The Healing Crisis: Don’t Fret; You Get Worse Before You Get Infinitely Better!

Lately I’ve been writing a lot about spring cleansing being that it’s a seasonally appropriate topic. The component of cleansing that I’d like to highlight here is the healing crisis. A healing crisis occurs when there are more toxins making their way out of the body than the body can deal with all at one time. The result is a compilation of adverse symptoms, the most common ones being: headaches, body odour, joint and/or muscle aches and pains as well as general aches and pains, digestive disturbances such as diarrhea, constipation, indigestion, bloating and heartburn, nausea, skin eruptions including boils, rashes, acne and hives, fatigue, lack of energy, difficulty concentrating, irritability and intensity of emotions.

I’ve always thought it really important to mention the possibility of any or all of these symptoms that may or may not accompany a cleansing process (though more often than not at least some symptoms will go along with cleansing). The reason this is so important is because people often get discouraged when embarking upon a cleanse only to come head-to-head with nasty symptoms, sometimes right from the get-go. More important than being aware of the healing crisis is knowing that, as crappy as it feels in the moment, it’s an indicator of progress.

We store toxins primarily in our liver and our fat cells. When we cleanse, all of the organs and systems of the body work together to clear toxins out from storage via the systems of elimination. The end result is a replacement of tissues with healthier, more effective ones. Part of this process involves toxins getting dumped into the bloodstream, causing adverse symptoms known as ‘cleansing reactions’ or a ‘healing crisis’. Also, be aware that a detox will often bring about repeats of former conditions and their symptoms. For example, if you formerly got strep throat frequently, when you cleanse, you may experience the same symptoms of strep throat from before.

Healing crises usually occur quite quickly at the onset of a cleanse, though sometimes will set-in after 1-3 days of cleansing, and typically last anywhere from 1-5 days and sometimes more. To help ease you through a healing crisis be sure to apply the following tips:

• -          Drink plenty of water! Water is essential to flush toxins out of the system and moreover, removing toxins also means removing some water from the body.

• -          Rest as much as possible and as much as your body indicates that you need it if you are getting fatigued.

• -          Soak in a hot tub with Epsom salts, which will work to further remove toxins from the body.

• -          Be aware of the frequency of your bowel movements. Yucky symptoms of a healing crisis are almost always relieved by having a good bowel movement. If your bowels are not moving regularly, try using supplemental fibre such as products from RenewLife, or consult an herbal practitioner (such as myself) who can recommend herbs to help move the bowels. Also, consider pursuing colon hydrotherapy (I can provide recommendations for colon hydrotherapists within Edmonton).

• -          JOURNAL! Part of toxic upbringing includes thoughts and emotions stored in our cells over time. When cleansing, a person could find themselves feeling unusually angry, grievous, sad, depressed or restless. Journaling provides an avenue by which these seemingly unproductive emotions can be excavated as well as insight for later review.

• -          Call Prana Holistic to book massage, reflexology, infrared sauna, emotional freedom technique, flower essences, reiki, manual lymphatic drainage, acupuncture or NLP, all of which would be conducive to helping you process toxins more quickly and effectively, including emotions and self-defeatist thoughts.

As I wrote in my recent column on spring cleansing: cleansing reactions are temporary experiences that mean movement towards better health. On the other hand, accumulated toxins in the body lead to diseases that can be permanent and devastating. With that in consideration, surely some temporary, uncomfortable symptoms are worth the improved experience of health that internal cleansing imparts. Check out the full column at the following link: http://www.seemagazine.com/article/city-life/lifestyle/holistic-0318/

If you are interested in pursuing a cleanse and would like guidance or are already cleansing and looking for more guidance, please call me at Prana Holistic and I will be happy to set up an appointment with you to offer help in any way I can.

Roberta Shepherd for Prana Holistic

Water: A Scarce Resource

March 22nd was the United Nation's World Water Day. World Water Day started in 1993 and occurs annually to recognize the UN's initiatives towards meeting basic human and ecological needs for potable water by the year 2015. You can find more information about World Water Day and the UN's initiatives at the following website: http://www.worldwaterday.org/page/107

In the wake of World Water Day, I've gotten to thinking a lot about the increasing value of water...something that's just always been there for me, running freely out of a tap in my own home no less. Have I been taking advantage of the fact that I've always had access to safe water? Running out of water is definitely not something I imagined would ever be an issue in my lifetime...and maybe it won't be, but I have an infant who I strongly hope will always have access to the basics of personal hygiene and nutrition. Having said that, thousands, if not millions of people, including children, struggle and suffer daily as a result of a lack of potable water.

