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Organic Food vs. Organic Thoughts

As you probably know by now, I am pretty fanatical and passionate about organic food. It is what I love. It has a superior taste to conventionally-grown food.  Also, it is best for my health, the farmers’ health and the planet.

Given that I am so concerned about what I put into my body and my overall health, I have been thinking about this topic a lot lately: organic food vs. organic thoughts.

So, what do I mean by this?

Organic food is clearly the best food for me and is critical to good health. There is no doubt about that. However, when I have negative thoughts, feelings of guilt or doubt, or start beating myself up for a variety of reasons, is that negating the benefits of my organic food habit?

I wish the answer were that cut and dry where I could say “yes” or “no”. Food is very tangible. I can see what I am putting into my mouth and the ramifications are quite clear. Eating fast-food or conventional, fried, GMO food makes me feel sluggish, disgusting and pretty horrible. I know what to eat and what not to eat, have great control over my diet, and am certain that organic food is the most nutritious food a person can consume.

However, when negative thoughts poison my mind, it is not super-easy to turn them around into positive ones. Shutting off the negative chatter is much, much harder than cutting off the junk food (even though I don’t eat junk food) yet doing so is essential for my health as well.

One movie that changed my life forever was What the Bleep Do We Know and was one of the three things that helped me recover from 11 years of antidepressants. And, what that movie taught me was the power of our thoughts. Before seeing that film, I never realized that our thoughts impact our reality. My negative thoughts are not only attracting negative things into my life but they are incredibly detrimental to my health on a cellular level.

Are my destructive thoughts negating all of the good, organic food that I am putting into my body? It is impossible to know for sure but they are absolutely not helping.

However, what this conversation that I’ve been having with myself has done is raise my awareness about the effect of these thoughts and the impact that they are having on my health, from both a good and bad perspective. It is something that I have known for a long time but is a good reminder and keeps me in check.

Health is so important to me that anytime one of these poisonous thoughts comes into my head, I am going to think of this blog post to get me back on the right track.

Just as clean food is critical to our health, so are clean thoughts. I want both of them working for me instead of one canceling out the other.

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On a related note, I recently read a fantastic book by Dr. Maxwell Maltz called Psycho-Cybernetics. He was among the country’s first plastic surgeons and realized that changing a person’s physical appearance did not do much to change the way they felt about themselves. Dr. Maltz believed that it all started from the image that a person had of themselves. Turning around a person’s self-image was the essential first step to improving a person’s life, before surgery or before positive thinking.

His book is very compelling, it has helped me a lot and I suggest it strongly. Here is some rare footage of an interview with him on YouTube.

A message from Tradin Organic

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For more than a decade, Tradin Organic has been working with local partners in The Philippines to bring a diversified range of organic products to the market, such as coconut oil, tropical fruits and even cocoa.

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Learn more.

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Living Maxwell

Personal

“I Was Told My Brain Was Broken”

In November, I put up blog entry titled The Repercussions of Going on Antidepressants, and I received a comment on this post the other day that both disturbed me and confirmed what I already knew. I thought it merited its own discussion here.

The woman who wrote the comment calls herself NoRx4Me and left the following information:

I was put on an SSRI at 24 years old during a bad marriage. I needed guidance and support, instead I was told my brain was broken.

SSRI’s led to stimulants, mood stabilizers, SNRI’s, and lithium for a short time. I was a mess. I lost 13 years. I have little memory of those years (especially sad, because I was raising two boys). I didn’t grow as a person at all. I quit dating in 2003 and never developed knew friendships either. I didn’t even realize this was odd until I was off meds.

I probably would have responded like some others on here while I was still under the influence and told you the meds were great. With a clear mind and 20/20 hindsight, I know the facts, my life was destroyed.

And they do cause physical problems; I lost a ton of hair, and my teeth are a mess. I look like I’ve aged 20 years instead of 10.

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A message from Tradin Organic

Why Tradin Organic is Prioritizing Regenerative Organic Farming

At Tradin Organic, we believe that regenerative organic farming is key to growing healthy and nutritious food ingredients — for now and for future generations.

And in Sierra Leone, we have grown the world’s first Regenerative Organic Certified cacao.

Learn more.

Living Maxwell

Personal

Thank You to My Readers, Thinking of My Mother

I am in Denver for Thanksgiving and will be heading back to Boston tomorrow. Two things have been on my mind.

1) In case you didn’t know, I am an absolute AM radio junkie, mostly sports radio. One of my favorite hosts is Colin Cowherd from ESPN Radio. Practically every single night, I replay some of his segments from earlier in the day.

Something Colin always says resonates with me very deeply, especially now as I am starting to build an audience of my own. He acknowledges that there are many, many options out there and appreciates that people have decided to spend their time listening to him.

And, that is how I feel. There are millions and millions of websites out there, and I am very appreciative that people take the time to read what I write and watch my videos. I do my best to provide interesting and compelling content, both information related to organic food and specific personal issues that I deal with.

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Living Maxwell

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How Organic Food Played a Crucial Role in My Decision to Quit 11 Years of Antidepressants

In the summer of 2001 and at the urging of my then-girlfriend, I went for an appointment to go see her naturopathic doctor in New York City, the place where we were both living at the time.

Having done acupuncture since high school, I had always been open to alternative medicine and was curious what this woman could do for me.

During our session, she asked me about all of my health and dietary habits – eating, drinking, smoking, drugs, exercise. Everything. In the midst of this conversation, the topic of organic food somehow arose. I remember that I had some notion about what organic food was but wasn’t overly familiar with it.

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livingmaxwell: a guide to organic food & drink