It’s that time of year where you can open your windows, let the fresh air in, embrace the longer days, and clean out the dust and clutter that built up over the winter. This doesn’t just apply to our homes though. Spring is the perfect time to clean up body and mind, so the rest of the year is as amazing as it possibly can be. Here are just a few tips for those who aren’t still blanketed in snow.
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Flush Your System – Drink more water. It’s a simple way to clean out your body, including that big old brain of yours. Most biochemical processes rely on H2O to function anyway, so you’re doing yourself a favor.
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Tea Time – Herbal tea is also a good way to give yourself water in a healthy and enjoyable way. Most are pretty gentle too. A matcha a day is good for you too.
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Fast It Up – Spring is a great time to do a short water fast of one to three days. We are hardwired to indulge during winter. It once was paramount to survival, but eating high calorie foods doesn’t serve us as much in the age of electricity, heaters, cars, and delivery. Give your system a short break to clean things out before eating better, but only if you are healthy enough for a fast.
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Eat Less Processed – Modern humans love to process foods, because this makes them last longer on shelves, taste pretty addictive, and cost less. Our bodies which evolved through hunting, gathering, and early agriculture don’t quite know what to do with this abundance of sugar, starches, preservatives, dyes, salt, and miscellaneous chemicals. They build up, get stored away, and interfere with normal bio-functions. Give yourself food your body will recognize more often, like fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds.
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Get Outside – Fresh air, sunlight, and nature have a huge effect on our stress and anxiety levels. This, in turn, affects many other aspects of our health, including digestion and cardiovascular. Give yourself a break from modern hourly fight or flight that bogs everything down.
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Chlorophyll – This little molecule does way more than make plants green or even drive photosynthesis. It also has cleansing and deodorizing properties for those of us lucky enough to consume it. Yes, eating leafy greens or sipping a matcha can help your body spring clean and smell better.
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Meditate – Another way to cut down on your stress and anxiety in this hectic modern world where we have too much of both. Sit somewhere quiet, take deep breaths, and focus on you and you alone for a few minutes every day. Your mind needs a break from all the stuff you pile on it all the time.
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Exercise – Your lymphatic system relies on movement to pump. Get it flowing. Exercise also releases tension, stress, and anxiety while driving the heart and lungs to function better. All of this means a cleaner body and mind.
- Let Go – Holding on to resentment, anger, bitterness, doubts, remorse, worry, and other such emotions rarely helps you out long term. Just another evolutionary process that served us better when daily living was more life and death than today. These build up, contribute to stress, and can affect your genes in negative ways that lead to illness. Let go and move on.