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Detox

The dictionary definition of detoxify is "to counter or destroy the toxic properties of or to remove the effects of poison from."

How does detoxification of ourselves work? Well the most simplest way to detox is to abstain from the substance that is causing the toxic build up in the first place. This then allows the body to stop spending all its energy storing those toxins in places around the body where it does the least harm and to switch to healing and expelling them. We are marvelous creations with an innate ability to heal ourselves. Our bodies naturally flow towards a healthy state of being. Part of that system involves us recognising 'poisons' when they enter into the body, if we cannot expel them immediately, for example with vomiting, then our body will do its best to save us from the toxic effects. One of the ways that it does this is by locking the poison away in our cells.....this is what we call cellulite. Another way that it protects us is to cover ingested poisons with mucus and hide them away in our intestines....this mucus hardens up over the years and is known as mucoid plaque. The body keeps toxins away from the major organs, especially from the brain therefore the outward passage of harmful substances will be more inclined towards the feet and to the outer organs i.e. the skin, hence rashes, spots and hives. That's why we have spotty bottoms!

There are many different kinds of toxins affecting our bodies, some of them we may not even be aware of or consider to be poison. We all know about smoking, alcohol and caffeine being toxins but what about stress, processed foods, cosmetics, household products or just the effects of media bombardment. Have you ever considered the effects of air pollution, especially if you are living in a big city full of traffic or near an airport? I once lived near an airport and I could smell the aviation fuel everytime I stepped out of the house! Imagine what that must have been doing to my body..........I didn't stay there long.

The good news is that the human body is an amazing act of creation and given the chance will heal, cleanse and repair itself. So, as with all basic detox programmes the first step is to remove yourself from contact with the pollution and that's where places like Mairela Retreat can help. The air quality around Mairela Retreat is excellent therefore just spending a week at the cottage or somewhere similar, without doing anything else will start a healing process for your body. Even if you can't get away for a holiday, spending some time out walking in your local woods or getting out to the country for half a day every so often will help as well as being a great stress reducer in itself.

How can you tell if the air is clear? Just look at the colour of the sky! One of the first things that strikes people about Finland is the blue of the sky. In fact the Finnish flag which is blue and white represents the white snow and the blue sky. Take a look at thess pictures and then compare them to the sky above your head. Click an image to enlarge it.

Another easy way to check air quality using proof from Mother Nature herself is lichen. Lichens are any of numerous plants consisting of a fungus, usually of the class Ascomycetes, in close combination with certain algae, they characteristically form a crustlike scaly, or branching growth on rocks or tree trunks. They are a really good measure of air quality, if you have them on the trees around you then, depending on the species, you'll know that your air is free from certain pollutants. The Natural History Museum describes them as the canaries of the environment. In the forest surrounding here there are two types that were used in an American study of air pollution, Platismatia Glauca and Alectoria Sarmentosa, known as the Witch's Hair. The fact that both of these lichens grow here and in particular the Witch's Hair lichen shows just how clean the air around here really is. Click on the photo to enlarge it to see an example of Witch's Hair.

Plants can also help to clean up the environment within our homes as they literally clean the air. The best plants for doing this are

• Azalea • Bamboo • Boston Fern • Chrysanthemum • English Ivy • Peace Lily • Spider Plant • Striped Dracaena • Mother in Law's Tongue • Poinsetta • Golden Pathos •

Noise pollution is another major stress factor in our modern lives and once again the atmosphere around Mairela Retreat is naturally free from this kind of pollution. Many people comment on how they hadn't realised the noise levels that had been subjected to until they came here and experienced real peace and quiet. Just sitting down on the pier and listening to the gentle lapping of the water is enough to relax anyone. Try it! You won't be disappointed.

True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body,
nourishment and refreshment. – William Penn (1644 - 1718)

The pine forests make a very restful sound when the breeze blows through them and they also act as very natural sound proofing giving Mairela a special serenity. In her book 'Light Emerging' Barbara Brennan states that "The trees in a pine forest pulsate at a rate very similar to a human's auric field. Sitting in such a forest will recharge your field when you need it"

Barbara also mentions that "calm lakes have a great soothing effect on us by relaxing the tension or hyperincoherent pulsations in our field caused by the stress of modern living."

