I detox every year at this time. A detox is commonly known as abstaining for a period of time from unhealthy foods, beverages, and other vices. When you give your body a break from dealing with a daily infusion of fresh toxins, it gets to focus on eliminating build-up.
But we can also add to the successful results of a common detox by detoxing from energy vampires, entertainment, media, and even the thoughts we think, especially at a time when so many millions have heavy hearts and minds.
The following detoxifications* can give your body, mind, and spirit renewal and repair, and support a return to sharp focus, strength, clarity, and newfound positive perspective you many not have realized you were missing.
Detox: Body – Our bodies become toxic when our natural method of eliminating metabolic waste (from poor diet and environmental pollutants and other factors) cannot keep up with the amount of toxic overload. Toxicity can affect every system in the body, and make us sick. Detoxes / cleanses are done with whole foods that remove most common sugars, bad fats, chemicals and artifice found in modern diets. Proper cleansing is gentle and encourages the body to do what it wants to, naturally. A detox cleanse should be tolerable for longer periods of time and can take from three days to six weeks; it should not be about starving, taking pills, potions, or expensive drinks. I’ve detoxed for a full month before and share how to cleanse, and offer DIY cleanses to try here, which I do under the supervision of my nutritionist, Janet Perry.
Detox: People – Show me your friends, I’ll show you your future. For the brightest future possible, you must care and nurture your orbit by removing those who clog it or don’t light it up. Detoxing someone from your life doesn’t mean they’re “bad,” and you do them a favour by freeing them so they can find people they are their best with. My mantra: “So-and-so is a good person; we just aren’t a match anymore.”
- Step One: Remove / block names on every contact list with whom you’ve not been in touch with for over a year, those you’d deem “acquaintance or less.” (You’ll find each other again if you really need to.)
- Step 2: Remove from your social media people you don’t even recognize, remove constant complainers, remove those who post images or words or share stories that don’t match who you are or what you want your feed to look like. (No passive-aggressive “unfollow but still remain friends” – this is a detox, so flush.)
- Step 3: Politely offer your regrets regarding opportunities to spend time with friends unless you want to. No people-pleasing allowed; you’ll hang when you feel like it.
- Step 4: Create a catch-all-phrase, like “I’m glad I got to know you but I’ve decided to focus on my work / relationship / self / health and am creating space so I can do that” which you will need when truly toxic people emerge after you employ the above. You’ll recognize them: the ones who demand further explanation, cause drama, challenge or blame you, or try to negotiate getting their way, despite what you say to them. All signs an energy vampire has emerged; lose them.
Detox Media: If you can’t stop reading about Donald Trump, or any news topic, turn off the radio, the TV, the Internet and put down the paper. For one day, give yourself a break from it all. Look down in elevators; look up passing newsstands; listen to the sounds around you (birds?); notice what the world looks like now that your nose isn’t in your phone; use a streaming service to play beautiful music while you drive – no talk, no news – and watch something on Netflix instead of CNN. If one day without news didn’t make your head pop off, work your way up to a week.
Detox Social Media: I’m lucky enough to have spent much of this winter in Hawaii and Mexico, where beautiful distractions from social media abound. When I do go online, I’ve seen laudable activism by members of my LGBT community in Toronto (I use them only to make a point) over cannabis customers; Toronto Pride / Black Lives Matter / Toronto Police; and a cop who thinks AIDS can be acquired from spit, morph into base name-calling, condescension, obsessiveness, and nincompoop ramblings, all of it symptomatic of the same: “I need a break!” So take it, if this sounds like you in any way. A week away from social media is like missing a month of The Young And The Restless: Turn it back on and you know exactly what’s going on. Canadians spend two hours social networking on average every day. Take 30 minutes of that time to meditate daily, and the other 90 to have dinner with 7 different friends daily (device free; no posting pics of you smiling at your food) as part of this one-week detox.
Detox Entertainment: Be conscious of how your choice of entertainment makes you feel. The Real Housewives of Almost Anywhere are my crack. Watching the franchise turns my monkey brain – wound wild from a typically busy day – into mush. But one city I avoid is New Jersey. It’s not just their bastardising of the English language that makes me feel off, the women feel toxic to watch. Does your choice of entertainment relax you, take your mind off of things, or does it make your stomach tighten, get your thoughts speeding, tense your muscles up? Healthy TV and movie choices are uplifters that can’t be understated.
Detox Devices: Unless I absolutely have to, on Sundays I don’t touch my cell phone, laptop, desktop, no device. Truly, it feels like being released from prison. (And I don’t never allow any of them in my bedroom, which is for sex and sleeping only.) Our devices are considered psychoactive (using them can alter our mood and create feelings of pleasure); many of us are addicted. But I have a friend whose 19-year old son recently self-imposed a one-week cell-phone detox, to create a better headspace for himself. If a university student -who also founded studentXel, so is a very busy guy – can wisely self-start like that, we can all quit the habit, even for just a day.
Detox Thoughts: We think an average of 60,000 thoughts every day. Our thoughts become our reality; quantum physics: 101. Your life reflects right now how much of your thinking is positive, and how much is negative. Training your thinking to be more positive in nature is done thought by thought, like repetitive lifting at the gym.
- Step One: Begin to notice toxic thoughts by noticing how you feel: toxic thoughts feel awful. Replace them with a mantra to repeat (“I love life and life loves me” is one I can say hundreds of times a day.)
- Step Two: While commuting, walking your dog, or staring out a window, go on a rampage of appreciation: list everything you see that you appreciate, then everything in your life you appreciate, then everything about the people in your life you appreciate then everything about yourself you appreciate. (Browse this site for more content on changing your life by having a #ThoughtRevolution.)
While You Detox: Inject some good into the world. Volunteer. What opportunities in your community exist that would allow you to assist in a way that benefits people in the seven countries affected by Donald Trump’s Muslim ban? A Syrian friend of mine is deeply involved in helping immigrants and their needs – doubtlessly you have people like him in your life who need a hand. Reach yours out. Or, the late Carrie Fisher said: “Take your broken heart and make it into art.” Flush out the tension, emotion, turmoil, anger and frustration you feel by writing, drawing, painting, dancing, singing, taking photographs. Colour an adult colouring book, or, better yet, a kid’s. Breathe deeply and drink as much water as you can, be in nature, enjoy gentle movement via walks, soft yoga, and if you can get into a sauna or steam room do let your body sweat, off you go.
* A version of this post originally appeared in PostMedia’s 24 Hours where my Spirit & The City column runs weekly. The ideas within should not be considered medical advice. Check with your doctor before beginning any kind of detox, especially if you take medication.
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- Related: Difficult Relationships
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