Published:01/01/2007

Out with the Old In with the New

By Nora Isaacs

By the time the ball drops in Times Square, most of us have compiled a long list of sweeping resolutions: lose 20 pounds, hit the gym five times a week, take the career to the next level. But don’t feel bad if your New Year’s resolutions wind up flatter than day-old champagne. According to most ancient healing traditions—everything from Traditional Chinese Medicine to ayurveda and naturopathy—winter is not the time to start new things. On the contrary, during this season, our body’s natural rhythms dictate that we should hunker down and take it easy. “The holiday time has an inherent conflict,” says Elson Haas, MD, an integrative-medicine practitioner and author of The New Detox Diet (Celestial Arts, 2004). “During this time of year, our body really just wants to rest and be simple.”

Indeed, the cold winter months provide the perfect time for our bodies to relax and rejuvenate before spring. “Winter is typically a time for fortification,” explains Kristi Zimmer, a hydrotherapist and massage therapist in Seattle. “In the New Year people want to start a diet and do strenuous exercise. But it’s often hard to sustain these new goals in the middle of winter because that’s the time to finish things, not start them.” To help ourselves end the cycle and prepare for the new one, we have to sweep out the physical, emotional, and environmental gunk we accumulated over the previous year. Rather than shifting gears dramatically, a slow and gentle detox wipes the slate clean and readies us for rebirth come spring.

The Body: Tread Lightly
Save intense physical cleanses like fasts, raw-food diets, or colonics for warmer seasons. For winter, experts extol the detox, the cleanse’s mellower cousin. “A detox means making an effort to clean up your habits and abuses,” Haas explains. “It’s a process in which you reduce your toxin intake and support the body’s natural detoxification systems.” Externally, we take toxins in from polluted air, impure water, and foods like refined sugars and alcohol. Internally, the body produces damaging free radicals as natural byproducts of metabolic reactions; when the body’s ability to neutralize the free radicals is overwhelmed, these highly reactive compounds damage DNA and cells, contributing to aging and disease.

To expel these toxins, try a detox that rids the body of excess acid and mucus that has built up over the year. Haas advises taking a week off to eat only brown rice, cooked vegetables, miso broth, and seaweed, while incorporating saunas, steams, and massage. Or try his three-week plan: Omit sweets, alcohol, caffeine, wheat, and dairy (the Big Five, he calls them), and eat primarily steamed vegetables and warm broths.

After the detox, build up your strength by eating more starches and proteins and by opting for seasonal foods like sweet potatoes, kale, winter squash, and pumpkin. Fresh, seasonal foods usually pack more nutrients than out-of-season ones that were picked before ripeness, shipped across the country, and placed on a grocery shelf. Broths, nettle tea, and a bit of meat fuel internal heat—perfect for cold days—while hearty, nutrient-dense foods like brown rice, miso soup, garlic, seaweed, and vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, potatoes, kale, chard, cauliflower, collard greens, and onions) replenish your reserves. Teas and broths will also help you stay hydrated—an important but often-overlooked part of wintertime health.

According to Chinese medicine, winter also is the season to cleanse the bladder, kidneys, and adrenals. Several herbal teas help toward that end, whether you choose to drink one or all of them. Herbs for the bladder include uva ursi, echinacea, goldenseal, and comfrey. Strengthen the kidneys with chamomile and white nettle, and the adrenals with rosehips.

For physical fitness, resist signing up for that extreme-aerobics/kick-boxing boot camp just yet. Cold, dark, flu-rampant days are hardly ideal for exhausting the body with a strenuous exercise program. Rather, good bets during this season include yoga and t’ai chi; these incorporate deep breathing and calming, smooth movements that won’t overtax you.

The mind: a clean slate
Like the clutter we shove into attics, closets, and garages, emotional baggage—unresolved feelings and conflicts that gnaw at the back of our minds and create anxiety, depression, and anger—eventually takes up too much space and energy, and we need to clear it out. January is a prime time to purge emotional toxins—the patterns, behaviors, and beliefs interfering with healthy relationships and ultimately holding us back from living fully.

