I am curious about the dance of food in our lives and improving our relationship to it, especially in its role of bringing people together to talk through our own experiences. This intersection is one that I am certain is on the leading-edge of wellbeing and what it means in the world we now live in.

I rely on other experts for a series of well-executed handoffs to ensure how to best affect food sustainability. There are many parts of our holistic ecosystem that bring us to this leading edge. How to plant it, grow it, harvest it, blend it, heat it, chill it, package it, describe it, ship it, and serve it — so that we all can — find it, afford it, enjoy it, save it, up-cycle it, share it and heal from it. Whew!

What is happening on the leading-edge of wellbeing?

Food security and its role in our wellbeing requires collective and integrative leadership. 

This is why I was pleased to be a panelist on the World Sustainable Gastronomy Day, organized by Barilla, Future Food Institute, and Food for Soul. The webinar focused on how conscious, sustainable eating can fully enrich people’s lives, especially during a pandemic. But it made me think more about the so-called leading edge of wellbeing at every point in the value chain, especially as we adjust to the disruptive impact of COVID-19.

Food plays a significant role in wellbeing. But we have dissected wellbeing to focus on its functional benefits. It appears we forget that where and how we consume matters, too. In 2012, when I gave my Ted-X talk, I posited that we would be well served by creating a society that transforms its addictions from negative ones to healthy ones.

“Let’s create a society that is addicted to health,” I said. 

That was said with conviction as I watched my mom deal with cancer in a hospital that viewed food as buidling an appetite versus healing the body. We know so much better now.

Full Circle connections to wellbeing

Almost eight years later, I do not see enough change as I described in my book, Living Full Circle: Simple Ancient Rituals for Modern Life, which expands this view of wellbeing beyond nutrition. These words were sparked by listening and watching people suffer through chronic disease and mystery illnesses after they exhausted the experts in places designed to uncover answers. 

As 2020 has interrupted our daily lives, I hear more and more how we are all rethinking much of what we thought we knew about how to live full, healthy lives. Our anxiety and stress is off the charts (even before Covid-19). Economic hardship has hit millions. Being confined to our homes impacts our social and mental wellbeing.

Again, whew.

So what are you doing that brings relief? What is happening in your personal circle that is out in front of the leading edge of wellbeing?

I am putting together bi-monthly listening sessons to pinpoint areas that can make a difference. Well, it can if we focus. As I said in the interview about this event, “this is the perfect time for us to rethink the value of food after COVID and its role in global challenges.”

In the coming months, I look forward to reconnecting with you to collectively embrace a comprehensive view of wellbeing and perhaps dive into the insights for a better life within these concepts for the first time. If you haven’t subscribed to my mailing list, please do so today so you can share in this evolution in real-time.

Let’s come together in wellbeing.