My Journey with Cacao – Health & Wellness

 

January 2020 seemed to be an even busier January than normal when it came to health and fitness. You’ll know yourself if you go to a gym what happens after any New Year, new people join, everyone gets back into fitness and the classes are packed for around 6 weeks.

January is also a time where we tend to pick up the winter bugs that are doing the rounds and I  discovered that when I’m teaching a class of up to 40 people, who are facing me and moving towards me, I’m vulnerable to picking up bugs.

By mid-January I was fighting off bugs every few days, constantly feeling like I was on the edge of coming down with something much worse, then knocking it off and feeling alright again until 3 days later when the cycle would start again.

I was doing Epson salt baths, Vitamin C, eating well, as usual and this did help when it came to knocking off these bugs, yet the cycle continued. After weeks of this my energy levels were becoming lower and I knew that eventually I was probably going to end up ill with a bug.

Then at the end of February/early March my son had a pre-booked assessment for something which was taking place at the local Doctors surgery and I went with him. The first thing I saw when we entered the reception were these plastic screens up on the reception desk that the receptionist was sitting behind.

I asked what they were and if they were there because of people’s aggressive behaviour over appointments, which can often be hard to get at this surgery. The receptionist looked at me like I was from another planet and said, ‘No it’s Corona Virus’.

I’m not one for paying much attention to mainstream media and if I’m honest at that time I thought there were only a couple of people in China that had this virus, I was obviously way behind the times and I realised this when she told me why the screens were up.

It was then I felt myself pulled into fear. I remember thinking ‘I’ve spent weeks constantly fighting off winter bugs and now I’m in a doctors surgery for an hour where they have protective screens up because there’s a new virus around, this virus must be quite bad’. If I was already feeling run down then it might be easier for me to catch this new virus especially being around people all the time. I felt fearful and fed up.

It was whilst sat in that surgery worrying about my immune system, energy levels, and a serious looking virus that ‘Cacao’ crossed my mind and I realised I could use it as a traditional medicine for the body as well as for aiding meditation for the soul.

From this point I began to chop little chunks off my block of organic cacao. I’d eat a chunk before I left the house, a chunk around lunchtime, and I soon learnt not to eat a chunk in the evening as cacao naturally uplifts you, so combining cacao with exercise at night was not the best thing for getting to sleep.

After 5 days of doing this my energy levels had improved dramatically, and my physical health felt at its best for a long time. I was no longer fighting off bugs and best of all I felt safe and protected. This has continued through the whole pandemic.

This was my first experience of using ceremonial cacao as medicine for a physical purpose and not only did it help heal the physical issue, it brought a harmonic balance between mind and body.

The “ceremonial” cacao is pure cacao liquor with all the goodness still inside because it isn’t processed like chocolate or cacao nibs. It contains meaningful amounts of compounds that improve the blood flow to the heart and brain by about 40% (potassium, phosphorus, copper, zinc and magnesium). A healthy blood flow improves many bodily functions such as, the heart, brain, eyes, liver, immune system and digestive system.  It’s also once of the richest antioxidant sources of food in the world.

The flavonoids within the cacao, along with a significant amount of chromium, is what helps the body’s cells resist damage against everyday toxins and stressors, therefore the body will function more efficiently. This will also give extra protection in toxic or stressful environments.

And it’s the Theobromine in Ceremonial Cacao which boosts energy levels and releases fatigue.

Cacao always meets you where you’re at. All plant medicines have an intelligence that can communicate directly with humans.  This is something the ancient cultures have always understood, and we have lost touch with this ancient knowledge. There are many ways to help and heal yourself in natural ways that are often overlooked today and many of these natural ways are used to prevent more dangerous health problems from arising later.

I took Cacao as medicine for my immunity and low energy levels at this time. Someone else may take it for a flare up of arthritic pain and then cacao would work as medicine for those issues. If we know we are using this medicine to help us with a particular issue, the intelligence of the plant can assist us with the healing. Cacao’s properties are such that it can aid with many issues, even if it is to simply alleviate some of the pain or stress and provide you with some energy.

Once we entered full lockdown I naturally stopped taking cacao in this particular way (eating chunks every day) as my lifestyle changed and my health had improved. This felt so natural, I didn’t even realise I’d stopped until I decided to make a Cacao drink for meditation.

We had already decided before lockdown we were going to invest in this magnificent medicine, and we’d done our research on how we could get some cacao imported. Lockdown turned everything upside down but we went ahead anyway, because we believe and trust in this amazing plant medicine and I felt a calling to it.

It arrived after coming all the way from Peru and was delivered to me with a fork-lift truck which gave me a mini panic about how I was going to get it into the house. It all worked out perfectly though and the very next day I also began a course on Cacao Mastery! We’re now discovering our next steps for getting the medicine out there to the wider public.

This is a new chapter of my journey in health, fitness, wellbeing, and spirituality and it’s really exciting that we’ll be helping people with this ancient medicine and bringing it to a new audience. At this time I think the world needs some help to heal and it reminded me of this prophecy passed down from the ancient Mayans that I heard for the first time in a cacao ceremony I participated in online only last week.

“When humanity has lost it’s connection with nature and is in dire need of healing, Cacao will march out of the jungle”