“Carrying around unresolved issues from the past makes life less enjoyable,” says David Simon, cofounder and medical director of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing in Carlsbad, California. “If you are always nursing these issues, it becomes impossible to be completely open and available to what’s happening in your present.” Plus, these bottled-up emotional needs can grow toxic. “A history of accumulated unmet needs erodes your sense of vitality, self-esteem, and worthiness,” says Simon. To break this cycle, you need to meet the emotion head on, come to terms with it, and move forward—and what better time to do that than the New Year? A step-by-step guide for a gentle emotional cleanse begins on page 62.

Choose to address your issues. Looking emotional specters in the eye takes courage, but eventually we reach a turning point where we realize we must address them. “It reaches a point where the pain of ignoring it outweighs the pain of dealing with it,” says Simon. Long before that, however, we can choose to face unresolved emotions and come to terms with them.

If the relationships around you are threatening or insecure (for example, power struggles at work or stress in a romantic relationship), you won’t be able to let down your defenses enough to honestly address your thoughts and feelings about an issue. In a charged environment, frank introspection is difficult. Better to remove yourself to a supportive, relaxing place that will give you the distance and security necessary for self-assessment. A safe space could involve a retreat at a center for yoga, meditation, or health (like The Chopra Center or the Kripalu Center

Create a safe environment. for Yoga & Health in Lenox, Massachusetts) where a trained staff, along with the company of others on the same path, creates a loving atmosphere. Or simply travel to the mountains or ocean for a few days to drink in their serenity. If getting away isn’t possible, create a space at home by setting aside a January weekend where you clear your schedule and unplug your phone—whatever helps you disengage from your active and demanding life. From within this safe, cleanse-supporting environment, engage in activities that will help identify your issues. Use the time to write in a journal, listen to soothing music, eat healthy foods, get a massage, and practice yoga or deep breathing. “These things can create the space you need to identify your issues and bring into more conscious awareness both the feelings and the patterns tied to a perpetual sense of emotional stress and lack of fulfillment,” says Simon. Meditation, especially, quiets the inner turbulence that interferes with living life to the fullest. “Ask questions and listen to the deep inner voice for responses; hear something from inside that surprises you,” says Simon. Often during meditation, a memory suddenly bursts into awareness, giving you an insight into your past or the answer to a question you’ve been asking. “That kind of experience gives you the confidence that old patterns don’t have to continue,” he says.

Learn to let go. Create a ritual to release the toxins you’ve identified. This could mean throwing rocks in the ocean, writing a letter and burning it, or calling somebody you’ve been avoiding—anything that symbolizes a shift in patterns and that helps you consciously let go. “We can access and express through ritual things that are oftentimes too challenging, too threatening otherwise,” says Richard Faulds of Kripalu Center. “It’s a way to powerfully express emotion in action.”

Commit to new choices. Once you’ve released your emotional toxins, commit yourself to not recreating them. “It’s great to have insight and feel some relief, but the long-term benefits of the healing process clearly require making a commitment—it’s too easy to have a relapse,” says Simon, whose book The Ten Commitments: Translating Good Intentions Into Great Choices (Health Communications, 2006) discusses this topic. To do this, first create an intention to honor your commitment. Then write down specific, realistic, and measurable goals for the spring to help you achieve that intention.

A January emotional cleanse will leave you feeling rejuvenated and more alive. “The energy that was being used to suppress pain is now available for creative options,” says Simon, who has witnessed his students make radical changes in relationships, work, and health as a result of an emotional cleanse. The whole thing is a process: As spring approaches, you’ll be ready and able to implement new goals. “Then you can magnify that and get momentum going full force in the summer,” says Zimmer.

Home: making space
The final part of the cleanse trifecta involves clearing out your home. “In winter, our home tends to accumulate more toxins, increased stagnancy, and decreased activity,” says Janet Hobey, a consultant on home and work environments and owner of Karuna Design in Seattle. While activity naturally slows in winter, clutter interferes with your emotional and physical cleanse. “It’s important to create a restful, healing environment for yourself during the winter, so that the cleanse has its greatest effects,” says Hobey. “You want to support your lifestyle change.”

