A Yogi’s Body Cleansing Tips

Today to many people, being healthy just means not being sick.  But true health means to be fully alive and operating at the peak of one’s potential throughout the day.  The blockers to this level of health and vitality can be subtle, and slow us down in ways that aren’t always obvious.  Consider those times when you should have felt at the top of your game but for some mysterious reason the energy levels just weren’t there.

Here are four tips to cleanse your body and remove underlying friction in your system.  These are grounded in the yogic traditions which prescribe that the body is made up of 72% water, 12% earth, 6% air, 4% fire, and the rest is Akash meaning ether or space.

The highest consideration should be given to the water intake into the body, because the body is mostly water.  Science is beginning to realize that water has memory.  Water retains the energetic forces that are imposed upon it, and when we consume that water, these energies are absorbed at the cellular level.  So in modern cities where water is forcefully pumped under pressure through windy pipes, these conditions are retained by that water.  To immediately drink water right out of the tap is deemed unhealthy in Ayurveda.  That is why in traditional homes, water is kept overnight in a clean vessel – best if made of copper.  This gives the water time to undo its energy blockages at the molecular level.

The earth is represented in the body by the foods we eat.  No debate is necessary, we already know the importance of our diet and its effects on the body.  But actually it’s even more subtle than that – for example how was the food prepared (with love or machine processed?) and how we approach it (with grateful awareness or dismissively gorging it down?) make big a difference.  And that’s not to mention what are we eating – raw, natural, plant based diets are unquestionably the best because the body needs to expend the least amount of energy to convert that life into your life.  That speaks to the need for gratitude as well – a life giving itself freely to you.

For the air within the body, only a small portion is the air that we actually breathe to the lungs.  Most of it is simply present within the cells in the form of gas elements.  Here too, there are subtle energies at work.  The air imbibes the energies in the vicinity – it’s not just about the pollution in the air, but even the conflict, drama, and violence energize the air.  To best way to cleanse that within the body is to take deep breaths in nature or at least in a park full of trees.  Indoor spaces should have plants to help neutralize the air.

Fire is less obvious, but then think of the sun.  Every day let the sun shine on your body for some short period of time – not enough to get sun burnt but a few minutes each day.  Sun light is pure – not contaminated!  Fire within us also speaks to our emotions, so what kind of fire is there?  Fire of greed, hatred, resentment, anger, or fire of love, compassion?  Take care of the fire that burns within you, and your health will take care of itself.