“With the lightest of rain new growth appears..”
With the earth scorched after the Cape Town fires, I thought about the role the amount of water and the way in which it arrives, plays in keeping the mountain, fynbos and all the little creatures who live there, alive. If we had a sudden downpour of heavy rain it could cause all the seeds and earth to be washed away, causing boulders to come loose and in turn creating even more havoc with rock slides and the like. However, with a gentle sprinkle of rain here and there it gives the earth a chance to absorb the water preparing it for our winter rains.
This reminded me of a talk given by Helen Stutz on the importance of water in our own life, and in our own body. Helen is a doctor of research and after many years working in biomedical research and going through cancer, she decided to look into and dissect published cancer research and studies (amongst a whole host of other things too) to try and locate the source and shed some light on the whole story. This has led to many eye-opening talks on understanding cancer and how to heal from it at my studio and the latest one was on detox. Every second person you speak to wants to do a detox or is on some sort of detox, but very often, not grasping (even knowing) the deeper reasons as to why they are actually doing it, (been there done that!). So here is a little article to shed some light on where to start.
Firstly, the main thing to realise is that 90% of us are probably critically dehydrated. So the first step towards detox is to rehydrate – and this can take weeks, even months for some people. So yes, before even thinking about doing a liver detox or the like, make sure you are at your optimal water intake level!.
So what are the figures? Well for every 22kg you weigh, you should be drinking approximately 1 litre of water, (calculate that and pour that amount into jugs to get an idea of what it looks like). If this isn’t what you’re drinking every day, but what you are supposed to be drinking then you need to make a slow transition. You can’t shock your body overnight by taking in that amount all of a sudden and hope all will be well.
Each day, you increase the intake little by little, in a comfortable way so that you do not stress your cells and organs in any way (as not to cause problems for your cells). If you have been chronically dehydrated for years, you need to be patient and take your time to get to your ultimate level. This is where ahimsa, (non violence) and satya, (truthfulness) come into play. Firstly, can you be accepting and honest with yourself as to where you are right now without judgement and criticism? Secondly, can you work slowly, mindfully and truthfully to get to where you should ultimately be?
So that sounds possible, not so? Right, so then we continue. Obviously, the quality of water you take in is very important and needs to be filtered water, (sparkling water does not count!) or ideally spring water. It does not include water taken with: coffee, tea, sodas, alcohol etc as these act as diuretics on your system.
If you are consuming these liquids, then as a rule of thumb you need to drink 2 x their volume (amount of it) to just neutralise the effect. For example, if you are drinking a glass of wine at night with your dinner, you need to drink two glasses of water to neutralize the effect of the wine on your body, (Note: this does not count towards your ultimate water intake amount, it is separate.)
If you do sport and sweat a lot, you need to take in more water as well.
Filtered water added to your juicer when juicing or drinking herbal teas or if you’d like to add flavour like mint, lemon, fruit etc… do count towards your water intake. Great news…so it is possible to make drinking water exciting for those who struggle! :-)
Then, once you are comfortable and want to go further to achieve a deep tissue detox, you should drink an additional ~500ml of ionized water daily (this water does not count as daily hydration quota). The negatively charged ions are able to neutralize the positively charged ions associated with harmful toxins found in our body tissues. In addition this practice improves circulation and bile flow. To do this, boil filtered water on the stove for 15 minutes. The rapid boiling of the water creates negatively charged ions which the unwanted positively charged ions in the body then bind (link) to easily to help bring about balance again. So the idea is to sip this hot (warm) water throughout the day, (so no, you can’t just boil the water, let it stand to cool a little and gulp it down as it’ll just go straight through your system… you need to place it in a flask and (try to) sip it through the course of the day to allow for maximum effect).
So it’s a bit involved and intricate to begin with, but at the end of the day, it’s not all that difficult and it should be easy enough to get into a healthy water drinking routine after a few weeks. This is where we should all start if we are serious to begin detoxing or just being more healthy and consciously hydrated.
To recap:
- Work out your daily water intake level..
- Make sure you are using only filtered water, (even when boiling and making tea use filter water as the filter takes out the chlorine, fluoride, nitrates, pesticides and other nasties which remain. Even after boiling normal tap water, only bacteria is killed in that boiling process, you still want the other elements that can be harmful to the body to be extracted first.)
- Boil and take in an additional 500mls of ionized water sipped hot throughout the day.
- For any additional drinks consumed add 2 x that amount of water to neutralise.
Happy rehydrating this season.
Namaste,
Nina.