Spring cleaning isn’t just for closets and cabinets. Our bodies also need a regular cleanse. Spring is the perfect time for cleansing. As nature comes out of hibernation, so do our bodies. Energetically, they start to prepare for the more active phase of summer.
We have 5-6 natural routes of elimination of toxins from our bodies.
- Liver and gastrointestinal tract
- Kidneys
- Skin
- Lungs/breath
- Emotions
- Menstrual cycle
LIVER/GASTROINTESTINAL TRACT
One of the biggest ways for our bodies to eliminate toxins is through our bowel movements. It is important for us to have one to three bowel movements that are well formed every day. If we aren’t having a bowel movement every day then toxins from our stool recirculate in the body. Increasing the fiber in our diet is a great way to ensure that we have a bowel movement every day. We can do this by eating more vegetables and whole grains, and adding chia seeds and ground flax seeds to our diets.
KIDNEYS
Drinking enough water allows the kidneys to filter the blood. We should be drinking half our body weight in ounces of water every day to allow for this route of toxin elimination. Make sure that the water you are drinking is filtered and the filter is changed regularly. Avoid the use of plastic water bottles as these contribute to our body’s toxin burden of xenoestrogens (synthetic/ foreign estrogens). Glass and stainless steel are better options.
SKIN
Our skin is our largest organ of the body. Dry skin brushing before showers, sweating through exercise, hot baths and infrared saunas are all effective ways to use this organ of elimination. Also, it is important to consider what we put on our skin, as that gets directly absorbed into the blood stream. Check out the website skindeep.org for more information.
LUNGS/BREATH
It is important that we get fresh air every day. Spending some time outside in nature is important for our physical and mental health. When we put our attention on our breath, it retrains the body to breath more deeply. Breathing in deeply, results in a longer exhale. When we exhale, we let go, and this allows our body to release and eliminate toxins. Spending 10 minutes every day on a breath practice can go a long way in helping the body to detox.
EMOTIONS
Our emotions have an energetic quality, and as such should not be suppressed or stifled. Because we don’t always understand what is going on in the world around us especially if we have experienced trauma that we can’t make sense of, we learn to push down and hold onto emotions. When we don’t process and release our emotions in a healthy way, they cause stagnant energy in our bodies that don’t allow the release of toxins. Processing our emotions is a healthy way to release toxins from our bodies.
MENSTRUAL CYCLE
As women, they say we have an extra route of elimination of toxins and that having this extra way to eliminate toxins means that we live longer than men 😊 I’m not sure if this is true, but as women we are lucky enough to have an additional way of removing toxins from our bodies, through the flow of our menstrual cycle.
It isn’t just our closets that benefit from a spring cleaning. Spring is a perfect time to think about detoxing our bodies and our minds.
