Larson K. - The Simple, Healing Cleanse: The Ayurvedic Path to Energy, Clarity, Wellness, and Your Best You

The AYURVEDICPath to Energy, Clarity, Wellness, and Your Best You

WITH MORE THAN50 WHOLE FOOD RECIPES

KIMBERLY LARSON

Foreword by Dr. Claudia Welch, MSOM

p UBLIC HEALTH IS THE SCIENCE AND ART of supporting the health and quality of life in a community. Though methods vary greatly among cultures, in general, public health practices aim to reach community members in a meaningful wayso that we as individuals change our behavior for the better. When we change, our communities change. When our communities change, our countries change. When our countries change, our world changes. Big change, as we so often hear, does indeed begin with each one of us. One of the most creative ways to reach individuals through public health is one I came across when I first studied health in India in 1988.

In India, if you are a very observant Hindu, you celebrate more religious holidays than there are days in a year. Every single day has particular significance according to its position in the lunar calendar. Celebrations of each day range from modest affairs with minimal rituals to elaborate celebrations in which millions of people participate. An individuals reason to celebrate might be to nourish ones relationship to spiritual practices, to maintain religious protocol, or simply to not irritate family or community sensibilities. But there are also positive large, public health scale, side effects of each individuals participation. Why? Dietary restrictions or observances often accompany holidaystypically in the form of a fast. For example, during a one-day holiday, a celebrant is enjoined to fast until the eveningand then break the fast only with certain simple foods. Giving the digestive system a mini break in this way provides a small, gentle cleanse. In addition to these shorter fasts and festivals, some festivals are held during seasonal transitions and require more lengthy fasts. During the nine-day holiday of Navaratri, for example, celebrants fast on either liquids or only certain easily-digestible foods. This holiday occurs multiple times a year, but the autumn and spring Navaratris are the most widely observed.

Because the benefits of occasional fasting, especially during seasonal transitions, has been well known to Ayurveda in India for millennia, it is widely believed that the dietary and lifestyle observances that accompany holidaysespecially ones that occur during seasonal transitionswere consciously instituted to support public health. If people fast or simplify their diet during the changes of seasontimes when disease is more apt to be initiatedit allows the body and mind to gently cleanse and better adapt to the rhythms and realities of the new season. Tying these measures to religious holidays helped ensure that the populationwhether educated about good health practices or notwould be obliged to adopt them and therefore potentially remain healthier. Although these practices may not be as strictly or widely practiced now, many Hindus still observe them. One recent example is that of Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has, for decades, famously fasted on only liquids during Navaratrieven when it coincided with his maiden trip to the United States in the Fall of 2014, when he was sixty-four years old.

Though we in the West may not share the religion that initiated such fasts, we can still reap the benefits to mental, emotional, and spiritual health that these practices generate. Taking time to cleanse in a safe and gentle way, simplifying not only our diets but also fasting from the stimulation and demands of our daily responsibilities, allowing our attention to be stilledor at least grow more still for a brief interludecan refresh our energy, perspective, and relationship to life.

As individuals, we have the opportunity to educate ourselves about the wisdom of such practices and adopt them ourselves. This book can serve as a guide on how to calm and focus our attention, listen to and understand our bodies, simplify our diets, adopt gentle cleansing techniques, and internalize the value of doing so. Through these practices, our health can improve. Because our health also affects our families and our communities, we do change the world by changing ourselves.

So, happy holidays whatever time of year you choose to celebrate good mental, spiritual, and physical health.

in love,
dr.