Do you also get that urge of spring cleaning your house and garden? Spring can be such an exciting time of year when everything in nature starts blooming and growing. It is the time for a new start!
It is also an important opportunity to give our bodies a new start. How about spring cleaning your body and giving your body a detox? Basically you will clean your body from the inside out. Getting rid of Ama (toxins) that accumulated in your body in winter.
Biologically, nature supports cleansing of the body in spring. But if you don’t assist these toxins in moving out of the body, you might feel some of these signs below:
- More fatigued then usual
- Loss of appetite
- Allergies, hay fever, colds or flu
- Headaches
- Dizziness or weakness
- Coated tongue
- Unexplained muscle aches
- Less radiant skin
- Oilier skin prone to break outs
- Feeling sluggish, heavy or drowsy
Detoxifying in spring is an important part of the Ayurvedic seasonal routine, which helps maintaining our health. Spring is the Kapha season, because the wet and cool weather reflects the moist, cool, heavy qualities of Kapha that predominate during this time of the year.
10 Tips on How to Detox
- A Kapha type diet and lifestyle is best. So it’s best to avoid eating heavy, oily, cold, and sticky and hard-to-digest foods, and avoid or reduce the sweet, sour, and salty tastes.
- Drink plenty of Water. Start the day with a big glass of warm water with lemon juice. Drink 2-3 litres of water throughout the day. Best to sip hot water throughout the day to help melt the Ama (digestive impurities or toxins).
- Sweet juicy fruits can help cleanse the body. Best be eaten in-between meals and before sunset, as they have a Kapha-increasing effect after the sun goes down. Apples and stewed apples are very beneficial and eat plenty of vegetables and green leafy vegetables.
- Ad spices to your food such as garlic, ginger, coriander, cumin, turmeric, and fennel — to help stimulate the digestion and detoxify the body and skin.
- Exercise. Kapha type exercise is more vigorous exercise and is great for stimulating the detox process. But depending on your Constitution you have to take it slower, like a Vata type person.
- Avoid daytime sleep.
- Fasting, when done probably, is a great detoxifier as well. Fasting is not good for predominant Vata type people but is great for Kapha type people. Try a liquid fast one day per week, ingesting only fresh vegetables or fresh vegetable and fruit juices or only pureed vegetable soups.
- For overall detoxification Ayurvedic herbs and supplements like Triphala or Aloe Vera will help. They improve elimination and clear away toxins from the colon and intestines.
- Avoid drinking coffee and alcohol. Give your body at least a one week break. Longer is better. To avoid getting a coffee withdrawal headache I recommend drinking a few cups of green tea each day. Green tea is also great for the liver.
- Avoid eating sugar, processed food and anything that contains preservatives, food coloring, flavors and other additives.
Doing a detox can help or prevent you from getting hayfever or sinus problems. But if that is not enough and if you are prone to allergies then there is more information here on How to get Relief from Sinus Problems.