Holistic Healing Thought Leader: Carol Lee
It’s the decluttering season.
As the light increases daily and warmer weather creeps in, we start to turn our gaze from within to outside ourselves. And we notice dust, cobwebs and clutter that has built up over the Winter.
Inner Spring Cleaning:
Spring is when most people think of inner cleansing too. Energetically this is a good time. There is a strong pushing energy as the sap begins to rise. We are emerging from our ‘Winter cave’ and want to return to the world after a feeling of hibernation.
“I love how they can run together because it is all just the energy of release.”
In the Chinese Five Elements, spring is associated with the wood element. And the liver and gallbladder meridian. The liver in our bodies is key to processing and releasing toxins and in the spring. Energetically the liver and its partner gallbladder are seen as key to our body managing the whole process. They decide, plann, organize and take action.
Our bodies naturally cleanse all day, every day. This process is what keeps our system in balance, and us alive. That’s part of why I don’t like the ‘detox’ word because we are always detoxifying. I see the process as moving from maintenance mode cleansing to optimal mode cleansing. A bit like having a deep clean of your home rather than a quick vacuum round. Cellular deep cleanse aren’t needed all the time but once or twice a year can make all the difference to your inner space and energy levels.
What is interesting, but not surprising, is that as we release physically it can feel easier to clear and declutter in our homes. I love how they can run together because it is all just the energy of release.
The Three Principles Of Any Cleanse Are:
- Take out what dulls and slows cleansing down.
- Add in what supports more optimal cleansing.
- Remember small changes make a lot of difference.
What To Remove During This Inner Spring Clean:
- Moving from carbohydrate heavy winter meals to lighter, brighter meals with proportionally less processed carbohydrates. This may include less whole grains too.
- Take out alcohol, sugary and artificially sweetened beverages, and reduce caffeinated drinks.
- Reduce meat and dairy products.
- Reduce the amount of packaged processed foods you eat, go for home cooked as much as possible.
- Reduce food containing sugar and cut out artificial sweeteners, use whole fruit for a sweet treat, berries are especially nutritious and delicious.
What To Include In This Inner Spring Clean:
- More raw food, salad, grated vegetables and lightly steaming rather boiling, starting to sprout seeds.
- Add in water; hot, warm or cold to support flow in your body and more specifically flow out of your body.
- Add a big side salad to each meal.
- Eat more vegetarian or vegan meals.
- Get plenty of greens as these really support the liver to let go.
“Your body is trying to look after you.”
The Importance of Pacing Yourself:
The pace of spring time is quick, the energy in nature is speeding up and your body will want to match this, it is amazing how small changes make a lot of difference.
When we make a switch from food that slows down cleansing to food to optimize cleansing we have effectively taken our hand off the maintenance cleansing lever and we are now going full throttle into a more active cleansing mode. It can feel like going from couch-potato mode to running a marathon in a week.
You might think this would be good but if our body is tired and sluggish, it simply doesn’t have the energy for all this extra cleansing and clearing straight away.
If some of what you are reducing or stopping you feel addicted to, you can feel really lousy; nauseous, exhausted, emotional, overwhelmed, with a crazy head craving, telling us to eat chocolate now !!!.
Inner Spring Clean Slow Down:
One of the reasons for this is that the cells of our body are shouting slow down and one way we can slow down, or stop this natural more active cleansing happening, is to eat something like biscuits, cake, or chocolate which shuts down the process. Your body is trying to look after you.
When this happens we may feel we are back to square one; we may think and feel that we are weak willed and lazy. Far from it, we just haven’t understood how the different food affects our body and the cleansing process.
A simple way to do a cleanse is to choose something to take out and something to add in from the lists above and notice how you feel. If all feels good then take out and add in another item.
We don’t have to do it all at once, I call this a slow body approach. So much these days is fast paced and demanding of big transformations quickly. Sustainable change always happens slowly.
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About the Author:
Carol Lee is a Naturopathic Nutritional Therapist, Sugar-freedom coach, Creative Kinesiologist, Teacher and Author from the U.K. She has been working in Complementary Health for over 25 years. Her holistic approach to healing and transformation is about listening to, witnessing and working with the body’s ‘knowing’. Carol believes this is where we hold our wisdom, experience and capacity for change, especially as mid-life women.
She works with women wanting to kick the sugar habit, those who are navigating health challenges, or who are wanting to up-level their life in some way; helping them to clear the blocks to success and wellbeing. She is currently enjoying her empty nest, and the freedom it brings, with her partner Jon. Carol loves the coast and walking the wild landscape of South West UK, snuggling her sweet rescue cat Stevie, gardening and eating delicious, nutritious food.
