Cleansing & Fasting
Written by Laurel Sherer
Introduction
Cleansing and fasting have been used as medicine for the body, mind, and spirit for thousands of years. Fasting holds an important role in many world religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and as part of the Essene community. It is a way for people to deepen their communion with the Divine through purifying their bodies and tuning into the energy of the universe. Cleansing practices can be found in traditional wellness systems, such as the Ayurvedic system of health from India. Although still practiced throughout the world, cleansing and fasting do not hold a medicinal role in the United States’ mainstream culture. Instead, people either overeat food or continually try to limit their food intake through dieting. Both of these ways of using food do not include a sense of food being our medicine. Food is either an addiction or a source of unwanted body fat for many of us. Many of our eating practices do not honor the intimate relationship between the body, mind, and spirit, whereas many religions and health systems do honor this relationship. Religious leaders and nutritional traditions have put emphasis on what human beings put into their physical bodies because it affects their emotions, mental patterns, and sense of spirituality. The Essenes, a community that lived near Egypt that authored the Dead Sea Scrolls, believed Jesus Christ was an advocate for cleansing, fasting, and eating raw foods. Ayurveda is designed to bring harmony to the body, mind, and spirit, and an important part of this system is one’s diet. So why isn’t the belief that food can be used as medicine a part of the United States’ mainstream culture? With what has it been replaced?
In looking at the length of the average work week in the United States as consisting of forty hours, it is understandable why many North Americans do not want to spend a lot of time cleansing and fasting. However, everyone desires happiness within, and many of the leading cleanse and fast experts say that cleansing and fasting can have a very positive affect on one’s overall well-being. Mental clarity, happiness, and healing experiences can be just some of the emotional and mental benefits of cleansing and fasting. On the physical level, cleansing and fasting can provide the body a chance to rejuvenate itself. In a society in which fast food is consumed and stress is often experienced, giving one’s body a break from digesting to focus on cleansing itself can be highly beneficial. Peoples’ bodies are constantly cleansing themselves of toxins both from the environment and the foods they consume, regardless if they are consciously choosing to help the cleansing process or not. When so much energy is used toward continual detoxification, the body cannot focus as much on healing other aspects of itself. What would peoples’ lives be like, especially toward their latter years, if their bodies were able to heal themselves more?
In this course, we will address these questions by looking further at the benefits of cleansing and fasting for people in today’s world. Together, we will explore the benefits of cleansing and fasting for the mind, body, and spirit. We will go into considerations to keep in mind when thinking about cleansing or fasting, cleansing reactions that can occur with both practices, and helpful ways to deal with such reactions. Several types of cleanses and fasts will be looked at in depth, as well as additional exercises to enhance the detoxification process. This course can be a helpful tool for both those who are experienced with fasting or cleansing and those who are not. In either case, you will be better prepared to support others who are thinking about cleansing and fasting or those undergoing one of these practices. It will also help you to become more aware of what can be toxic for your body.
As a participant in this course, you will be more empowered through knowledge to make healthy choices for yourself and to help others in their decision-making processes as well. This course will give you a mental understanding of cleansing and fasting through information from many detoxification experts and through personal stories of peoples’ cleanses. The experiential knowledge of cleansing and fasting, however, can only be acquired through undergoing a cleanse or fast. It is important to note that before cleansing or fasting, one should always consult with a physician or health care provider. This course does not license you to counsel others on how to do a cleanse or fast. Furthermore, please keep in mind that the information contained in this course is not intended to treat, diagnose, cure, or prevent any diseases. It is instead designed to be informational.
Fasting is an excellent way to begin the detoxification process for healing health in the body. A fasting diet can be based on juice fasting or water fasting, both of which will bring about weight loss and detox of the body. A spiritual breakthrough is often associated with the process of a healthy fast and the benefit that comes from that. A healing miracle is not uncommon with the cleansing process of the blood and energy of the organism. During a fast you will lose your normal blood glucose levels, but it will be restored to normal at the end of the fast. Fasting has long been know to be a safe method for healing.