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Eating for Life
By Alan Davidson
http://www.ThroughYourBody.com
© Alan Davidson- All Rights reserved
 PARADISE, a few years back—Once upon a time, there was a garden. It was beautiful and perfect, and everything lived in the garden: trees, plants, animals, even insects. And the Gardener loved it, but after hanging out a while She thought to Herself: something’s missing. So the Gardener took some of the earth, and water, and sunlight, and mixed it together and blew Her breath into it, and there was Adam (for that is what “Adam” means: adamah, “ground”).
The Gardener was happy again. Adam was happy. The plants and animals were beautiful and plentiful. But after a while the Gardener began to think something was still missing, so She gathered some more earth, sunshine, and water, mixed it together with one of Adam’s ribs, blew Her breath into it, and created Eve. Then everything was truly everything. The Gardener told Adam and Eve that they had dominion over everything in the garden except one tree—that one over there, the one with the beautiful apples—that’s the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Don’t even think about going over there. And for a while, everyone was happy.
 One day, Eve was out walking, enjoying the garden, when she came upon the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Draped over the limbs was a beautiful black serpent. He offered her an apple, saying they were “fabulous,” “Eve, you really should try one of these apples; they are soo good—besides, didn’t the Gardener say that you have dominion over all things in the garden? Doesn’t that mean you can do anything you want, free will and all that jazz?”
“Well, yes,” replied Eve. “So have an apple,” invited the snake, and Eve took a big bite. It was delicious, sweet and sensual, and she grabbed another before going to look for Adam.
In another part of the garden, Adam saw Eve scurrying toward him, all out of breath. “Adam, you really should try one of these apples. You won’t believe their sweetness.” “I couldn’t possibly; you know the Gardener said we shouldn’t,” Adam replied. “Well,” Eve shot back, “didn’t the Gardener say we had dominion over all things here in the garden? “Well, yes,” Adam ventured. “Then have one of these apples,” Eve invited. So Adam bit the apple, and it was delicious, sweet and sensuous.
The next thing they heard was the voice of the Gardener, booming like thunder over the garden. “Out, Adam and Eve; out of the Garden of Eden!” Suddenly Adam and Eve were cold, and they became aware of their nakedness. Just that one little screw-up and it was all over. The daughters of Eve have gotten a bum rap ever since, and snakes haven’t fared too much better.
For me, the story of Adam and Eve (or in my case, maybe Adam and Steve) is all about the evolution of consciousness. Their hearts and minds were opened to a life beyond Eden. Maybe in order to explore free will and all that jazz, they had to rock the garden.
The Relationship of Food to the Five IQs
 A lot of my history with food revolves around my attempts to be trim, glamorous and beautiful, which resulted in a merry-go-round of dieting and bingeing.
Lately, however, I’ve shifted my emphasis to what foods make me feel good or even more powerful (in control of myself). It’s not about being fat or skinny; it’s about being fit and healthy. And amazingly, by re-orienting my thinking I’ve seen some of the pounds melt away.
Why do we eat? For most of us in the United States, we may chow down because we’re hungry, but not for survival. Nevertheless, the fact that anybody in America goes hungry is unacceptable. We eat as a social event, out of habit, because it’s “time” (particularly if Mom served supper the same time each day), out of boredom, or as an emotional pacifier. (See, it all goes back to Freud and that oral stage.)
How do our choices about food correspond to the Five Intelligences? On the physical level, food is fuel, providing the energy for our bones and muscles to grow strong and straight, flexible and graceful.
Digestion occurs in the emotional level, as well as socialization, boredom and stress: three of the reasons we eat. Our state of mind, the mental level, joins the emotions here.
Our behaviors, or the moral choices we make, include our decisions not to engage in the stuff we know is wrong: smoking, drinking too much, eating to excess (gluttony is one of the Seven Deadly Sins).
And at the spiritual level? It is here, that after all those years of eating without any consideration of the body as a temple, you finally know what is really right for you.
A Plug for Exercise
Diet is vital for a healthy body, mind and spirit, but sensible eating must be joined by a balanced program of exercise. The concept of living through your body exemplifies what Richard Strozzi Heckler and Robert Hall, founders of The Lomi School, called somatics: a body-centered approach to the integration of the five intelligences accomplished through bodywork and meditation.
Regular practice of a combined exercise program, such as those described in Body Brilliance, help develop the physical IQ. But I’d like to take a minute to discuss Applied Kinesiology. This discipline uses deep muscle testing to release emotional conflict much as somatics utilizes deep muscle massage to achieve body-centered equanimity.
Kinesiology demonstrates the inherent knowledge of the body. The process goes like this: a volunteer stands and raises an arm. Ask the volunteer about a painful memory or mention an unpleasant person or episode, then ask the volunteer to resist your effort to push down the arm. He or she will put up a rather weak effort. If you set the stage with a positive situation, the volunteer’s resistance is much stronger.
Hall explains: “At the core of every person is the essence of love.” The somatic bodywork reaches down through the fear and stress to release the love within—and the strength.
Returning to Adam and Eve (or Steve): The idea of disobeying God to gain awareness of good and evil is not bad. Life—and learning how to live it—is a gift.
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