If you would like to learn about another unique way for trees and forests to help you detox and cleanse yourself, then please visit Forests Of Cleared Emotions

Mairela Retreat cottage offers a 'get away from it all' and 'back to nature' holiday which takes you away from the bombardment of mass media and connects you back to Mother Nature. Just walking through the forest is a grounding experience and is a form of meditation and deep relaxation in itself. You don't need to come all the way to Finland to experience the grounding and relaxing effects of strengthening your connection to nature, any time you are out be mindful of each step that you take and feel how supported you are by the earth beneath your feet.

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This is a free, easy, effective, long lasting and additive free stress reliever.....

If you get really spaced out by stress at any time during your day take a moment to find a patch of natural ground to stand on, bare footed would be great but not necessary and put your mind into your feet. Feel how supported you are by Mother Earth then close your eyes and visualise roots growing down from your feet running deeper and deeper into the ground, giving you nourishment and enormous support. Let your breathing come deep down into your belly and let your tensions be washed out of your body by each out breath. Do this every time you feel stressed in any way, even 5 minutes has a really beneficial effect and the long term cumulative effects will soon become apparent in your life. You'll also find it easier to drop into that peaceful space the more you use it.

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One of the biggest advantages to living here or holidaying here is getting to make use of the wood burning lakeside sauna. The sauna is one of the greatest and easiest ways to detox your body, mind and soul all at the same time. Find out about all the cleansing properties of the Finnish woodburning sauna on my sauna page!

Dietary detoxing

Of course when most of us think about detoxing we think about giving up smoking cigarettes, or not drinking alcohol, coffee and tea for a week, or going on a water fast for a few days. These are all very simple ways to detox your body and they give you an idea about how healthy your internal environment really is. The first thing that happens as you start to detox is that you feel even worse than you did before you started!! There is no getting away from this but there are ways to mitigate it a little such as drinking lots of water and resting as much as you can....the sauna also helps to eliminate the toxins quicker. Remember that your body has been protecting you by hiding these poisons around your body and when it gets the signal that it can start to let them go the priority becomes eliminating them as quickly as possible. The headaches and tiredness and grumpiness are what you would feel all the time if your body allowed these toxins free access to your systems. As the liver, kidneys and intestines have a hard time during detox it is good to take some supplements to help them out a little. There are many different cleanse kits available these days, maybe too many but if anyone would like some free advice on which would suit them best from what I've experienced then please feel free to contact me.

The detox symptoms we encounter on a physical level will also manifest on other levels too and this is where healing treatments can help to bring the root cause of the problem into our awareness. If we can shed light on the original cause that started us to 'comfort eat', 'drink' 'smoke' etc. then we are in a much stronger position to eliminate the 'reason' behind our particular addiction or habit. For example, on an energetic level smoking is a suppression of the breath and therefore suppression of the basic life force in us. We smoke to stop ourselves from feeling certain emotions, usually we associate smoking with stress reduction. On the physical level when we refrain from a toxic substance the body can finally start to process all the poison it has been locking away for years and with the example of smoking we start to cough up phlegm and at the same time on the emotional level all the emotions that we were blocking and suppressing with the smoke can now start to be processed by the body too. Ever wondered why we get so tetchy when we quit smoking? Well now you know that it's just the emotional body processing all the poison you kept suppressed all the time you were smoking. It's little wonder that so many people get overwhelmed by this and start to smoke again. But if you know that this is going to happen and you are in such a place as Mairela where you are held in a loving space you can use the emergence of those emotions as a starting point for delving into the root cause of your belief that you 'need' a cigarette to 'be' a certain way. Cigarettes are just an easy example to use but the same principal applies to any 'habit' we have that doesn't serve us in life whether it is computer games, TV, tea, coffee, sugar, bread, sex, diets, steroids, etc. etc. it's not about making a certain habit 'bad', if you like to smoke and it doesn't bother you then please continue but if you are engaged in something which you know doesn't serve you and you would like some help to change it then I would recommend a week here at Mairela involving some healing work to explore your inner belief systems, a clean environment to allow your body to cleanse and the use of the sauna to help the elimination process and assist relaxation.

