Vibrant Soul Health: Nourishing Your Body, Mind, and Spirit
I had the pleasure of hosting Hannah McKitrick on my Soul Connection Call series. Hannah is the founder of My Intuitive Health, where she makes healthy cooking fun and leads mind-body-soul virtual cooking programs. Our conversation was a delightful exploration of how food can be a powerful tool for raising our vibration and creating more flow in our lives.
Episode Highlights
The concept of "Nwyfre" in Druidry and its relation to food energy
How intentionality and mindfulness can transform our relationship with food
The importance of balance and flexibility in our diets
Using food as a bridge to develop intuition and self-awareness
The connection between food, vibration, and overall well-being
The Power of Intentionality
One of the most significant takeaways from our conversation was the importance of intentionality in our relationship with food. Hannah beautifully illustrated this point when she said:
"If you are busy, you can be intentional about deciding to go out to eat. You can bring this energy of 'Oh my gosh, I'm going out to eat. This is so exciting. Yay! I get to feed my body this food that someone else is preparing.' versus 'Oh, I'm so bad. I'm going out to eat. I'm so bad. I'm spending my money.' That's different. And that will affect how you digest the food and how your system processes it differently."
This perspective shift can be applied to all aspects of our lives, not just food. As I mentioned during our chat:
"That intention, whether it is what we're eating, how we're spending our time, who we're hanging out with, like literally just bringing gratitude and joy and play to anything is going to help our system take it in and integrate it or digest it versus that bullying mindset."
A Lughnasadh meal made with (mostly) things that we grew in our garden this year. Eating things as close as possible to date of harvest ensures the most life force, or nwyfre, gets integrated into you.
Food as a Bridge to Intuition
Hannah shared a wonderful insight on how we can use food to develop our intuition and self-awareness:
"The simplest thing that I would suggest if you want to go home and try to be intuitive or whatever, is just for one week focus your diet mostly on flavorful cooked vegetables, whole grains and maybe some fruits as the bulk of your diet. Your diet to tap into not only your body wisdom, but like how your intuition wants to speak to you and then from there you have a baseline."
This resonated with me, as I've seen similar results when working with clients on integrative health. I shared:
"When I've worked with clients on integrative health before, and we've just done a little bit of energy mapping, like what did they eat and how did they feel afterwards? Like we get pretty quick clarity."
Vibrant Soul Health
The concept of "vibrant soul health" really highlights the essence of our conversation. It's about finding what truly nourishes you on all levels - physical, mental, and spiritual. As Hannah beautifully put it:
"When you're on the coast of Italy, eating a bowl of pasta with an Aperol Spritz in your hand that is fucking healthy, if you ask me. And that's what we call soul health. What really lights you up, what makes you happy, what makes you feel good."
I expanded on this idea, highlighting the multifaceted nature of soul health:
"I look at that when I look at soul health is are we rooted and grounded into the earth? Are we really looking at what our unique blueprint is and what is really important to us and our health? And are we tuning into that higher self to make sure it's all actually in alignment?"
The Importance of Rest and Digest
Another crucial point we discussed was the importance of being in a relaxed state when eating. I shared my perspective as a former trauma therapist:
"We're not supposed to be digesting in flight or fight or freeze response. With my experience as a prior trauma therapist, I can't tell you how many of my clients, myself included, due to trauma have had digestive issues because literally the body says I can't digest life."
Hannah succinctly summed up our conversation with this invitation:
"At the end of the day, it's about having fun and it's about having joy. And if those aren't happening check in with your mind, your body, or your soul and see what wants to shift."
My chat with Hannah was a delightful reminder of the profound connection between food, energy, and our overall well-being. By approaching our meals with intentionality, joy, and mindfulness, we can nourish not just our bodies, but our souls as well.
If you'd like to dive deeper into this fascinating topic, I encourage you to watch the full episode on our YouTube channel or watch it below. Don't forget to subscribe to see upcoming podcast episodes, masterclasses, and rituals as they come out. Together, we can continue to explore the depths of vibrant soul health and create more joy and vitality in our lives!
All My Love,
Safrianna Lughna
The Queer-Spirit Guide
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*Transcript was created in Descript and may not be 100% accurately transcribed.
