Soul Food
Last week I talked about having a spiritual connection, soul food is what helps increase our spiritual connection.
Soul food is spiritual nourishment, it is anything that simply uplifts or inspires us. One universal source of spiritual uplift is to bring more beauty into life, whether this is through exploring nature, being creative or simply appreciating art. Beautifying your home or garden is an easy way to feel more spiritually nourished. Other common soul foods include enjoying the wonder of children or exquisite music. Making time to catch the sunrise or sunset can seem like a huge challenge in our busy lives yet it never fails to leave is feeling more uplifted. Similarly climbing to the top of a hill or mountain is worth the effort to see the view which can often uplift us. Another, key spiritual nourishment is to simply stop, and remember you are a “human being” not a “human doing”, so stop and take the time and space to simply be.
We often feel down in the dumps or depleted when we have gotten to bogged down with responsibility, and “doing” while forgetting how to play, sing, dance and make things with our own hands. That is when its time to stop and nourish yourself with soul food. Remember soul food can literally be anything that nurtures us and makes life feel it’s worth living.
Identifying your soul food and feeding it to yourself increases your spiritual connection which is profoundly healing and nurturing and probably one of the best form of preventative medicine you can give yourself.
If you would like to improve your spiritual connection try exploring the following
- What lifts my spirit and inspires me? Can I spend more time doing what inspires me?
- Who lifts my spirit and inspires me? Can I spend more time with people like this?
- Are there any places that inspire me? How often would I like to visit them?
Related Posts

Benefits of being Mindful
In my last post, I distinguished between meditation and mindfulness and described mindfulness as the process of noticing things. If we go on holiday to somewhere exotic, its very easy to be mindful as we are surrounded by new interesting sights, sounds & smells. But what are the benefits of practicing mindfulness in during the working day? There is scientific evidence to suggest we are
- Seen as more authentic and trustworthy1
- More productive2
- Deemed to produce work that is superior3

Good Posture Exercise
Having spoken previously about why poor posture is bad for you, I wanted to move on to give you a simple exercise that helps promote good posture. Brugger's exercise routine is devised to activate postural muscles weakened and simultaneously stretched by a prolonged sitting posture. Slumped Position
Check the tension in your upper back and shoulders in the slumped posture and then in the Brugger's position, to see if you notice any difference as the muscle tension is dramatically reduced.
Brugger Exercise Posture
Step By Step Guide
- Sit perched towards the edge of your seat; this will naturally place your lower back into a curve (lumbar lordosis) with your butt sticking out a little. As you do this your breastbone (sternum) will naturally lift up.
- Separate your legs to 45 degrees each side with your feet turned out slightly and in line with your knees.
- Your shoulders are relaxed and down with your chin tucked in, making the back of your neck longer – imagine a piece of string is attached to the top of your head and someone is lifting you up.
- Fully straighten (extend) both elbows and arms.
- Make sure you keep your shoulders down and imagine your shoulder blades [scapula] are pushing down and together to form a V.
- Turn your thumbs out (externally rotate), palms up.
- Separate your fingers.
- You should now be in the position show above in the Brugger's exercise posture picture.
- Hold for 30 seconds.

How to be more mindful
So if mindfulness is doesn't requires lots of effort, and its really beneficial, why aren't we all doing it? While exploring a new city is naturally interesting, we rarely have the same enthusiasm for brushing our teeth, loading the washing machine or my commute. So if you are like me, these are just some of the activities that I do on a regular basis that I have labelled "boring" and I go into autopilot (mindlessness). So the simplest way to practice mindfulness is to bring awareness to the daily activities you consider "boring". Another great way time to practice mindfulness is while you wait. We are all so short of time that waiting is a huge source of frustration, whether its waiting for a train to turn up, waiting in line or being stuck in traffic. These are all ideal times to just be mindful. You can do this by focusing on your breathing and left everything else just be. Start by breathing in and out slowly - one cycle should last for approximately 6 seconds. Breath in through your nose and out through your mouth. Letting your breath flow effortlessly in and out of your body. Our brains respond to short burst of mindfulness, so its ok to keep it short, a few minutes per day.

