New beginnings bring brightness more fierce than sunlight, awakenings more majestic than all the mountains surrounding Windhoek city and clarity, transcendent enough to move is into shapes, spaces and places that reflect and project our best and highest selvles.
The festive season is usually a time filled with love and family for me but it is also a time that can be busy, energy draining, leaving little or no time left for self-care not to mentioned the incurred toxic overload!
That's why it made so much sense for me to start my year off with a cleanse, a detox and daily meditation.
The cleanse I did is a tradional yogic cleansing that I learned and practice when I travelled to India where I lived in an Ashram. It involves the consumption of a DIY saline solution and a combination of yoga postures that stimulate the digestive system. You can read more about it here ! It takes tons of willpower to stomach all that salt water, so I really had to be in the right state of mind and it helps that my mom and sister did the colon cleamsing with me. It also had to be done on a day when I had nothing to do, because obviously passing loose stools all day requires a free day!
Once the cleanse is complete you prepare a special meal that restores the lining of the digestive system called Kicheri.
For the days following the cleanse, I completely avoided alcohol, meat, sweets and dairy (amongst other foods). Most meals consisted of fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds (basically anything easily digestable).
I also did the '7 Days of Calm' program that invloves deep breathing, body awareness exercises, relaxation techniques and daily meditation under the guidance of the 'Calm' app (recommended to me by my boyfriend). Check out the link for the website and app here
All these techniques were used to help me press the reset button on my mind and body, to help refresh my soul by creating space for the new year and engaging in restful and restorative activities to revitalise my entire being. I am left feeling light and energised, ready to take the new year by its horns!
How do you enter a new year?