Clarifying Vocabulary: Breaking The Ice On Spirituality And Holism

Hi, and thank you so much for visiting our blog!  We are very excited to be kicking off this project!  


In this blog post I want to address a couple of terms that almost always cause friction when they come up.  Sometimes it’s hard for me to talk about my food perspective without using the terms “spiritual” or “holistic”, so I thought that our first blog post might be a good opportunity to break the ice and put forth very specific definitions about what I mean when I use them.

Regardless of your traditional religious beliefs, in order to even peek down into the Food is Medicine rabbit hole, there is one concept that it is necessary to entertain: there is a spiritual component to this fascinating little planet we live on, and that we are intrinsically and spiritually connected to her.  Aristotle is quoted as saying, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”  We find that there are many folks out there that find it impossible to believe that the planet Earth embodies a spiritual essence, so we only ask that you entertain the idea while considering this information.

“The subject with which we are concerned is the spirituality of the earth. By this I do not mean a spirituality that is directed toward an appreciation of the earth. I speak of the earth as subject, not as object. I am concerned with the maternal principle out of which we were born and whence we derive all that we are and all that we have. In our totality we are born of the earth. We are earthlings. The earth is our origin, our nourishment, our support, our guide. Our spirituality itself is earth-derived. If there is no spirituality in the earth, then there is no spirituality in ourselves. The human and the earth are totally implicated each in the other.” – Thomas Berry

Every resource we have comes from this planet.  And this planet feeds every form of life that lives here.  She has always provided all the resources that we needed.  In our fear and confusion coming out of the dark ages, we were so intent on advancing our intellects and mastery over the physical world that we forgot our connection to the planet.  This philosophy is all encompassing and can be applied to many aspects in varying degrees to a person’s life.  But we’re just talking about food.  For now.  ;) 

So let’s talk about holism and our holistic approach.  The words ‘holistic’ and ‘holism’ often get misconstrued as being related to the words ‘holy’ and ‘holiness.’

Wikipedia says: “holism” is derived from the Greek ‘ὅλος holos’ meaning "all, whole, or entire," is the idea that natural systems (physical, biological, chemical, social, economic, mental, linguistic, etc.) and their properties should be viewed as wholes, not as collections of parts. This often includes the view that systems function as wholes and that their functioning cannot be fully understood solely in terms of their component parts.

So for us, ‘holistic’ simply translates to whole systems thinking about food and eating.  This way of thinking asks that you consider all the aspects of your life that are directly (and yes, indirectly) affected by food.  This includes everything that falls into the categories of health, wealth and social; mind, body, spirit and soul. 

The goal of The Food is Medicine Project is to provide service and education about how to make holistic decisions regarding food.  Here are a few ways we’re planning to do it:  hosting informative and delicious dinner events, publishing cookbooks that aren’t just cookbooks, keeping an active blog about our travels, research, events and community service projects, and by simply practicing this information, holding space for its wisdom.

Again, we thank everyone for their support! 

-SB

To find out more about The Food is Medicine Project visit our website at foodmedicineproject.com.