This evening I was over at Irina's, who is still cleansing for a few more days. As I ate my delicious dinner, leftovers so lovingly created by me yesterday for a women's gathering I had last night, I could feel Irina's cleansing energy different than my eating energy. At the end of the 31-day Juice Feast, which we did last April to May, I felt that I could have gone on for the 90 days taken on by some of my colleagues in the field of raw and living foods. However, I stopped after day 31, because I feel that having a healthy relationship with food also means honoring the commitments that you and food make to one another. We can easily be disordered in our eating when we change those just to cater to the "high" of the moment.
Counseling intensively and extensively in the world of eating disorders, I understand how a loving relationship with food can easily beome a controlling one. I do see the health value in a 90-day cleanse, and at some point I may undertake it, but on May ninth of last spring, I resumed my regular eating. This time around, I might have extended my cleanse, but ironically, I was entering into some mealtime sessions with eating disordered clients and knew I couldn't show up to lunch drinking a bottle of clear liquid. There is sometimes a fine line between a loving, healthy and nurturing relationship with food and a withholding, anxious and controlling one. If someone has lived in the latter for many years, as is the case with many of my clients, and they see their therapist drinking yellow liquid, they don't see "cleanse." They see it as another way to keep their disorder alive. My question is: How many ways do we find in our lives to keep our own disorders alive, and how does food play a pivotal role in this?
As the unique species that we are as human beings, we have a myriad of subtle and self-deceptive methods to keep ourselves small when we are yearning to be large. As a counselor, I see this all the time. Food is only one of these ways, but it is the foundational one that is merely a metaphor for all of our other relationships. How often do we choose one more way to obsess about our food and body imperfections instead of putting our focus and energy into something that will make us grow and expand; something for which we secretly long? It's easier to take this beautiful sustenance we call food and abuse it rather than to look at what's missing in our lives and go for it.
When you are struggling in your relationship with food, try this exercise: Think about the most passionate and loving relationship that you either have or desire; your spiritual soulmate, so to speak. Then write down all the adjectives that would describe this relationship, such as; loving, compassionate, adventurous, exciting, honest, trustworthy....whatever you desire in this person. When you are finished, read the list again. Now think about your relationship with food. Does it meet this description, or does it sound more like this; angry, starving, fat, ugly, scary, unpredictable...
Our relationship with ourselves begins with our relationship with food. We are fed from when we are born.
If you are looking to quell the source of some of your personal conflict and unrest, look no further than your relationship with food. Food creates the energy in every cell, organ, tissue and muscle in our bodies. It feeds our blood and nourishes our brain. The way we feel directly correlates to what we eat, and what we eat determines how we feel and what we attract into our lives. If we keep suppressing our souls in this most intimate relationship; punishing ourselves by either withholding or overconsuming food or eating foods that do not honor us, we disallow ourselves from the intimacy we so desire. If we cannot be intimate and loving with our own self first, how can we allow for others to love us appropriately?
Dream large and create. Then start each day by nourishing your body with the foods that make it shine. Never say you are "bad" or "good" because of what you eat. Choose your foods with love and let them love you back. Let go of any unwanted thoughts that keep you stuck in negative body image. Instead, put your energy into your passions and desires and keep your focus there. Allow food to elevate you into action rather than suppress you into sadness.
Having returned to the world of eating again post-cleanse, I am conscious of the space I was given through those ten days to reconnect with and reaffirm my relationship with myself. That was my commitment in undertaking this cleanse; to clean out whatever old "waste" was stopping me from being my highest self; physically, emotionally and spiritually. That has been met, and now I can lovingly renew my relationship with food and all of my relationships; those present and those yet to be.
Showing posts with label cleanse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cleanse. Show all posts
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Cleansing to Our Truth
Day 2 of the Autumn Cleanse!
8:30 AM Salt Water Flush:
1 warmed quart (32 oz.) of water with 2 teaspoons sea salt, drunk all at one sitting
10:15 AM Core mat exercises
10:30 AM First quart of Master Cleanser, with 6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice and pulp (and seeds), 5 tablespoons Grade B maple syrup and 1/8 spicy teaspoon of cayenne
Noon: Quart 2 of Master Cleanser
5:40 PM Quart 3
6:30 PM Quart 4
Total: 1 gallon and done for the day :)
I cannot believe this, but I am sitting here typing and filled with energy. I feel almost wired, but in a good way. I don't drink coffee, but I suppose this is what people reach for. I've had this feeling from juicing or the frequency of raw foods, but there's an added component. It feels like a letting go and an adding in at the same time. I am releasing the old debris and toxins from my colon, intestines, organs, blood and tissues and taking in the mineralization of new energy. I feel like I could dance for a couple of hours!
That being said, don't worry if you feel exhausted while cleansing. A cleanse reaches to the core, and you can experience incredible energy for a couple of hours and then need to sleep far more than normal. Wherever you are at is wherever you need to be; your body will tell you. If I were fatigued, I would stop typing and go to sleep, even at 8:30.
My first flush of the cleanse was perfect. I remember the first time I did a salt water flush, which was during the 31-day juice feast. It already had felt so vulnerable doing the enemas 7 days in a row, and then when I switched from juicing to Master Cleanser, I followed that protocol. The first time I drank the salt water I said, "I can't do this. It's disgusting, and I'll never make my way through it." The next time, it suddenly tasted a lot better, as if my body had accepted and connected with it. For this Autumn cleanse, I actually loved it! Forty five minutes later I was releasing all of the old.
I had a half an hour of shaky blood sugar in the middle of the afternoon, which then passed. Now my body is filled with a feeling of well being cleansing through me.
Imagine if everyone in the world cleansed for ten days; what do you think the leaders of our government would be like? What about the heads of the food industry? How would the military generals act? What would happen to those suffering from depression, ADD, OCD, anxiety, psychoses and medication overload? That's an evolution I would like to witness. What I find most powerful today is that as I walked through my day, navigating the "stuff of life" with all its dilemmas, fears and stressors, I couldn't hide out in my food. I had to be present to who I am when I am simply in my truth. I had to let go of all my self-judgements and replace them with self-love; as if the cleansing spurred my body to say: "You are who you are, Hope. Now can you love yourself for all of it; light and shadow, and can you allow others to love you "as is" as well?
Cleansing allows us to return to our truth; the souls of who we came here to be. It's an opportunity to let go of our limited beliefs and expand into our unlimited potential. What if you lived your life like each day was a cleanse? Who would you be and what would your life look like? It's only a matter of choice..
8:30 AM Salt Water Flush:
1 warmed quart (32 oz.) of water with 2 teaspoons sea salt, drunk all at one sitting
10:15 AM Core mat exercises
10:30 AM First quart of Master Cleanser, with 6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice and pulp (and seeds), 5 tablespoons Grade B maple syrup and 1/8 spicy teaspoon of cayenne
Noon: Quart 2 of Master Cleanser
5:40 PM Quart 3
6:30 PM Quart 4
Total: 1 gallon and done for the day :)
I cannot believe this, but I am sitting here typing and filled with energy. I feel almost wired, but in a good way. I don't drink coffee, but I suppose this is what people reach for. I've had this feeling from juicing or the frequency of raw foods, but there's an added component. It feels like a letting go and an adding in at the same time. I am releasing the old debris and toxins from my colon, intestines, organs, blood and tissues and taking in the mineralization of new energy. I feel like I could dance for a couple of hours!
That being said, don't worry if you feel exhausted while cleansing. A cleanse reaches to the core, and you can experience incredible energy for a couple of hours and then need to sleep far more than normal. Wherever you are at is wherever you need to be; your body will tell you. If I were fatigued, I would stop typing and go to sleep, even at 8:30.
My first flush of the cleanse was perfect. I remember the first time I did a salt water flush, which was during the 31-day juice feast. It already had felt so vulnerable doing the enemas 7 days in a row, and then when I switched from juicing to Master Cleanser, I followed that protocol. The first time I drank the salt water I said, "I can't do this. It's disgusting, and I'll never make my way through it." The next time, it suddenly tasted a lot better, as if my body had accepted and connected with it. For this Autumn cleanse, I actually loved it! Forty five minutes later I was releasing all of the old.
I had a half an hour of shaky blood sugar in the middle of the afternoon, which then passed. Now my body is filled with a feeling of well being cleansing through me.
Imagine if everyone in the world cleansed for ten days; what do you think the leaders of our government would be like? What about the heads of the food industry? How would the military generals act? What would happen to those suffering from depression, ADD, OCD, anxiety, psychoses and medication overload? That's an evolution I would like to witness. What I find most powerful today is that as I walked through my day, navigating the "stuff of life" with all its dilemmas, fears and stressors, I couldn't hide out in my food. I had to be present to who I am when I am simply in my truth. I had to let go of all my self-judgements and replace them with self-love; as if the cleansing spurred my body to say: "You are who you are, Hope. Now can you love yourself for all of it; light and shadow, and can you allow others to love you "as is" as well?
Cleansing allows us to return to our truth; the souls of who we came here to be. It's an opportunity to let go of our limited beliefs and expand into our unlimited potential. What if you lived your life like each day was a cleanse? Who would you be and what would your life look like? It's only a matter of choice..
Monday, October 1, 2012
When we cleanse, it's not just our bodies....Day 1
Hello World,
Today is Day 1 of Master Cleanser:
So far today:
7:30 AM 1 quart Master Cleanser, with 6 tablespoons fresh organic lemon juice and pulp (and seeds), 5 tablespoons Grade B maple syrup and 1/8 teaspoon cayenne (very spicy)
12:50 PM Quart #2
5:00 PM Quart #3
One more quart to come, but not too late.
I am sipping my third quart of Master Cleanser as I type. Figuring I'd breeze through this cleanse, after juice feasting with no solids for 31 days in the spring, I forgot that my body has been so reconditioned to food that the removal of it is causing a bit of an uproar :) Last week, I celebrated the Jewish holidays with some foods I don't typically eat, and I felt the feeling of "stuffed" that I haven't felt in a long time. When I eat solely raw foods, the molecular frequency is so high and the nutrients so dense that I get filled up without ever getting stuffed. Even though I transitioned back after the holiday, I am still letting go of those meals, as well as the last four months since my previous cleanse.
What am I feeling? A little shakiness (blood sugar), a little annoyance (having my food taken away), a little bereft (feeling lonlier than usual); all of the above.
This leads me into one of the most relevant yet rarely touched upon aspects of cleansing; the emotional component. I blogged about this over the course of the 31-day cleanse. Cleanses are so hip now; so "au courant." Everyone is on a cleanse and everyone advertises one. On the one hand, it is so great that people want to get healthier and can have access and support in doing so. The problem lies in the act of omission. What we need to know is what is left out when cleansing; that we are not only cleansing our bodies of all the food-based and environmental toxins and old debris (and this can go back a lifetime, if we have never cleansed before - more on this in another post), we are also cleansing from an emotional perspective. All the stored up experiences that get processed (or not) in our somatic (body-centered) selves are cleansing as well. Think about what has transpired in your life since your last cleanse; did you end a relationship or have it ended by someone else? Have you had loss, sadness, pain, hurt, anger or any other emotion/experience taking up space? Look at these areas; family, love, relationships, work, joy, health, finances; if you processed any of these on an emotional end, or if they got "lodged" in between your energy centers and held as "wounds" to the chakras (the energy centers we have in our bodies; just like organs, tissues and blood, these also exist and house our experiences) you might need to cleanse them as well.
I also tell clients: Our body is the higher intellect; our minds the lesser! Not that we can't be smart, but it's the body we really need to listen to, and the mind always trips us up with its intelligence. Our bodies really tell us what we need to know, if we pay attention and honor them.
If you are cleansing and suddenly, for no apparent reason feel weepy or angry or terribly sad, you are not losing your mind! In fact, most probably you are healing core issues that have been hanging out inside of you with nowhere to go. Don't reach for the pills to make it go away. Instead, ask your body what it is telling you; literally. I recommend clients speak to their bodies all the time. Then listen for an answer. Once you get one, see if is to just allow the old, bottled up feelings to move through you or whether there is an action that would help heal them. Pull your journal out and write for a few minutes about your discovery. This is the pivotal component that draws people into letting go of their commitments and going back to addictive behaviours; being uncomfortable with the feelings, the emotions, finally coming up to the surface. You don't have to eat over it! Just breathe deeply, ten inhales and ten exhales, and let the oxygen fill you.
If you have never cleansed before, and even sometimes if you have, your body might transport you back to many years ago, where you find yourself emotionally re-experiencing an event from twenty years ago. That happended to me a couple of times during the 31-day Juice Feast.
Don't be concerned; just stay with it and allow it a "voice." Once you do, it will be able to shift and move through you.
So, what's coming up for me on Day 1 as I type? I'm missing loving touch and connection. If you're the next person I see, I'll be asking you for a hug!
PS - My upper back muscles are starting to ache as I blog. This is a sure sign that the cleansing is working! As Dr. Fred Bisci speaks about, when you start to cleanse, all the energy used for the muscles and joints starts to leave those areas and go the the organs and parts of the body needing core healing. That is a good sign.
Today is Day 1 of Master Cleanser:
So far today:
7:30 AM 1 quart Master Cleanser, with 6 tablespoons fresh organic lemon juice and pulp (and seeds), 5 tablespoons Grade B maple syrup and 1/8 teaspoon cayenne (very spicy)
12:50 PM Quart #2
5:00 PM Quart #3
One more quart to come, but not too late.
I am sipping my third quart of Master Cleanser as I type. Figuring I'd breeze through this cleanse, after juice feasting with no solids for 31 days in the spring, I forgot that my body has been so reconditioned to food that the removal of it is causing a bit of an uproar :) Last week, I celebrated the Jewish holidays with some foods I don't typically eat, and I felt the feeling of "stuffed" that I haven't felt in a long time. When I eat solely raw foods, the molecular frequency is so high and the nutrients so dense that I get filled up without ever getting stuffed. Even though I transitioned back after the holiday, I am still letting go of those meals, as well as the last four months since my previous cleanse.
What am I feeling? A little shakiness (blood sugar), a little annoyance (having my food taken away), a little bereft (feeling lonlier than usual); all of the above.
This leads me into one of the most relevant yet rarely touched upon aspects of cleansing; the emotional component. I blogged about this over the course of the 31-day cleanse. Cleanses are so hip now; so "au courant." Everyone is on a cleanse and everyone advertises one. On the one hand, it is so great that people want to get healthier and can have access and support in doing so. The problem lies in the act of omission. What we need to know is what is left out when cleansing; that we are not only cleansing our bodies of all the food-based and environmental toxins and old debris (and this can go back a lifetime, if we have never cleansed before - more on this in another post), we are also cleansing from an emotional perspective. All the stored up experiences that get processed (or not) in our somatic (body-centered) selves are cleansing as well. Think about what has transpired in your life since your last cleanse; did you end a relationship or have it ended by someone else? Have you had loss, sadness, pain, hurt, anger or any other emotion/experience taking up space? Look at these areas; family, love, relationships, work, joy, health, finances; if you processed any of these on an emotional end, or if they got "lodged" in between your energy centers and held as "wounds" to the chakras (the energy centers we have in our bodies; just like organs, tissues and blood, these also exist and house our experiences) you might need to cleanse them as well.
I also tell clients: Our body is the higher intellect; our minds the lesser! Not that we can't be smart, but it's the body we really need to listen to, and the mind always trips us up with its intelligence. Our bodies really tell us what we need to know, if we pay attention and honor them.
If you are cleansing and suddenly, for no apparent reason feel weepy or angry or terribly sad, you are not losing your mind! In fact, most probably you are healing core issues that have been hanging out inside of you with nowhere to go. Don't reach for the pills to make it go away. Instead, ask your body what it is telling you; literally. I recommend clients speak to their bodies all the time. Then listen for an answer. Once you get one, see if is to just allow the old, bottled up feelings to move through you or whether there is an action that would help heal them. Pull your journal out and write for a few minutes about your discovery. This is the pivotal component that draws people into letting go of their commitments and going back to addictive behaviours; being uncomfortable with the feelings, the emotions, finally coming up to the surface. You don't have to eat over it! Just breathe deeply, ten inhales and ten exhales, and let the oxygen fill you.
If you have never cleansed before, and even sometimes if you have, your body might transport you back to many years ago, where you find yourself emotionally re-experiencing an event from twenty years ago. That happended to me a couple of times during the 31-day Juice Feast.
Don't be concerned; just stay with it and allow it a "voice." Once you do, it will be able to shift and move through you.
So, what's coming up for me on Day 1 as I type? I'm missing loving touch and connection. If you're the next person I see, I'll be asking you for a hug!
PS - My upper back muscles are starting to ache as I blog. This is a sure sign that the cleansing is working! As Dr. Fred Bisci speaks about, when you start to cleanse, all the energy used for the muscles and joints starts to leave those areas and go the the organs and parts of the body needing core healing. That is a good sign.
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