How to Cleanse your Body for a Wealth of Benefits
My regular readers and patients know that Fall and Spring cleansing are among my top recommendations for long term health and vitality. Regular detoxification offers us an opportunity to let go of things we no longer need in life, lighten our systems, and turn over a new leaf for greater well being and happiness. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the Fall season relates to the lungs, the large intestines, and to the practice of letting go and releasing whatever is weighing us down. Lightening our physical, mental and emotional load will give us the greater energy and health that we need for a smooth transition into the Winter season.
Welcoming the Fall Season
This year, I had the opportunity to spend the Autumn Equinox with group of 25 inspiring people during my four day Meditation, Transformation and Healing Retreat, at the beautiful Institute of Noetic Sciences in Petaluma, CA. This event was a profound and meaningful way to welcome the Fall season. It allowed participants to begin the process of peeling away those unnecessary layers within ourselves which block and interfere with our innate healing potential.
Our busy lives, our patterns and habits, and the stress we place on ourselves affect each one of us differently, but there are some basic, common threads connecting us. One central, common thread we all share is our underlying capacity to transform and heal ourselves. With a gentle seasonal cleanse, our inner vitality and healing energies can flow more freely and we can experience profound increases in our health, happiness and well being. Some of the key components to successful cleansing are mind-body practices for healing and transforming mental and emotional stress — the greatest threats to our health and wellness. This Fall retreat demonstrated the powerful effects of such mind-body practices in helping to facilitate long lasting transformation and regeneration for all participants involved, including myself.
Preparing to Cleanse your Body: Part One
Integrative, holistic health programs such as a seasonal cleanse often consist of multiple key principles and components that are necessary for achieving optimal results. This year, I am devoting several issues of my newsletter to further expanding on some of these topics, to help you get the most out of your cleanse experience. Simple cleansing and detoxification is centered in the heart and mind, in deciding what you want to clear on a physical, mental and emotional level, and letting go. As such, in this current issue I will be highlighting some helpful meditation practices to begin engaging your mind-body connection for optimal cleansing and healing (see below).
There is also the critical importance of an alkalizing diet, full of organic vegetables and fruit, high quality protein and gluten-free grains. In addition, several key nutritional supplements will help increase the cleansing process, supporting the natural detoxification capacities of your organs and tissues. And if you feel you need them, some gentle detoxification treatments and exercises can help enhance your cleanse and leave you feeling more refreshed and energized.
As such, my next issue in early November will be devoted to the topic of an alkalizing diet, and how to achieve optimal Ph for cleansing and renewing vital energy. I will also discuss the importance of several key supplements during detoxification, such as medicinal mushrooms, botanicals and nutrients, along with a few of my favorite treatments for enhancing the cleanse process. Lastly, I will discuss tips on also how to avoid a “detox crisis”.
How to Stay Committed to Cleansing Your Body
Finding balance and staying motivated to continue your health program is a critical, though often overlooked, aspect to any cleanse or health promoting program. Therefore, in my mid-November issue I will also include an article highlighting some energetic principles which can help give rise to deeper motivation and discipline, calling on your inner, or spiritual core, and the implications of these practices for everyday life.
Deepen your Cleanse with Simple Breathing Practices
A well planned seasonal cleanse, whether you engage in it for 3 days, 10 days, or longer, can balance and harmonize the many layers of your being: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. The primary connection between these layers is the breath. Breathing brings nourishment and information from the universe in the form of oxygen, and releases old toxins in the form of carbon dioxide. Because the many layers of your being are interconnected, then clearing and releasing toxins from your physical body can also help to ease toxic emotions and other afflictive states. This is why individuals undergoing a cleanse often report such feelings of euphoria and clarity during and after the process.
But it also works going the other way: releasing afflictive emotions and mental states can aid in removing physical toxins from your body as well. This release is greatly enhanced through focused breathing, which is particularly relevant during a fall cleanse. As I mentioned, in TCM, the Fall season relates to the lungs, and to the large intestine. The lungs regulate emotions of sadness, thus providing an energetic view into the process of releasing old, toxic feelings as we exhale. When we exhale, we can feel and visualize our toxins and toxic emotions as a part of our out-breath, released in preparation for receiving vital, fresh information and healing energy with each in-breath. Simply through slowing down and bringing awareness to our breath and to this cyclical exchange of energy, we can significantly enhance our cleansing and healing processes to bring about greater vitality and lightness of being.
Simple Meditation & Breathing Exercise
Here’s a simple meditation and breathing practice to get you started: Sit comfortably in a quite spot, and think about the things that you’re ready to shed this season, be they physical health issues, emotional issues, mental patterns, clutter in your space, anything at all. Then focus your breath onto a specific object, such as a rock. When you exhale, visualize all that you’re letting go of being released into the rock. When you breathe in, visualize pure healing energy entering your body through your breath and filling your entire being with light. As you repeat this process, allow any emotions, thoughts, and feelings to arise, and slip away, as you bring your attention back to your breath. This simple meditation practice can be a profound vehicle for healing on all levels, mind body and spirit, and multiple scientific studies have been published highlighting it’s powerful benefits.
As promised in the next issue, I will discuss practical ways to optimize your cleanse with diet, supplements and some key treatments. For now, the best preparation you can do to begin your journey is to clarify what you want to release, and begin to let it go with each out-breath.
Your Thoughts
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