Showering Isn't Enough: The New Concept of Cleansing

Interestingly enough, in the U.S. where everyone seems to insist on bathing every day unless you are a Neanderthal, we never think about cleansing the inside of our body, except perhaps our ears after a shower. While in other areas of the world, where they bathe only a few times each week or less, they cleanse the inside of the body regularly as a matter of health. It’s time we started paying attention to the inside as much as we do the outside!

Did you take a shower today? I can remember as a little girl, it was all my mother could do to get us to take a bath every three days or so. When I got a little older, I realized that some people thought you had to take a shower every day. How could I possibly get dirty enough in one day to merit a bath or shower? It would take me at least a few days to build up enough dirt to make it worthwhile. Then when I got older and began traveling, I found that many people would bathe certain body areas every day, while the whole body only was bathed every few days. Interestingly enough, in the U.S. where everyone seems to insist on bathing every day unless you are a Neanderthal, we never think about cleansing the inside of our body, except perhaps our ears after a shower. While in other areas of the world, where they bathe only a few times each week or less, they cleanse the inside of the body regularly as a matter of health.

This really seems to make sense when you think about the amount of bacteria that settles on our skin, in our hair and as the mattress retailers show us microscopically, in our beds. However, inside the body, where bacteria can have a free run of the place, we never think about cleansing as a solution for acne, sore joints, hair loss or fatigue. But internal body cleansing has been an annual health regimen in many cultures for thousands of years, and in fact is the first step to alleviating mysterious or even debilitating symptoms.

Cleansing has been used historically to enhance the spiritual nature of man as well. Native Americans used fasting to promote heightened awareness, while the Chinese have used herbs to cleanse the digestion, and in India the Ayurveda utilizes cleansing as one of the first steps towards health. Why have we become so distant from our very inner workings? When we have something like a rash or a headache, we assume the body is doing something wrong, something without our permission. So we run for a quick fix, a pill to eliminate the irritating problem, instead of looking at the very nature of our body. We do not give our body the benefit of the doubt, that there might be an intelligent reason for the symptoms we are experiencing.

When you want to get rid of something in the refrigerator that is ready to crawl out on its own, you toss it into the garbage. The garbage gets removed and its out of sight, out of mind. But what if you could only throw your garbage out via the front door of your house, and when you go to open the door there is an elephant leaning on the other side of the door, preventing the door from opening. After a few weeks of this, the garbage would really be piling up. You’ve even spent time trying to find every imaginative and conceivable way of shrinking, bagging, deodorizing and eliminating your garbage. Then one day, you find a window is cracked open a little bit, and you can slide your garbage out the window. The window may be the surface of your skin, the pores on your face, the base of the hair shaft on your scalp or the coating on your tongue. But just think how much more garbage is still in the house that won’t fit through the window!

More and more people are opening their eyes to the trash their body stores, particularly when you look realize that the main ways our body eliminates garbage is through the intestinal tract, the kidneys and the skin. But if we concede that we generate waste with every meal we eat, just like in the kitchen, then why are we only having one bowel movement a day, or even once a week in some cases? Why are we wearing anti-perspirants so we can’t allow toxins out in our sweat? And why are we mystified when we have a kidney, bladder or urinary tract infection? Remember, the garbage you put down the garbage disposal is the remainder of what you put through your intestinal tract.

So what can you do to clean up your system? There are many types of body cleanses available for the intestinal tract, the liver, the gall bladder, the blood and even for the metabolic acids created during physical exertion. Cleanses can be simple tasks of refraining from challenging foods in your diet such as milk products and red meats and taking encapsulated herbs and fiber, while others are intensive two to four week programs under the direction of a certified therapist that can eliminate literally pounds of excess debris from the body.

One of the first things to realize is that fasting alone will not completely cleanse the body, especially if it is only for a few days. But fasting is not essential. You can still eat, particularly alkaline foods such as fruits and vegetables, and actually eliminate more toxic material than through fasting alone. This process also gives your body a chance to break addictive attachments to certain foods such as sugar, milk products, soft drinks and even Starbucks coffee.

So do a little research to learn about the function of your body, what body systems for you are an issue and then seek the help of a professional to design a cleanse for you. Most over the counter cleanses that you buy only address the intestinal tract, and for most people, the blood, the liver, the lymphatic system and the kidneys are actually more of an issue and produce more symptoms.

If you want to look young, begin with the inside. Clearing the skin, dropping excess weight, brightening the eyes and cleansing of the mouth are all benefits that are immediately noticeable. Then you’ll really notice a difference the next time you look in the mirror!