Closer to home, the Alberta government is supportive of a water regulation system that is far from prioritizing basic human rights. Believe it or not, industries and municipalities actually own water licenses, something I was completely unaware of. Currently, environmental groups have expressed concern about the possibility of WATER - yes, WATER - being 'up for sale' in a provincial, deregulated, private market. What? Making profit off water? A basic necessity to human survival? How is this possible? I stumbled across this shocking information in a recent edition of Vue Weekly, a local, free publication here in Edmonton. Check out the full article at the following link: http://www.vueweekly.com/article.php?id=14560

Despite the seemingly crooked nature of provincial legislation regarding water allocation, this is further indication that the threat of running short on safe water is very real. I certainly encourage everyone to pursue any ways in which they can support provincial movement towards fair sharing of water: the elixir of life I always say! But in the meantime, I believe that many small movements in any one positive direction surely makes for one big, impactful change. So, what kind of small things can YOU (and I) do to make one big difference that ultimately saves water? I have a few suggestions that I've been exercising:

- You know how when you're camping and you have about 5 cups of water for that whole load of dirty dishes? And you know how it always works out just fine anyways? Well, pretend like you're camping every day when you wash dishes.

- "If it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down." The water-saving motto for toilet flushing.

- Furthermore, you can save several gallons of water per day if you put a plastic bottle filled with pebbles and water in the back of your toilet tank.

- If you have dinner guests and not everyone finishes their water, put the extra water in a jug for watering plants. Same goes for any source of extra water that would otherwise get dumped down the drain.

- Another camping take on water conservation: pretend you're camping whilst brushing your teeth. Use a small cup full of water, which surely conserves more than running the tap. And if you insist on running the tap, at the very least, turn it off whilst brushing!

- Use lesser amounts of water for boiling vegetables, pasta, quinoa, etc. and bring to a slower boil. Water otherwise discarded from vegetable boiling can be used as a broth rich with valuable nutrients, minerals and vitamins.

Please comment below with any further suggestions. And let me thank you in advance for your efforts towards what I hope will be a sweeping global movement towards water conservation. Years from now, I know my son and his counterparts will thank you too.

Roberta Shepherd for Prana Holistic

5 Things We Can Learn from the Olympics to Have a Fuller Life

The Olympics are over. The last giant, inflatable beaver has left the building. Plushenko and his "platinum" medal are back in Russia. And Canada goes back to work, moose antler hat put away for another time. This Olympics, for me and many others, will go down as the BEST Olympics, and for many will remain just that - a fond memory. Yet there are lessons to be learned from these games and these athletes that we can all apply to our own lives to make them brighter and juicier and more fully lived.

1.  You have to risk big to win big!  This was the first lesson that really struck me from the Olympics. Watching Charles Hamelin win gold and seeing the supreme elation on his face (and, even more adorable, the face of his girlfriend, fellow speed-skater Marianne St-Gelais - watch this video to see what I mean), I realized that I will most likely never feel that kind of relief, joy and intense emotion. However, I will also not likely feel the intense disappointment that we saw on Melissa Hollingsworth's face as she tearily apologized to Canada for "letting us down". The lesson? If you want to experience the joys, the highs and the passion of life, you need to be willing to risk the falls and the disappointments. There's no way around it.
2. You can't please everybody so STOP TRYING! Say what you will about the closing ceremonies - they definitely went for it! They had an idea and an inspiration and they ran with it. Some hated it, some loved it, but it was hard to feel nothing about it. I have always said - "I would rather have 10 people hate me and 10 people love me than 20 people forget me". Don't dumb yourself or your life down to try to please the masses. You will fail at pleasing everyone, and at the same time you will dilute what makes you special so that no one really gets a chance to feel PASSIONATELY about you!
3. The Good and the Bad will always be there, but you can choose what you focus on.  The opening ceremonies were bar-none the most amazing I have yet to see. Yet a major point of focus was the failure of the mechanical arm to the cauldron to raise. KD Lang nearly broke my heart with her soulful rendition of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. The northern lights, polar bear, dancing through fields of wheat to Joni Mitchell, and the fiddlers were all amazing. But if you were the person ranting about the mechanical failure instead of the beauty all around you, I ask you this - where else in your life are you seeing the dirt and not the diamonds?
4. Have a sense of humor about yourself!  Speaking of the mechanical problem - in the closing ceremonies they made a joke about the 4th arm of the cauldron. You are going to make mistakes. How can I be so sure? You're human. Just embrace it and have a sense of humor about it. And the thing is, the more joy and passion you want to feel for life, the more chances you will have to take. The more you put yourself out there, the more you are going to make a fool of yourself. So you may as well be laughing along with the rest of us!
5. All things End. The loss of Nodar Kumaritashvili at the Olympics was heartbreaking. Joannie Rochette's mothers passing was also very saddening. This too is life. Everything ends. This is not meant to be bleak or dark, but instead a cycle we must enter into with less fear. Neither your joy nor your sorrow is permanent. Ernest Hemingway said, "The world breaks all of us; some of us are stronger in the broken places." It is not the losses or wins that will define you. It is how you come out of them.

Wishing you a magical life, from opening ceremony to your closing!

Kristi Shmyr

Prana Holistic Healing Center