One of the things I’ve always loved about practising Buddhism – chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, the sound of the Mystic Law – is how it puts my life into alignment with Life. Buddhist writings refer to this as the fusing of the microcosm (me) with the macrocosm (Universe).

What does that mean in practical terms? It means the fuller picture of your personal power comes forth from within you, and you tend to be in the right place at the right time. To put it another way, the way forward slowly but surely reveals itself.

I have a great seeking spirit towards Buddhism, and also towards nutrition. I firmly believe that Life is a compassionate entity, and that everything we need to sustain life is present here with us on our planet Earth. This translates to my dislike of Big Bucks Pharma and a bottomless curiosity about nutritional supplements.

The recent fruit of this curiosity led me to listen in May this year to an interview with Trudy Scott, Clinical Nutritionist. I found out she published a book in 2011 called The Antianxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood, and End Cravings. I got the book from the Toronto Library and started reading it under the sunshine in my sister’s back garden in England during my June vacation. Nice beginning!

Trudy’s blog About page says she’s “on a mission to educate and empower anxious individuals worldwide about natural solutions for anxiety, stress and emotional eating. Trudy serves as a catalyst in bringing about life enhancing transformations that start with the healing powers of eating real whole food, using individually targeted supplementation and making simple lifestyle changes.”

In my day, I’ve stuffed myself with doughnuts, usually six at a time; Mars bars, ditto for the number; entire packages of cookies; litres of ice cream; and so on. I’m happy to say that was a long time ago.

I’ve reduced the stress I feel with magnesium supplements. Anxiety still made itself unwelcome though. That feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach. Catastrophic thinking. Second-guessing myself all the time. Feeling I couldn’t truly express myself because I felt afraid of the outcome.

I just felt afraid.

Long story short, I went to a great health food supermarket close to where I work to buy a supplement Trudy recommended for my profile. (The book contains questionnaires to help you find out what you’re deficient in.) Afterwards I did some more online research on that particular supplement.

The way forward slowly but surely reveals itself.

This is where we circle back to the benefits of practising Buddhism. I discovered that the time-release format of the supplement gives better results than one-shot formats. And quite by chance I had bought a time-release format, simply because it was the best value of those I found on the store shelf, and I knew the make to be reliable. Without knowing what I was doing I did the right thing!

Then I discovered that the supplement works even better in synergy with a particular amino acid. It just so happens that I bought a huge amount of this amino acid before leaving on vacation. I now put a heaped teaspoon of said amino acid into my breakfast drink every morning.

And the upshot of all this happy synchronicity? I’ve found a supplement that is really helping me become… ME.

I find myself behaving with much more self-confidence now – something I’ve prayed about with longing over the years.

I just recalled that when my cousin and his wife came to Toronto in April, I was driving us somewhere in my car when he asked me out of the blue how I’d rate myself for self-confidence on a scale from 1 (little) to 10 (lots). I said 4.

Four? Not anymore! Right now I’d give myself a 7! And counting!

Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash