By Laura Midgley
We’re approaching a new year and so as usual people are gathering their intentions and looking to make positive changes. Why wait until the new year to detox though? Put these amazing little daily habits into action right now!
1. Half a Lemon a day keeps the doctor away
Squeeze half a lemon into a cup of hot water and savor the zesty taste of lemon. It might feel like a chore at first but soon you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. It’s high in vitamin C to keep your immune system boosted. Your gut will love you for absorbing this natural detox aid first thing in the morning before it comes into contact with anything else. Lemons help purify our blood and balance our PH levels. There are too many health benefits to mention here but all in all a nice cup of hot lemon water daily will keep your body replenished!
2. Speaking of Water…
We all know we should drink more water but it’s one of those things that slips by the way side. I highly recommend buying a BPA-free Bobble filter bottle; it’s way cheaper than buying individual bottles every day and is much kinder to the planet. They have the capacity for 1 liter so you know if you’re drinking two bottles per day you’re doing it, you’re finally doing it! I’ll be honest, often I only get through 1 liter a day (on top of herbal tea). However, I know that this is such an important part of keeping my system nice and clean by flushing away all those everyday toxins. I get so sick of needing the bathroom (as I’m sure many readers will relate), however, the body will soon adjust, the more we get into this highly beneficial daily habit. It can take 12-24 months for the body to fully re-hydrate so let’s get to it!
3. Practice Daily Self Care
Love yourself, you’re worth it! Take a long hot bubble bath or go watch an uplifting film. Think of yourself like a computer; whatever you input in to your sensory system will either nourish or hinder you. Taking time to relax and do things you enjoy everyday is essential to keep all those feel good endorphins traveling around your brain. When our mind is relaxed our body is relaxed and thus aids the natural detoxification process. It is also helpful to get into healthy habits such as using a dry brush to scrape away dead skin cells. This is especially useful to avoid or reduce cellulite. My personal favourite method of self-care is taking a hot bath filled with Epsom Sea Salt. I do this around once per week and it keeps me in great shape, mentally and physically. I can literally feel all the stuck energy unwind around my body for hours following a salt bath. As well as putting me into the deepest state of relaxation, it also clears my head and my respiratory system. Give it a go. The more you add, the deeper it will penetrate your system and detox your body!
4. Put yourself in the hands of somebody else
The best investment you can make, is taking care of your health and wellbeing. On top of daily self care, let a trained therapist care for you too. By regularly treating yourself to massages or reiki you are explicitly revealing to yourself ‘I am worth looking after and I deserve to feel good’. Massage and Reiki Therapy naturally aid detoxification because they put the body in its natural state of relaxation. Relaxation is the key to a healthy system that circulates clean blood to our organs, removing toxins and aiding natural bodily rhythms.
5. Sack off the Gym
If you hate going to the gym, don’t go. It’s as simple as that. Do the type of exercise that makes you feel good. You don’t have to pay to go out to a class if it’s not your bag. Do some yoga at home or put some music on and dance! Just keep moving. Walking in nature every day is so good for the soul and the gradual culmination of this simple daily habit will melt away all the physical, mental and emotional junk you’ve been holding on to. Of course, if you love the gym go for it. But the point is, just do the things you enjoy that make you sweaty. When we sweat, our bodies pour out toxins. I personally prefer a sauna to a gym!
6. Go Organic
If you can’t afford to go 100% organic, at least educate yourself on the best choices on which organic foods to buy. There is lots of information out there on the internet on which foods retain most pesticide residue. Just google ‘the dirty dozen’ foods that are best eaten organic. I heard an alarming fact the other day; that when tumors are removed from the body, they contain mostly pesticides. Also, when my uncle was diagnosed with terminal cancer, the doctors advised him to eat entirely organic. Why do doctor’s wait until it gets to this stage before they educate the populace? Don’t get yourself too hung up on what you eat though because the quest for clean eating in itself may turn into an unhealthy mental grasp for control. Much more important is the way we feel when we eat. Do you multi-task or do you sit down and enjoy your food in silence? When we’re stressed, our cortisol levels rise, which may lead to pour food choices as the body is flooded with this ‘fight or flight’ hormone. It’s good to find a balance and stick to whole foods that are 100% natural (look for labels marked ‘no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives’) and avoid GM (Genetically Modified) foods. Avoiding artificial substances frees your bodies natural abilities to process what enters our system. Everybody is different and what works well for some people is bad for others. Educate yourself and spend time eliminating certain foods from your diet to experiment with the way you feel.
7. They don’t call it beauty sleep for nothing
During a recent study conducted by Maiken Nedergaard (co-director of the Center for Translational Neuromedicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center), she and her colleagues unexpectedly found that sleep may be the period when the brain cleanses itself of toxic molecules. In simple terms, when the brain sleeps, our brain waves change. In this relaxed state of mind we allow more space for our bodies natural cleansers to wash away toxin build up. If you find it difficult getting to sleep, Dr Victor E Frankl (in his esteemed book Man’s Search for Meaning) suggests doing the opposite of trying to get to sleep. I have found journaling to be very effective during periods of restlessness. When we can’t sleep, the simple act of unloading the mind of all worries and anxieties from pen to paper helps restore a relaxed state of being. There are some amazing free resources on You Tube that can help ‘entrain’ your brain into more relaxed states of being too. Just search for ‘Binaural Beats for relaxation’, plug in your head phones (on a gentle setting) and simply breath.
8. How do you talk to yourself when you look in the mirror?
Next time you look in the mirror be mindful of your thoughts. Is your head full of negative self-chatter or do you make eye contact and silently send yourself love? I used to speak to myself horrendously before I realized. I wouldn’t speak to my worst enemy the way I used to speak to my poor old self. Spend some time looking at yourself in the mirror and telling yourself what you appreciate or like about yourself. Stick something fun to the mirror to remind you to make a daily habit out of sending love to yourself. If you don’t love yourself then how do you expect to behave? How do you expect your body to react to this behaviour? Do you comfort eat? Do you binge drink? Are you over weight or pasty and red-eyed as a result of your behavior? What needs to change? Only you can change it. And it all starts with self-love.
About the author: Laura Midgley is a Musician, Reiki & Emotional Freedom Therapist, & Trainee Sound Healer from West Yorkshire in the UK. She can be found at chioflife.org or facebook.com/chioflifeyorkshire
Source: Body Mind Soul Spirit
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