You will be shocked to learn that refined table salt is a poison for the body. Its processed just like industrial sodium chloride. It starts as sea salt that is then processed to separate the magnesium, this is done because the magnesium is then sold for more money. This process not only depletes the salt of life enhancing magnesium but also bleaches out the salt with the use of caustic soda, other nasty stuff is then added. We end up with salt that has harmful ingredients such as various bleaches and aluminium silicate.

Refined table salt has very little to do with sea or mineral salt. Refined salt is linked to water retention and many other health issues such as blood pressure and kidney problems.

Natural and unrefined sea salt and natural mineral salt are full of essential minerals and a very good way for us to access them. We need about 1.5 grams of salt a day to get enough of those essential minerals. Natural salt is mainly composed of sodium chloride and magnesium, it also contains many other elements and compounds such as chromium, selenium and zinc.

Avoiding refined table salt should become a priority in our detoxification process. Unfortunately refined salt is found in every processed food, bread and in any food that has added salt. Ketchup and baked beans are full of it and so is most things that are not fresh. It may be difficult to completely eliminate refined salt but we can certainly avoid it.

The first and most important step is to get some lovely unrefined sea salt for your home, here’s one of my favourites, Maldon Sea Salt

http://www.igourmet.com/sea-salt.asp

The next step is to find a little travel salt container that we can take anywhere. I just have a little glass jar at the bottom of my bag.

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!