Tag: cleanse

Leslie Lovlin – Cleanse your Way to Balance

Posted on by Alexandra Kreis

In this podcast, we’ll travel the wonders of the holistic Ayurvedic approach to health, especially it’s wisdom in cleansing our body and mind of toxins from the busy world that Earth has become. 

And taking us into this journey is Leslie Lovlin, a clinical Ayurvedic practitioner and Panchakarma specialist from Alberta, Canada, who herself got into a life-changing ride towards Ayurveda. 

Her faith and trust in its wisdom have been tested and solidified when she had to use her knowledge of it to bring back the hope and life into her own son. From coma and hopeless diagnosis from the doctors, Leslie didn’t give up. She used her knowledge of healing through the five senses to rejuvenate her son, even if this meant tirelessly juicing up organic greens and vegetables every day, aromatherapy and oils, massage, meditation music, and surrounding him with positivity. 

Beyond the day-to-day consulting of Ayurveda, Leslie also studied it in-depth to slowly go deeper into understanding this holistic healthcare system. She specializes in Panchakarma, which is for cleansing the body and the mind. It encompasses actions for balancing, healing, and rejuvenation. She herself has undergone the program which took off so much mental ama from her. Panchakarma programs can take 3, 7 days, or longer, depending on the depth of each individual issue. It can also be done at home if you work with a specialist to guide you through. 

This conversation is an exchange of experiences between two holistic health specialists and offers a credible sneak peek to the many wonders of Ayurveda. But more importantly, Leslie and Alex share this informed discourse about the information and methods widely available nowadays to anyone who wants to take a shift and implement changes in their lifestyles. 

After all, as Leslie puts it, “[w]e all are our own guru if we learn to listen. That is what Ayurveda teaches us.” 

 

Links mention in the podcast

Podcast Highlights

  • Panchakarma took off so much mental ama; it cleansed out mental toxicity from me. It must’ve gradually happened but I just noticed that the things that used to affect me did not affect me anymore. – Leslie Lovlin 
  • There are so many programs out there. But it’s always great to start with yourself. You learn best through embodying it. If you don’t have a clear understanding of where you’re at, it can be more confusing and overwhelming, pushing people to drop off. – Leslie Lovlin 
  • Best to do two cleanses in the conjunction of the year—twice a year, spring and fall. In early spring, we are removing the accumulation of Kapha that happened over the winter and in the fall, we cleanse to prepare for the winter. They’re similar but different cleanses. – Leslie Lovlin 
  • When I’m talking as Ayurvedic and holistic practitioners, I never try to exclude conventional medicine. But I would always say that your health is a good investment. Always go the extra mile. – Alexandra Kreis 
  • Ayurveda teaches us to take responsibility for ourselves. We have relied too much on the quick fix. The more we take responsibility for our health, the more we become truly empowered. – Leslie Lovlin 
  • We all go out of balance; that’s human nature. But the more we understand who we are, the easier it is for ourselves to go back in. – Leslie Lovlin 

 

Guest Bio:

Leslie Lovlin is a clinical Ayurvedic practitioner and Panchakarma specialist from Alberta, Canada. Her passion is to “help guide people to heal energetically, physically, and emotionally and educate them on changing the way they live in order to change the way they feel and age.” Leslie studied and put on some real hard work in her passion earning her titles such as Ayurvedic Health Counselor, Ayurvedic Practitioner, Ayurvedic Massage & Bodywork Therapist, Panchakarma specialist, Ayurvedic Spa Specialist, Registered Yoga Teacher, Meditation Teacher, Reiki Master, and Reconnective Healer. 

 

What is Ayurvedic Cleansing and Why Does it Matter?

Posted on by Alexandra Kreis

After a weekend yoga practice, my friend-students and I would usually grab lunch and talk for hours about our practice, wellness choices, and everything that our meal’s taste would take our mood to feel like talking about. Sometimes, we’d get into a heated discussion because one of my friends would always like to play the skeptic one. Yeah, somewhat like a ‘devil’s advocate’, testing our other friends how persistent they are in their health goals. (I think you’d agree, there’s always that someone. But it’s not always a bad thing!)

So that friend of ours posted the debate question: Is there really such a thing as a detox regimen? Isn’t our body is designed to excrete the toxins on its own?

