In Western clinics there are now emaciated young women checking in who have reduced themselves to near starvation through prolonged detox and “clean eating” fads. Although these cases, deserving much compassion, are a minority, they are also symptoms of a larger problem. The question we could ask ourselves as teachers and promoters of yogic culture is: are we part of the problem?
Anyone who has undergone pancha karma, ayurveda’s famous deep detoxing and renewal protocol, will know that the conditions are very strict and clear. We must rest and not tax our system in any way through strenuous exercise, emotional excitement or eating foods difficult to digest. As an ayurvedic doctor advised me: “don’t talk about the truth” which was a very colourful and memorable way of saying don’t get agitated discussing politics, etc. (He was very perceptive) It is equally important that during pancha karma and for a period after that a restricted diet to re-nourish the body is also put in place.
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Dr. David Frawley has pointed out “…most of our natural healing businesses are in high detox mode.” This is not totally unreasonable, considering how toxic the human body is becoming. From epidemics of obesity, mass produced and modified foods, environmental pollutants, inactive bodies slumped in office chairs around the globe and all the plastics, pharmaceuticals and air fresheners that season our modern life we all sense that the strain on the body is heavy. But what most alternative health practitioners could agree on is that there is an equally great need to nourish and fortify these humans of today.
As followers of the yogic paths to health and bliss, cleansing and detox is also traditionally validated and preserved in the shat-karma kriyas (which sometimes go by different names such as shuddhi kriyas). But remember that the Hatha yogi must be able to obtain ghee, good milk and other highly nourishing foods to undertake their sadhana safely. The dhatu must be preserved. It is advised in the Hatha Pradipika to massage some of the sweat generated by heating pranayama back into the body, what a different philosophy from rivers of sweat joyously flushed out in hot yoga sessions.
There is a balance to found and the basic idea is very simple. To deeply cleanse the body we put it in a weakened state. Extra care and rest is needed and no excess energy should be expended during the process and for a sufficient period after. Secondly, in direct proportion to how much we’ve cleansed we must also carefully nourish and maintain a nourishing lifestyle going forward.
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Let me give an example of detox madness. I encountered a beautiful detox resort in Thailand where a course of colon hydrotherapy was offered. Sounds good, it can eliminate constipation issues, hormone imbalance, even help with clearing the skin and of course massacre hundreds of millions of repulsive, toxic bacteria. But this course was two colonics per day, for ten days! That’s twenty colonics in less than two weeks! This was followed by one a day for a period afterwards. What could you possibly be cleaning after the second or third colonic? What about your intestinal flora? What about creating a major vata issue and drying out your large intestine? This is truly “high detox mode.”
I also had to learn the hard way. In 2011, I connected with a wonderful acharya and was on a full course of yogic sadhana. For over a year, I dry-fasted four days a month around the full and new moon. From sunrise to sunrise the next day I took no food or water. The benefits were very great at first: my concentration improved dramatically and years of mental fog cleared. My skin was much healthier. I also enjoyed a lot of tranquil meditation and study of spiritual texts on those days. On the day of breaking the fast I would do a shankaprakshala type protocol drinking a large bowl of warm salt water. This would flush out much of what remained in my digestive tract. This was in 2011 and I am still dealing with dryness issues today. I was also working full time and would feel very tired the day of breaking the fast and eventually was very “clean” but lacking in vigour and vitality.
Also read: What Ayurveda Has to Say!
As a professional bodyworker I believe in the holistic concept and that many health challenges can be resolved through a broader perspective and approach. The body is truly an interconnected whole and we need not always over-focus on a single organ, system or process but plot out our sadhana on a long timeline and gradually step by step realize our desire for health and bliss.
From a broader perspective we might also question whether our results based yoga and pursuit of the final pose cause many to overlook a great theme in the classics of Taoism and Yoga which is preservation. That our practice should not only clean us out, stretch us out and pump us up but, as Dr. Frawley so eloquently puts it, we should be “conserving, internalizing, and spiritualizing” our precious energies.