YOGA LIFESTYLE

A couple of decades ago words like ‘organic’ or ‘healthy lifestyle’ were directly associated with hippies. Super foods, natural supplements and even just organic groceries were absolutely hard to get. Nowadays, it is very different from that. Many people are amazingly conscious about their food and lifestyle. It became super trendy. Organic food is available everywhere and super foods are rising high to the top in the chain of popularity. The only fact that is completely of track in that healthy lifestyle is the use of alcohol. Most of the cooking programs and a lot of vegan recipes are using alcohol like as if it is ‘healthy’ too. It looks glamorous to drink champagne and even some top athletes and super healthy persons are drinking firmly and openly when they have something to celebrate. It seems such a normal part of our being, to drink a wine, a beer or a cocktail now and then.

Doing some research I realized that although ‘drinking’ is actually ‘a way of normal living’, it is scientifically proven even more dangerous than hard-drugs! It is addictive and it is very unhealthy. It creates stress, impatience and a bad character. It lowers your immune system, it gives obesity, it destroys endurance, it ruins youthfulness and it makes you look older, it increases the risk of heart disease, cancer and all kinds of other severe illnesses. On a spiritual level according to Vedic Knowledge, drinking alcohol or using any other type of drugs removes you from the self healing path instantly, because of the black and negative energy that is spreading through your whole being. There is non-GMO, non-pesticides, non-chemicals, non-smoking, but what about ‘non-alcohol’?

Like many of us, I was raised with the ‘value’ that drinking alcohol is a common thing to do like having breakfast or drinking water. In every Western country it’s actually a normal part of life. One day I gave therapy to a 13 year old girl and her mother from a regular middle-class and well educated family. She told me that she was teaching her children ‘how to drink well’, so that when they go out later on in their lives, ‘they would know how to handle themselves’. The adolescent girl was drinking wine and beer every weekend, because the parents were teaching her ‘how to drink’; but alcohol is biologically addictive so that is never possible! It is the same as ‘teaching your kid to smoke one cigarette a day’; everybody knows that something like that is never going to work! This will end up in more cigarettes always and you created an addiction on purpose! And when I asked the girl if she liked it, she said: ‘Actually I don’t. I hate the taste of it!’ So basically the parents stimulated her to drink as part of their educational goals, while she never really liked it and besides that, this girl was suffering from severe health problems! This picture is quiet common in Holland and it might be the reason why many children drink alcohol under the age of 16 (83%). The parents are not entirely to be blamed; they are severely misinformed by the media! This can be amazingly dangerous for our children!

Concerning ‘drinking adolescents’ and learning ‘to handle themselves,’ never comes from their parents education, but by horrible negative experiences they are passing through, while being completely drunk; the times when it gets terribly wrong are the most common and effective learning experiences in life. And in my opinion, the youngsters let it come so far, because of the fact that they actually learn from their parents that ‘drinking alcohol is a normal part of life’; the reason why they go out drinking in the first place!

Since many years I have not been drinking at all and I feel the amazing benefits of this sober life. I can hardly remember anymore, that drinking has been part of my life. When I look back I can feel the negative energy of my surroundings that could catch me, because of this black energy of alcohol that entered my beautiful complex system of co-working energy, fluids and solid substances (a human being according to Ayurveda). Because of the intoxication of my body, ‘toxic’ energy from the outside had a free way to enter my physical and energetic bodies. Even with just a couple of wines a week during dinner.

I now understand an inner feeling of sadness I had all those years. From the outside nobody could see this of course; I was always known for my strong, happy and stable character, I was successful at work and had a sparkling social life. But from the inside: I was never really happy and had constantly unexplained physical symptoms. Compared to the good health, bliss, happiness and love I now feel inside of me constantly, which gives great inner balance between body, mind & soul, I can really ascribe this to the healthy, conscious, non-alcohol, vegetarian and organic lifestyle that I am living nowadays.

The other day, I saw a TV show of dr. Wayne Dyer in which he describes that ‘a great Indian teacher’ once taught him that ‘if he wants to do great things in life, if he really wants to take this healing to a greater and higher level, he has to stop drinking’. So he did and he felt the great benefits from it too. It seems like everyone who stops drinking cannot really see why they are doing it at the time. But once they have done it and no longer let this poison enter their system, they can feel the sun coming back from behind the clouds. They can never imagine anymore, what they have been doing to their precious natural system which we call our ‘body’ through all those years. And this effect is only visible with people who really have the intention to stop indefinitely with drinking alcohol and not the ones that are ‘trying to stop for just some days or weeks’. As with everything; the intention counts as much as the action!

The benefits from a non-alcoholish life are so amazing; a clean and healthy system gives automatically a great, happy and light feeling, which helps during any type of spiritual practice, like yoga or meditation. It feels clear in the head. It feels like a constant bliss, much stronger and better than the so-called ‘blissful feeling’ while drinking! And after every drink, there comes the hangover: your body is recovering from the severe intoxication.

Any type of intoxication of the body, with cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, prescription drugs, chemicals or pesticides are a pure form of self-neglect out of a huge lack of self-love. It is a manner of ‘not looking after your beautiful self’. If someone is learning to really love himself or herself, which is a great side effect of ‘walking the path of self healing’, he or she will absolutely live the healthy, organic and sustainable lifestyle. The easiest way of doing that, in balance with nature and your own natural self, is the Sattvic lifestyle or the yoga diet as described in the Bhagavad Gita. It gives a perfect balance between body, mind & soul; you will never go back to those toxic unhealthy days once you have felt the love and bliss of this natural way of living. 

A lot of youngsters nowadays are living a vegan or superfood lifestyle; it is becoming a great hype! Let’s hope that this will continue; changes in society are mostly first seen with our youth. And change is always possible… some of us might remember that in the older days everybody was literally smoking everywhere; in the train, the airplane, on talkshows, in movies, inside of public places and even in college! Nowadays this would absolutely be ‘not done’! Awareness comes with time so it seems. Hopefully consciousness about the use of alcohol will come soon too. Imagine yourself a peaceful world in which everybody gets complete awareness of their health and energy! The world would look like a lot more loving and happier!

It’s all about being truthful to yourself and having a huge amount of self discipline! Trust yourself, trust your body and its great self healing power and anything is possible. Namasté. God bless you!