Well, the lunch had to spill over to the afternoon tea break! But I’m just proud of how that health(y) ‘debate’ stirs the interest to continue learning about and a deeper understanding of the many health pathways available to us these days. (And I believe that’s the most important!)

ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTION 

Yes, our body is incredible! It’s built-in perfect harmony with nature—taking in and out what nourishes it and what can potentially harm it. But that had only been true when that harmony has not been disturbed by the many things that we now call ‘modern life.’

 Our modern life in this modern world is incredibly toxic. We are assaulted by pollution in the air, in our homes, in the foods we eat, and in the clothes, we wear on a daily basis. Our livestock is treated with antibiotics; our crops are sprayed with powerful pesticides and artificial fertilizers.

With the overload of toxins in and around us, that innate capability of the body to detox is impaired with overwhelm. Constant toxic overwhelm.

That being said, the more relevant question today is WHEN. That’s why in my previous blogs and sessions, I always tell people: Listen to your body. Watch out for those signs telling that your body has reached again its toxic threshold.

AYURVEDIC CLEANSE

As an Ayurvedic practitioner and health coach, I felt that it’s my duty to help people navigate such discussions. Because one of the pillars of my practice, in fact, is detox and cleanse.

In Ayurveda, a cleanse is a vital part of the strategy to balance. At its core, an Ayurvedic cleanse is focused on drawing ama (natural toxins) and excess Vata, pitta, and Kapha out of the tissues and into the digestive tract so that they can be eliminated and move things back into balance.

An Ayurvedic cleanse improves the strength of agni (the metabolic fire) in the GI tract and throughout the body by resting and purifying the digestive system. Ayurveda sees balanced agni as one of the most important requirements in achieving optimal health. 

GETTING YOU READY FOR THE NEW YOU

Some of the most common benefits of an Ayurvedic Cleanse include:

  • Promote regular and balanced elimination of body waste.
  • Support the maintenance of healthy body weight.
  • Restore and maintain balanced sleep cycles.
  • Recover each individual’s natural state of balance.
  • Restore a sense of calm to the mind and the nervous system.
  • Nurture an improved sense of energy, vitality, and enthusiasm for life.
  • Foster both clarity and groundedness in the mental, spiritual, and emotional spheres.
  • Prepare the tissues for deep nourishment and rejuvenation.

 The operating principle of an Ayurvedic cleanse is to lower the fire (metabolic) and slow down the body to give time for your organs to adjust to what’s coming next. Your body’s daily grind plus the constant influx of toxins is just tiring for your body. By eating a mono-diet, supported by herbal teas and other supplements PLUS a mind and spirit detox through yoga and meditation, you are giving yourself time to remove yourself from the outer environment.

This is why an Ayurvedic cleanse is best done at the junctures of the year when the weather turns cooler or cold and warm or hot. It gives our bodies a chance to release whatever’s stored up throughout the summer or the winter. And ultimately, it gives you time to adjust yourself to the new tempo of the year or season or whatever new phase you are about to enter—a time to recharge, process, and get ready the healthier YOU!

Why should I do a spring cleanse/detox?

Posted on by Alexandra Kreis

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Why you want to do a spring cleanse if the body can heal itself all the time

– An ayurvedic perspective.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row padding_top=”0px” padding_bottom=”0px”][vc_column fade_animation_offset=”45px”][vc_column_text]The sun comes up. The air is getting warmer and I sense a spell of relief running through me.

Ah – finally spring is on our doorstep.

And while I am inhaling happily the joy of warmer days a thought pushes me of my high horse: ‘Spring brings about runny noses, congested eyes and sneezes’

 

What to do?

Some people go through their healing in different phases of life; with different remedies and at all seasons.

In fact, healing can happen all the time. And still, healing can move faster and smoother if we allow the forces of nature to assist us.

 

Let me put this into a picture for you.

Healing to me is like ‘cleaning up’. And like anything in your house, you will clean up what is dirty and not only focus on one part of your living space. So there is time for healing of emotions, time for healing your physiology and time to heal through diet.

So why not use what nature gifts us with to make more use of healing through adjusting your food patterns for a moment, to achieve an optimum in your physiology and ignite the power of self-healing.

 

How does that work exactly?

In the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda, they consider the year to have truly only 2 seasons. they speak of the cooling and cold season (autumn and winter) and the warming and hot season (spring and summer).

Those ‘two’ seasons shift our desires in food. Warming and heating foods in the earlier cool season and lighter and cooling foods (like salads, fresh and juicy fruits) in the warmer season.

