Detox #2 - Feeling it

On my journey towards better health of mind and body, today I was told that my liver was trying to do the job of my heart. And that I should make kissing faces for awhile to get the lower abdomen to kick into gear. Imagine a flower in detail. What on earth does all that mean?

I'm still not sure, but I can tell you that I'm feeling great. I may not have admitted it until now, but there is a small stack of books on energy and health piling up in the den. When I hold my palms facing, close but not touching, I do feel something there. Try it. And then tell me you wouldn't enjoy some background chanting while under a warm comfy blanket, working on moving good energy in and bad out the roots of your feet. Am I giving too much away and losing my friends?

Second time detoxing this week, and although it's weird, and I feel like a rabbit munching on all that cut-up green stuff, I am happy. 'You're not hungry, you're craving something' - is absolutely true, and I'm going to remind myself of that, or at least try, when this week is over.

The great thing about Sima's detox is that you don't have to go into the kitchen if you can avoid it. Just show up at her place for breakfast of yummy (really!) miso soup and pick up the rest of what you're allowed to ingest for the day. It's that simple, if you want it to be, and that way there's no temptation. Of course, there are sad kids opening an empty fridge and looking forlorn, but what the heck - let them forage for a week. Admittedly their food won't be as healthy but if they turn their nose up at my rabbit-foot, I say let 'em eat cake. Or frozen pizza.

So here's to organic vegetables that really do taste better, and to husbands and kids who politely support me despite the skepticism. They too will believe one day, if only because I'm going to be such a shining example. Inshallah. Or how do they say that in the Far East?

Holiday Cheer

Quick hello from the middle of Chanuka - enjoying the lights and the good cheer of having the family together; lighting the menorah each night and watching the numbers of candles growing, the heat glowing and spreading to add warmth to this rainy holiday.

This brings me to think about energy, light and healing. Not that I know too much about it, nor can understand it in our life, but it does come to mind. I do feel the connection pulling towards someone in the room, especially someone important to me. Sometimes it feels good, at times muddled or even negative. I try to package it up at the end of the day, wrap it up as a gift and send it back to that person - and ask for my energy back from them too.

Don't know what this means even as I write it but I can tell you that it does feel right, somehow. And good, afterwards. So I'll keep envisioning and trying, see where I"ll get.

May we all have a wonderful festival of light - and energy - and Godliness.

Step 1: Detox

I honestly didn't know where to begin. Something had to change, but what? Life's been rolling along, ups and downs, pretty regularly for a couple of decades. Family life, career, one might even say with much success. We are going to keep this blog personal yet not too revealing, so I'll leave it at that, to give everyone in this story the privacy that they deserve. 

Let's concentrate on a growing need for change of some sort. What it is, we will find out, as you join me on this journey from somewhere to another place. Nothing more specific than that. Perhaps it will help you too. Ready? 

It starts with a feeling. An ever-present feeling that things could be better. Improved diet. Improved health. And perhaps even improved relationships. Intertwined? Who knows. But this quest for 'better' has to start somewhere, and that place is: DETOX. 

Summer is supposedly the best time to be rid of unwanted poisons, to shed your skin and start anew towards a healthy mind and body. But as schedules would have it, and dont tell me this isnt familiar, it was already autumn. Sima bent the rules a bit and we set off, miso soup each day for breakfast and many supposed food items I couldn't pronounce, but are slowly becoming friends. Thank goodness she made all the food, so I didn't have to think too hard, just concentrate on ingesting nothing else for a week. No cheating. 

I valiantly cancelled appointments and set aside the better part of the week, not knowing what was in store - and what mood I'd be in! Turns out Day 3 really is the (only) day to stay far away from people - crawl into bed and let the magic happen. I didn't mind the flu-like symptoms as I felt it was for a higher cause. Not sure what that cause was, but it felt noble...

And here we are, a few weeks later, implementing what is meant to be a new healthy lifestyle. First, the food - a move to organic, away from wheat and milk, less about how much you eat and more about what it is that we choose to put in our bodies. One thing is for sure, the health store down the block is making a killing on my new lifestyle. And my friends are still skeptical.

Then comes the healing. It's introduced slowly (not to scare me?). But it touches something deep inside, and if you're still reading this, you might as well get comfortable because I promise to try and share some of the experience as they unfold.  

Let's leave it at that for now, Step 1: Detox and all the rest. I promise to try and share as much as possible, as we go, if you promise not to laugh :) .