Emotional And Mental Cleansing
The third type of cleanse that will be explored is emotional and mental cleansing. Our diets affect our emotional, mental, and spiritual states, and in order to cleanse these, we need to focus on what we are putting into our bodies. The connection between one’s diet and mind has been understood by cultures for thousands of years. Herodotus, a Greek historian, noted that meat-eating cultures were more focused on war than vegetarian cultures. The Brahmin class in India follows a particular vegetarian diet that they feel enhances spiritual awareness. Gabriel Cousens states in his book Conscious Eating (2000), “Consciously or unconsciously, people tend to choose the diet that reinforces and reflects their own mental and spiritual state of awareness.” (164)
One can use food as medicine for the mind, emotions, and spirit. Cousens suggests increasing fruits, vegetables, and grains in order to feel relaxed, light, comfortable, calm, quick, smart, and intuitive. Furthermore, if someone feels dull, irritable, heavy or tense one can decrease the amount of dairy and flesh foods to help in feeling better. Gabriel Cousens uses the Ayurvedic system of health from India to help understand what types of foods benefit the mind. According to Cousens in his book Spiritual Nutrition And The Rainbow Diet (1986), “Diet influences the state of mind, and the state of mind influences the diet choice.” (135-136)
Ayurveda classifies food into three groups, called gunas, which are sattvic, rajasic, and tamasic. Sattvic foods create a balanced, clear, and harmonious mind and body state. Cousens says that a sattvic diet for a Western person consists of “an abundance of different sprouts of legumes and grains, immature greens and grasses, fresh fruits and vegetables, and soaked nuts and seeds.” (136) A person should eat 70% alkaline food and 30% acidic food to be in the sattvic state of mind. The other two types of foods and mind/body states are rajasic and tamasic. Rajasic foods tend to be highly energizing and make the body and mind push themselves beyond their limits, leading to a very unbalanced life. Tamasic foods include the fast foods of the United States. This type of food tends to create a mind/body state of lethargy and irritation.
Paul Pitchford suggests a certain type of dietary cleanse that can be helpful for emotional and mental states in his book Healing With Whole Foods (2002). Pitchford suggests a whole-grain fast for people who want to gain more mental focus, which can be used to hold positive thoughts throughout one’s day. This type of whole-grain fast is most effective if done for at least three days. Millet is recommended to be used because of its alkaline nature; however, other whole-grains can be used as well. Pitchford suggests chewing each bite of food thirty to fifty times. Water, grain beverages, and teas can be taken. In addition, mental and emotional cleansing can certainly occur during cleanses that are focused on other parts of the person. Intestinal cleanses, for example, help the body to release mucoid plaque that holds old patterns of emotions and thoughts. The release of such energies can cause huge shifts in one’s perception and a new sense of self to arise.
Another method of emotional cleansing involves focusing on the chakras, or energy centers, of the physical body. This can be done on oneself or by another person. The Ministry of Universal Energy Healers states that energy becomes trapped in the body when one experiences emotions such as anger, fear, resentment, jealousy, etc. This is the concept behind chakra energy healing. If such energy remains trapped in the body, a person will not be able to completely heal illnesses. The first time that many peoples’ energy becomes trapped is during childhood. This can affect us for our entire lives if it is not healed.
A
very important part of energy healing is a person’s willingness
to be healed. The Ministry of Universal Energy Healers states, “You
may not know HOW to forgive, but if you are WILLING to forgive, it is
already a great step toward regaining health."
(www.freehealing.com/illnes/emotion.html)
The power of thought is often underestimated by people, but can have a profound affect on emotional and mental cleansing. With deep awareness, one can create thoughts that affect the body in a harmonious and healing way. One of the first documented healers in the Western world to use positive thoughts for self-help was Emile Coue. Emile Coue started a free clinic, where he taught people to repeat positive affirmations such as, “Every day and in every way I am becoming better and better.” According to Michael van Straten in Super Detox (2003), positive affirmations can become rooted in the subconscious, where they can then push out any negative emotions stored there.
According to Blanca Greenberg at www.spiritualpath.org, emotional cleansing is a very necessary part of peoples’ spiritual awakenings; “Emotional cleansing opens up the sacred space in our hearts to make room for spiritual emotions: love, harmony, peace, tranquility, unity, abundance, happiness, joy, spiritual ecstasy and oneness with the ultimate Source.” Just like toxins in the body, emotions can build up if they are not cleansed. Blanca Greenberg says that healing modalities that use energy, such as Reiki and acupuncture, help to break up energy blocks within one’s body.
However, the individual needs to be able to maintain emotional and mental well being in order for new blocks not to form. Greenberg states, “A close analogy would be in attempting to dislodge a clogged sink. Removal of the clog can be successful but in order to maintain it ‘unclogged’ we must assure ourselves not to allow particles ‘that do not belong in the sink’ to make their way through the drainage.” Love and forgiveness are two powerful tools in helping each individual to cleanse emotional blocks, and prevent them as well.
Another way of cleansing the body, mind, and emotions is to make changes in our diets. As a cleanse in itself, making dietary changes can help the body to begin or deepen its detoxification process. Dietary changes can also be effective to implement after a specific cleanse, as a way of maintaining a detoxified body.
In The Detox Diet (1996), Hass recommends that we make changes in our diets towards ones that are less congesting. If we eat diets composed of mostly congesting foods, they will create toxicity in our bodies. Foods that are most congesting include sweets with refined sugar, dairy products, eggs, fried foods, meats, hydrogenated fats, and refined flour. Those foods that are least congesting and thus more detoxifying than others include fruits, greens, herbs, water, and other vegetables. By not consuming foods that contain chemicals or drugs, the amount of toxins that the body has to deal with is greatly decreased. Hass recommends drinking extra water and consuming plenty of fiber to help the body in its detoxification process.