But with every teaching, we want to find the entrance point, where things are not at the height of their quality. So from this point of view, spring (=warming up to summer) is the point where the element fire starts to come up slowly.

 

Why is this so important?

Have you ever observed a fireplace? What happens if you put old oils with residues of pollution into the fire? The flames go high, burn quickly and leave a stink.

This is the same for your body. Fire is associated with digestion (transforming and burning foods). If your inner fire rises with the outer heat (like increases like) you are likely to burn through old foods and residues of undigested things from winter.

However, if you lighten the load, by decreasing your  (food) input, you will assist your body in doing what it wants to do anyways – clean up the house.

Your own body wisdom and in fact more clearly everything your body can do by itself, is enhanced when you give it the right space to mend itself.

In this manner, the body has the capabilities to heal, once it is aligned with its natural inner rhythm and workings.

Once all systems and channels are cleared, you will benefit from it by feeling you have a stronger immune system.

And with a stronger immune system, you are less likely to have allergic reactions that stem from your own system not being able to work full power. Why else would the body react to what we call nature and in itself is friendly? Why does our body react with a ‘wrong self-defense’. This is what your body does when you have allergic symptoms – it tries to eliminate wastes while it is perceiving nature as a thread.

 

Invitation to online detox

Not all cleanses are fasts.

And not everybody is capable of doing a traditional ayurvedic cleanse. These days I often assist people in finding, what is truly helpful for them.

So if you like to go through an innerspring clean, you can jump onto my Guided Ayurvedic Cleanse and work out what is working for you.

 

Join me in April to get ready to tend to your fire and kindle it so it shines bright and radiant.

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Ayurvedic Cleanse: Shifts your mind and body into ease

Posted on by Alexandra Kreis

Ayurvedic cleanse is the balancing of the digestive system by eating a so-called mono-diet that helps to flush out toxins on all levels. When done at the right time it goes quite fast as the outer nature (shift in weather) is helping shift your body

It’s getting cold again. And 2020 is about to approach its last quarter just like that! Time really flies! Even if a lot of us might have actually spent the past months just watching the days, weeks and months go by.

But hey, that’s fine. I remember one of my conversations with my husband; we talked about the invaluable lessons this overwhelming series of uncertainty (at least in recent decades) has taught us. Indeed, it provided a breathing space for our dear ecosystem and for every single life form in it, including us human beings. For sure, everyone has a story to share of inner journeying during this time of limited outer travel (literally!).

But there’s absolutely one thing that you can’t just watch pass by even if things are at a slow down: YOUR HEALTH.

We might all be unassumingly watching the days but we gotta be ready for the approaching cold and change of weather. And one superbly easy and effective way to ready up your body (and mind, too) is to do an Ayurvedic cleanse.

But first things first: … is not fast.

Surprised? You heard that right! Not at all and maybe not necessarily.

Ayurvedic Cleanse

 

This is exactly the reason why we do it at the junctures of the year when the weather turns cooler or cold and warm or hot. It gives our bodies a chance to release whatever’s stored up throughout the summer or the winter.

By eating simplified food all the time throughout the cleanse, it becomes a time to remove yourself from the outer environment. It becomes a time to recharge, digest, and process whatever’s coming up for you.

I found a good analogy to explain this further:

Have you ever observed a fireplace? What happens if you put old oils with residues of pollution into the fire? The flames go high, burn quickly, and leave a stink.

This is the same for your body. Fire is associated with digestion (transforming and burning foods). If your inner fire rises with the outer heat (like increases like) you are likely to burn through old foods and residues of undigested things from winter.

However, if you lighten the load, by decreasing your (food) input, you will assist your body in doing what it wants to do anyways – clean up the house.

Our bodies in their natural state have the most amazing depth of wisdom in healing. And that wisdom gets more enhanced when we give it the right space to mend itself. That’s what cleansers do.

Once our bodies AND minds (don’t forget it’s a combo!) are aligned with its natural inner rhythm and workings, we get the best fighting chance against naturally-occurring health troubles. That means we don’t actually have to go through the hassle of getting caught up with the seasonal flu and colds, allergies, upsets, among many others. An Ayurvedic cleanse makes sure you don’t wait-and-see how your body’s gonna put up with the season’s challenges.

So, are your systems and channels ready? Connect on Free Healthy Habit Session with me if you need and want help!