Cleansing - Nourish and Purify your Whole Self Newsletter 2021, Issue #2

INTERNAL AWARENESS: The Benefits of Colon Cleansing

~ Written by Amar Fuller

Isn't it a great feeling when your home is freshly cleaned with all the clutter and junk cleared out… or even your car or yard? Well, spring has sprung, at least here in New England where the bulbs have poked through, the crocuses have blossomed, and the trees are displaying their buds. Spring cleaning is under way. 

For me, spring is also the time when I clean out my physical interior. I find that, to truly enjoy all the beauty around me on the outside, I must address my body's need for cleaning and detoxifying. It is only then that I can clearly witness and appreciate the magnificence of my surroundings. 

My journey with cleansing started many years ago when I began living in an ashram. I was a freshman in college at that time. I enjoyed the group consciousness that was a part of living intentionally with other like-minded people, and I enthusiastically participated in many activities with the community. However, when it came to the “special” diets and fasts that we were encouraged to embark on for anywhere from seven to forty days, I really struggled. I’d begin with high hopes of successfully completing the diet or cleanse and often only make it through half a day before straying from the protocol. 

Over the years, I continued to pursue these health quests, knowing the importance of the healing and therapeutic benefits that are possible through doing so. I noticed that, as my ability to continue for longer stretches of time increased, I was becoming more comfortable with the experience of space and emptiness inside in a way that I couldn’t tolerate before. Where once there was fear in the emptiness that came from fasting and cleansing, as I began to relax into it, I learned that in the emptiness I had an opportunity to connect more deeply to myself. I became aware that this physical act of internal cleansing was also facilitating my deep emotional healing. Rumi, in his poem “Fasting,” so eloquently addresses this.

“There’s a hidden sweetness

in the stomach’s emptiness.

We are lutes, no more, no less.

If the sound box is stuffed

full of anything, no music.

If the brain and the belly

are burning clean with fasting,

every moment a new song

comes out of the fire.

The fog clears, and a new

energy makes you run up the

steps in front of you.

Be emptier and cry like

reed instruments cry.

Emptier, write secrets with

the reed pen.”

Scientific research now recognizes that emotions and memories are stored in our cells and tissues* and when we cleanse with water throughout our colon we can release them. When I studied at Hippocrates Health Institute, I learned about the importance of putting internal cleansing into practice on a regular basis with enema and wheatgrass implants as well as colonics. The various internal awareness practices I’ve integrated into my self-care routines have greatly enhanced my overall health and vitality in numerous ways. 

Here are a few benefits of colon cleansing: 

• Clears away waste and toxins that disrupt digestion and interfere with metabolism, creating an environment that supports nutrient absorption, the fuel that keeps the metabolism active.

• Helps to remove the causes of inflammation. Irritated bowels are inflamed bowels and inflammation also poses a challenge for weight-management.

• Restores beneficial, probiotic bacteria that are being killed off routinely by everyday circumstances such as stress, poor diet, antibiotics, chlorinated water, toxic chemicals in the environment etc.

If you’re like many folks, you may choose to focus your time on caring for the areas of your life that you and others can actually see. Most of us spend lots of time and money making our yards, homes, vehicles and our own appearances appealing to the eyes. But we often neglect areas like the basement or the old storage shed where no one really goes and hangs out. Years and years worth of dust, grime, and clutter builds up in these spaces until the point that, even if we decided to face the task and clean them out, it would probably get worse before it got better. Sweeping up would create a dust bowl as you lift years of dust into the air, and you end up with mud puddles from mopping the floor! Suddenly, you’re wondering if you should have left things as they were in the first place. 

It is not uncommon to carry an extra 4 – 20 pounds of mucous, acid waste, and other harmful materials in our colon. Just as our basements can easily get put off and forgotten, our colons can too. They must continue to function while dealing with serious burdens they are subjected to. The chemicals used to grow conventional foods as well as indigestible highly processed foods build up in our colons. Simultaneously they are handling toxic environmental threats, such as pollutants in the air and chemicals used in products such as  plastics, the fabric of our clothing and our cleaning and skin care products.

So I encourage you to remember your interior and give it the attention it needs. I know you’ll survive the dust bowls and muddy floors that may occur when you begin the task. In fact, I trust you will actually thrive once you really get to it. Spring is here, and internal house cleaning will leave you feeling clear, refreshed, and full of vitality. But don’t take my word for it, check it out for yourself!

Check out what our friends are offering in the world of health

Just as cleansing is important for the health of our physical body it’s just as important for our mental health. Practicing meditation is a way to refresh our mental equilibrium, clear out old thought patterns that are no longer serving us and create some space to cultivate new loving, kind and healthful beliefs and tracks of thinking. Many people find the combination of mantra with meditation to be a wonderful way to support their mental well being. 

Our dear friend, Snatam Kaur, (2019 Grammy nominee) has been helping folks all over the world for over 20 years now by sharing sacred, healing mantras and meditation. She recently started an online school, Kirtan and Kundalini where she and others offer live classes and courses in mantra, meditation, Kundalini yoga, kirtan, and more. Here is an article by Snatam where she shares about a beautiful meditation which offers a peaceful experience as it brings you into a state of equilibrium.

A Meditation to Bring Equilibrium

We are of heaven and earth

When the two meet and merge within

That is our equilibrium

- Written by Snatam Kaur

My mother is a powerful teacher for me. Recently she taught me about the following mantra, and I have been sharing it with my online Mantra & Meditation class. It has brought me an incredible amount of peace and so I’d like to share it with you as an antidote during these crazy times.

Sa Ray Sa Sa 

Sa Ray Sa Sa 

Sa Ray Sa Sa Sa Rang

Har Ray Har Har

Har Ray Har Har

Har Ray Har Har Har Rang

Sa: Infinite, Totality, God, Ether

Ray: Oh, exclamation point

Rang: dye, color, rapture, love, pleasure

Har: Creativity of God, destruction of God, on this earth plane

The first half of the mantra is a meditation on Sa, which is our infinite nature.  The second half is a meditation on Har, which is how the Divine manifests through us on the earth plane.  

A beautiful meditation to practice with this is as follows:

Sit in easy pose, hands in Buddhi Mudra, with the thumb tip covering the pinky finger nails. Sit in stillness, with the eyes focused at the third eye point, the point between the eye brows. Chant this Mantra for 11-31 minutes.

My experience in chanting this is that, by moving back and forth between the concepts of Sa and Har, it strengthens the energetic architecture within, bringing peace to our heavenly nature and our earthly nature. The thoughts of the mind are actually of heavenly nature, being of the ether element. This is beautiful to realize, as sometimes thoughts can take over, and actually the best antidote is to come back into the body realm, by feeling our blood flow and heart-beat. This Mantra creates a love relationship with both realms, as we dive in to each, until equilibrium can be reached, when the two meet at the equilibrium point, which I found to be at the third eye. 

I welcome you to join us for our Mantra and Meditation classes that happen on Wednesdays. And I welcome you to join me to experience the beauty of my mother’s teaching style first-hand during her Tuesday evening class, Mataji’s favorite Shabads. I am so grateful to her for giving me insight into this mantra that I have sung for much of my life, and loved, but didn’t really understand why until now.

Check out our school and register for these classes!

May equilibrium be with you! 

Love,
Snatam
(with loving support from Sopurkh, Jap Preet, and Francis)