What is the real reason that we want to cleanse? Well, if you ask different people, you will get different answers. In the recent past, juice cleanses have been relegated to the category of crash diets. And sure, no judgment, but losing weight quickly was certainly the motivation behind some undertaking certain kinds of cleanses. Here are 7 signs you need a full body cleanse.
To learn more about all aspects of detoxing, read: There’s an Ayurvedic Cleanse that Will Completely Reset and Revitalize You and 7 Simple Steps for Starting a Cleanse, then 5 Liver Cleansing Foods You Should Be Eating, and finally, Detoxing with Juice Cleanses: Myth or Medicine?
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However, for now, let us broaden our definition of cleansing to not just be about the physical or losing weight. Rumi aptly summarizes this in his quote:
“Fasting is the first principle of medicine; fast and see the strength of the spirit reveal itself.” — Rumi
What Rumi is referring to here is the idea that fasting can actually help your True Self come forward. What is the True Self? In simplistic terms, it is the core of who you are. It is your inner voice, your intuition, your heart. The unique energy inside of you.
Fasting, or Upvaas, as it is referred to in Ayurveda in Sanskrit, is an ancient modality that has been used to heal and create harmony across your entire being- not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Fasting has been used for cleansing, promoting health, and spiritual reasons. It can be approached as a kind of whole life vision quest, or a total reset for body, mind, and spirit.
Full Body Detox: A Holistic Approach
When we approach cleansing from a holistic perspective then, it is very different from just liquifying our diets to slash calories. A holistic cleanse is one that is meant to help remove the layers that gather on all the various aspects of our being — mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual. These extra layers, whether they be in the form of bloat, mental fogginess, lack of clarity on purpose, confusion, heaviness, and so on, can cloud and dampen us, and prevent us from feeling our most alive, creative, abundant selves.
Holistic cleansing is about supporting the WHOLE you. You in your glorious wholeness. It would be very sad to me if people cut out cleansing all together because they associated it with fad liquid diets. It’s so much more than that. Well, it can be… The truth is that most cleanses are not so holistic, so yes, they can offer some results but perhaps not the most sustainable ones. It’s important that a holistic cleanse includes practices to nourish you on all levels. Here are some important components to consider:
Full Body Cleanse for Physical Wellness
Image credit: Kimberly Snyder
Let’s start with the physical, as it is the obvious level of our being that cleansing addresses.
We all eat crap, at least some of the time. All this can build up in your system- undigested foods, as well as excess sugars, pesticides, fungicides, chemical additives, dairy, gluten and so on, and then we become bloated and heavy. Our energy starts to fade.
Ama refers to the general buildup of toxins in the body, which Ayurveda teaches is the basis of all disease. It continues to build in the body when digestion is low, when we lack strong Agni, or digestive fire. Some symptoms that point to an accumulation of toxins in the body include cravings, mood swings, fatigue, fogginess, anxiety, bad breath, coating on the tongue, body odor, and sluggishness.
I am a fan of juices on a holistic cleanse, to deliver nutrients. But I have found in my experience that most everyone benefits enormously from drinking the Glowing Green Smoothie (GGS) as a vital part of a cleanse, because the fiber in this largely green smoothie (that also contains vitamin and energy-dense fruit) can chelate and bind to toxins to escort them out of the body.
However, if you do an all water or all juice fast, sure, you can lose some temporary water weight. With a holistic cleanse, our goal is to purify and deeply cleanse your body and being — fiber is an important component of that.
Besides what you consume and take a break from consuming, food-wise, it’s important to do some stretching or light yin yoga. Physically moving energy around and through your body helps to remove stagnation and make room for new, fresh energy and circulation to come in.
Do you have any experience with detoxifying, whole body or otherwise? Share your experiences with the community in the comments below!
How a Whole Body Dexot Supports You Mentally and Spiritually
A holistic cleanse is a reset for your mind and spirit. It’s a chance to create more awareness and introspection around old mental and emotional wounds and patterns, to see where we hold on to limited ideas and relationships and ways of being.
This is why an important part of a holistic cleanse is guided journaling prompts, which is a powerful practice in self-reflection and contemplation. The great yoga guru Paramahansa Yogananda said something along the lines of “introspection is one of the greatest tools of progress.”
Taking as much of a media and social media break as possible is also recommended, to help reduce external influences so you can really hear your own intuition and truth.
The Spiritual Side of a Full Body Cleanse
Spiritually: This is critical, because the more you connect to who you really are, the energy on the inside of you, whether you want to call it the True Self, the heart, the soul, the Spirit individualized inside of you or whatever, the more you create the life that you want to live. All forms and all things are built from the energy on the inside. It’s all inside-out, really.
The inspiration for my creating our Holistic Waterfall Cleanse is from my work with hundreds of personal clients and readers. I could see, firsthand, that food was only a piece of the puzzle.
Those that lacked mental clarity or didn’t have tools to process stress, for instance, tended to always struggle with sustainable weight loss. They often did not sleep well, and that lack of proper sleep would keep them from balancing the important hormones such as ghrelin, leptin, and cortisol, and they would be in a vicious cycle of struggle and impaired results.
A waterfall is the epitome of health, abundance, and vitality in nature. Waterfalls are glowing and dynamic… and incredibly magnetic and radiant! When you see a waterfall, you stop and stare. That’s the best concept I felt that could describe our true nature, when we tap into the power of the True Self. We become like a waterfall: clear, in flow, letting go of the old (old ideas, physical toxins, bloat, and so on). We step into our true power.
A properly designed holistic cleanse will support you through all parts of your being, to support your wholeness, your strength and health, and your incredible potential! Now and as a reset for going forward.
P.S. Did you know? Organic Authority has its own nutrition and wellness shop to meet your needs and help you take control of your health. Shop clean supplements for energy, sleep, inner beauty for skin support, protein, workouts, pantry items and more. Shop The Organic Authority Shop now.
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