Safrianna: There we go. I always wait for the little eye to pop up to say no one's watching because that means it's actually connected on all of the things. And then, so welcome Hannah. It is so good to have you here for a live call. We have spoken privately a couple of times and we met through the sourced community.
Darla Ladoo's community. And, like I said, we've had a couple private conversations. I was like, Hannah, we need to like, have this talk live. Because what you bring to the world and what you do is just so nourishing. I'm gonna use that word. Wink. It fits. Tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do and then we're just gonna have a conversation.
Hannah: Yeah, thank you. So my name is Hannah and my business is my intuitive health and plain and simple. I make healthy cooking fun for people. And so I lead mind, body, soul, virtual cooking programs and also lead culinary and wellness retreats in southern Italy. And Safran and I had such a fun conversation because we both.
Have a deeper connection to or deeper understanding of food than meets the eye and have experienced firsthand. And this is what I also help my clients learn is how to use food to actually raise your vibration and have more flow in your life, manifest more like really it's pretty powerful.
And it's all connected to both the ingredients, but then also the energy that you're bringing to the food.
Safrianna: Yes. And I have so many directions I want to in that because One of the core labels that I identify with is druid. I identify as a druid. And in Druidry, there is a concept called Nuvra and Nuvra is the essence of something, the energy of it.
And we believe that fresh food and whole food has more of that Nuvra or energy than, the super processed stuff that's been laying around for forever.
Hannah: Yeah, and the word that's popping to my mind is vitality and a lot of the people who come to me like want more like vibrancy and like playfulness in their life, and I think that's why They're attracted to me because I'm like chill as fuck in the kitchen and I'm like, let's go.
Let's have some fun Let's go to Italy and they're like, okay and it's connected right like that vibrancy in your life that you're craving then also that vibrancy You that the food can help bring to you, especially like food that's alive. So plants even like whole grains, I feel are, from the earth and just products like that, that are, not really in a box.
Right.
Safrianna: Yeah. And that's where I'm a vegetarian, but I'm not a person that like, I think there's so many different styles of eating that we can all benefit from. But when I was eating, when I was a meat eater, I was often eating like Lunch meat, right? Deli meat, like packaged things, processed things. And so there's even, no matter your dietary style, there's something to be said about what is the energy history?
What's the energetic history of whatever you're consuming?
Hannah: And I also want to add to full disclaimer. I eat foods out of a box. I'm not saying to go clear out your pantry and be completely perfect. But it's more of this like intentionality of being aware that like how certain foods make you feel.
And like that, some really do have this love power to raise your your energy and your levels and your aura. And versus, so it's if you're looking to, if you are a meat eater and you want. You're going to go get a chicken from your farm, whatever it is, just knowing the level of degrees of separation that are coming between you and your food.
Safrianna: Yeah. That's a great way to look at it too. The degrees of separation, no matter what the food is like, and yes, I totally eat things out of boxes all the time, right? I'm a pasta fan and there is nothing more convenient than dried pasta, but that relationship, the intentionality is really the most important part in my view.
And obviously, yes, there are times that we're not even intentional with food. I was reading something the other day that was just highlighting we've had people cook for us for a long time, right? It's not actually realistic to expect, especially with a nine to five job that you're always cooking, right?
It's your job. If it's your job, you might be always cooking, but if you are the average person who's not a chef or not in the role of cooking for your family or your village or your whatever, yeah, you might not have a lot of time
Hannah: to cook. Yeah. It's interesting. I don't cook every day. I cook like maybe twice a week and one of my pillars in how I help people have more fun in the kitchen is adding in this concept of Flexibility because it's not fun if it's strict.
So don't be strict. And so if you are busy, like you can be intentional about. Deciding to go out to eat, right? And then you can bring this energy of Oh my gosh, I'm going out to eat. This is so exciting. Yay! I get to feed my body this food that someone else is preparing. And versus Oh, I'm so bad.
I'm going out to eat. I'm so bad. I'm spending my money. That's different. And that will affect how you digest the food and how your system processes it differently.
Safrianna: That's the master clip from this conversation for everything, honestly, because that intention, whether it is what we're eating, how we're spending our time, who we're hanging out with, like literally just bringing gratitude and joy and play to anything is going to help our system take it in and integrate it or digest it versus that bullying mindset.
Right.
