In this article, I share why it is important to cleanse, when to cleanse and how to follow a simple four-step process for any cleansing and any new beginning you wish to embark upon.

When to Cleanse

You may be aware that I teach pregnant and postnatal people. However, these concepts apply just as well to the creation of new ideas, projects, businesses, anything in life – not just the creation of babies. In this instance, using concepts such as ‘conception’ or ‘gestation’ can refer to any form of creation, not just new life.

Some milestones for cleansing include:

• Before conception

• During gestation

• After creation

• As your creations seek to grow

Cleansing on some level is important during the transition into every new stage. Please note that there are aspects of detoxification (in particular physical detoxification), that are not safe to undertake immediately prior to or during pregnancy and when breastfeeding. Contact me if you require further information or clarification on this.

Why it is important to Cleanse

Humans have a tendency to accumulate.

We are hard-wired to seek abundance and move away from scarcity. So we buy more things, we cram more activities into our schedule, we eat more food and we consume more and more information.

But the more we accumulate, the less space we have.

In the last blog post, I spoke about how important it is to create space. How can you bring something new into your life, how can you create something new, if there is no room for it to exist?

One of the best ways to create the space is to detoxify, or to cleanse. However, detoxification means a lot more than just going on a juice fast and expecting toxins from some processed food you ate to flush themselves out of the body….

• Do you actually know or understand what is creating toxicity within?

• Are you aware of where in your physical, emotional or energetic body this toxicity currently sits?

Louise Hay captured this concept beautifully when she said:

Although the actual processing of matter, thoughts, feelings, emotions or negative energies is certainly a central part of the cleansing process, it isn’t going to work if you haven’t prepared for it. If you aren’t ready to let go of things yet.

You can become so accustomed to holding onto things, so stuck in the same thought and emotion patterns, that on some level, it feels safer staying with the toxicity than releasing it and moving into the unknown. The body can be so patterned into gripping and grasping that unclenching and letting go requires us to consciously recognise and shift these patterns. Only then can you start to move into the true processing and elimination of the unwanted elements within.

How to Cleanse with Yoga

Having understood why it is important to cleanse, you’re now ready to learn the four-step approach. I’ve provided a simple yoga exercise for each step that you can practice at home to gain some insight into how the process can support cleansing in your life.

1. Awareness

Where and how is toxicity showing up in the body?

Exercise: Lie down in a comfortable position. Imagine that your eyes are dropping deep into their sockets, stimulating your vagal nerve (which regulates the parasympathetic nervous system and corresponds to your third eye, ajna chakra). Breathe here for at least 5 minutes, then journal upon what comes up for you.

2. Connection

Listen to the body and feel its way of communicating.

Exercise: Perform Ujjayi breath with the lips sealed and a slight constriction in the throat. Allow air to pass back and forth with a gentle, calming sound like ocean waves. Continue breathing like this whilst seated or whilst performing some yoga postures (asana).

3. Digestion

Support the processing of toxicity by the body.

Exercise: From a standing position, practise moving in and out of chair pose. Advanced yoga practitioners may like to add a twist to each side. This will stimulate warmth and movement through the centre of the body, around the solar plexus chakra which is the seat of your digestion and the home of your digestive organs.

4. Elimination

Move toxicity through and out of the body.

Exercise: Find a comfortable seated position and close down the eyes, beginning to steady the breath. When you are ready to begin the practice, imagine that the toxicity you wish to eliminate is like a waft of smoke leaving the body with every exhale. With every fresh inhale, you replace the toxicity with positivity. You may like to add the mantra: “I release”. Stay with the practice for at least 5 minutes or as long as feels right for you.

If you would like to learn more about the process of cleansing and how yoga can support this in your life, you may like to join the New Beginnings Program that dives deep into these concepts, allowing you an embodied experience. For an introduction, there is also a two hour cleanse workshop available upon request.

My work in this space is all undertaken with the intent of providing you with tools and techniques to cleanse, to empower you to let go in order to create something new and beautiful.