The Good Energy Series: Detoxifying Your Life

The moment has come to exterminate the poison from your life – from the private thoughts you carry into the shower, to your bedroom conversations, to the contents of your pantry. Because you are either empowered or paralyzed by the thoughts you think, the words you speak, the foods you eat and the energy you keep. If you wish to change you, you must clean up what you entertain, dream about and do.

Detoxify Your Beliefs

What we believe becomes like a movie projection of the world we experience, and we either make a romance or a horror of it. We will either project the drama of our fears, inadequacies and judgments, or the playfulness of our curiosities, inspirations and joys. Everything we hear, read and watch is filtered through the lens of our perceptions. And, these perceptions spring from nothing but our deepest beliefs. It creates a cycle – one that is vicious, or one of perceived fortune and magic.

But it begins within.

It has been said that when Christopher Columbus arrived to the Caribbean Islands, the Native Americans did not even see the ships because their brains did not recognize them. The ships were, allegedly, invisible to them because the objects existed outside of the realm of their knowledge.

In the same way, our brains cannot recognize a golden opportunity, a stroke of luck or a loving mate if our beliefs are not fluent in the language of those things. They will fall to the wayside like a magnet landing against wood. They will be invisible – brushing against us and passing by like a ghost in the night. Because if one’s mind is not a paradise, neither will be his or her life.

But if one believes it is an absolution to realize the things he or she most desires, those opportunities will race toward them at lightening speed – attaching to them like a magnet to metal.

Rewriting the Lies: A Powerful Exercise

This exercise will revolutionize your life. It requires that you take an internal clean sweep of the shadowed thoughts haunting the corners of your mind. These are the thoughts that crawl from hiding just when you feel brave enough to try for something. And, these are the thoughts that will destroy your dreams. So, lay the weight of them down like useless weapons. They have never protected you.

Take five pieces of paper, and use each one for the following areas of your life: Health, Money, Career, Love & Relationships, Purpose & Spirituality. Find a quiet room with no crutches or distractions. No cigarettes, music or social media feeds are allowed to muffle the voice of your truth. Begin, area by area, to “unload” your negative beliefs. Invite them to come up from their cobwebbed crevices. This may seem terrifying at first, and you may shiver in shame at the company you keep in your mind. But these are the beliefs that always dance in shadows, crippling you with their sabotaging whispers. They need to be faced, disarmed and sent on their way.

Once you feel “emptied” of them all, return to them one-by-one, and replace with an emboldening statement. They may feel like lies at first, for the stubborn neural pathways in your brain are in staunch conflict with them. You may feel inclined to mock and laugh at them. This is why you must feed and retrain your brain – relentlessly and repetitively.

Detoxify Your Eating

Isn’t it interesting that we are so mindful with babies and young children, yet negligent with ourselves? We protect children from our shouting matches, we don’t allow certain chemicals to touch their skin and we don’t dare feed them contaminated foods. Yet, in the next breath, we are ordering a steaming hot plate of toxic junk to feed our own cells. Once we reach a certain age, we discard the notion of care and caution – stamping our preciousness with an expiration date.

But, this is dead wrong – literally.

Beginning from this moment to one year in the future, you will have recycled 98 percent of all matter in your body. Every day you stand before your mirror, in fact, you are staring at entirely different skin than you had a month ago. In six weeks from this moment, you will be steward of a brand-spanking-new liver. So, the body you’re gazing upon is your 2018 model (or whatever year this article may find you). But even if you treated your models of the past as gravel-road-loving clunkers, you can begin treating this one like a top-of-the-line Ferrari.

Consider Eating According to Ayurveda

There is transformative wisdom in Ayurveda, and I recommend determining your unique constitution in order to learn more about the foods and practices that affect the chemistry of your body. You may be shocked by its accuracy. For example, my constitution is Pitta, which means I often overheat. I have an ambitious personality with a tendency to burn the candle at both ends and experience red-hot annoyance when out of balance. I am also prone to inflammation. My body thrives on cooling and pacifying foods such as coconut, kale, apples and oatmeal.

Once you understand what you need, you can then begin to approach each meal with the question: “How may I be kind to my body today?” This is not about living longer per se, but more about being fully alive and happy before the living is done.

Detoxify Your Living Space

One of the most powerful things you can do is purify your home, stripping it of old and stale energy. Purging and rearranging  – from the art to the furniture to the old love letters – creates an actual and measurable shift in the energetic field.

One by one, cleanse every room of all things that conjure irritation or disturbance in you. Repair that squeaky door and donate those ugly green plates you never liked anyway. Get rid of the books you have no interest in reading and toss out the dress that never flattered your shape.

