Spring Cleansing

28.3.10

"The best piety is to enjoy. You are doing the most then to save the earth's character as an agreeable planet. And enjoyment radiates. It is of no use to try and take care of all the world. That is being taken care of when you feel delight."

(George Eliot, Middlemarch)


The best time to do a cleanse is usually during the change of season. Since we've just entered into Spring my boyfriend and I will be doing another liver and gallbladder cleanse. Since this will be my third time it won't seem like such an undertaking. After all the reading and preparation it becomes a simple process.

With my constitution, fasting cleanses, where food is restricted, don't work well for me.  I tend to lean toward this cleanse and/or panchakarma cleanses. Juicing might be another consideration at some point, however since moving, I'm not as well equipped, at the moment. At any rate, I find the liver and gallbladder cleanse supportive towards improved digestion, and assimilation. We gotta take care of that liver of ours! It's a hard worker.

I've already written so much about the liver and gallbladder cleanse, so I won't go into much detail this go around for the sake of boring everybody. I realize there's a bit of controversy out there in regards to the validity of the cleanse, however for those whom I've known personally who have done so have felt the difference, especially with liver issues. I've felt a shift since embarking on them, and that's what I go by. So much of our culture is about putting a band-aid on something. Runny after symptoms and effects. Never getting down to the root. The why. The how. The cause. It's important.

I've always been drawn to Ayurveda. With basic principles such as bringing body balance and learning how to maintain that balance is a key part of the science. Which resonates with me. 

I came across the chart below from one of my favorite blogs, HeyMonica B, on Ayurveda. Has a good way of showing the difference between western and eastern medicine. Both have their place.

We are coming into an era where prevention is just as important as treating symptoms. Something, in Ayurveda tradition, 5, 000 years in the making, has understood.




Simple, informative, and straight to the point, below is the best book I've found on the liver and gallbladder cleanse.

The Liver and Gallbladder Miracle Cleanse: An All-Natural, At-Home Flush to Purify and Rejuvenate Your Body

10 Insightful Comments:

Arturo said...

hi Laruga
i'm doing the cleanse, while on a two week time off in SF. it's not easy. i feel super bloated from the apple juice, since i practice calorie restriction. and i am super busy despite being sort of on holiday, so having two days of not doing anything for the actual cleanse seems like an impossibility for me. but i'm doing it. haha. the actual cleanse is thursday and friday. people brought me a lot of epsom salts, since they were not available in China. but i bought some anyway while visiting SF.
cheers,
Arturo

peaceloveyoga said...

Wow. Yeah, I've heard you can get bloated from the apple juice. For some reason I've never had that problem.

Congrats on trying it out. Would love to hear how it goes! xo.

Niall said...

Hi Laruga,

Love your blog, find it very informative.
I bought the cleanse book after reading about it on your blog. Got to the chapter where it explains the actualt cleans and it mentioned that some sort of colon cleansing was mandatory whether it be in a clinic or at home with a kit you can buy off the internet. I was slightly turned off by this and got lazy and stopped reading. I've been meaning to get back to it and i am thinking not is a good time. I was wondering could you offer adive on the colon cleansing therapy ?
Thanks, Niall.

Boodiba said...

I once did an eleven day cleanse that I read about in Yoga Journal. This was... 9 years ago. I don't do ANYthing like this anymore.

I bought a juicer and followed all the instructions. There was lemon water with organic honey & cayenne, the three juices a day, supplements (capsules & tinctures) for morning, lunch, dinner and bed time. There was an eating plan. It was vegetarian of course and most restricted in the middle. There were a couple of days only green veggies were allowed, I think.

Anyway... the last three days of this I got nose bleeds!!! I'd never had that happen in my life. They weren't long lasting or dramatic enough to be scary, but still.

Now I just do this - if my body feels sluggish or heavier than usual, I just eat less for a couple days with more veggies. :)

Arturo said...

hi Laruga

my bloat may have come from irregular eating while traveling, and not from the apple juice, in retrospect.

i agree with Boodi. i practice calorie restriction, so in general i feel really good. but the idea of getting rid of stones sounded appealing to me and i had heard of the cleanse from friends in Japan as well.

regarding the colon cleansing, thanks for the reminder, Niall. i was just planning to do the home version. you can go and get water enemas (i hate the word, but we have to be technical). if you use three bottles, that should do the job. the content of these is like a saline solution, similar to what is described in the book. you can get these in the pharmacy. that is my plan anyway.

cheers,
Arturo

peaceloveyoga said...

@ Boodiba - yeah, i agree i don't do well with crazy diets. Probably why I've done better with a light panchakarma or this particular cleanse. I need to eat. And, I tend to agree eating lighter for a few days is a good way to go if feeling sluggish. Guess it all comes down to what works for us.

Hope your knee is feeling better! xo.


@ Niall - I totally understand. When I first embarked on this particular cleanse the "colon-cleansing" got me too. Though the book expresses it's importance, I dunno if it's absolutely necessary - all depending on your digestive heath now. I do a few enemas with now problems. At first I was a bit daunted by it, but it's no big deal. If you feel it's to much at this time, maybe skip it and follow all the other recommendations to the letter. Just a suggestion, maybe. However, I will say enemas are simple, cheap, and relatively safe to do.

Hope this helps. xo

Niall said...

Hi Laruga & Arturo,

Thanks a mil for the advice, very helpful. I'll give it a go, hopefully next week.

Thanks,
Niall.

Emma said...

what does "connection to nature" as "not good for emergencies" mean?

peaceloveyoga said...

@ Emma - The way I see it is, for example, over ten years ago, I seriously broke my left arm. In this instance the Ayurveda principles, when I had the break, weren't gonna fix the problem to mend my arm. This is when Western medicine came into play.I had surgery. Obviously, when having surgery there are months of recovery and healing that takes place. Ayurveda principles then are a perfect adjunct to Western medicine.

Not sure if it's the best explanation, lol.

I guess another way to look at it is in Ayurveda it is primarily about body balance, and tuning into nature for that balance. When in a car accident, or experiencing a bad bone break, or heart attack, Ayurveda isn't necessarily gonna save you in that instant. Western medicine = quick term. Ayurveda = long term.

Emma said...

that totally makes sense. thank you!

 

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