Detox to Divinity

Fasting has been prescribed in most ancient traditions as a tool to cleanse and purify one’s mind and body in order to achieve inner purity and find the path to divinity. It was believed that when thoughts of preparing food and feeding were out of one’s mental schemata, one could focus without hindrance on mantra, prayer or devotion. Fasting was considered a tool in aiding devotees to disconnect from the physical realm as they turned deeply inward.
Spiritual awakening is awareness of a higher source. And it means looking at life as not just a constant unfolding of events, but stepping back and out of the box of our lives, to look at all of creation as part and parcel of a grand plan, a great mystery. It beckons us to develop trust in ourselves, to cultivate faith so that we can accept with grace and dignity the many things that happen in our lives, especially when they are beyond our understanding and not according to our own “plans.”
You don’t have to be religious or even spiritual to know that when you accept certain unpleasant events as they are, then they appear less threatening. When you create that distance between yourself and events in life, you gain a totally different perspective. You begin to understand that challenging circumstances are just that: challenges. And you start developing strategies to handle those situations, instead of reacting and creating an emotional web of discontent around your life. You start thinking with clarity and make better decisions as you plan to work through the challenges. You arm yourself with objective knowledge of the situation and are then able to handle it with less interference from conflicting emotions.
It’s akin to becoming a spectator, watching a sport in the stadium that is your life. That distance allows you to look at things objectively instead of reacting to circumstances.
What is the connection between this clarity and fasting or detoxing? The first time I heard the saying, “God is in your gut,” it was during my first yoga teacher training. Since then, I have encountered this saying in books I have read on both spirituality and physical health. And what it means is that when your physical body is cleansed, it then becomes a breeding ground for positive thoughts, higher aspirations and an overall lighter sense of being. Once the cobwebs are cleaned out, light can shine more brightly within. Processed and fatty foods clog not just our arteries, but our colons, our guts and our faculty to think clearly. Small wonder that these days with the world being so sick of falling sick with inexplicable diseases, many doctors and health practitioners have turned their attention away from traditional Western medicine and have begun imbibing the ancient wisdoms of the East.
One such wisdom is that of fasting. Modern medicine has proven that it is only in rest that our body begins a deep detoxification process, a process which is beyond just the daily elimination of waste matter. When we rest our bodies from the effort of digesting and breaking down food, our bodies then begin the real work of pulling waste matter from the organs, where it has been accumulating over the years, made worse as a result of modern industrial living. It is this accumulation of waste products and stress on the organs that ultimately results in disease. And allowing the body to fast occasionally creates an environment of less taxation on the digestive process, which then enables the body the space and time to begin the deeper cleaning of the guts and all the other organs.
This cleansing through fasting makes for a balanced body that fuels a balanced mind. In a balanced mind, divinity can exist. In a stressed and toxic environment, divinity will look for a quick escape. Only negativity and darkness will breed.
There are different kinds of fasts out there in the organic world now. Religious fasting generally cuts out all solid foods and, in some cases, devotees eat or drink nothing at all for a set number of hours a day. Western doctors often prescribe a juice fast or a smoothie fast in which you drink teas, juices and smoothies, as they are much lighter on the body since the breaking-down process of the food has already occurred in your blender. This taxes the digestive system far less and speeds up the process of absorbing nutrients into the body, thus resulting in giving the body freedom to begin the deep detoxification process.
I personally like Dr. Alejandro Junger’s “Clean” detoxification diet, or Kris Carr’s green-juice fasting suggestions found in “Crazy Sexy Diet” and her digital book, “Crazy Sexy Juices & Succulent Smoothies.” Both have carefully weighed in on the value of the greens and fruits they recommend and have experimented on themselves with glorious results.