PuNolChi (푸놀치) is a word made from the first syllables of a Korean phrase: “When you express your heart with Pu-deu (food) and Nol-da (play), joy — delight, confidence, happiness, laughter and more — Chi-sot-da (soars up)!”
The word PuNolChi is familiar to food expressive counseling specialists who practice Food Expressive Arts Therapy, but it may sound new to everyone else. Dr. Kim Ji-yu first used the word in 2016, when she volunteered her talents at Hunmin Hakdang Global Korean School in New Jersey, USA. The PuNolChi Mind Journey began in earnest in 2019 with dementia-prevention lectures together with the Yeongdong County Public Health Center. At that time it was used as “Express with food and play, and dementia is prevented.” Since then she has kept writing about using the word PuNolChi in everyday life so that ordinary people can share a healthy and beautiful life, and it is becoming more and more widely known.
Healing Santa, who created this slightly unfamiliar and playful word, dreams that PuNolChi will become widely known abroad as K-Culture and K-Healing Arts FooD. Her heart raced whenever she saw the Korean flag waving during educational volunteer work overseas; dreaming of globalizing FEAT (Food Expressive Arts Therapy), which was developed in Korea, she coined the new words “PuKaShi (푸카詩)” and “PuNolChi” from the first syllables of Korean words. (For reference, “PuKaShi” means “express with food, capture it with a camera, and keep it as a poem.”)
We often think of cooking as something we simply have to do in order to live — as “labor” or “duty.” But from the PuNolChi point of view, the dining table is a “canvas for the heart” made for me, and food (FooD) ingredients are drawing tools for expressing my unconscious.
In terms of brain science, when we marvel at the colors of food ingredients, feel their textures with our fingertips and shape them into something, the right hemisphere and the frontal lobe of our brain synchronize strongly. The serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin released at that moment are neurotransmitters that give an existential fullness beyond simply being full — a divine gift released within our own bodies.
In <5 Minutes a Day, Mind Table>, mind cooking does not ask us for great cooking skills. It is simply about awakening — the way that is true to you, by stimulating the sensory cortex according to the brain’s learning principles — the “creativity” that is already inside us as the root power for solving problems, and the “signature strengths” that let us live joyfully and be ourselves.
The good intentions of the “PuNolChi Mind Table” creators
Pooh’s PuNolChi Mind Journey
Pooh majored in chemical engineering. Having walked a path completely unrelated to psychotherapy or expressive arts, he met his true self through his unconscious on the PuNolChi Mind Journey. Pooh did not meet himself properly from the very beginning. Thanks to meeting his heart steadily and talking with himself, he discovered his calling and became someone who gladly shares it.
I, too, am amazed by and admire his creativity. It is astonishing how he can express such creative ideas so artistically. Placing each pumpkin seed and each tiny kiwi seed with care, he makes flowers of the heart bloom and becomes aware of the spirituality hidden within him.
Now he dreams of becoming a spiritual leader who spreads the PuNolChi Mind Table around the world. I support his mission as well, and wait for heaven’s timing.
They say what the universe wants is good work that is good for you, good for me, good for all of us, and beyond that helps all of humanity. Because our wishes are good, I have a very strong belief that the universe will help us — just as it always has so far!
Bora’s PuNolChi Mind Journey
When she first began Food Expressive Arts Therapy in 2006, Bora introduced herself as “all thumbs, with zero creativity.” She is someone who grows steadily and patiently in whatever she does. Quietly repeating, she has kept setting PuNolChi Mind Tables for continuous self-development and growth. As a result, Bora discovered a huge resource hidden within herself. Now she gives her PuNolChi Mind Journey artworks as gifts not only to me but to everyone. Everyone who receives her work is proud of her. I am truly proud of her, too.
In fact she was not like this from the start, but by believing in herself and expressing creatively almost every day, she discovered that she had “golden hands” — magic hands — all along.
Looking at the food expression artworks of Bora, who discovered her signature strengths through PuNolChi, I too admire her creativity, feel moved, and my heart brightens.
Now it is your turn to discover yourself through the PuNolChi Mind Table and experience a delightful change.