Free Ways to Detox

There are many free and natural ways to detox our bodies, the simplest of which is to fast for a few days and drink plenty of pure water to flush out the toxins. If you are like me and you couldn't possibly entertain the thought of going without any food for more than a day then just modify it a little, introduce fresh fruit juices and light soups and give yourself a time scale so that you know you can have more 'normal' food in say 3 days time. Of course if you can modify your diet permanently so that you are only eating the best fresh fruit, nuts and vegetables all the time and nothing else then you probably won't need to detox so much and your reactions won't be so marked. However, forcing yourself into any long term diet that you hate is counter productive as you induce stress and suck all the joy out of eating. Remember that you are what you eat and if you are eating seething resentment, misery and despair then that is what you will be. Don't do that to yourself.

Check out your garden or a local nature spot for plants that you can use for detoxing. Be aware that any plants that live on the side of a motorway or under a flight path or that may have been sprayed with anything will most likely introduce more toxins into your system than they help eliminate so be aware of where you look for plants. I'm very lucky living here because I know that everything is clean and fresh, your back yard may not be so unpolluted.

The kidneys are one of the major organs of detox therefore keeping them in top shape will really benefit your whole body. Plants that help to support the kidneys are dandelion, carrot, Golden Rod (tea infusion), birch leaves (tea infusion) and parsley.

One way to give your kidneys a really thorough cleanse is to take a sauna and eat a couple of large water melons at the same time. Alternatively you can just take a sauna (it's the sweating that you need) and drink lots of pure fresh spring water.....and I know just the place to do that!

The liver is another major detox organ and its functions can be assisted by such plants as nettles, dandelion, sesame seeds and carrots.

The young shoots of dandelion and nettles are recommended to be eaten as they are powerful cleansers of the whole eliminatory system. There really is no better way to spring clean your body than to seek out these plants as they appear in the spring time, after all that is what Mother Nature intended them for.

In cases of a very sluggish digestive system I would recommend enemas. If you don't think that you could do this yourself then book yourself in for a colonic. If your body has gone to all the effort of eliminating toxins and they are then stuck in your large intestines for too long then the poisons will all be reabsorbed back into your blood, which will make you more toxic than ever! Your internal systems can never be healthy if there are piles of putrid waste hanging around. Once you have got your system cleaned out and moving properly then your bowel eliminations will return to normal naturally but it is wise to give them a helping hand until that happens.

Note: If you are already very sick then please take care using enemas as your weakened systems may be too depleted to cope with expelling large amounts of toxins. A diet that is aimed at building up your depleted immune system would probably serve your overall health more initially.

To give you a better image of how your body works to detoxify itself and how it works to hide away all the poisons we ingest there is a great set of articles written by doctors and a homeopath at Dorway to discovery. These articles give an overview that makes it clear why we are encouraged to eat certain diets. The website is set up to give information about the poisonous effects of aspartame and how it mimics many diseases, it's a great informative website.

Elimination of mucus

Mucus inhibits and blocks the systems of our body when it is produced excessively. Our body produces it as a counter measure to invasion by toxins or foreign bodies so we are not concerned with stopping the production of it but more with the processing of it. If my daughter has a chesty cough and is producing mucus I always give her an infusion of Coltfoot (flavoured with home made blackcurrant) to assist with the elimination of the phlegm. This amazing flower is one of the first plants to emerge after the long winter freeze and this is natures gift to give us something to clear out the remaining phlegm from the winter's slumber. The botanical name Tussilago means 'cough dispeller' and it is one of natures best expectorant. The leaves appear after the flowers and they too have the same wonderful qualities.

Excessive mucus in our digestive system is usually a sign that our body isn't recognising something in our diets as food. The most common cause is dairy products or wheat products. Years before my cancer I would pass pure white mucus and now after my cancer has shown me so much about the importance of a clean inner environment and I've cleaned up my diet the white stuff has disappeared. I don't think that the two events are completely unrelated.

My personal diet habits

If I buy pasta I have the wheat free kind, I've never been much of a bread person and here in Finland I love the rye bread anyway, I don't use milk at all, I couldn't bear to live without cheese and so I buy the lactose free stuff ( most of the cheese in Finland comes lactose free as the problem of dairy is widely recognised here), I use soya ice cream most of the time unless it's the summer season and the really great ice cream is in the shops then I have the occasional cornet, I switched to margarine but they are mostly such processed rubbish that I switched back to butter as the lesser of two evils but I use coconut fat for cooking as it doesn't change chemically when heated and apparently it dissolves fat from the body (don't know about that but it would be a great side effect!) Some people report very loose stools after using coconut fat so there may be some truth to the fat dissolving properties. I'm not saying that my diet is the best or is right for anyone except me. I just wanted to show that you take whatever knowledge you have of what we ingest and how our systems work (or not) and apply it to what you know about you.

