Detoxing for joy

One student who detoxed herself told me, “I’ve finally found the answer to the question I’ve been asking since childhood about what I want to become.” 

I asked her, “What do you want to become?” 

She said, “A child.”

A child’s mind is clear, fresh, without any baggage from the past, without the burden of a full-grown body. Adults, however, need to detoxify themselves from time to time. Detoxing the body comes first. It’s easy. 

For three days, have three ripe guavas and one glass thin buttermilk for lunch. By dinner-time, your entire system will be cleansed and your mind dancing in luminous purity. Guavas are juiced with the immunity-builder vitamin C. They also contain fibre that makes you feel pleasantly full. And their sweetness contributes to the contented feeling of having eaten well. Bonus: you lose weight. 

For dinner, include roast cabbage, ladyfingers, boiled beetroot, moong curry, jowar. These foods nourish even as they cleanse. Avoid oil, butter, ghee. They form a slick film in the stomach and delay digestion. 

Detoxing is not only for the body, of course. We also need to detoxify our mind of its weakening beliefs and negative thoughts. Let’s understand this simple thing: it’s more comfortable to be positive egative. If I’m negative, I’m always fearful and hostile. If I’m positive, I’m always calm and peaceful. Negativity is a common mental toxin. It is a huge energy-consumer. It drains strength, erases purpose and doesn’t allow you to enjoy life even when the going is good. You can use visualisation to get rid of any negativity—fear, fury, anxiety, sorrow, insecurity, resentment. Visualise positive things, particularly nature, and you are sure to get rid of the negativity in you. 

Nothing chips at hope more than a cynical attitude, a readiness to believe the worst, to manufacture malicious thoughts. Each feeds on the other and makes everything look hopeless. This is slow poison to the mind, body, and spirit. You must eliminate such toxic ways. How? Exercise self-control to stay such thoughts. When you do, you will find the mind suddenly full of healing silence. 

Keep detoxing yourself day after day. Then, pause to ask yourself: Am I bringing peaceful energy into my life and those of others? Am I creating harmony or divisiveness? Slowly, you’ll change the course of your thoughts and responses. From weakness to strength, from fear to serenity, from anger to love. And then you will overflow with childlike joyousness…