Feel Healthier and Younger! 5 Detoxifying Habits to Begin

Feel Healthier and Younger! 5 Detoxifying Habits to Begin
  1. Dry Brush Your Beautiful Skin

Europeans have used [skin brushing](/video/ayurveda-action-plan-skin-brushing} as an effective method of detoxification for centuries. It’s a simple detox technique which removes toxins accumulated in dead skin cells while simultaneously enhancing circulation. If you brush your skin every day for three minutes, you will be giving it a cleanse that is better than a traditional soap cleaning or bath. In fact, there’s simply no soap that can wash the skin as clean as the new skin which lies beneath the old.

Dry skin brushing your whole body every morning before you shower will do your skin so much good – even if you can’t see it. Just trust in the process because it works! Make sure you use an all-natural dry skin brush, and brush from the feet and hands in the direction of the center of your body. Be sure to brush the bottoms of the feet because nerve endings in your feet affect the whole body. Use lighter strokes over breasts and avoid your nipples if you can. Wash your brush every few weeks in water and let it dry. Get blissed out in the sensation of newly invigorated skin!

  1. Sweat It Out!

Perspiration is so very, very good for you. It’s an absolutely essential ingredient for healthy skin. Sweating detoxifies and cleanses the skin. If you only sweat for twenty minutes every day, you’ll be doing your skin a world of good. The body detoxifies through the skin, the body’s largest organ of elimination, by sweating. In many traditional cultures around the world, sweating is the first thing people do when they feel a cold or flu coming on. How many times a week do you sweat? For some of us, depending upon our constitution, it’s much easier to sweat than others. But for all of us – no matter what dosha dominates – there are ways to sweat every single day.

For starters, there’s cardiovascular exercise and vinyasa or Bikram yoga classes. Then there are steam rooms and infrared saunas. You can also have some fun in the bedroom by revving up your sexual activity with your partner to get the body sweating and releasing toxins. Whatever you choose to do, try to sweat regularly to maintain optimal health and remove those unwanted toxins.

  1. Drink Chaga Tea

Chaga, the king of super foods, is a natural detoxifying agent. You can take it in a number of forms, such as powders, capsules, or tinctures. But sipping it in tea form is a great way to relax and drink it as a daily tonic, the way it’s been done for thousands of years by traditional cultures around the world. Chaga is naturally detoxifying because it is a super food that directly impacts the immune system – in a good, good way.

When we feed our bodies with this immune super food, it detoxifies itself naturally because fifty percent of the detox process is simply the immune system working to eliminate toxins. Chaga is also one of the highest antioxidant foods in the world, second only to cacao. Antioxidants detoxify the body, too, by preventing our liver from being overtaxed with oxidative stress.

  1. Go To Bed and Wake Up at the Same Time Every Day

Research has shown us over and over again that serious sleep deprivation has the same negative effects on the body as do illness and stress. Our body naturally goes to work for us when we sleep, and getting enough sleep is crucial to the body’s natural mechanisms of detoxification. For the brain in particular to detoxify, adequate sleep is absolutely essential.

There’s something referred to as the glymphatic system, which is simply defined as the brain’s system of removing toxins that can lead to such diseases such as Alzheimer’s and other brain maladies. It’s like the lymphatic system for your brain. When we get a good eight hours of sleep on average, the brain “takes out the trash.” Sleep is absolutely essential for removing toxic waste products.

  1. Twist It Out With Yoga

Yoga postures that twist and turn the body have a natural detoxifying effect. They get things movin’ and groovin’ inside, enhancing the digestive system, while giving the organs a nice, internal massage. When we get into twisting poses, our organs are compressed. This action actually moves blood that inevitably gets filled with toxins out of our system. Twists also flood the liver and kidneys with oxygen while getting blood flowing to those organs of elimination. Try to detox daily by sitting in seated spinal twist and breathing for six to ten breaths.

Other excellent yoga poses for detoxification include: chair twists, wide-legged forward fold with twist, cat/cow (not a twisting pose but still great for digestion), supine twists, twisted side angle pose, downward dog with a twist, crescent lunge twist, and marichiyasana.

In addition, all inversions are also excellent for detoxifying as they soothe the nervous system while stimulating circulation and lymph in the legs and feet, bringing oxygenated blood to the abdomen and brain. While you do your yoga postures, try breathing through the nose. This, too, has a detoxifying effect because many environmental pollutants get stopped in the mucous membranes of the nasal passages when we breathe through the nose. They then travel to the digestive system where they are broken down and eliminated from the body.

Good luck with your whole body demo habits! Your body will love you for bringing these new habits into your life.



How Yoga Can Help You Recover from Adrenal Fatigue

How Yoga Can Help You Recover from Adrenal Fatigue

“Adrenal Fatigue” is a term that pops up more and more frequently these days. Do any of these symptoms sound familiar to you?

  • You feel tired for no reason.
  • You are overwhelmed by moderate tasks and more impatient and irritable than usual.
  • You have trouble getting up in the morning.
  • You feel rundown.
  • You frequently get sick and have trouble recovering.
  • You crave salty snacks.
  • You feel more awake after 6pm.
  • You gain weight around the abdomen.
  • You suffer from PMS.

If this is the story of your life, you might have a fatigued adrenal system most likely caused by stress.

The adrenals are glands just above your kidneys and their function is to regulate hormones. One part (cortex) secretes hormones vital to life called corticosteroids. There are two corticosteroids: cortisol and aldosterone. Cortisol is responsible for responding to stress and is also involved in carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism. Aldosterone is responsible for the regulation of the salt/water balance in the body.

The other part (adrenal medulla) secretes non-essential hormones like adrenaline and noradrenaline. These hormones are involved in a response called the “fight or flight” mechanism and help the body deal with stressful situations.

Now, usually these glands are meant to deal with short bursts of stress so they can recover quickly. For example, way back when we were hunted down by wild animals, adrenaline and noradrenaline would kick in to get us away from the dangerous animal and a life-threatening situation. This would usually take a few minutes followed by some recovery time in a safe shelter. However, the body cannot distinguish between the stress of fearing for our life from back then and the stress we encounter in our lives today. Unfortunately, stress these days is more constant and taxing on our adrenals because there is no natural outlet (e.g. running away to put the hormones to use). Most of the time we encounter stress that we can not run away from such as a bad work situation, financial problems, family or health problems. Our adrenals constantly secrete hormones because they think we are in life-threatening situations. These hormones have other functions though, like regulating metabolism and keeping your weight in check, regulating blood pressure so you won’t feel dizzy, and secreting and regulating other hormones that influence PMS. Unfortunately, once the adrenals are fatigued and depleted, they can no longer fulfill these functions and we start feeling tired, rundown and get sick. They simply cannot keep up the supply that is demanded.

In order to restore the adrenals, we need to actively deal with stress. Yoga is a great solution in many ways. Not only is the physical aspect of yoga helpful to cycle out all the excess hormones but the mental aspect is beneficial as well. Meditation and slow movements are great ways to slow down the heart rate and shift the body from the sympathetic “fight or flight” mode to the parasympathetic “rest and digest” mode. To calm the body and mind, restorative yoga poses can work wonders. Check out My Yoga’s library for restorative yoga practices.

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