Guide to Detoxifying your Life

When you hear detox, you probably think of green smoothies and carb deprivation. Although I agree that green smoothies are great and can be delicious, detoxifying your life goes a little deeper than just your diet and maybe a yoga class here and there.

I believe, in order for any person to be able to move forward from situations, start something new and be happy in life, you have to constantly remove toxins from your body, physically and mentally, as well as your surroundings.

So where do we start?

Step 1: Make a list. Separate a piece of paper in 2 columns, happy & positive and sad & negative and begin to jot down things currently in your life that make you happy and keep you positive and things that make you unhappy and bring negativity into your world. This part is important because you need to be 100% true to yourself. As much as we will not admit it, we lie to ourselves to try to trick our brain but it never works, our brains are smarter than that.

Step 2: I call this “The what you truly want” exercise. Take an empty piece of paper and write things down that you think you want for your life and future. Once you write it down, say it out loud and see what feeling you get in your heart and your gut, is it excitement? Is it scared? Is it not as appealing as you thought it would be? For example: I wrote down “travel” and said I will travel the world, that gave me butterflies in my stomach and made super excited. Then I wrote down my current 9 - 5 job, which at the time I was happy with, but when I said it outloud I got this pit in my stomach which made me question, do I really like what I’m doing? Or am I just happy to have a job and a paycheck every other week? I promise this exercise works, but you have to be fully honest with the feelings you feel and question everything

Don’t forget to include people in steps 1 & 2, sometimes there are people in our lives that truly make us happy or unhappy in certain situations. Jot the names down this is important.

Step 3: Meditate. I know it sounds cliche, I felt the same way when I started meditating, but it works. Most people don’t stop thinking throughout the day, our brain is constantly going. Experts say a human being can have anywhere between 50,000-80,000 thoughts per day. You need to find some time during each day to relax your brain, turn it off. There are many ways to meditate and sitting there in silence, if you’ve never done it before, will not help you. Try downloading a guided meditation app, I use Inside Timer, a meditation app that has thousands of guided meditations from 5 minutes to 8 hour sleep meditations. Start off with 5 minutes and work your way up, you will notice a difference.

Step 4: You’re going to hate me for this, clean up your eating habits! Yes, this makes a difference and you will only know the difference if you try it out. Slowly cut out high fat, greasy and fried foods, your body will notice a difference and it will thank you. You’ll feel more energized and less sluggish. I’m not saying you can’t have pizza and fries here and there, but make it a habit to have it less often and when you have it, it’s a little treat!

Step 5: Take all the information you’ve learned about yourself from steps 1 - 4 and purge anything negative. Whether it be thoughts, your job, people, etc., get rid of it. Now I know what you’re going to say, I can’t just leave my job or I can’t drop people out of life in the drop of a hat or things happen, I can’t be happy all the time. I’ve been there. I had people in my life that treated me badly and I hadn’t noticed, I had an awful job that I stuck with to pay bills and I had negative thoughts about my future all the time. I decided to take the steps that I’m telling you to take, I dropped people out of my life that had a negative impact on me, I quit my job without having another one lined up, I decided to go through a year of yes where I tried anything (safe) that landed on my lap and I downloaded an APP, Affirmation Reminder, that reminds me how awesome I am all the time and it helps trump my negative thoughts. It all turned out alright and it happened because I took the negative out of my life.

Detoxifying your life isn’t easy, it’s going to take work and it might take a year for you to come full circle but once you do you’ll be happy you did.

So,

Make your list. Do the Exercise. Meditate. Clean up your eating habits. Purge.