Why RIGHT NOW is one of the two best times of year to detox, and the three secrets to making the most of it

Its Autumn!

What I am going to share with you today might sound somewhat “far out”, unless you’re already aware of the profound effect of the earth’s energies on your body.

But I encourage you to bear with me, as this knowledge can really take your health, and your life, to the next level.

We’re coming up to an equinox and the two equinoxes are hands down the best times of the year to detox.

In fact, not only are they the two times of year when your body naturally has the highest energy for pushing toxicity out of your cells – but they are also the two times of year when your body absolutely must undergo a big “clearing out”. Hinder its efforts to do this and you can set yourself up for a whole season of low energy and even ill health.

Let’s back up a little. The word ‘equinox’ means ‘equal day and equal night’. After the autumn equinox, the days get shorter and the nights get longer (and vice versa after the spring equinox).

Your body is designed to go through a deep detox at the time of the autumn equinox, and this is its big preparation for winter. During winter the fluids in your body naturally thicken but as long as you’ve gone through this autumn cleanse first, things still stay moving (albeit naturally at a slower rate, due to the season). And at the end of the winter comes the spring equinox, when the body is designed to throw off what’s accumulated during this slower time.

If you’re living the standard lifestyle, it’s easy to be completely oblivious to all of this. The cleaner your body is, the more you’ll feel the equinoxes, and if you’re really clean you’ll really feel the full force of the earth’s energy at this time.

But regardless of whether we’re aware of it or not, as College of Natural Nutrition founder and director Barbara Wren writes in her book Cellular Awakening: How your body holds and creates light, at the time of the equinoxes,

“There is a huge surge of energy which detoxifies our cells. […] Our bodies work hard to take full advantage of the high energy of the equinoxes as a means of clearing toxicity. Although the equinoxes are times of potential healing through the removal of a high level of toxicity, they are also potentially times when the body can become overwhelmed and be unable to move on in a positive direction. This could be an inability to fully resolve an acute illness, so symptoms drag on for weeks or months afterwards.”

If you’ve noticed that many people get colds or ‘flu around the times of the equinoxes, this is why. But if it happens to you, don’t take it as a bad sign. Acute illnesses are the body’s way of throwing off toxicity and they arise when we really need to do that. But that’s not to say that not getting ill at this time is necessarily a sign of health; in some people it’s the very opposite: they are so toxic that their body no longer has the energy to mount a detoxifying acute illness.

Many people who’ve moved to a cleansing lifestyle find that they have the biggest ‘flu they’ve had in their lives at this time of year. Five years ago this happened to me when I started a juice fast and was soon in the midst of my “worst” acute illness ever: a sore throat that lasted three weeks and was so painful it was hard even to sip water or juice. But after that my health and energy recalibrated at a new and higher level: it had been a really major cleansing.

So if you develop a cold or sore throat at this time, just know that your cells are throwing off a lot of toxicity and that it is especially important that you support this process by taking care of yourself, getting enough rest and eating lightly.

Your cells will throw out a huge amount of toxicity at this time even if you’re not doing anything. But if you don’t support your body through it, your organs of elimination won’t be able to keep up with what’s being thrown at them and sooner or later it will start to back up and get stuck in your bloodstream.

This will cause your blood sugar to drop and you’ll find yourself strongly pulled back into any past patterns of addictive behaviour, whether that’s to sugar, caffeine or harder drugs. Succumb to temptation and you’ll only become more blocked and may set the stage for a very low winter, or even for a chronic illness.

You can avoid going down this road by being aware of the massive effort your body is making right now to throw off toxicity, and supporting it in its efforts to do so.

The secrets to doing that are:

  1. Centre your diet around alkalising whole foods, especially vegetable juices, green smoothies, raw soups and salads.
  2. Get plenty of rest to leave your body maximum energy for its cleansing endeavours. Most importantly, aim to be in bed by 9pm every night, and asleep by 10 as your organs of elimination require those two hours of sleep before midnight in order to function optimally.
  3. Consider a period on just raw juice for a deeper detox in the run-up to the equinox.

As Elson M. Haas, M.D. writes in Staying Healthy With the Seasons, “A week of so of juice cleansing in early autumn will give you a boost of energy and may eliminate any potential illnesses you have stored away, either by flushing out excesses or by improving organ functions.”

If you’ve never experimented with a raw juice only regime before, why not try it on the day of the equinox itself. The next step up would be that day and a day either side. And if you’re an experienced juice faster and in good health, then a juice only regime for several days before and after the equinox will really set you up for the coming season.

And even if a juice-only regime isn’t for you, add a daily green juice to your alkalising diet: it will be profoundly powerful in helping your body pull that toxicity out of your cells.

The take-home message here is that you can’t avoid the autumn (or spring) clean. The shift in energy that takes place at the equinoxes will throw toxicity out of your cells whether you like it or not. But depending on what you do, you will either move in a direction of greater healing or greater dis-ease – and with a little knowledge, planning and effort it’s easy to make sure it’s the former.

7 Comments

  • Sarah,
    Thank you so much for such an informative article. I certainly will be working with the equinox and my body this week. Glad I read the article to schedule my juice feast.

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  • Thank you for this information. I am planning a three day Fall equinox juice cleanse. What do you think are the best vegetables and fruits to use? I live in South Florida.
    Thanks!

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    • Any that are local and in season, with the emphasis on the vegetables, as fruit juices introduce a very concentrated source of sugar into your system, very quickly. It’s a good idea to always make your juices at least three-quarters veggies. Best of luck with it!

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  • What a great post! Just coming off a one week juice fast and teaching a detox class this evening exactly 14 days before the fall equinox – perfect timing. Thanks for the informative insight!

    Namasté
    Sandra

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  • This is fascinating ! I’m looking at some detox bath recipes to get me kick started with a detox in the run up to the 23rd.

    Thanks very much for this inspiring information and please post more articles like this !! 🙂

    Jamie

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