I walk a lot with my dogs which keeps my circulation and lymphatic systems flowing efficiently, I sauna a lot which is fantastic for all elimination systems, mainly through sweating, and boosts my circulation. I do a lot of exercise around here which induces sweating which in turn keeps the systems open and flowing and I don't inhibit the flow with anti perspirants ( I use a crystal rock deodorant and I wash!). after excess eating times such as Christmas or holidays I do a quick cleanse week including enemas but mostly I keep a balance of healthy living with plenty of joy in my life.

Coffee enemas

If like me you've had cancer, or you have cancer or you know that your body is very toxic then coffee enemas are a great way to help your liver eliminate toxins which in turn gives it a greater chance of processing more toxins from around your body. The liver is the biggest organ of toxic processing but if it is clogged up storing so much poison, particularly after chemotherapy, then it cannot do its job as efficiently. It's like it's trying to juggle ten balls whilst holding a box of balls at the same time, if you take the box of balls away from it then it will have two hands in which to juggle. Before you administer a coffee enema you need to clear the bowel by doing 3 or 4 normal enemas. Use the best coffee that you can find, for example I only use organic, free trade coffee.

Use 3 tablespoons of ground coffee in 2 pints of water. Boil it for 3 minutes and then let it simmer for 20 minutes. Strain it and allow it to cool to body temperature. Retain the liquid for 15 minutes whilst lying on your right side.

The caffeine is absorbed directly to the liver via the portal veins where it stimulates the bile ducts to open and produce bile. The liver dumps a lot of toxins into this flow of bile thus relieving the strain on its resources.

This treatment is also part of the Gerson therapy which is an alternative treatment for cancer and other diseases.

Warning!

As long as you eliminate the coffee enema before 15 minutes the caffeine doesn't enter your system. Under no circumstances leave the coffee inside for more than 20 minutes. I did that once and the results were devastating. I'll share the story with you as a terrible warning!

During a coffee enema I started to process stuff, this happens quite normally as the physical toxins will also be linked to emotional toxins (the emotions blocked by me that hang around the body and putrefy). I allowed the process to run right through, letting the emotions express and thereby be released just like the physical toxins I was eliminating. I hadn't realised how the time had gone and was horrified to see that 45 minutes had elapsed since I started!

This meant that I had absorbed all the caffeine from 2 pints of strong coffee and I don't normally drink anything with caffeine in it so I was already heading for trouble. I started to feel very sick from all the toxins that had been released because of the coffee enema and of course the extra toxic effect of the absorbed caffeine. I ate some fruit to try and settle my stomach and drank lots of water. After an hour I felt very ill, so ill that I couldn't go out and collect my daughter from her friend's house but had to get a taxi to collect her instead! I looked up caffeine overdosing and found that it produced excess acid in the stomach. My body decided to eliminate this acid/toxin and I started to be sick. The problem with this was that I now couldn't keep down any water to flush out of the toxic waste, all I could do was flush out with water enemas and keep drinking water and being sick. My throat was very sore from all the acid. Something strange happened to my nerves too, everything felt very strange and my wrists seemed almost paralyzed. It was around now that I felt the fear and panic coming in waves......remember all the toxic emotions that are set free from within the body in order to be processed and eliminated....now due to my overload they were still there but running riot around my system. Fear was having a field day physically, emotionally and mentally. Even knowing what I know I found it difficult keeping my head above this rising tide of panic but I kept telling myself that I would be fine, that the angels and my guide would never let anything bad happen to me and focusing on me being healthy the following day...I felt so ill that this took some convincing! After about 14 hours I finally stopped vomiting and after 36 hours I could eat again.

The whole experience has taught me experientially the nature of fear, how it manifests in all levels physical, emotional and mental. I have experienced the direct correlation between fear and toxicity in our bodies and I conquered that fear by concentrating my focus on the light of me being healthy again.

So it was great to have learnt something experientially but I would really not recommend anybody else getting caught in that vicious cycle....always keep a clock in full view when doing a coffee enema....or set an alarm!