by Cherise Holt, Nurse, Australia.
At times throughout life we may find ourselves searching for a fresh start, to create a new relationship with food and exercise, or to eliminate any form of sickness that our bodies have suffered, or to rid the body of its accumulated toxins and the harmful substances we have poured into it, such as drugs, prescription medications, alcohol, sugar and gluten.
The objective is usually to live with greater vitality and physical energy in our day-to-day routines, where we feel well in our minds and bodies and can live a happy and healthy life.
A quick internet search indicates that there are many products and diet plans out there customised for just this kind of goal. You can cut out fat or carbs, juice every fruit or vegetable under the sun, eat only raw foods or invest in a lemon tree. If you don’t want to look at the food you are eating, you can book yourself in for a colon cleanse or attend a health retreat where all is organised for you. Most detox plans are marketed to increase weight loss, gain a ‘bikini body’ for summer or create a fresh start towards a healthier way of living.
But what happens to us and our bodies when the detox program is complete?
Do we return to our old behaviours and patterns, find ourselves frustrated or deflated when the body physically changes in a way we do not like or when we find ourselves feeling sick, uncomfortable and discontent in our own skin once again?
What would a successful detox actually look like for true health and wellness?
Well I can share this with you, as I have just completed a detox program with a Universal Medicine practitioner. The program consisted of 12, one-hour sessions including chakra-puncture and a supportive consultation in which to share whatever I was feeling.
When I first attended, I had already decided to eliminate sugar from my diet as I didn’t like the side effects in my body. During the first session, I was able to say that the detox program for me was actually about living as a woman, with the love and self-worth I know myself to naturally be.
Detox was never about a goal, or attaining something (be that a physical change or an improvement of me) by its completion; instead each session was about whatever I brought to it, with honesty and a willingness to be as open as I possibly could. It was with my own sense of responsibility that I knew it wasn’t about my practitioner providing a solution to any issues; she was simply providing a space for me to re-connect to myself and inspiringly shared with me from her own experiences and way of living. We don’t actually need solutions to the issues that present in daily life, just the space to re-connect to the undeniable fact we already know what is right and loving and what is not.
I was continually amazed by the opportunity that presented in each session, to be honest with any emotional issues, old patterns of behaviour and ways of living – some felt like I had been repeating them for lifetimes! And yet the compassion I chose to gift myself allowed me to know that these old ways don’t have to define who I am today, and once declared and seen for what they are I can choose otherwise. When we become aware of how we have lived with ourselves and others, the opportunity is there to make new and more supportive choices – isn’t this beautiful!
My detox program was about being responsible and honest with me. I had an openness to whatever was to come up in my life and a dedication to living in a more loving, harmonious, joyful and truly well way. With a deep commitment to me – and life – my detox was supporting my whole way of being. I chose the support of a practitioner who I know already lives this way, who only shares from her way of living, never imposes and who radiates true responsibility and integrity.
A truly supportive detox is like the blossoming of a beautiful rose…
When a rose ages, its outside petals become discoloured, bruised and frayed, like our old ways of living; we forever have the ability to peel back the layers that no longer belong. We can allow ourselves to name and let go of the old comforts, needs, expectations and behaviours that simply didn’t exist when we started out as the delicate little bud.
Over time we grew to accumulate many beliefs, ideals, constraints and contracted ways of being that resulted in damaged petals, hurt feelings and hardening to protect ourselves from the world around us.
But our inner knowing has remained pure and unharmed.
It is from this supportive and warm place inside us that we can see the issues and hurts we carry that are not our natural way of being; but rather a collaboration of self-perceptions and past experiences that need only be exposed with loving tenderness and compassion – so that we may unfold – returning to cherish and accept who we are and live the love we know ourselves to be.
Medicine and Serge Benhayon 
Hi great reading your blog
Cherise I can so relate to what you have shared,
“I was continually amazed by the opportunity that presented in each session, to be honest with any emotional issues, old patterns of behaviour and ways of living – some felt like I had been repeating them for lifetimes!”
I too have felt at times that the patterns of behaviours I have as my go to, have been repeated life after life they have become so familiar, it is hard to give them up, because I want to then replace them with something else to actually come to an understanding that I don’t have to run around trying to fill the gap, that if I allowed myself to let go, what fills the gap is space and this space actually feels very fulfilling, so that I feel less empty, lonely and more settled so that the anxiousness I have felt in my body as my constant companion is not there anymore.
As with any UM based healing approach it’s never about looking at things outside of us but what comes from within such as our ideals and beliefs about the world, others and ourselves that then lead to our behaviours, food and drink choices etc.
Cherise, I love how you are saying that no matter how we have treated ourselves in the past none of this matters if we connect to this inner essence of love that resides in everyone of us. We can gift to ourselves the ability to forgive and move on.
‘We don’t actually need solutions to the issues that present in daily life, just the space to re-connect to the undeniable fact we already know what is right and loving and what is not.’ When we do not address our hurts we fail to love ourselves. In this lack of worth it is much easier to search for solutions rather than address the root cause for failing to act in a way that is self supporting and supportive of others.
Like many other people, I have done detox’s hoping that I would get that ‘bikini’ figure and they were temporarily successful in one respect, and yet returned me to who I was or worse, in another.
Cherise this sharing makes me realise that from time to time, ‘a detox for life’ is essential and the weight purpose has nothing to do with it. It’s a good way of getting rid of baggage that has accumulated or been imposed from life, it does not belong to us, it is that simple.
Shushila I agree with you that a ‘detox of life’ is essential, I was talking to a fellow student and during the conversation realised I had been carrying around with me as emotional baggage stuff from my childhood for over 60 years! This negative energy I had chosen to take on has coloured my view and understanding of myself and life all these years. I wasn’t understood as a child and rather than taking the time to understand me, my family labeled me as ‘difficult’ the odd one out. This occurs in our society all the time, if we come across something we don’t understand instead of giving the grace of understanding many people are dismissed or outcast, without the understanding that sometimes society needs to be shaken out of its complacency.
“It is from this supportive and warm place inside us that we can see the issues and hurts we carry that are not our natural way of being; ” This is where self acceptance and self love are absolutely vital.
To give ourselves the space to re-connect is everything that is needed to support us on our way. We think we need to fix situations or have solutions but it is through living the connection to ourselves that brings what is needed in every moment.
Caroline, I totally agree, we need the space to ‘re-connect’ wth ourselves and sometimes all it requires is someone to talk to that fully understands, doesn’t impose and allows the space for you to become you.
Detoxing our body and mind from the poisons we have taken on is to reveal to ourselves the preciousness of who we truly are.
“My detox program was about being responsible and honest with me.”- this is refreshing to read and I dont feel there is enough of this in the world today.
Honesty plays big part in detox. There’s so much power in calling out what doesn’t belong. Nothing to do with discipline or will power, but very simple observation and understanding from a very honest place, allows us to change our choices. Even a conversation can be a detox.
With everything I’ve learned from Universal Medicine about energy preceding anything that occurs in human life, it makes sense to detox the energy causing the ill behaviours firstly rather than the other way around. If I address the energy of a behaviour then often that behaviour ceases to exist.
I am only now getting a true sense of the word Religion a return to our innermost, when we start on the journey of the return to who we are we naturally start the process of detoxification of the everything that is not who we are, so that the who we are is allowed to shine though in all its glory, then as you say Leigh Matson the energies of our behaviours cease to exist.
Yes detoxing is only part of the answer but it offers a moment for clarity, and by being honest and willing to see the power of eliminating certain foods it gives us a new marker to feel what really works for us and what doesn’t.