Do you compulsively check your Facebook? Are you bored all the time? Are you reluctant to do something inspirational or “good for you” as long as you can have your Netflix marathon? Then it may be that your level of sanity is benefited with a little “fast of the soul”. Next, it will be explained to you that you should take care of yourself and abstain to start a spiritual detoxification.
The toxic attitudes, behaviors, and demanding cultural influences that you allow into your life jeopardize your mental and spiritual well-being. However, you cannot avoid contact with such toxins in this world, although you can avoid being contaminated by them.
You can initiate a spiritual and mental detoxification and begin to experience a fuller life, if you first become aware that this is happening to you and want to change it. After that, anything is possible.
Table of Contents
13 signs you need a spiritual detox.
But before we start, these are some other clues that can be thrown at you that perhaps it is time to stop along the way and start a spiritual and mental detoxification, to recharge your internal batteries to continue with a life fuller of energy, full and spoiled.
- You feel restless.
- You are undecided about ways to pass the time.
- The general lack of clarity.
- Life seems to lack meaning and purpose.
- The days go by without joy.
- You are sad for no reason.
- You look for ways to feel uncomfortable with yourself.
- You affect your colleagues with your negativity.
- Your heart hurts.
- You can’t feel anything at all.
- Happy people get mad at you.
- You do not sleep well.
- You can’t even remember the last time you took a walk, watched the sunset or sunrise, or walked barefoot.
The idea behind taking one of your weekends to get out of your ordinary life for a moment is simple: this will show you the effects of what has been feeding your spirit, and should make you more aware about moving forward. You can also experience rest and renewal.
Anatomy of a spiritual detox.
You’re going to have to be under a kind of quarantine during the day. It’s only one day. Tell your friends and family that you love them and that you are simply taking time for yourself. Obviously, if you must maintain your conventional work hours, you will have to do this on a weekend.
Loneliness can be a scary thing for many of us, which is a shame because it is truly a powerful facilitator of self-knowledge and truth. If we could lose that terror of being alone with our own thoughts without any distraction involved, we would probably be much happier.
All that said, just having your entire day of spiritual detox doesn’t mean you won’t have any purpose at all. What you will do is replace your normal activities with one or two simple activities that will bring you pleasure (see below). You will be switching from mental stimulation, to meditation activities and sensual pleasures.
It is recommended that you do not make public everything you are going to do. When we share these kinds of things, they tend to take our attention away. The point is to keep your attention on yourself all day.
Tips to detox spiritually and mentally.
Below are the elements of your one-day “fast”, plus practical ideas that you can incorporate into your day-to-day life afterward.
Put technology aside.
You surely knew this was coming: no internet all day. This includes Facebook, email, Tinder, WhatsApp, and Netflix. It is recommended that you refrain from listening to too much music, as we can use it as a way of “escaping” which is not the objective in this case. The point of this is to drastically reduce outside noise.
Continued Practice: Turn off notifications. You may find that you no longer want to be constantly interrupted by WhatsApp, Facebook, and email alerts, and instead prefer to check them at will.
Add one or two simple activities that can bring you joy.
This is how you will spend the day; it is your food. If you have forgotten how to enjoy life without your phone or computer, think again about the activities you enjoyed as a child.
Good choices:
- Draw, paint or color.
- Gardening, walking in nature, or climbing things.
- Read.
- To write.
- Play an instrument.
What these activities have in common is that they are meditation activities – simple practices that will help you live in the present. Continued Practice: Do something you love for at least half an hour each day and it will give you a near-instant spiritual detox.
Add something ceremonial for a spiritual detox.
Taking a candlelight bath, lighting incense, preparing your own food from scratch – the idea here is to do something very loving towards yourself. The reason for this is to get in touch with yourself. It is another way to tune in.
Continued Practice: Do any activity that shows love for yourself every day.
Complement your conscience.
Frustration, distraction, anger, loneliness, boredom. Try to observe where they come from and bring your awareness to them. Breathe! This is the most important part. Removing the outer mental junk food barrier allows us to confront our feelings and stop avoiding them. The power of doing this is that feelings stop having power over us.
Continued Practice: Instead of escaping feelings through alcohol or other excesses, pay more attention to them and give them their respective names.
Complement your knowledge.
At the end of the day, you’ll reward yourself with big congratulations for taking time to yourself. Write down what you have learned physically, even if it is as simple as ‘I like to color’.
In fact, it’s a great idea to keep a journal of the whole day if you feel good this way – with recordings of your emotions and responses. Schedule your next vacation for the mind and spirit.
What to eat and drink?
One of the purposes of this exercise is to improve the truthfulness of your inner voice, and this is a good idea to unburden the digestive system so that you can keep your full attention in your consciousness. There is no need to fast, but here are some guidelines you could follow:
- Wait until you are really hungry before eating in the morning. Don’t just have breakfast (or any meal for that matter) automatically when you wake up.
- Eat light throughout the day. Make your meals simple with various food combinations (fruits alone, protein/starches separated with vegetables).
- Eat mindfully. Focus on the process.
- Avoid excess caffeine – and don’t drink any alcohol.
- Don’t include junk food.
- Drink water and teas; avoid sugary drinks.
Also try to avoid heavy exercise, as it can be stressful on the body.
What to expect from this spirit detox?
All of this may sound like heaven to you – and it may be easy for you. If that’s the case, you were most likely in dire need of relaxation and it may take a couple of rounds or a longer process to start discarding that junk.
If by 10 am you are already feeling restless and distracted, this is a great sign that the process is really going to be beneficial for you (as long as you do it).
Summary.
Considering how much effort you probably put into looking good, taking a 24-hour break from mind and body junk food is the least you can do to keep your spirits upbeat, isn’t it?
Every time we calm down in this way, the external environment closes down and the voice of our heart grows louder. Things flow better and best of all, your health improves, your thoughts become clearer, you make better decisions and you keep your environment balanced.