I stepped into the world of functional medicine about three years ago, and I was immediately drawn to it. I had so many misunderstandings about this practice of medicine. I thought it was just about a different practice of medicine that prescribes supplements instead of medications. Man, was I wrong!
A simple way to optimize health and function is through the self-healing power of the body and environment. That’s why I want to bring another perspective on detox and why I think it’s so important to incorporate that into your daily life, and as we’ve talked about in the last few weeks, ESPECIALLY during Spring!
First, detox is NOT about what supplements to take, or taking tests to find out what toxins you have in your body.
In modern medicine, we heavily rely on diagnosis to tell us what is wrong with us. But what I learned in Functional Medicine is that diagnosis is the beginning of exploration, not the end. It’s the beginning of asking a series of questions in order to find the root cause.
Now I want to invite you to ask yourself this question: why do you need to detox?
Being healthy is not the lack of disease. It’s a way of life where we can constantly honor our body so it can optimize its functioning.
Both my teachers in TCM and FM say the same thing. Being healthy is to carry on your life with balance. You might be a cancer patient or an autoimmune patient. But you can be the healthiest cancer or autoimmune patient on earth.
So what’s that got to do with detox?
Detox is not just about facilitating the three phases of detoxification in your liver and getting rid of toxins, it’s also detoxing the thoughts or feelings.
After I published my last newsletter about spring detox, I had many questions sent to me asking about what supplements I suggest if they want to do spring detox.
However, I think the first step should be to detox the mind first.
Why is it important to detox the mind?
Our mind is full of thoughts, emotions, and more. Don’t forget the massive amounts of biochemicals we produce to keep us functioning through sleep, cognition, learning, and memory. But even more so in modern days, we multiply the burdening of this highly functioning organ.
In today’s society, we idolize highly achieving/non-stop hustling individuals, and we dampen the importance of taking pauses, emptying our minds, and allowing our soul to be nourished. If you look at our brain activities, we constantly live in a beta wave world with fast pace and big amplitude in brain activities. This often overwhelmed our nervous system and our body.
While I will share my own practice in spring detox, we want to encourage you to do mind detox first. Because detoxing is about freeing up space in the body, unloading the toxins, and facilitating the functioning of detoxification.
Freeing up our minds is a form of transformation.
How do we do a mind detox?
First of all, examine yourself and find out what is too much and what is too little. It’s the same principle in doing physical detox.
A person who always sacrifices sleep for work, needs to prioritize resting. A person who always allows stress to dominate their life needs to reflect on how to minimize it.
To build a connection with your authentic self requires awareness and mindfulness.
Second of all, find your own spiritual practice.
A spiritual practice is not about religion. It’s about building the connection between you and the holistic world. I have practiced yoga for many years but I have always seen yoga as a form of exercise. While it’s a good way to exercise your body, it’s a great way to connect with the spiritual world.
Recently I incorporated meditation into my yoga practice.
I am sure you have read the benefits of meditation in altering the brain waves from beta waves into alpha, theta, and delta waves. I think the alpha wave is a blessing from a higher being. I see it as a form of brain detox. When you reach the alpha wave through meditation, you are free from any toxic thoughts or stress.
If you haven’t, give it a try.
I don’t have a particular meditation form. But I do enjoy breathing and meditation. An easy way to start is to sit comfortably any way you like and keep your eyes closed.
Count in four breaths when breathing in, and when breathing out, count four breaths.
Start with 5 minutes of practice every day. You might not see anything right away, but just like every good thing in the world. Persistence builds good results.
Third of all, practice gratitude. I truly believe that feeling grateful also free us from filling up our mind with negativity. It’s not easy to feel grateful when things don’t go the way we want them to. But practicing gratitude can help us from further damage and indeed can transform us.
And I am grateful for this opportunity to share with you.
In good health.
