Detox Your Life: Practices to Support Positive Patterns

There is more to detoxification than doing a juice cleanse. A full program during which you can detox your life includes being mindful of what we surround ourselves with–such as our thoughts and our environment.

We schedule our yoga classes, spinning, workout, our meditation and we feel great for an hour or more. We think, “That’s done, I can now carry on with my 14-hour day.” Hang on, what about the thoughts we allow to poison our minds for the rest of the day? Or, the hours spent on social media comparing ourselves to others until we feel depleted? And then, the hours we spend listening to friends telling us the same sad or upsetting news over and over again.

Detox Your Life Through Mind Training

If we really want to detox our lives, we need to become thought detectives. As detectives, we become vigilant about what we allow into our lives. We recognize that we can choose our thoughts, media input, friends, and jobs. Call it mind-training, if you like.

I went through my own mind-training as an athlete learning these tools. As I trained for a competition, I came to appreciate training the mind as much as training the body. I surrounded myself with people and coaches who lifted me up, believed in me, encouraged me, who were honest, and whose opinions I valued. The rest I left at the sidelines. In life, it’s the same.

Begin With What You Feel

How we feel in any given situation is an indicator of what we need more and less of in our lives. For example, start to notice how you are experiencing physically and what emotions are present when you hang out with your partner, family, friends, or coworkers. When are you feeling relaxed, happy, or excited in a situation? When are you feeling the opposite? How do you feel when you are scrolling through social media or listening to your favorite music? The more you use that brain-training to make nurturing choices for yourself, the easier it become to say no to the things that do not light you up, but bring you down.

Question Yourself

When you are considering anything in your life, ask yourself this question. “At what cost to my body and health am I doing this?” Everything has a price and some prices are not financial, but physical. When we are in toxic situations, we may be experiencing a buildup of stress, exhaustion, tension, and even disease. There are times when we may choose to do make a choice even if has a high cost. Yet, there is a difference between making such a choice consciously versus being unaware. When we acknowledge the cost of a situation, we can make a plan to nurture ourselves accordingly.

Start Detoxifying Your Life Now

Try this exercise from my book Reinvent ME.

When you’re nurturing yourself and your talents, consider if your lifestyle is in line with what you are trying to achieve.

When we think about detoxing, we usually focus on our diet.

For this exercise, try taking detoxification to a new level.

• What elements in your life do you need to detoxify in order to bring your lifestyle into alignment with who you are and who you want to be?
• What type of music do you listen to, what TV shows you watch, how do you talk about your situation to others?
• How do you feel when you are listening, watching, talking?
• Look for opportunities to swap to more positive music, TV shows, and movies.
• How do you want to support your mindset and your perception?
  Consider everything in your life. Do your friends drain or support you?
• Perhaps your house is so cluttered that there is no space for you to feel inspired and creative?
• All of these aspects, combined with diet and exercise, can either support or hinder your journey.
• Consider some of the following areas in your life. Observe your feelings. Take notes. Journal.

 

Music: …………………………………………………………………..

Home: ………………………………………………………………….

TV shows: …………………………………………………………….

Food: ……………………………………………………………………

Friends: ……………………………………………………………….

Body: ……………………………………………………………………

Look at your answers and start making small changes. It doesn’t have to be an overnight detoxification. Once you detox your life and change one area, other more positive life choices will naturally follow.