What is Detoxification?
This is the first article of a 4 week series to guide you through the basics of what detoxification is really about and how you can benefit from understanding how to apply the techniques to your own life. In order to understand detoxification, first we should discuss the power of the bodies self healing processes.
What does self healing mean?
Your body has the ability to heal itself. When your body is operating at optimal health, you have created an internal environment that enables your body to easily fight off common minor illness' such as a sore throat, headaches or fever. Your own immune system functions and is able to fight off every day bad bacteria or potentially harmful organisms that cause disease. In this 4 week article and video series, we will share regular body cleanse practices you can easily adopt, and offer an in depth PDF guide at the end to help you follow a 6 week program focusing on specific detoxification methods.
When the body is over exposed to toxins which are known to damage our internal physiology and negate the normal functioning of our organs designed to detox for us, such as the liver and kidneys, we are vulnerable to experience poor health. Eating processed foods, regular intakes of high levels of refined sugar, preservatives, artificial sweeteners, alcohol, caffeine, chemicals in our toiletries and make up products, deodorants even the air we breathe and the water we drink can contribute to a build up of toxins that contribute to this deterioration process. The more toxic we are the more likely we are to end up with symptoms of disease.
Ancient cultures such as the Romans, Native Americans, the Greeks, Asian & Eastern Indians all knew about the power of regular body cleanse practices & their ability to improve our own innate self-healing mechanisms. Today there is a diverse opinion about whether a detox is a good thing or an over hyped fad?
For over 2000 years ancient cultures have known and used practices to improve their health. Many are still being used today for good reason. Because they work.
In Ayurveda which is one of the worlds oldest medical systems, which originated over 3000 years ago in ancient India. There are two main approaches to eliminating toxins;
- Physical purging with methods such as medicated enemas.
- Palliation which depending on your body type, you can fast to stimulate your Intestinal tract or add pungent herbs to your diet that invoke heat to stimulate an internal fire that burns away toxins.
In Shamanic cultures, they used practices such as restricted diets (fasting). It was stripped right back and often only included plants and herbs and could go on for a week, a month or even years. They also used plant based medicine and practised rituals such as Ayahuasca which is known to create purging and allow for spiritual and emotional cleansing too.
Native American cultures used a series of purification rituals to induce visions, cleanse the mind, and heal the body. Sweat lodges served as the main sources of purification, which could be compared to modern day saunas and Native Americans used them to engage in deep healing.
Ancient cultures were also far more connected to nature and ate foods very often in their raw state (organic) and were educated about the medicinal properties of many herbs and their use in natural medicine. All of these cultures used body cleanse practices as the beginning of their healing process. They were very much aware of how powerful your body's ability to heal itself is given the right environment.
What are the current beliefs on Detoxification?
The supplement industry is influential in the media, and their marketing claims can often carry a lot of momentum in the public arena. This does not validate their opinion as truth however. Unfortunately many supplement companies jumped on board the hot branding word 'detox' and started selling very poor quality products that promise rapid weight loss as one of the major benefits.
Often these have been examples of smart marketing techniques and the products do not actually support the ancient wisdom of what body cleansing or assisting the removal of toxins is all about. Examples include rapid weight loss shakes that are often filled with sweeteners, flavourings and sugar which completely misses the point and in no way does this reflect the truth of what a detox or cleanse should be about. These drinks can actually be making you more toxic not less.
We want to help you understand how to take care of your body and do this the right way. By referring back to ancient cultures you can be assured you are following real wisdom and not a sales process promising short term rapid weight loss. By applying many of the techniques shared you can have confidence that you will be on the right path to creating a healthier internal environment that will help reduce the risk of certain diseases and improve your wellness.
What are some of today's techniques for Detox?
Your body is programmed to get rid of toxins through any channel it can (bowel, sweat, tears, lungs, kidneys…and even breast milk, unfortunately), whenever it can. Some of the most common detoxification practices used to rid the body of toxins today include - Infra-red saunas, fasting, rebounding (think bouncing on small trampoline), dry brushing the skin, salt baths, herbs, rest, filtered water, meditation, exercise and a variety of body work are some examples that can be easily implemented once you understand the benefits.
- Infra-red sauna - Toxins removed via sweat glands.
- Epsom salt hot baths - Helps open the pores, allows toxins to leave the glands and gently cleanses.
- Fasting (3 days- 28 days) - When the body is relieved of its duties of frequently digesting foods it can switch into heal and repair mode which improves the bodies natural ability to clear out waste cells and reproduce healthier new cells all over the body
- Rebounding - Activates lymphatic system flushing by moving the lymph fluid around the body during the gentle exercise session
- Dry brushing the skin - Removes old skin carrying unwanted toxins and allows for new cells to replace them
- Exercise - Increased blood and lymph flow activates lymph flushing and sweat glands to open.
- Meditation - Practice to still or calm the mind focused more on the aspect of mental healing or cleansing of the mind of unwanted noise.
All these techniques will be covered in depth in the downloadable program at the end of the 4 weeks so you start to implement them into your habits and routines.
What your body is capable of - Lifestyle benefits
A Full body cleanse or a 'detox' done properly, will give your body an improved physiological state and helps create the right environment to deal with the overburden of toxins that keeps us sick and tired. Once the right environment has been created we can then start to experience vitality and exceptional health. After completion of a cleanse you may experience the following:
- Feeling more energetic to do things you love
- Feeling vitality to perform daily movement
- Improvement in recovery from intense exercise
- Improvement in sleep quality
- Ability to overcome colds and flu easily
- Better stress management
- Optimising gut health
This should be a personal practice we do regularly to maintain the same level of wellness over the course of our lifetimes. Think of it like taking your car to be serviced - the car comes back closer to the state is was when it was brand new. Everything works great and it has that sparkle back too. Your responsibility now is to maintain it.
During the next 4 weeks, we will be sharing articles covering the main aspects on full body detoxification and ways to do it. You will learn about each of the major detoxification organs and their role in your health and well-being. The aim here is to help you become aware of why this really matters.
Topics to be covered include lymphatic and colon cleanse practices, liver and kidney cleanses and how to eliminate harmful organisms that can be at the root cause of disease.
At the end of this series, we will launch a downloadable free 6 week program to help you get back to better health for 2018. If you know people that would benefit from this information please share it, as our aim is to help as many people become informed and take responsibility for their own health. Your support is greatly appreciated.
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