Hannah: And that's my business is my. intuitive health because it's like finding that sweet spot, right? Of like things that aren't so processed and like living your life and what brings you joy and what you're craving and like what your husband wants or whatever. And it's just like figuring out how to really balance the needs of what your mind wants of what your body wants and of what your spirit is craving.
Safrianna: Yeah, and that's, there's so many people that to this point have not had a deep level of self awareness. They don't have that intuitive sense. And I'm just curious, like, how can food be a bridge for people to actually begin to get that intuitive sense, to feel into themselves again?
Hannah: The way that I like to do it is the, okay I'll say this, the foods that give me the most grounding and help me feel most connected are when most of my diet is filled with vegetables and whole grains.
And I'm not talking about like raw broccoli and like celery, I'm talking about like sautéed zucchini noodles with a homemade basil lemon pesto, artichokes, and sun dried tomatoes and maybe some parmesan. To me, eating a meal like that makes me feel really light and open. And then therefore more in touch versus if I'm eating a meal out with two sizes of pizza and a couple of beers, I will innately feel just like energetically heavy and a little less like tapped in.
Yeah. So the body is a way to access your intuition. And so the simplest thing that I would suggest if you want to go home and try to be intuitive or whatever, is just for one week focus your diet mostly on flavorful cooked vegetables, whole grains and maybe some fruits as the bulk of your diet.
Your diet to tap into not only your body wisdom, but like how your intuition wants to speak to you and then from there you have a baseline, right? So I'm not saying eat that way forever don't eat there is no concept of perfect in the world of eating That's just not even a thing, but it's just a baseline to give your system some balance and then from there you can Be a little bit more in tune with like how something actually
makes
you feel.
It's like a little reset.
Safrianna: Yeah. You need to reset sometimes to get that real baseline data. And I know when I've worked with clients on integrative health before, and we've just done a little bit of energy mapping, like what did they eat and how did they feel afterwards? Like we get pretty quick clarity.
Between, because for example, I'm a person, I can't eat a lot of raw food. My digestive system just cannot digest raw food. And actually in human design, oddly enough, my digestive strategy is hot food. Like it's written in my blueprint. It's hilarious. But other people like having a raw diet.
Makes them feel great. But like I had to be able to tune into that for me and go, Oh, actually this makes my tummy feel, crampy or wow. I'm not getting the energy I need to get from this. Cause my body was struggling so hard. So there is literally no one size fits all when it comes to food period.
And that's why, we titled this episode, vibrant soul health. Because it's about going in and assessing for your unique self, what's going to give you that vitality or that vibrant energy.
Hannah: Yeah. And also with the grace and knowledge that it's physical, the physicality is just one part of it.
And I forgot that's what we titled this, but for instance, like, When you're on the coast of Italy, eating a bowl of pasta with an Aperol Spritz in your hand that is fucking healthy, if you ask me. And that's what we call soul health. What really lights you up, what makes you happy, what makes you feel good.
Your most like joyful, vibrant self. It's and like I said, it's that dance of finding what works and in Italy it's lovely because since they are so intentional with the energy and vitality that they put into their food and how they produce their food, you actually, in my experience, my client's experiences on retreat, like we feel amazing even though we are eating different foods than we would at home.
Pasta, like tons of pasta, tons of bread, tons of wine. And and you actually just feel light. It's crazy.
Safrianna: But I've definitely experienced the energy of different places, influencing how we experience food. And I could imagine Italy, cause it is such a cuisine based culture there. And it is something that they, so they value, they're putting their value and intention in it because it's important.
And that's something. I didn't really grow up with a connection to my food and my body and my health. And it's something that I'm just now really coming into relationship with. But absolutely, like I a hundred percent agree with what you said, that you can be sipping wine and eating bread and it'd be the healthiest thing you've ever had because it is, you're in alignment.
It's when you're not doing that every day as a numbing mechanism. But as a, I'm here, I'm grounded, I'm rooted, I'm enjoying myself, right? That lighting yourself up is so important.
Hannah: Yeah. It's that intentionality of what will help me feel most vibrant right now.
Safrianna: Yeah. Yeah. And again, soul, like I love the word soul in general, cause I feel like we could unpack it in so many different directions, right?