There is no reason to “hang on” to anything – whether it be a belief, a rug, a handbag or pair of heels – which lures you into a trap door of negative memories. If your home is chaotic, your mental state will reflect that. But, if your home is joyful and filled with your favorite things, your energetic state will respond to the nature of a better song. 

Detoxify Your Music

I once viewed songs as vast bodies of water inviting me to splash around in toxic emotions. There were stretches of time so disheartening that listening to uplifting music gave me such uncomfortably foreign wings, it agitated me.  This was because the energy of the brighter music had a stark contrast to my energy at that time.

Music is powerful energy. If you have been going through a gloomy period, fill your speakers with music that match the kind of emotional energy you wish to experience. If you feel small, choose an empowering anthem. If you feel empty or uninspired, choose something dreamy or soulful. It may feel unnatural at first, but before long, it will have tricked you out of your black hole.

Detoxify Your Relationships

Now is the time to not only pull these weeds, but to cleanse your energy of them.

Sadly, some people are so unhappy, they are determined to spread their unhappiness to others. They will suck your light while spewing the venom of their negativity – demanding that you taste of their poison. They want their misery to be acknowledged, validated and known. Oftentimes these energy-suckers are unaware of the magnitude of the damage they bestow upon others; they may be trying to feel less alone.

Send Them On Their Way, But Without the Vengeful Bang

I often read social media posts and articles encouraging others to shoot bullet holes through the relationships gone wrong. But, making bridge-burning efforts to sever ties only serves to invite more energy like itself. It certainly doesn’t breed compassion. That is the opposite of what we want.

The most effective way to cleanse our lives of septic relationships is to stop giving them power. If there is a trouble-maker in your world – whether it be a co-worker or a lover, the best response is to stop playing along with their dirty games. Because if engaging with someone means a betrayal of your health in any way – from abusing your time to breaking your trust to swallowing up your peace of mind, you owe it to yourself to stop the madness.  That stirring of unease you feel around them is the language of vibration, and it’s waving red flags of danger. This is a warning you must obey.

But remember: There is no need to sound any drums, set any bridges to fire or leave claw marks across anyone’s name. Doing so will always invite more of the same.

So, make no room for the drama and all of the room for sweet and compassionate surrender. You’ll breathe better without them, but untangle with compassion and a lightness of being.

An Emotion-Clearing Exercise: “May You Be Well, May You Happy…”

One of the most profound healing exercises can be found in Jonathan Field’s best-selling book, “How to Live a Good Life.” It is a testament to the power of forgiveness. My interpretation of the exercise is as follows:

You begin with the following statement: “May I be free, may I be happy, may I be healthy, may I live with ease.” Once you say and fully emotionalize the phrase for yourself, you meditate on it for someone you dearly love. After a moment in that space, you then direct the sentiment to someone you feel no special emotion for. Finally, you direct it toward someone you are struggling with. Feel the burn and pressure of that resistance. Repeat the mantra over and over until you truly wish that person happiness and ease. This exercise is more transformative than you can possibly imagine.

The first time I worked through it, I turned the lights out and pulled the covers over my shoulders. With my husband sound asleep next to me, I shut my eyes and began repeating the words in my mind. I started with myself – saying the mantra over and over until I channeled emotion behind it.

Then I spoke it for my dad. Within minutes, cool tears were streaming down my either side of my face. I envisioned my dad moving through his life feeling happy, well, and at peace, and I was flooded with indescribable joy. I then moved on to an acquaintance I felt indifferent about, and then to a person who had recently betrayed me. It was as though angels had suddenly been called to fill that space and surround my heart. I could almost feel them beaming over me. The spirit of forgiveness was like a balmy salve to all of the chaos the world had thrown at me that day. I will never forget that moment in the darkness of my bedroom, spent with the extraordinary power of forgiveness.

Make Room For Daily Detoxification & Rejuvenation

This world is constantly presenting us with offerings of chaos, therefore I recommend committing to a daily detoxification and recharging ritual. Choose one you will passionately look forward to. It could be burning incense and meditating in a cozy window seat. It could be a cup of coffee, a journal and a pen early in the morning before the rest of the house comes to life. Or, perhaps, your idea of cleansing is an hour spent sweating over a yoga mat.

My favorite ritual is quality time spent with my bathtub at night. It is where I lay my burdening questions down. I fully permit myself to get into the experience – with essential oils, bubble bath, a mug of something lovely and occasionally music. It’s where I surrender, recharge and pray. Sometimes, during the day when something overwhelms me, I tell myself, “Let’s just save this monster for the bathtub.”

Because when I dip into the warmth of my sanctuary, the monster always melts away into resolve.