The words “purification” and “purify” are often equated with austerity and judgement. We often associate purity with religion, virginity, water quality and food. It’s hard to argue with many millenia of mental programming, but I’d like to offer a different view of purification.
Purification simply means cleaning up. A shower is a purification. Cleaning out your garage is a purification. And it’s not an all-or-nothing situation. As opposed to only pure versus not-pure, most things—people, thoughts, garages, water sources, food—are somewhere between. Purification is a PROCESS, a continuum. Instead of thinking of purification as a rigid mandate or the pursuit of perfection, we can think of it as a tool or a practice that can improve our well-being on all levels—body, mind and spirit.
Physical purification basics
A constant theme in my teaching is that food choices matter. Each and every day, we build 300 million new cells a minute, using food, oxygen and water. The cleaner each of those three building blocks is, the healthier our cells are. The healthier we are!
WATER. Drink the purest water you can find. Real spring water or a reverse osmosis filter can provide ultra clean water. Even municipal tap water is better than contaminated water, despite the chlorine, fluoride, etc.
AIR. Create the best air quality conditions for yourself that’s possible. Many people live in geographical areas that have poor air quality like Kuwait City, Delhi or many parts of the state of California. If you can relocate to an area with better air quality, rock on. If not, getting an air purifier for your home (or even just your bedroom) and/or spending time near vegetation can help. We’re still getting oxygen from polluted air, but less of it, and what accompanies the oxygen is damaging to our health, right down to the integrity of our DNA.
FOOD. Food Sass®, baby. Whole, nutrient-dense foods—organic where it matters—that are as close to their original state as possible. A plant slant, which means plenty of fresh or frozen produce, also helps our body purify.
Especially with food purification, what we avoid is often even more important than what we seek out. Part of purifying the body is to limit drugs (including caffeine and alcohol), sugar and industrially processed food. In support of our well-being, it’s important that we take an active role in being the gatekeeper for what IS and what IS NOT taken into our body. Why?
Why physical purification matters
Purifying the body is key to health, energy and vibrant longevity. Unfortunately, the governing bodies that we believe are protecting our food and water supply aren’t doing that job well. For instance, trans fats have long been known to be damaging to our health, particularly our cardiovascular health, blood sugar health and brain health. Denmark banned them in 2003. The U.S.? We banned them in 2018, a full 15 years later.
More recently, there’s been a kerfuffle around “food” manufacturers’ long-standing practice of using titanium dioxide in supermarket edibles. Products such as Skittles, Sour Patch Kids, Starburst, Hostess Cupcakes and Jell-O are examples. There is a fair-sized body of research showing that titanium dioxide can break DNA strands and cause chromosomal damage. Hence, the EU has already banned titanium dioxide. But not the U.S.
We’re well-served to become educated consumers. These examples illustrate that the toxic load in our bodies are not just coming from air pollution, water pollution and the toxic chemicals used in our industrial farming, homes and environment. They’re also coming from our FOOD. Yikes! You can learn more about this conundrum—and how to turn the tide—in my ebook, The Power of Clean. You can experience physical purification in this fall’s Body Sass® Cleanse Group Program! More on that coming soon.
Physical purification is deeply important. AND, purifying the MIND is also an important and powerful practice.
Mental purification intro
We all have mental habits and stories that create suffering—stress, distraction, unhappiness and the like. Mental purification is the practice of noticing and releasing these thought forms. Over and over again. To lighten the load that we mentally carry. A few examples of mental purification practices:
- We find ourselves getting angry about something. We ask ourselves the question, “Does it matter?” In the grand scheme of things, if often doesn’t.
- Another person fails to meet our expectations. Instead of getting judgmental or unfairly expressing displeasure, we reflect on all the times we haven’t met our own expectations and move into a more compassionate mindset.
- Maybe we find ourselves in a bad mood or feeling like someone else has “ruined our life.” We can remind ourselves that our bad mood or our “ruined life” is our own doing. People do and say things all the time that we don’t necessarily like or agree with. Our choice to wrap it in stories and blame, and then paint our life with it, is wholly ours.
These are just a few examples, and keep in mind that we’re not shooting for a squeaky-clean mental experience. We’re simply creating intentional practices that bring us back to center. That quell the fire of our constant craving and resistance—craving what we don’t have and resisting what is. When we clean up our thoughts—and resulting behavior—we become more in tune with the very qualities in life we’re seeking.
Why mental purification matters
A mental purification practice builds in power over time. In the beginning, it can feel a bit odd and clunky. Once we create a regular practice, we find our own groove with it. As time passes and our practice deepens, we more often find ourselves able to meet each moment with freshness and integrity.
We release the idea that outside circumstances and people “make us” happy or sad, satisfied or dissatisfied, delighted or angry. We find our mood more even and relaxed while our Heart and spirit now have room to expand and express. This practice finds us enjoying more peace, contentment and clarity as we move through our days, regardless of external circumstances. Our stress level quiets and we’re better able to meet the challenges of everyday life.
The quality of our thoughts creates our experience. Any time we can “clean up” a bit and lighten our mental load, we’re creating health, joy and happiness. In the end, we uncover that a purification practice may very well be just the key we’ve been searching for.
To your empowered well-being,