Like just the homonym soul can be the soul of our feet, right? Like grounding into the earth soul can be us alone and it can also be, S O U L our energy, our essence. And so I look at that when I look at soul health is are we rooted and grounded into the earth? Are we really looking at what our unique blueprint is and what is really important to us and our health?
And are we tuning into that higher self to make sure it's all actually in alignment? Good for our vibration. I know you and I are both vibration magicians, very energy sensitive. And food absolutely has a major impact on our vibration.
Hannah: Totally. And I think some people and myself included can sometimes get really overwhelmed with food and how to be healthy and how to do it and how to eat the vibrant foods, how to put the vibrant energy into your food and all of that.
And I totally get that. And. That's why sometimes, so that's why I like the classes that I have, because it helps take away the mind chatter. And it, it's I help people to just step into that experience without having to like, think so much about it. Like, how do I do this?
What do I do? What do I eat? How do I eat? How do I be? It's just like being the vibration, right? It's you hold this Or me as a leader holds this intentionality of vital, vibrant energy with the food that others can then entrain to with their food. And the menu is like high vibe food, if you will.
And then everyone brings their own energy into it because I don't want anyone to listen to this and think Oh my God, where do I start? Like, how do I do this? Because it doesn't have to be overwhelming It has
Safrianna: to be fun. It has to be fun and yeah I think that we could be healthier even if you're a person that for whatever reason you, you cannot cook for yourself at all and for the most part you're using microwaved foods or stuff you put in the oven, like just having a mindful pause with it to be in grateful relationship to tune in and thank yourself for, Heating it up even right to have a moment to prep your body to digest, to smell your food, to get into that mindfulness.
Like we can layer this in any, anytime, anywhere, no matter what's in front of us.
Hannah: Yeah, even just getting your nervous system calm before it works to digest.
Safrianna: Yeah, we're not supposed to be digesting in flight or fight or freeze response.
Hannah: No,
Safrianna: yeah,
Hannah: no, we're supposed to be digesting on the coast of Italy. That's really what we're designed for.
That is where our ancestors come from, I believe.
Safrianna: And yes, we're meant to be relaxing and in ease in our body. With my experience as a prior trauma therapist, like I, I can't tell you how many of my clients, myself included, due to trauma have had digestive issues because literally the body says I can't digest life.
This is too much, right? Because we're consuming food. trauma and pain from all these different sources. So that really is very important for a lot of us to actually allow our nervous system before we even sit down to eat a meal, to just come back to a center. I think if we could all just start there, we'd see a big difference.
Yes. Yes,
Hannah: totally.
Safrianna: Totally. That's a really important salient point. Oh my goodness. So yeah, food and energy and eating. You are what you eat like you are what you eat So you want to be consuming things that you intentionally want to take in? I think that makes sense.
Hannah: Yeah, so I think your picture froze.
Oh, really? It's been frozen on my end for a long time You're just rolling with
Safrianna: It's frozen on my side now
Hannah: I
Safrianna: mean, maybe I feel like we have slammed out some incredible points. I'm like trying to see if I can get it to reset and I can't. One moment. Nope, you're frozen, but we can still hear you love.
So we'll just, is there anything else that you want to say today about this? You have your, Hannah has her website right here. She does these awesome workshops that are very affordable that you can just drop in and get this more energy side of the cooking with her. Is there anything else that you do want to share today?
Hannah: I don't know. I don't know. I feel pretty complete. I feel like we dove deep real fast and I feel like people got the essence. At the end of the day, it's about having fun and it's about having joy. And if those aren't happening check in with your mind, your body, or your soul and see
Safrianna: what wants to shift.
Yes, and you can really tune into your rest and digest response. That's an invitation for all of us to tune into our rest and digest so we can enjoy our food. Be mindful with it. Receive the vibrant energy that it's meant to give us. Yes, forward. So thank you so much, Hannah. I am so glad that we at least, froze your camera on a really cute looking.
Oh, I was
Hannah: wondering
Safrianna: All of my pictures on youtube where it gives a still of my face i'm like Doing these weird silly faces. So now that's going to be what this is going to have on it. I'm sure But thank you so much for this today. I love your energy. Check out. Hannah watch. You know You Rewind this and watch the replay if you didn't catch it at the beginning and we will talk again soon.
Happy cooking everyone Bye
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