NOURISHMENT AND SPIRITUALITY

It is through your body that you realize you are a spark of divinity.
- B.K.S. Iyengar

Daniela’s Kitchen is dedicated to the journey of using one’s relationship to food and nourishment to awaken to one’s true nature of joy and peace. My intention is to inspire and support people wherever they are on this journey

I woke up to the fact that I needed to revolutionize my relationship with food when I was 17 years old and an overweight teenager caught in a torturous diet-binge cycle that left me feeling clinically depressed. My quest for healing my relationship with food led me to discover some beautiful things: meditation, yoga, dance, and a seemingly endless abundance of methods to heal this seemingly insatiable hunger I had deep in my gut for joy and peace.

Being more in touch with my body led me to discover some scary things: I have Celiac Disease and other food intolerances that have forced me to completely change my lifestyle and relationship to food. Eating something as seemingly innocuous as a piece of bread will literally kill me through the slow death of autoimmune disease. Eating gluten also kills my spirit; it leaves me feeling depressed, anxious, cut off from my spirit. All of a sudden everytime I went out to eat and the bread basket was offered, I had to stare my own death in the face. I was literally being asked to make a choice at every meal between death or life. Talk about a opportunity for a spiritual awakening!

I became determined to allow this disease to allow my life to become larger and more beautiful…I allowed myself to entertain the idea that this disease was here to teach me something and I just need to awaken to the lesson.

As I sought help…seeds of awakening were planted.  These little seeds of awakening were watered and fertilized by the books that literally fell off library shelves and new people that magically appeared in my life.  The soil of my consciousness continues to become more fertile everyday as each person, experience, book, or information tidbit contribute necessary nutrients that feed my desire to live a immensely joyful life. 

The biggest spiritual lesson having food allergies and having struggled with food addiction is actually a constant question I have in my heart: What is TRUE NOURISHMENT?  This is something I ask myself when I want to eat when I am not hungry, or when I want to eat something I know might make me feel sick, spacey, or wired (e.g. white sugar). TRUE NOURISHMENT is not something that food can give you, it comes from inside of you. If you ask yourself this question: WHAT IS TRUE NOURISHMENT? The answers will come with time and your life will transform.