With Valentine’s Day ahead and the month dedicated to heart health, February is brewing with love. Cooking is a perfect way to tap into the essence of this energy for self-love, self-care and channel it towards those we love. Focusing on foods and practices that nourish our energetic heart is just as important as focusing on the care of our physical heart. Both can share space at the table of well-being. A home prepared meal is not only a way to nourish our physical hearts, it’s a great way to honor the other layers of our being and the electromagnetic heart. Being “heart healthy” is more than about eating the “right” foods for cardiovascular health, we also need heart healthy experiences that produce more heart healthy emotions and balanced state of being.  When we prepare a meal from our heart space, we are serving up more than delicious food, we are offering a taste of love and vibrational medicine.

Our emotions (energy-in-motion) is how we communicate the messages of the heart. Through the heart’s  electromagnetic field, we can transmit positive emotional responses to our food and others, within the parameters of our cozy kitchens. Cooking is a matter of the heart and when we cook with our hearts, we nourish and heal not only our hearts, but our emotional and spiritual bodies as well. The heart reminds that our food is more than a bunch of chemicals, nutrients and calories to be reduced. Known as the throne of our emotional intelligence, the heart still reigns supreme across cultures, lifetimes and dimensions.  The intention we hold in our hearts when we are cooking our food mindfully, turns basic food ingredients into alchemical gold.

As our strongest energy field, the heart is the medium through we which we experience both inner and outer worlds. The heart’s energy field, as an intuitive and intelligent force expands as our level of awareness expands. The heart regulates, synchronizes and balances internal systems and produces some of the very same feel good chemicals we have too long attributed to only the brain and the gut. Without the heart, there is a disconnection between our physical, emotional and spiritual bodies. With it, there is coherence, organized intelligence, and intuitive knowing. The heart seeks harmony between our thoughts, emotions, and intuitive knowing.  Heart-centered cooking is one of the most sacred and holistic practices for aligning and balancing mind, body, emotions and spirit. Heart-centered cooking is a gateway in our own self-realization and transformation that can lend to better health and well-being.

Heart-centered cooking, like any other mindful practice, suspends us in the moment. When we slow down enough to cook a meal with a coherent heart and awareness, we become entrained to the rhythms of the heart and exercise our intuitive muscle.  As we learn to listen more to our hearts, we become more self-aware, mindful and attuned to our deeper selves. Through our hands, as an extension of the heart chakra, we are engaged in the process of creation and connected to the universal field of consciousness. Along with present moment awareness, the simple technique of rubbing the palms together to stimulate the energy centers in the hands, focusing on your heart center, visualizing the heart’s electromagnetic field, and rhythmic slow breathing before preparing your meal are great ways to begin your heart-centered cooking journey.

Heart-centered cooking, as a catalyst for self higher awareness, coupled with foods that nourish the heart chakra, is a recipe for wellness. As the midpoint chakra, the electrical energy of the heart is activated by foods, thoughts and actions that resonate with the vibration of love energy. A simple way to nourish the heart chakra is by incorporating more green fruits, vegetables, superfoods, and herbs for your eating routine, not just this month, but daily for optimum results.

Heart-centered cooking is about HOW we cook. No matter what we cook, when we cook from the heart, and make it a daily meditation practice, everyday is a celebration of self-care, love and gratitude. Heart-centered cooking is the new meditation.