Thoughts can be toxic. Negative, dark and self pitying thoughts make us feel anxious, insecure, nervous and stressed. Stress lowers the immune system, leaving us open to disease. Since stress is mainly provoked by thoughts, we need to constantly check that our thoughts haven’t run away with negative feelings. Negative thoughts provoke negative feelings that in turn provoke negative thoughts, before we know it we are feeling low and anxious.

Sometimes we find ourselves in stressful situations and we can’t help feeling stress, but it’s our decision of how to allow our thoughts to flow throughout that time, which is going to determine how affected we really are by the situation. By creating awareness we can spot the very moment we are giving into negative destructive thoughts.

We are responsible for our own state of mind and therefore responsible for keeping our thoughts ‘clean’. Happiness is but a state of mind, doing a Daily Thought Detox is the best way to keep happy.

Evening Thought Detox:

Following from the breathing exercises on yesterday’s blog, a daily mini meditation is a great way to detox the mind before going to sleep.

When finished with the 9 cleansing breaths, allow yourself to just relax and breathe without counting. Continue to take the breath deep into your diaphragm and exhale fully.

Allow the body to sink into the mattress, feel the heaviness of its mass. Remain with the eyes closed and take your awareness to your feet and slowly bring it up all the way through the body. Relax each area with a full exhale. When you get to the head take time to relax the mouth, the eyes, the forehead and eventually the whole head.

Remain with the eyes closed and just be. Any thoughts that come into your mind just brush them away, don’t judge them or allow a thought process to start, allow thoughts and images to come and go, be a spectator. At first this will be difficult as we are so used to fixate and analyse whatever thoughts come to us. Don’t be hard on yourself, each day it will be a bit easier. With time and patience you will soon be meditating and able to truly relax.

If you find it hard to meditate why don’t you do a guided meditation? There are many free guided meditations online, its just a matter of finding what you feel most comfortable with. At times of stress I find it hard to focus on meditation and my mind wonders with thought, before I know it I’m worrying about something instead of meditating. At these times I plug in my headphones and do a guided meditation online, it always helps me to relax and detox my mind. The Chopra free guided meditations are very good for beginners:

http://www.chopra.com/ccl/guided-meditations

So easy and yet so many of us get it wrong! Most of us who live in the so called ‘civilised world’ suffer from shallow breathing. From an early age we are told to stand up straight, watch our posture, put shoulders back. This is great advice but it leads into thinking that we should be breathing from our chests. Also as we grow older many of us have the tendency to hold in our stomachs in order to look slimmer.

Shallow breathing uses the upper chest and upper back muscles to lift the ribcage, overworking these muscles and leaving the diaphragm (who’s job that is) un-exercised. The result is shoulders that face inwards, a slight hunched back that with time will only get worse and inefficient breathing. The diaphragm is the only muscle that can fully and efficiently lift the ribcage to allow the lungs to fully extend and take a full breath. Those with shallow breathing resort to short quick breaths with exercising or when under stress, quickly tiring or getting irritated.

70% of the body’s detoxification process is done through the lungs, and this is another main reason why efficient breathing is so important.

BREATHING EXERCISES BY ALEXANDRA SOVERAL

These exercises are a simple way to deepen breathing and to cleanse the lungs. These exercises will also increase energy and decrease tension.

Lie flat on your back to get a proper sense of deep breathing. Rest a small pillow under the neck and knees to reduce strain. Place one hand on your stomach at the base of the rib cage. Place the other hand on your chest. Take a slow and deep breath in through the nose to the count of 9. Placing the tongue on the roof of the mouth whilst breathing in through the nose allows for a soft breath. The breath should not put any strain on the muscles of the nose or face. As you inhale your stomach should expand, raising your hand at the base of your ribcage. Your chest should remain still, with your hand on your chest not rising at all with the in breath. As you finish inhaling to the count of 9, start exhaling immediately.
Exhale through the mouth softly, making the exhalation last to the count of 9. Carry on exhaling even if you feel you do not have any more air coming out. When you feel a tight knot in your stomach is when you have totally finished exhaling. Whilst exhaling, the hand on the base of your ribcage should go down with the breath whilst the hand on your chest should remain totally still. Carry on inhaling and exhaling in the same way 9 times. Do this every day. During the day whenever you have a spare minute do a few breathing exercises wherever you are, standing or sitting down, this helps deal with stress and tension. 

Happy Breathing!

A few years ago I got a present from Hemsley & Hemsley (the healthy food Gurus of our time) that changed my life…. It was a Copper Tongue
Scraper!!! During the night’s sleep detoxification, toxins are deposited at the back of the tongue to exit the body…. the main cause for morning bad breath. Removing this layer efficiently is the best way to aid the body to detoxify on waking up. Using a copper tongue scraper is ideal as it can be sterilised with hot water and unlike plastic won’t deteriorate and hold bacteria.

http://www.yogamatters.com/product/1348/hytongcopp/copper-tongue-scraper.html

DRY FACIAL & BODY BRUSHING

The skin is a large detoxifying organ, many of the toxins we consume are excreted through the skin’s pores. Dry skin brushing flicks off the dead cells on the surface of the skin allowing the skin to breathe and therefore detoxify. Another major benefit of dry skin brushing is the activation of the lymphatic system.

Lymph runs just under the skin and its main function is to carry out toxins to lymph nodes where the lymphatic liquids get cleaned and released back into the body. Unlike the cardiovascular system, the lymphatic system doesn’t have a pumping system and therefore doesn’t not flow upwards as well as the blood. Dry skin brushing upwards and towards the
heart encourages the flow of lymph in the right direction and therefore aids the body in its detoxification process.

Dry skin brushing in the morning is very effective, as the body has been in a motionless state during sleep and as during this time the body has been busy detoxifying, the morning is the most important time to direct the toxins to its exiting points.

Similarly, the same applies to the face, dry face brushing is essential to keep the facial tissues detoxified and to avoid puffiness.

SOVERAL FACIAL BRUSHES

These are especially designed brushes for the face, being made of bio-degradable plastic means that they can be easily cleaned. The pack comes with the full Soveral Facial Brushing Technique.