Eating to feel this wave of aliveness and pleasure...

A holistic health and wellness expert, Isabelle Jan has lived part time in Bali for eight years. Her job takes her to some of the world’s most beautiful locations and prestigious hotels. But she often finds herself craving the raw, vegan, living foods at Fivelements Sakti Dining Room^TM. 

 On my travels I often have to search to find places that serve high quality, fresh living foods. Too often it doesn’t seem to be the priority for chefs and restaurants. Vegetables are a rare gem found on menus full of dishes heavy with gluten, sugar and lactose. I feel a privilege I never realized before – what a gift it is to have a plate of fresh healthy ingredients.

The lack of the awareness concerning food choices, in a world of bad food habits, emotional cravings and addictions is incredible. Why not focus on simple, delicious, colourful plant-based dishes with good sources of protein, minerals and vitamins?

I have always been hypersensitive, and as a result I mostly eat a plant-based diet to support my energy and health. In my childhood I healed my body and soul twice through eating naturally with living and raw foods, without knowing what I was doing. I just listened to my body.

Simply being in a local market full of vibrant vegetables makes me feel good. I love feeling the vitality of vegetables and fruits live from the producer, preparing a dish with raw plants and nuts, knowing the energy the ingredients will give me, and the sensorial journey I will take as I taste them and feel the connection with Mother Earth and the environment.

I have a profound relationship with food. I’m grateful for the feel of the ingredients when I prepare them, for the playfulness in the dishes’ creation, the pleasure while eating them and the energy and feeling of aliveness in my body thanks to the nourishment.

I believe foods can help us be more open to life, hear the whispers of our dreams, align with our bliss over our fears, grow awareness and build the relationship with our heart and soul. They can help us connect with our intuition and desires, build mental clarity and emotional grounding. I believe food supports us with easy digestion, a flexibility, a light feeling, a flow. Our food choices can result in healing and prevention, restoration and rejuvenation, and harmony with our environment.

So I feel very fortunate to have tasted the romantic dinners, the abundant buffets and the simple juices made at Fivelements Sakti Dining Room^TM by their amazing culinary team.

You know you have met a master when you need no words to explain what is happening in your mouth and body, when it’s not necessary to hide behind artificial colours, flavours or false ingredients to keep the purity and the feeling of nourishment to strengthen your body.

The chefs at Fivelements Sakti Dining Room^TM are geniuses. They speak about food like artists speak about art. Starting with simple ingredients directly picked from the earth, each day they challenge their creativity even further in search for new recipes. Every day opens the opportunity for new creations, like in life. Every day is spent researching and mastering the process of transformation, like an alchemist.

I shared the meditative state, centered in love, into which cooking puts us during the Fivelements’ Cuisine for Life^TM culinary training. I love to cook beautiful food for my loved ones at home; they are sacred moments in my day. During the course I heard whispers that the chef ‘s secret is to massage the veggies with love and presence. I wish all chefs around the world cooked with the same dedication.

Fivelements’ chefs and I both live for the art of the subtle, the invisible detail. The art of the senses, harmony in colour, a thousand tastes in one, beauty on the plate, and joy, even before taking the first bite.

Then, waves of emotions and fragrances in your mouth. A moment of silence, blessing the foods, knowing you are treating yourself with respect, care and love. Gratitude for those making the dish possible.

Are you mindful of the pleasure you feel when you eat a plate full of nutrients and life?

Isabelle, January 2015. Www.theflowinglife.com