Spring Cleansing for Body & Mind
I love spring time, it’s the perfect time of year to cleanse out the body and start fresh. Cleansing allows the body to absorb all the goodness of your organic food and eliminate toxins that have been stored in the body over winter. Here are five simple ways to kick off your body’s spring cleanse. Enjoy!
Get Moving: During winter we tend to huddle up indoors and move less, and because of the reduced hours of sunlight, are likely to sleep in. As the days get longer, it is ideal to start your day outside with an activity as simple as walking. Movement is not only great to kick start your physical body but an awesome way to clear the mind and spend some time breathing in fresh air!
Breathing: I have experienced that bringing conscious attention to breathing, allowing the body to increase the amount of oxygen, nourishes every single cell of your body and really helps with clearing and focusing the mind, which helps relieve stress. It’s important, even when you’re busy, to stop and take a few deep breaths. When exhaling you are actually cleansing the body of toxins. I find that exercising in any way - high or low intensity - or practising yoga is a great opportunity to focus on breathing to assist the body in so many ways including cleansing, relaxation and focusing attention.
Eliminate processed foods and sugar from your diet: This won’t be the first time you hear me say it, and definitely not the last. The more removed the product you put in your mouth is from the way it appears in nature, the further away you will be from optimal health. In other words, eat unrefined, organic food from nature’s table and you’ll be right! This means: plenty of green leafies and other veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds and unrefined oils like organic EV olive oil and coconut oil. When you eliminate packaged foods and sugar from your diet initially you may experience uncomfortable symptoms that will get you to rethink your changes, but stick with it, because this is how your body cleanses out the toxins by first bringing them to the surface.
When I was 23 I went through a phase of around 3 months of drinking coca cola nearly every day. My most painful detoxing experience was when I went away to a health retreat for a week and gave up the soft drink. My body was aching and my head pounding , but I knew I had to persist and just replace the drink with water and a pinch of salt. After the week of clearing out I felt so much more energised and haven’t touched soft drinks since then. When you form a habit, the initial breaking is quite challenging, but by replacing that item with something else and also focusing on why you are giving up that habit, you will receive the long term benefits and persist. When I look at the “foods” that I used to love and live on that I have now given up (except some for special occasions), I don’t feel like I am missing out at all, because I would rather have a healthy functioning body than suffer the consequences of a poor diet with sickness and dis-ease.
Drink Water: The number one way to cleanse out the body is by drinking water. For every litre of water I drink, I pop a pinch of UNREFINED salt, Himalayan or Celtic, which not only helps the cells absorb the water, but aids in cleansing, digestion and elimination. These salts provide the body with over 84 unpolluted minerals and are the healthy choice for salting food. Any other salt that is refined, like your classic table salt and a lot of other “rock” salts, will contain aluminium, anti caking agents and bleaches to give it that white look. For more information of the importance of healthy salts in the diet, visit Dr. Mercola's site.
Water is life, we’re made up of salt water and our level of health is dependant on the quality and quantity of water we drink. There is no substitute for water. Coffee, tea and soft drinks dehydrate the body by taking away even more water than you’ve put in by drinking the beverage, so make sure if you decide to choose these drinks, you’re replacing it with plenty of water, or you’re likely to experience dehydration symptoms, like headaches, muscle, joint and bone pains.
My favourite book about water is called “Your Body’s Many Cries for Water” by Dr Batmanghelidj. By reading this or visiting his website (www.watercure.com) you will realise the many wonders of water, and if you don’t believe that water will save you from much sickness and dis-ease, why not simply increase your water habit and see where it takes you? In this cleansing phase, this is one healthy aspect I like to focus on. A lot of the time when we think we’re hungry, we’re actually thirsty and by drinking 2 cups of water before thinking of eating, your body will tell you what it needs. Usually you don’t eat as much and so often headaches, backaches and other symptoms disappear.
Eat healthy, cleansing foods: Organic and biodynamic food is the way to go, it’s not only kinder to the environment but you eliminate the ingestion of toxic chemicals that are used in conventional growing. By removing these from your diet you will receive enormous health benefits.
I know that many people have different ways of cleansing the body in regards to food, some will reduce fruit intake and other sugars like honey, agave syrup etc, or eliminate processed foods like breads, pastas, cereals, pasteurised milk and other packaged products, others will embark on juice cleanses and fasts or green smoothie challenges. I have tried all of these with great success. What works for one person is not always going to work for another, so I believe the best way to cleanse is by listening to your own body and using logic to decide what is right for you. Click here to find out my 5 favourite cleansing foods.
Providing your body with all that it needs to cleanse, grow and strengthen also helps improve your mental focus and emotional state. Happy springtime…step outside, breathe fresh air, drink water, eat well and enjoy your healthy experience!
