Shamini Kulasingham writes: Last year I encountered the Festival of Life for the first time. For me - your average salad muncher - it was a two day condensed spectacular paradise exhibiting everything raw, animal free, and important for well being and health. 

There was an alternative raw equivalent available for most standard diets and needs.  I was delighted to discover raw oat cheese cake, soaked flaxseed, dehydrated crackers, and raw chocolate - without the sugar and dairy that you find in the normal stuff and instead filled with healthy superfoods. Another find was Kombucha, which is a fermented secretion from an amoeba with similar natural effects as alcohol and also aids digestion, and also fresh Durian with its creamy custard texture and interesting distinctive smell!

Food is the fuel that drives most human beings and what we put in affects all our decisions and motivations which ultimately affects  the world. By filling our guts with chemicals, pesticides, genetically modified anything, hormones, bad karma from upset animals, cooked dead anything; we are endangering ourselves and our environment because of our lack of sensitivity. By making the transition into living food I have found myself to have more energy and insight on how to improve myself on so many different levels - and have more awareness of my surroundings. It's amazing how much of our internal bodily reactions affect our mind-state. Maybe road rage is actually about someone having indigestion from a greasy cheese burger?!

We should maybe be healing and cleaning out ourselves before we make any endeavours to heal and save the planet. Festivals such as Festival Of Life should be appreciated for concerning themselves with these deep issues and their focus on the roots of most problems: www.shamrockharmony.co.uk