Most people think of green shakes and fresh veggies when they hear the words “spring 
detox.” But how about if this spring you go deeper and get a mind detox, soul detox, or both?
I’m not knocking the value of good physical detoxification. By all means, continue the practice. Or, start the spring detox habit. For ideas, I suggest checking out the book Staying Healthy With the Seasons. It’s an older book but still my favorite resource for all seasons.
Here we’ll focus on why mind and soul detoxes are a good idea and what the benefits are. Plus, how to do it.
Why Detox In the Spring?
Cleansing Action of a Detox Program
The logic behind a spring detox is a lot like spring cleaning your house.
In cold climates, a lot of time is spent indoors with windows closed during the winter months. This makes winter a slow, stuffy, and generally congested season. Food choices at this time tend to be heavy as well. Then, couple this with a slower metabolism and circulation of key detoxing bodily fluids such as blood and lymph, which means they are less efficient or effective.
Furthermore, unless you’re a winter sports lover, it’s harder to get outside, exercise, and keep moving (remember the lymph system activates with body movement).
In sum, by the time spring rolls around, you’re apt to have accumulated a significant amount of toxins. Thus, it’s time for personal spring cleaning.
Detox Renewal, Rejunivation, and Transformation
Beyond detoxification, spring is about renewal, rejuvenation, and transformation. In other words, now is the time to put into action all that you learned from your winter mental and spiritual introspection and enjoy the benefits of your fulfilled New Year’s resolutions.
Detox Your Mind
What Happens When Your Detox Your Mind
Cold weather, a heavy diet, and limited exercise take a toll on your mind. In addition, duller darker days lead to seasonal affective disorder (SAD) as well inhibit serotonin secretion. In fact, the Mayo Clinic calls this the Winter Blues. While the brain works harder, it reorients energy toward warming the body which can challenge complex cognitive processing. In other words, it can muddle your thinking.
Although more sunlight and warmer temperatures reverse these innate wintertime bodily reactions, some additional measures may be required to decongest the mind. What I call mental detox is a great restorative option. Rather than a one-off experience, create a shift and make it an ongoing style of living.
The rewards you’ll reap are numerous. Firstly, you’ll experience less preoccupation, worry, and stress. Secondly, you be able to maintain a gentle, flexible, and open focus. With this, your mental process is calmer and more fluid. As a result, your vision and perspective broaden, you gain clarity and mental stability, and you’ll be able to identify more opportunities and be more creative and innovative. This contrasts with a fixed and narrow focus associated with a congested, pressured, and stressed mind.
10 Ways to Detox Your Mind
- Reframing or thought work to minimize toxic thinking and release limiting beliefs
- Transcendental Meditation (TM) or another similar form of meditation to reduce and clear mental stress and clutter
- Frequent short meditations to relax, ground, and clear the mind
- Regular physical exercise such as walking, hiking, running, biking, dancing, etc.
- Diffusing or inhaling aromatherapy to unstick the mind using appropriate essential oils like fragonia (Agonis fragrans) and peppermint (Mentha piperita)
- Listening to melodic and uplifting music to encourage neural and system coherence
- Adequate good-quality sleep (the brain detoxes as you sleep)
- Decluttering your space and schedule. Choose to have more space.
- Making lists or creating a system where you can dock important or interesting ideas that would otherwise persistently run in your mental background and occupy and crowd your mind.
- Committing and planning how to take your winter spiritual work into your everyday life
Detox Your Soul
What Happens When You Detox Your Soul
When you overthink, overwork, and over-plan you can become overwhelmed. This type of hyper-focus separates you from your more holistic and spiritual self. You become unbalanced. And, when your relationship with your soul is out of balance, you have difficulty finding meaning, defining your purpose, and discerning what is truly in your unique best interest. This might manifest as indecisiveness, self-doubt, confusion, and even dread.
The wintertime is the best time to regain your connection and balance. Here we assume that you’ve done your winter internal reflection and spiritual work. Spring is now the time when you plant that newly gained wisdom and inspiration, nurture it, and experience your personal and spiritual growth at play.
If you’re manifesting signs of imbalance or are having trouble staying the course of your soul mission, detoxification can give you clarity around your values, mission, and purpose. It can help you deeply root your every day being into your core self.
Being more in touch with yourself and how you are inside increases authentic thinking and expression. Greater confidence naturally follows. It enhances your ability to take appropriate actions, stand your ground, and stay the course with something that is authentically important to you.
10 Ways to Detox Your Soul
- Energy Clearing With Smudging
- Energy Healing
- Soul Star Chakra Clearing
- Aromatic ritual baths
- 5 Rhythms Dance
- Spending time in nature
- Transcendental Meditation (TM) or another similar form of mediation
- Cultivating a grounded, centered, and present state
- Practicing forms of inner relating such as Focusing, Internal Family Systems (IFS)
- Practicing heart-centered reflection techniques
So, this spring, consider what a triple reset can do for you upon reawakening from winter. Select your preferred ways to detox and move your life forward with clarity and ease.
For More On Mind Detox or Soul Detox, See:
- Starchaser Mind Body Spirit Blog, especially:
- Clearing or Cleansing
- Winter Inner Work
- Or Contact me