Toward that end, in the mornings and evenings, open the windows for a few minutes—yes, even in the winter—to get a cross-breeze and refresh the air. Next tackle the clutter. Hobey believes that people often accumulate clutter to unconsciously avoid certain issues in their lives. The clutter and disorganization become a distraction—and an excuse. You’re too busy clearing space on your desk, reorganizing your shoes, or spending all day finding an old pair of jeans in the box of clothes in the garage to focus on the real issues. “There is always something that needs to be done before you can deal with the real issues,” Hobey says. She recommends removing clutter slowly, so you don’t get overwhelmed—and because various belongings and old souvenirs can dredge up memories and emotions.

“Once you clean things out, you can’t avoid issues anymore because you have nothing distracting you,” Hobey says. “You have to face the fact that you are a complete workaholic, or that your marriage is in the dumps, or that you have unresolved anger toward your mother.” So where does the environmental cleanse fit into the rest of the winter clearing out? Hobey advises starting the process before a physical detox. “It’s important to create a healthier, nurturing space before taking on a detox and then to continue increasing the output of toxins from your home and body,” she says. Plus, removing toxins from your body and mind opens you up and makes you more sensitive to your environment.

By clearing out last year’s toxins, you can face the New Year with a clean slate. That fresh body, mind, and home will fortify you for more revolutionary resolutions in the spring—resolutions that will last!

Detox all Year Long
Make your New Year’s detox easier by following these clean-living guidelines throughout the year:

•• Drink filtered water to reduce your intake of chemicals like mercury and lead.
•• Eat organic and seasonal foods to minimize exposure to pesticides, herbicides, waxes, and pathogens.
•• Cook in iron, stainless steel, glass, or porcelain cookware to avoid lead, plastic polymers, and chlorofluorocarbons.
•• Vary the foods you eat, especially dairy, eggs, wheat, and yeast foods, to prevent an overload of allergens.
•• Curb your consumption of red meats, cured meats, refined foods, canned foods, sugar, salt, coffee, alcohol, and nicotine to reduce congestion in the GI tract and the health woes that can result such as headaches and heart disease.

At-Home Pancha karma

The ayurvedic deep cleansing called pancha karma eliminates toxins from the body. Because you want to avoid intense cleanses in the winter, experts recommend a treatment that focuses on Rasayana, or rejuvenation. You experience this optimally at a center where trained professionals guide your every move. But if that’s not possible, Ragaia Belovarac, a pancha karma therapist and owner of Blue Sage Sanctuary in Nevada City, California, suggests this three-week treatment you can do at home. Still, Belovarac recommends consulting an ayurvedic practitioner before you start to determine your dosha (constitution), so you can tailor your at-home cleanse to your individual needs. (See www.bluesage-sanctuary.com for a detailed explanation of pancha karma and to find an experienced practitioner.)

WEEK ONE: Prepare for Rejuvenation (Purva Karma)
Ease into the cleanse by removing alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, and fatty foods from your diet. Opt for lighter foods like soup, cooked grains, and sautéed vegetables, and once a day eat kitchari, a detoxifying soup-grain dish (recipe below). To facilitate the internal cleansing, eat ghee (clarified butter) each day. Start with 1 teaspoon of it in a cup of hot water on the first day and increase that amount by 1 teaspoon each day. The oil’s healthy fats lubricate tissues and moisturize the digestive system. Reduce external stimuli by watching less TV, socializing less, and focusing on staying calm and peaceful.

WEEK TWO: The Therapies (Pradham Karma)
This week includes a range of pancha karma therapies adapted for the home. Do each of the following practices daily and continue relaxing, meditating, and removing yourself more from the outside world. Eat a light diet of kitchari, steamed vegetables, and cooked grains, and drink plenty of water and herbal teas.

