It occurred to me recently how many meals we prepare with resentment - And I do include myself in this, make no mistake. How many times are we exhausted, overworked, overstressed or simply not in the mood to prepare a meal? I’ve watched myself doing this, and others too, and have to wonder how digestible that food really is by the time we’ve poured our daily grief and resentment into it by the cupful.

I was reading about Masaru Emoto’s Peace Project on the net and if you are not familiar with his experiments, they go something like this: He takes a body of water (be that a glassful or a lakeful) and offers the water different words. The water is prayed for, or has a word written down and stuck to the glass, or shouted at it. He freezes some of the water beforehand, and some afterwards and photographs both at a high magnification so that you can see the water crystals that have formed. Those words with happy messages like “love” or “gratitude” or “peace” form the most beautiful crystals – like perfect little snowdrops. The water with negative words shouted or shown to it, things like “hate” or “you’re stupid” or “war”, form what could be called ugly crystals – they look muddy and unformed. He has even performed this experiment on huge polluted lakes, transforming the water through prayer and meditation.

Try it yourself as a fun little experiment with your kids... Take two jugs of water. Write down “love and gratitude” on a piece of paper and attach it to the one jug. Write down “I hate you” on another piece of paper and attach this to jug number two. Then take two plants – one will be watered with jug one, and the other with jug two. Before you water them, speak kindly to the water one, telling it how much love and gratitude you have and sending these “vibes” into the water. Shout at jug two, filling the water with all the hate you can muster. Keep this up for a month and see what your two plants look like.

Which brings me back to the meals. Most of what we eat, and most of what we are in fact, is made up of water. If our predominant thoughts are of negative concepts like hating what we’re doing at this particular moment, how is this affecting our food, and our health and the health of all those we’re feeding? Both the Chinese and Japanese have the concept of Qi (pronounces Chee), which says a similar thing to what Emoto is proving with his little experiments – the energy field that we have currently affects what we come into contact with. If you are kneading that dough with anger, then the Qi of anger is flowing out of your hands into your dinner.

If we are truly aiming at being conscious parents, then that consciousness needs to flow into everything we do – from playing with our kids to preparing their snacks. Try, when you’re making your next meal, to imagine that whatever emotion you are harboring while you cook is what you are serving up for din-dins.

Are you serving love or resentment for dinner tonight? It’s your choice!