Spring Cleaning for the Body: On 4 Levels
With spring making an early appearance here in Vermont, we can’t help but get excited for sunshine, flip flops and gardening. Spring cleaning is often a phrase we hear this time of year and while most of us associate it with our home, it is just as important for our bodies. We’ve put together some of our favorite ways to renew, rejuvenate and cleanse during this vibrant season.
Cleanse the Mind
Spring is a wonderful time to start new habits. While most of us focus on the New Year, it is when winter transitions to the warmer cycles and we start to get more sunlight in our lives that we are most capable of changing habits. We have better energy levels and motivation to make lasting change. One of the best ways to do this is meditation. While there are many types of meditation out there, I would recommend Metta meditation. This is also called loving kindness meditation and we can do it for our selves as well as others. Several clinical, randomized trials have shown that it helps with chronic pain, depression, anxiety as well as personality disorders. Metta meditation is an ancient Buddhist practice that aims to develop positive emotions such as joy, love, compassion and gratitude towards all beings, including ourselves. It is deceptively simple, yet profound. You can sit or lay down in this meditation. First, you relax the body and tune in to the breath. When you feel relaxed you think of something that brings you joy and let it fill your being with a the positive feeling. Then you repeat the following phrases: may I be happy, may I be healthy, may I be free of suffering, may I know peace. You can change these phrases to anything you would like, as long as they are positive emotion statements. Eventually, as you progress in the practice, you can add in phrases for friends, family and eventually your foe! You can visualize the people in your life you want to send positive intentions to and say: may you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be free of suffering, may your know peace. As we do this we build a more compassionate and kind heart. For a wonderful guided version of this meditation go here.
2. Cleanse the Body
During the spring our body needs to detoxify from the heaviness of the winter. There are a lot of toxins that build up as we eat less fresh food, exercise less frequently and generally deal with the fluctuation of moods that the darkness winter months bring. This time of year it is best to take a break from eating gluten, dairy, meat and oily foods for 9-14 days. Eating mostly steamed veggies such as broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes, winter squash and asparagus gives the body nutrients while allowing it to take a break from the hard work of digestion. Drinking juices with celery, cucumber, spinach and apple can help to detoxify toxins. Eating gently cooked,warm salads with millet or having wild blueberry oatmeal with a little bit of cinnamon and maple sugar give you the warm, nourishing feeling without sacrificing your health. I highly recommend the 3:6:9 cleanse in the book Cleanse To Heal by Anthony William. I have had a wonderful success with this cleanse, which follows many of the guidelines I learned when, as a detox assistant, I helped people with juice fasts and season cleanses with raw foods. There are many types of cleanses out there and Ayurvedic cleanses I have found our excellent as well. You can learn more about Ayurvedic cleansing here.
3. Cleanse the energetic body.
As a Reiki practitioner for the last 14 years, I can say without a doubt that our energy body is a profound place of healing. I have seen so many clients over the years with debilitating issues that could not be fixed solely through physical treatments. Once they added an energy based treatment, such as Reiki, biofield tuning, acupuncture, yoga or Qigong they saw how well it complemented their other therapy and improved their symptoms. To some people it might be surprising to read that yoga, acupuncture and Qigong are energy treatments. These alternative wellness practices are based on chakras and nadis (yoga) and meridians (Qigong and acupuncture). The chakras are energy centers in the body while nadis and meridians are energy channels. These ancient teachings dating back thousands of years have brought healing to countless people over the course of centuries. Many do not doubt the healing capacity of these modalities but western medicine continues to discount the power of energy healing techniques. Reiki has seen some recent acceptance as hospital staff become trained and use it to assist patients in their care and many doctors are beginning to recommend yoga and acupuncture as adjunct treatments. This is exciting because the merging of western and eastern traditions can bring enhanced healing and wellness for everyone.
4. Detoxification
It is vitally important that the toxins and pathogens you cleanse are detoxified and eliminated efficiently by the body. My favorite ways to detox are through infrared therapies and massage. Biomats, which we use during every massage session here at Soul Vibration Massage Therapy and Wellness, are incredibly healing as they help to detoxify the body. Certain massage modalities such as Manual Lymph Drainage is essential to cleaning our immune system up and keeping it working optimally. There are also certain supplements that help the body bind toxins and eliminate them from the organs. Always check with a doctor before starting new supplements as they can react with certain medications or prove ineffective if taken improperly. An example is bentonite clay and activated charcoal. These are amazing binders that can help you detox but if taken to close to other supplements, they will make the medication less effective. Some other detox modalities that are beneficial are cold laser detox, ionic foot baths, infrared saunas and hyperbaric chambers to name just a few. You can learn more about these alternative modalities here and here. Medicinal herbs are another great way to enhance detoxification. Check out my blog article here to learn about my top 3 favorite medicinal plant allies!