Abyhanga. This treatment coaxes toxins to release from internal organs. In the morning or just before sunset, pour sesame oil (or another oil, according to your dosha) into a squeeze bottle. Put the bottle in hot water to heat it. Next, massage the oil gently into your body, coating yourself thickly from head to toe. Leave the oil on for 40 minutes before moving on to the next therapy. Don’t rinse.

Shirodhara. This therapy calms the mind. Using an oil appropriate to your dosha, massage your head and scalp gently for 15 minutes while breathing deeply and relaxing. Hair can be wet or dry.

Svedana. A sweat further eliminates toxins through the skin. Leaving the oil on from the previous treatments, either enter a steam room or create your own by running your shower and sitting in the bathroom for at least 20 minutes. If a steam room isn’t available, wrap yourself in a solar blanket for 20 minutes to raise your temperature and sweat.

WEEK THREE: Reboot the Body (Pashad Karma)
After the discipline required in week two, you may be tempted to revert immediately to your previous routine, but restrain yourself. “It’s important to go slow, but this is the part where people get careless,” Belovarac says. To ease back into your normal routine, continue with kitchari for three days. On the fourth day, add whole grains, vegetables, and either fish or eggs. Then for the rest of the week, add one other food to your diet each day. “In three weeks total, you will have rebooted your digestive capability,” says Belovarac.

How to Make Kitchari: For centuries, people have eaten this tasty rice-and-bean soup to clear digestion and eliminate toxins.
1 cup yellow split mung beans
61/2 cups water
1 tablespoon ginger, chopped
2 tablespoons coconut, shredded
Small handful cilantro
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon clove powder
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 bay leaves
3 teaspoons ghee (or butter)
1 cup white basmati rice

Soak beans for a minimum of four hours, drain, rinse, and set aside. Place ginger, coconut, cilantro, and 1/2 cup water in a blender and liquefy. In a saucepan on medium heat, lightly brown cinnamon, cardamom, pepper, clove powder, turmeric, salt, and bay leaves in ghee. Stir the beans into the spice mixture, and add rice, the blended coconut mixture, and the remaining water. Bring to a boil, cover, and cook on low heat for 25 to 30 minutes until soft. Remove the bay leaves and serve.

Increase Your Chi: Winter Self-massage

During winter, nature sighs deeply and burrows down for a long sleep. Like the denning bears and squirrels, use these cozy times to reduce stress. Especially in urban environments, we often become detached from this seasonal message. Continuing at a frenzied pace, we develop anxiety, high blood pressure, and digestive upset. To reduce stress, “in winter we focus a lot more on massage and nutrition,” says hydrotherapist Kristi Zimmer. Try this self-massage five minutes before bed and just after waking up in the morning: Lie on your back and make gentle circular motions around your belly with both hands, going clockwise as you breathe deeply. After five minutes of this, leave your hands on your stomach as you take 20 deep breaths, sending the breath to your organs. The deep breathing calms the body and mind, while the massage aids digestion.

Writing From the Heart

Do you feel you’ve wronged someone in ways big or small? Often we want to ask forgiveness but don’t know how. Part of your emotional cleanse may involve expressing this in a letter. As an exercise, think of someone in your life to whom you’d like to apologize. With pen and paper handy, sit in a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted. Take five minutes to do deep abdominal breathing: As you inhale, the abdomen expands, and as you exhale, the abdomen gently pulls in. As you begin writing, focus on your heart center and allow the words to flow from that place of honesty and openness. Whether you send the letter or not, writing from the heart offers a way to begin expressing yourself fully.

Breathing Room

Quick tips for keeping your home low in environmental toxins:
•• Periodically rid your space of clutter instead of waiting until the mere thought of clearing it out overwhelms you.
•• Let fresh air into your home every day by opening the windows for a cross-breeze.
•• Always wash just-bought clothing and bedding before use, since they are often treated with chemicals and formaldehydes.
•• Purchase low-toxicity cleaning supplies that use ingredients like vinegar and baking soda.
•• Minimize electrical equipment in your bedroom; the electromagnetic emissions can interfere with sleep.
•• Remove shoes in the house; they carry pesticides and bacteria.
•• Keep your living space clean by vacuuming regularly.