International Lifestyle Magazine Issue 50 | Page 83

Perhaps you have been following a healthy lifestyle for several years and have maybe even done a herbal cleanse or two you may well assume you are now fully “detoxed”. I’m here to tell you that you are almost certainly not! How do I know that? Because I’m willing to bet you grew up on the standard, “s ocially accepted” fare and ate this diet throughout your teens, most probably your 20s too, and quite probably even longer. If this is you, make no mistake: you could benefit from at least two “hard-core” detoxes a year, and a colonic every week for the rest of your life. Why? Because those years of toxic eating caused a massive accumulation of waste to be stored deep in your tissues, and that waste can only be released very gradually – as and when the colon is clear enough to take out more of it. So no matter how long you’ve been on your junk-free diet, or how many cleansing program’s you’ve done, there is much to gain from committing to at least two weeklong detoxes a year. I guarantee you will still be releasing deep stores of old toxins from your tissues. That is why when we cleanse we can feel so uplifted, we have more energy at our disposal, we have more flexibility to and even crave to bend and stretch our bodies much further than was ever possible before. Our joints become flexible and any irritations are quickly released with this kind of deep care for our body, muscles, tissues and cells. Elimination is the name of the game and even if you eliminate several times a day, every day of your life, and think your bowels are working efficiently, I doubt that you are getting out anywhere near as much as you have put in. Don’t agree with me? Here is a simple test you can do to find out. First thing in the morning, while still lying in bed, suck in your stomach as much as you can. If your mid section – the area from under your rib cage to your hip bones – goes concave, then you are empty. This is the area that houses your intestines and colon, and chances are you have enough old waste matter lurking there that your stomach will look more convex than concave. Accumulated waste in the colon can affect any of our organs at any time. Organ tissues are only as healthy as the blood that feeds them and the blood is only as clean as the bowel from which our nutrients are supplied. So when we routinely take in more than the body has the capacity to process (or substances the body can’t easily process) this excess will start to build up not only on the walls of the colon, but eventually in cells and tissues throughout the body. Most of our aches, pains, illnesses and infections can be traced back to the health of our body’s “waste disposal unit”. The colon health expert Dr. Bernard Jensen identified and mapped the colon into 72 reflex areas that each correspond to specific organs and body parts – for example, the kidneys, liver or spleen and the neck, arms or legs. He theorized that old waste that has become toxic in the colon and will affect the tissue of the corresponding organ or body part. Symptoms can include headaches, backache, mental fog, depression, swelling and inflammation. Yoga is a holistic science of wellbeing that looks within for it’s healing, what better way than taking your practice to a new level and experiencing an entirely new uplifting feeling that builds solid foundations for strength, vitality, quick recovery and flexibility, through purification and Cleansing. (but which is easier to do and say than Shankaprakshalana.) I have seen people get into deeper stretches after a cleanse just because they have cleared so much away, their joints become more flexible and any aches and pains are far less. What’s the matter? What you ingested over the last four to five days that has not yet managed to leave you is known as normal waste matter. The matter that goes back a month or three, and which will have begun to embed itself in the intestines, is called putrefactive matter. This matter is still moist and it is really stinky stuff, as you can imagine. Slow cooking at 98.6 degrees for weeks on end will do that. Then there is the even older waste, which has been polluting your insides for years. This is post-putrefactive matter. It is completely dry and tends to be black, dark brown, grey or white, hard like plastic or rubber, and it normally comes out in long strips. Vegetable juice fasting can eventually remove some of this, but more effective is a regular regime of deep tissue cleansing with high fibre and clay shakes that are mixed with herbs, enzymes, probiotics and a daily enema done for a week twice a year. This combination softens this old matter and sweeps it out of its hiding places. The special high fiber seed from the plantago plant can absorb ten times its weight in water, and as it expands in the body, it brushes and sweeps along the intestinal walls, taking old impacted matter with it. A special clay is used to draw toxins to it in huge quantities. It can absorb 40 times its own weight in toxic matter, that is released by the fast and detox period and is now floating in your blood and lymph system. For optimal health, and a solid foundation that will build core strength, I recommend a weeklong colon cleanse twice a year – preferably in the spring and autumn, when you will ideally be changing your diet to the new foods that grow in your locality. You will achieve the best results on a detox like this when you follow through with a cleansing diet of eating raw food and drinking juices for a while. www.internationallifestylemagazine.com