Written by: Sheniz Wilkie (Noorish Foods)
For thousands of years, cultures around the world have practiced their own cleansing rituals for lasting health, longevity, beauty and energy. How can we reclaim the knowledge of our ancient ancestors to understand how to heal ourselves and restore a sense of true health, harmony and homeostasis?
Many people deal with chronic health issues, such as anxiety, depression, stress, inflammation, fatigue, and auto-immune disorders, without understanding the origins of their underlying health concerns. These are all signs that we are being exposed to high levels of unseen toxic build up and the body is struggling to keep up. Toxic build up in our bodies is a real concern in modern times as the advent of household chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, acid rain, pollution, heavy metals and micro-plastics are all around us and unavoidably part of everyday life. Imagine how much more energy and life force we would have if we weren’t dealing with this constant barrage of incoming hazardous materials?
Not to mention, our diets have deteriorated dramatically from ancient times, when whole and unprocessed foods fortified energy, stamina and immunity. Now we consume highly processed foods that cause inflammation, lower our immune defences and are largely nutrient-deficient due to our agriculture practices.
Therefore, it is essential to take a more committed approach to seasonal cleansing, to restore our body’s ability to find its baseline. Luckily, we are blessed with the shared knowledge of our ancient civilizations, and we have access to all the beneficial herbs and foods that make cleansing easy and accessible.
Cleansing can take many forms. Our skin is our largest organ and the best place to start seeing signs of toxic build up. Skin brushing is an excellent practice to improve circulation and energize the skin to perform its duty of expelling toxins. Another way to encourage our skin to cleanse is to utilize the infrared sauna to help us sweat out those unwanted contaminants. Cleansing can also take the form of an elimination diet, where we remove certain troublemaker foods like dairy, gluten, sugar, alcohol, caffeine and fried foods, to give our organs the break they require to reset our bodies. Intermittent fasting improves the effects of an elimination diet as it urges the body expel stored toxins built up in our fat cells. Other forms of cleansing include taking herbs and clays that reduce our mucoid plaque, which is a build up of excess waste in the colon. This allows our bodies to absorb nutrients more effectively and remove stored heavy metals.
How does cleansing restore your energy?
Cleansing gives your organs a break from all their work processing unwanted chemicals. This frees up amazing amounts of energy in the body. Cleansing also wakes up your internal systems that might be sluggish and not functioning at their optimal state because they are overwhelmed.
I enjoy cleansing at seasonal changes (equinox and solstice), as the body is already acclimatizing, renewing and recalibrating to adapt to the increase/decrease of sunlight, to the changes in temperature and other natural changes in the environment. I also enjoy the ritual of resetting my body as the external world around me is also going through its own energetic shift. Cleanses can be only a few days, or they can last as long as a month depending on what your goal is.
In the initial days of a cleanse, it is not uncommon to experience uncomfortable symptoms such as emotional outbursts, fatigue, headaches or in some cases nausea. These are signs that work is being done. It is important to be kind and gentle with yourself as you move through this process. Clear up space in your schedule to allow yourself time to rest, go inwards, move slowly and allow the integration of these changes. Often the emotional upheaval is worth journaling as there are some valuable lessons that invite us to process, release and transmute old energies that no longer serve us.
Where can you easily begin your journey with cleansing?
It’s important to meet yourself where you’re at. If a 10-day juice cleanse is something you’ve never done, then starting with the elimination of certain problematic foods might be the better way to go. Incorporating foods that help your body eliminate toxins is equally as important. Foods that are chelating and help to remove heavy metals from your body include chlorella, cilantro, barley grass, bentonite clay and dulse among many others. Simply adding those items to a smoothie or your favourite meal can make the world of difference. Or incorporating a green juice in the mornings in place of breakfast is another way to introduce your body to the idea of cleansing. The 3:6:9 Medical Medium cleanse is universally supportive and worth noting, if you are looking for more information on using food to cleanse.
Noorish Foods has also developed a cleansing product called Dark Matter – Detox Blend. This powder is an effective cleansing aid that combines activated charcoal, bentonite clay, psyllium husk, chlorella, spirulina and other ingredients that bind to mucoid plaque to eliminate layers of compounding toxin build up. This blend is designed to work with other cleanses or on its own. Learn more about this unique product here (https://www.noorish.ca/shop-all/dark-matter-detox-blend).