Why do we need to purify?

First, ecology is not that great anymore, we absorb toxins just by being alive, eating non-organic food, using products, being in streets, around people.

Second, we use lots of food and products which are full of toxins.

Third, every day we pick up things on an energetic level.

It’s just part of being human.

Our lymph system and liver are the main organs responsible for purification. In current conditions if we don’t perform any purification practices they have to work really really hard.

Purification techniques prevent illness, help to not overload our lymph and liver, thus prolonging our life span, keeping our bodies young and beautiful longer and making us feel a lot lighter and able to let go easier.

I’ve performed numerous purification practices and a number of very complex yogic techniques. Here I have to add straight away that it’s part of my personality that once I decide to do something, I do it all the way.

So I went through my extreme purification phase, when I felt that I had accumulated a lot of toxins while partying, eating chaotically and living the normal life of a 20-something year old.

To give you an example – I was doing a deep liver cleanse which involved such things as drinking a glass of olive oil, drinking litres and litres of salt water and other fun things every two weeks for 6 months. Or prolonged periods of fasting combined with daily intestinal cleansing. All this was great for me at that time.

Warning: I don’t recommend such intense practices to anyone who is not a full time yogi.

I don’t feel the need to do intense cleansing anymore, but I keep practicing purification techniques, some every day, others – more complex ones – once every 3 months.

Here are some tips and very simple techniques that you can try.

I guarantee that if you perform each of them at least a few times you will feel purified and your mind will be clearer.

A. Mouth

My mum is a doctor and once she told me that we have more microbes in the mouth than in the anus.

Imagine.

The mouth is also connected with our genitals. So I find that it is really important to take care of our mouth: tongue, gums, teeth.  Here are a few simple things you can do that remove toxins from the mouth and will keep your teeth and gums healthy and make you a delicious kisser.

1. Tongue cleanse

In the morning brushing your teeth is not as crucial as removing the phlegm from your mouth. In pharmacies they sell a special tool called a tongue scraper for cleaning the tongue; it takes just 15 seconds and you remove a lot of unnecessary mucus.

It makes your breath fresh and your head lighter.

2. Gums cleanse

For this you will need some good quality sea or rock salt. The smaller the grains the better. And simply rub the salt into your gums. Salt pushes the toxins out, so you need to rinse your mouth well.

I also love using Healthy Gum Drops from Living Libations. It’s a wonderful brand that creates really good oils, and their dental care products are really amazing.

3. Oil pulling

All you need is 1 tablespoon of any edible oil (sesame oil works best) + 20 minutes during which you need to squish the oil in your mouth, but parallel to that you can do anything (take a shower, read a book, journal).

On an empty stomach (mornings are best) take the oil and squish it around for 20 minutes. Make sure you don’t swallow the oil! Then spit it out. And thoroughly clean your mouth (make sure to clean your tongue and gums well).

This is awesome for your teeth (it even whitens them!), it removes lots of toxins from your mouth, and is excellent to remove/prevent cold, ear infection and more.

B. Body

If we interact with people, or go to public places, especially where there are a lot of people (parties, hospitals, buses, airplanes) it is almost impossible to avoid picking up some energy from the environment. It’s not a big deal, usually a shower is enough to remove the unwanted energy. But in some cases this stuff might be quite heavy and if you don’t consciously remove it from your body on time, it might go deeper and result in an illness.

1. Dry brushing

A great alternative to coffee! Such an awesome thing. All you need is a brush for dry brushing made of natural materials.

Best time to perform dry brushing is morning time before you shower. You won’t need coffee anymore I’m telling you!

It feels so good, it’s kind of addictive.

It’s simple – you just need to brush your skin with strokes towards the direction of your heart.

It makes your skin super smooth, moves the lymph and energy in the energy channels all over your body,

It’s also great to do on your breasts – they become orgasmically sensitive 😉

2. Salt bath

Salt water is known to be a fantastic energy cleanser. If you live by the sea – lucky you! Go to the sea daily at the end of the day, just a quick bath is good enough. If you don’t – from time to time make yourself a bath with sea salt or epsom salt. It will remove any unwanted energies that you’ve picked up.

3. Self massage

Another great habit to take on – offering yourself a good full body massage with oil. There is an Ayurvedic technique for it, but even if you do it in any way it feels good, your body will be grateful.

