by Dr. Connie Hernandez, ND
We’re a month deep in spring, the daffodils are peeking, Winter’s door has swung shut behind us, and June will shortly be bustin’ out all over.
I wonder if we aren’t all feeling an inner urge toward renewal. Spring is the best time of all to cleanse, start afresh, declutter, and re-open to the light of inspiration.
In springtime, the natural world speaks to us of renewal. In the garden, we sweep, trim, dig, and fertilize to prepare for a fresh growing season.
Similarly, we, too are part of the natural yearly cycle of birth, growth, death, and renewal. At this time of the year, all nature is inspiring us with the energy to turn the page and start over.
As Dr. Marcel wrote last week, we recently completed our first “feel-good” Hawaii cleansing retreat on our lovely tropical property on the Big Island, and we were delighted to witness the powerful changes our guests experienced, each in his or her own way.
- One participant experienced a major normalization after months of sleep schedule disturbances.
- Another found relief from a long-tern digestive issue.
- Yet another guest discovered an underlying dietary pattern that had been causing her to suffer from chronic joint pain.
- A guest found that it helped her to incorporate the food blessing in connection with her chemotherapy regime.
Receive, Lord, in Thy Light
The food we eat, for it is Thine.
Infuse it with Thy Love,
Thy Energy, Thy Life Divine.
When we set out to cleanse and renew our being, the first step we usually ponder is whether (and how) we can improve our diet.
Sadly, many people conjure negative images of “dietary changes” – they immediately think of all the tasty foods they’ll have to give up – seldom of the positive benefits in health, energy, and happiness, or the delicious and nutritious foods they can eat.
One of our goals during the retreat was to help our guests understand that a cleansing diet need not be scary, sparse, bland, or leave us feeling gaunt and undernourished.
Our guests discovered that the retreat diet was quite varied, delightfully delicious, and abundant – even for those on a more limited extreme cleansing plan.
- The organic food that we prepared was non-processed, vegan, and grain-free, with the exception of hypoallergenic white rice.
- Oils were limited to coconut, olive, and avocado – which the guests found more than satisfying.
- Nightshades (tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, potatoes) and other common food sensitizers, including corn and non-fermented soy, were absent.
- We offered no added sugars – no, not even maple syrup, honey, or coconut or date sugar – or artificial sweeteners. We did offer stevia and monk fruit without erythritol, but few of the guests availed themselves of these, since they had such an abundance of fresh, ripe Hawaiian fruit varieties to satisfy their sweet teeth.
So – the emphasis was not on elimination, but expanding the diet with new and even more tasty and nutritious, satisfying foods.
We were gratified to feel that we had achieved our goal, when we received recipe requests for at least ten of the meals we prepared.
Several guests said that the food (and the after-meal conversations) were an outstanding highlight of the retreat.
Go Ahead and “Do This at Home.” Here’s How.
If you’re wanting to feel better, and you’re thinking of starting a DIY at-home cleanse, you might consider starting by eliminating processed snack foods and refined carbohydrates. You’ll be surprised to discover how well satisfied your snack hunger will be when you consume a variety of fruits, vegetables, and nuts, aiming for 6-8 servings of fruits and veggies per day.
Remember this universal dietary principle: foods that have high nutrient density – namely, fresh organic veggies, fruits, and nuts – absolutely kill hunger. We crave junk food because our bodies are crying out for the nutrients it needs – it’s why junk food never stills those cravings, and it’s why Mother Nature’s whole raw foods always do. In can take up to a week or two for the junk-food craving to fade, but once it does, you absolutely will not experience those cravings in the old, automatic way.
Cleansing Is More than Dieting
A deep cleanse, where you are not only eating well but cleaning out debris that your body has accumulated over the years – will, of course, require stronger measures than simply changing what you eat.
Hand in hand with dietary change, substances that can help us achieve inner cleansing through the kidneys, liver, and colon include detox teas and various botanical formulas.
- We use a protocol by Metagenics for our Hawaii group cleanses, but there are many other accessible cleansing packages for home use.
- It can help your body to cleanse itself of stored toxins if you have access to an infrared sauna and/or a hot tub and cold tub. The skin is the body’s largest organ of elimination – it’s also a wonderful medium for improving the body’s blood flow and lymphatic circulation.
- During the retreat, we offered our guests hydrogen water as an aid to cleansing through the kidneys. We also offered high-fiber and fermented foods to encourage colonic action.
- Breathing combined with tai chi, yoga, and or chi kung can help keep your metabolism moving while energizing the body and promoting mental and emotional health.
- During our retreats, we practice the Energization Exercises taught by Paramhansa Yogananda, as well as the naturopathic staple of dew walking (walking barefoot on dewy grass in the morning).
- We also offered individualized flower essences, affirmations, and gratefulness practices, with special attention to burning away old habits and practices that are no longer serving us.
The overriding orientation of the retreat was to help our guests achieve inner spiritual balance and re-aligning their lives with their own high ideals. This was the solid foundation for all the other practices.
- We set the tone for the day with early morning chanting and meditation, and the simple act of blessing the food at each meal kept us mindful of the high purpose of the retreat.
- Given the inconvenience of following our usual early morning schedule on the last day, due to the early departure for the airport, we questioned whether the participants were up for the usual 6:30 a.m. chanting and meditation. All opted to attend!
- Meditation and other spiritual practices are fundamental to mental, emotional and physical change, since everything, including physical healing and renewal, must begin with spiritual change if it’s to be deeply effective over the long term.
- A comprehensive spring cleanse should touch all the areas I’ve discussed. At the retreat we were fortunate to have the services of a gifted medical massage therapist, and to be able to offer intravenous treatments for those who needed them.
- Acupuncture was another very effective modality that we were blessed to offer.
If you’re cleansing on your own, you might want to take advantage of some of these optional therapies to deepen your cleansing experience.
May Peace and Happiness Be Ever Yours.
Drs. Connie and Marcel Hernandez
DrConnie@DrsHernandez.com
DrMarcel@DrsHernandez.com
650-796-9631 (voice and text)