macrobiotic diet, adjustments in ways of living can make a difference in balancing health on all levels. This is wholistic living, and goes one step further than holistic medicine, which treats the mind and body through complementary health care. (The “w” is inserted to distinguish the broader experience of wholistic living from the common application of holistic therapy.) When you understand the energy of foods and how to balance this energy, you can experience this wholistic, or whole, way of living.
In this book, you will learn how diet affects your physical body and emotions and how you can balance your health condition and lifestyle with natural healing foods. Nothing is excluded from the macrobiotic diet. Even extreme foods, if balanced, can be healing. More specifically, it is about choosing foods that support and harmonize your dynamic changing health condition. Adjusting your cooking according to the seasons provides the foundational blueprint (or recipe) for living a long life from a more insightful perspective.
Ancient cultures intuitively knew how to balance the energy of food with the seasons to extend their life through natural means. Natural healers, such as grandmothers and wise elders, through daily meals as well as herbal teas and rich mineral broths, knew how to live in harmony with nature. Every tradition has a special healing dish that has been passed on from one generation to the next. Strengthening bone soups were lovingly prepared by Hungarian grandmothers for use after childbirth. Cleansing bitter teas with hints of licorice were brewed by Chinese fathers for use as cold remedies. These were special “chicken soup — like” home remedies, designed to carry a particular healing aspect other than calories, carbohydrates, and vitamins. This healing essence of food can nourish, heal, and harmonize every aspect of the body, mind, emotion, and spirit.
Traditional healing dishes that are cooked according to the seasons imbibe this essence of “soul food.”
Vibrant, energetically balanced food nourishes body, mind, and spirit; it balances emotions and contributes to overall health and well being. Macrobiotics can help you develop this connection with food, an intimate relationship that enhances your intuition and brings you to the present moment.