It’s great to move lymph and to reduce dryness of your body.

4. Visualising light as you take shower

Too simple not to try!

That’s great to do at the end of each day. As you are in the shower feel the energy of water purifying your energy and visualise white light coming down with the water.

C. Mind/Emotions

1. Journal

I’ve always loved journaling, even as a little kid. I think this has helped me so so much in my life. Many many of us tend to suppress and accumulate emotions. And as we do it, we are very likely to build resentment towards people and life in general.

Journaling really helps flush things out. It is like a self psychotherapy. You are allowed to express anything on paper, even be mean, rude, swear, be wimpy, wingy, and anything else. And then forget about it.

To me it feels like taking a shower.

Try journaling for 20-30 minutes every day for a month and see how your emotional life changes.

2. Meditate

A real state of meditation is very advanced. It means to be absolutely without thoughts for at least 30 minutes (according to yogic texts).

But it never hurts to perform concentration, for as long as possible, even just 15-20 minutes a day are great. During this time you can simply focus on observing your breath and concentrating and calming down your mind. Thoughts will come, but you shouldn’t try to stop them. Simply let things come and go, and keep coming back to focusing on your breath.

Such exercise is really good to give your mind a break, and if you go deep into it you may experience yourself beyond what you are used to identifying with.

D. General

1. Warm water + lemon juice + honey each morning

Another wonderful alternative to coffee! Works even better to my taste.

Start each morning – glass of warm water with the juice of 1/2 or 1 lemon freshly squeezed and a teaspoon of honey. Try to use the best possible lemons and honey.

This mixture alkalises your system, helps to kick start the digestion, and feels really nourishing on the energetic level as well. It’s also a great thing to do for your immunity. If you drink this every day you can say adios to colds and flus!

2. Add more green leaves to your diet

They contain high levels of chlorophyll which helps to detoxify the lymph, blood and liver. They also alkalise our bodies, which is wonderful because most of the food we eat is acidic in nature.

3. Drink water

Just by having a glance at myself in the mirror I can tell when I forget to drink enough. My complexion is not as radiant and my face looks tired. It’s a simple thing, but it really makes a big difference on our fatigue levels, the condition of our skin, digestion and circulation.

Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day.

4. Exercise

If we don’t move much/exercise our energy inevitably becomes stagnant. Stagnation of energy in turn results in heaviness, pain, stiffness of the body. Exercise to avoid stagnation of your energy. If you cannot commit to a regular 1-2 hour practice, at least do short periods of stretching/jumping/ dancing a few times a day.

Best is to start each morning with a good practice of yoga, pilates, dance, martial arts or anything else that you enjoy (except toast+Nutella practice that we all know too well:)

E. (Speaking of Nutella…) Reduce the use of the following:

– Parabens (known carcinogens). Many (alarmingly many) products have them, like your make up, lotions, some oils, toothpaste…

– Products with ingredients named E-… Found in cosmetics, food, etc.

– Fluor/ Fluoride very often found in bottled water, toothpaste and even dental floss. This stuff has a very strong and negative effect on our brain. Basically making us stupid.

– Everything (creams, toothpaste, lotions, dishwasher…) which has ingredients the names of which you don’t know.

Your skin drinks.

So don’t put anything on your skin that you wouldn’t put in your mouth.

At some point I threw away tons (really tons) of shampoos, make up, lotions, creams, nail polishes etc etc etc. Realising how much I’ve spent on all the shit that was deeply damaging me was painful, but after I rid myself of these my heart felt much lighter.

So dear one – go to your bathroom and read the list of ingredients of your beloved products. And have a blessed journey.

And you will be surprised to know what wonderful products exist out there. Which are much better for you, and are made with care and without torturing rabbits.

My two most favourite brands are Dr. Hauschka and Living Libations.

Living Libations is a Canadian brand, they have incredible pure and organic oils for skin and tooth care products. My personal favourite is their Seabuckthorn face oil and the Healthy Gum Drops. Love it love it.

Dr. Hauschka is a German brand. A fantastic one. They make biodynamic products, which means supercharged organic. I love their rose oil, creams, and even their make up is really good.

What are your favourite cleansing techniques?

Or have you discovered some great products that you love?