In America, often bigger means better. Alas, our quest to have more, go faster, do more, has helped create a country filled with exhausted, overweight, unfulfilled citizens wondering where we went wrong.
Cleansing is the topic this week, week three of our “Six Weeks to Your Best Year Ever” series. Think of it as a garbage disposal for your life – throw out the old, gunky, rotten attitudes, thoughts and “stuff” creating a life you don’t feel is yours. It’s a simple concept that can have profound effects. By getting rid of the unwanted, unnecessary and just plain ol’ junky stuff, you’ll make more room in yourself and your environment for good things to flood in.
Prepare Your Body for Health
Recently, I adopted a raw foods lifestyle that I’ve found amazing. In other words, I had no intention to go “raw,” but the increased vitality, glowing skin and reduced waistline sold me!
My raw foods journey began with a 10 day all-raw cleanse intended to eliminate toxins acquired in everyday life and safely eliminate them from the body. I consumed nothing but whole, live foods – mostly veggies – and created fruit/veggie juices that were delicious and life-affirming.
The basic concept is that eating raw, organic foods is a way to retain all the healthful benefits of food – keeping intact enzymes, vitamins and minerals that help our bodies run optimally. Many tout this lifestyle’s ability to reduce inflammation and even eliminate disease (yes, some even say it cured their diabetes or cancer). The “road to raw” is more a mindset, and once you can envision eating in this manner, it’s easier to follow than one would imagine. “The Raw Food Detox Diet” by Natalia Rose (Regan Books, 2005) is a great starting point. I don’t like the “diet” in the title, but Rose is great at helping anyone – no matter their current eating habits — determine how to ease into this healthful lifestyle. Visit Amazon.com to review the book.
In addition to healthful eating, water is important to keep the body cleansed and in optimal condition. We actually can survive weeks without food, but only days without water. Dehydration can cause a number of issues, from difficulty losing weight to triggering asthma attacks. Aim for eight to ten glasses a day, and use products like a liquid Stevia enhanced with Vanilla (an all natural sugar substitute with no glycemic load) to make it more palatable. A company called Pure Inventions actually devised a liquid product dropped into water to create tasty, natural and calorie-free, gluten-free beverages without artificial sweeteners. With flavors like chocolate (that can be used in soy or coconut milk), Green Tea and Pomegranate with Acai Berry, they deliver healthful benefits along with your daily water intake. “Fit and Slender” is designed to supplement a healthy weight loss program, while “Healthy Liver” helps clean our body’s natural detoxification organ (the liver). To check it out, visit PureInventions.com
Make a Space That’s Truly Livable
For me, an overrun room, car or office really hinders clear thinking. I might be able to ignore it for a short while, but eventually the mess in my space makes a huge mess in my head – one I have to climb over in order to think clearly. “My clients often say they feel a weight’s been lifted,” says Wardrobe Stylist and Organizer Sonja Motley Henderson. As Owner of Clutter Free Closet in Denver, Henderson emphasizes that women’s identities often are carried in the clothes they wear, and closets speak volumes about who they are. Clutter Free Closets offers closet cleaning, distribution of discarded garments, fashion consulting, wardrobe rework, personal shopping and more.
Henderson’s clients often save money as they uncover items thought lost or forgotten or just because reworking the closet uncovers a plethora of previously unfound items just waiting to be used. “I’ve had clients spend the day in their closet because it’s so pretty once we’re finished,” she said. Visit ClutterFreeCloset.net for more information.
One thing to which we all can relate is the paper clutter that can overwhelm not only a desk or a room, but also one’s psyche. There are many reasons paper can overrun our lives, but NeatDesk digital desktop scanner can make this a thing of the past. The device works with business cards, receipts and documents along with a software filing system. What I like is the software automatically enters information for you: Receipt amounts, vendor names, business card contact information, etc. Users can create folders to file information on a computer for quick retrieval later.
After some software glitches, calls to tech support and a couple of hours to get started, it took me a full day to scan three boxes of documents – well worth the time and effort. Just make sure to backup your documents, especially if you decide to discard paper copies. Available at your local office supply superstore or NeatCo.com
Clear Your Head
Lifestyle expert Peter Walsh aims to help you get the life you want in his new book “Lighten Up: Love What You Have, Have What You Need, Be Happier with Less.” (Free Press, 2010). He agrees that in our quests for more, we’ve actually lost ourselves in the clutter of our lives: “I’m not saying don’t buy stuff, absolutely that’s not my message. The stuff you buy, is it creating the life you want? If not, then why the hell are you buying it,” he asked. Whether it’s stuff or relationship or friendship or job or food or attitude — you have to cleanse all that from your life to get the life you want because if you don’t’ do that no one else will.”
The bestselling author holds a master’s degree with a specialty in educational psychology and is known as the compassionate, yet no-nonsense organizer from TLC’s hit show “Clean Sweep.” He now hosts the show “Enough Already!” on the new Oprah Winfrey Network.
“Eighty five percent of American couples argue about their stuff. Fifteen to twenty percent of households that are cluttered are spent on things we’ve lost or can’t find, — it’s staggering,” he says. “You can actually get 40 percent more time and 20 percent more money and less stress in your relationship by not having a cluttered house.”
Walsh advises that the reason we buy so much stuff is “the product and the promise.” We invest in products thinking they’ll make us thinner, more attractive, happier, but often we end up with a life littered in unfulfilled promises. “Unless we cleanse this attitude of more is better, we will absolutely end up where we were a couple of years ago. None of this is about the stuff, it’s about seeking fulfillment that the stuff will never give us,” he advises.
So take this week to CLEANSE your mind, body and space from all the unwanted that’s holding you back. Next week, we’ll explore the FREEDOM this creates for you to sally forth.
Doni Luckutt is a lifestyle expert who believes by enhancing interpersonal connection, we can stop simply living, and become Simply Alive! If you have a suggestion on what brings you to life, connect with her on Twitter @SimplyAlive, via email Doni@SimplyAliveWorld.com or on her blog: www.SimplyAliveWorld.com/Blog.
