Spring Cleaning! Time for Rapid Detox!
by Beverly B. Ferguson
Fasting is a wondrous journey of discovery. To me, it feels like finding the hidden SECRET to health and healing. The best part is that fasting is always available to everyone, everywhere, and it is free!
I started learning about fasting back in the late 70's from books about fasting and juicing written by Walker, Bragg, Ehret, Christopher, Burroughs and many others*. The best way that I have found to begin fasting is Dr. Christopher's book the "Three Day Cleanse." It contains all the basic information as well as allowing you to eat each evening if you feel the need to do so. This is a good way to begin to actually fast. Nothing too drastic.
Even before this Three Day Cleanse, however, you may wish to start with skipping a meal, then two, then three, etc. Before any kind of fasting be sure to eat a meal or two of raw salad, vegetables or fruits -- no meat eggs or dairy products.
When you fast, you can use either juices, lemonade made with maple syrup, broths, or water. It is also possible to fast eating one kind of food exclusively for a period of time. For example, Macrobiotics often fast by eating just brown rice, others fast on bread and water.
Try to get organic produce and pure water for your fast. It will also be necessary to either use herbal laxatives, enemas, or salt water flushes when you fast for a longer period of time in order to remove toxins in the intestines and colon. A juicer is very helpful equipment for fasting but not absolutely necessary.
Once you do a few of the three-day cleanses over a period of several months, then you may wish to try a longer fast. If you have never fasted before I highly recommend that you stay connected to a friend who knows about fasting from experience or at the very least have several of the books mentioned above on hand*.
These days we all have many poisons in our bodies from our food, drugs, and environment and caution must be observed when these toxins are being released. This takes some experience, but it can be done gradually and safely. It is better to do many short fasts than to persevere in a long one if you are feeling too toxic.
Why fast?
To learn that it is okay and even BENEFICIAL to miss a meal or several meals. Nothing terrible happens if you don't eat when you are hungry. Quite the contrary, you discover, as I did, that you have found the most natural and easy way to heal and rejuvenate your body.
The body has a whole "mode of operation" we know very little about: fasting. Animals do it all the time, and children, if they don't feel well, also know enough not to eat. As adults we have been told so many times that we must eat that we have lost touch with this ancient technique of healing. Last night I was wondering if the recent epidemics of bulimia and anorexia are distortions of the natural instinct to fast -- gone awry.
To discover that we have all we need right within us to heal and renew ourselves on every level is a very freeing and welcome discovery. It frees us from what is often one of our greatest attachments: food. Fasting works on every level of our being: physical, emotional, mental, spiritual. The first day or two can be rough and uncomfortable due to the intense detoxification that happens when many of the toxins in each cell and organ of our body are dumped into the bloodstream. After that, however, it is incredible the clarity, energy, and bliss one feels as the body continues to do what it is meant to do from time to time. One comes to understand why fasting has been a part of religious and spiritual practices world-wide for eons of time.
