CHow to understand if something nourishes you or empties you. When we talk about nourishment we immediately think of food. Calories, vitamins, proteins. But our life is made up of many other nutrients: relationships, images, words, environments, rhythms. Everything that goes through our day enters us and leaves a trace. We eat with our mouth, of course, but we also eat with our eyes, with our ears, with our skin, with our soul. And not everything we ingest – in a symbolic or real sense – truly nourishes.
The difference between filling and nourishing
One of the biggest confusions is mistaking filling for nourishment. We can fill our days with activity and still feel drained. We can consume immense amounts of information and feel mentally fatigued. We can be surrounded by people and feel internally alone. This happens because nourishment does not depend on quantity, but on the quality of the relationship we have with what we eat. True nourishment produces an effect that is very simple to recognize: it gives us back energy, presence, vitality, it does not empty us.
The body recognizes what it nourishes
The simplest way to recognize what really nourishes us is to return to the body. The body perceives much before the mind. When something truly nourishes us, the breath becomes wider, the mind becomes lighter. However, when something impoverishes us, the body contracts, the stomach closes, the shoulders stiffen, the energy drops. The body has a form of immediate discernment. It’s a compass. If we learn to listen to it, many choices become simpler.
The nourishment of the soul
Imaginal psychology reminds us that human beings do not live only by biological needs. The soul is hungry for images, for symbols, for meanings. A perfectly organized life can still be dry if it does not contain beauty, imagination, meaning. This is why some experiences – music, a landscape, a deep conversation – can nourish us more than many things considered useful or productive. Nourishing also means choosing which images we allow to enter our lives.
The value of detoxification
But before recognizing what nourishes, it is often necessary to go through an opposite phase: learn to let go of what no longer nourishes. In ancient initiatory traditions this process was considered essential. In Pythagorean philosophy, for example, entry into the mysteries involved a period of purification and fasting. It was not just a food practice, but a symbolic gesture: free yourself from the superfluous to make the body and mind more receptive.
In my book Imaginal fasting story like many spiritual traditions, including the Pythagorean one, included nine days of preparation before initiation. The number nine often occurs in Greek myths associated with transformation and rebirth. It’s no coincidence: Human gestation also lasts nine months. These nine days symbolically represent a passage: letting go of what weighs you down to become capable of receiving nourishment again.
Feeding life
Recognizing what nourishes us means becoming more selective with what we introduce into our lives. What conversations do we listen to, what images do we look at, what environments do we frequent, what rhythms do we follow. Not everything that is available is also nutritious. Perhaps one of the most important questions we can ask ourselves every day is very simple: Does this really nourish me? Not just in the body, but in the mind and soul. If something leaves us more alive, more present, more open to life, it is probably nourishment. If, however, it leaves us empty, agitated or dull, perhaps it is just a filling. Recognizing the difference is already a form of wisdom. And from this wisdom comes a new possibility: building a life that is not only full, but deeply nourished.
In the video you will find a guided meditation that helps you truly nourish yourself.
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