Making bread is my happy place. Sourcing and combining quality ingredients, pounding & transforming the sticky dough until smooth, allowing the dough to rise for the allotted amount of time, and placing the loaf in the oven all culminates into a heavenly, hot, buttery, aromatic, and pillowy bite of pure joy - oh, how I love to eat!
The process of making bread has nurtured some important qualities within me - the most important being the ability to wait with expectant joy. Depending on the type of bread that is being made, the timeframe of the process can range from hours to days. No matter how long the wait, my joy endures.
Making Challah bread has become an endeared spiritual rhythm, as this bread is traditionally eaten on the Sabbath and on Jewish holidays. [1] This specific type of bread is made with wheat flour. Within the scope of Traditional Chinese Medicine, non-GMO, organic and unbleached wheat flour has the following properties: Tonify yin, clear heat, and calm spirit. [2]
What does all of that mean?
Tonify Yin: Yin represents the energy that is responsible for moistening and cooling bodily functions. When this energy is depleted your body begins to show signs of “heating up”. This is not a true heat such as a fever, but rather a lack of the moistening and cooling functions that are necessary to maintain a healthy balance. [3]
Clear Heat: Reducing inflammation or the affects of stagnation (an area of restricted free flow) in the body.
Clam Spirit (Shen): Shen is usually translated as spirit and refers to that aspect of our being that is spiritual. It embodies consciousness, emotions, and thought. [4]
Simply put, incorporating wheat grain into your diet could assist in cooling down the body's internal temperature and stabilizing the emotions. #HealIntentionally
Key Words: Wheat, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Bread, Challah, Jewish, Joy, Yin, Clear Heat and Shen
Comments