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I first learned how to cleanse from Ayurveda world. This entailed drinking ghee (clarified butter), eating kitchari (rice, mung beans & curry spices), purging with castor oil, snorting oil up my nostrils, doing herbal and oil enemas. I’ve taught this way of cleansing for the last decade because of it works. It works for a lot of people. And it doesn’t work for a lot of people.

I hypothesize kitchari cleanses don’t work for those people for two general reasons:

1. Some people gag on kitchari. During of the very first kitchari cleanses I led in 2002 a member couldn’t bring herself to eat kitchari again after her first bowl. She was quite discouraged, and I shifted her to a green alkalizing diet with rice and dhal as a side note. The same thing happened to another cleanser the following year. In my empirical data,I’ve find this is is true for more kapha metabolic types than anything other factor I can recognize. Also, some of those who come to the cleanse from a diet that includes fresh green juices find kitchari monodiet less energizing.
2. Kitchari can be constipating (mostly vatas or those with weak agni)

After years of eager cleansing clients becoming discouraged from their constipation or their husband’s refusal to eat another bite of kitchari I started to play around with the yoginis’ suggestions. Everyone wanted more green vegetables. My tribe was steering me towards experimenting with juicing and chlorophyll enemas. I started to juice fast, master cleanse, eat a mostly raw diet, sprout a cornucopia, harvest local wild superfoods . All the while I applied the principles of Ayurveda.

Looking back yogidetox after yogidetox my tribe evolves the process. We are a group dedicated to the growth edge of health evolution. We’re not afraid to break the rules in search of truth and awaken the principles of the wisdom traditions to modern efficacy.

And what do I find? It’s the inner body anatomy principles that uphold. The principles of tridosha are revealed now an ultimate simplicity that we can apply to what our bodies ultimately desire for nourishment and high vibration capacity. Here is what it’s all about:
Vata = Prana
Pitta = Enzymes
Kapha =Nutrients
Plants that are incinerated above 115’ (or thereabouts) lose their enzymes, prana, and nutrients. Doh.

Look at the pictures below of fresh juices and fresh mung bean kitchari.
What are you attracted to?

We are in a time of detox exploration. Kitchari works for those who are moving from a heavy cooked diet to a lighter cooked diet. Kitchari is sattvic – or peaceful. It’s grounding and nourishing, especially for Vatas. However, it’s not high in prana, enzymes or nutrients.

Vaidyas (Ayurvedic gurus) have argued for the last cultural duration that raw foods are too rajasic. Meaning they increase the hot and mobile qualities. Vaidyas have also put forth that living food denigrates agni. My guess is that if they had applied their principles of the 6 tastes, food fermentation, sprouting and juicing (turns out juicers have been around longer than we thought) to the bodytypes (what’s your dosha) they would have figured it out.

But why didn’t the vaidyas figure it out? Why was it the yogis? Ah, we come to the crux. The yogis experiment with their bodies and see what works to become a pretzel. The vaidyas go to med school, study subtle anatomy and memorize sutras. They are a heady bunch and they’ve been largely influenced by their mother’s cooking (their Indians) and the western medical model (diagnose and treat). They lost the personal experimentation gene of the wisdom traditions. Doh.

Back to the inquiry: what is a living foods Ayurveda cleanse?

In a sentence, a yogidetox is use-you-body-as-a-science-lab experiment to awaken your personal physical and metaphysical evolution. We detox the stuck energy (and excess fat) in your tissue with prana, enzymes and nutrients). It’s your personal experiment – so you are the driver. You take responsibility for integrating revelations and insights that become self evident. You awaken inner inspiration to transform your choices moving forward. You uplevel your capacity of inner body bright ( and shiny).

And what is interesting is we’re seeing a shift in modern day ayurveda. The famous PK team, Drs. Bryan and Light are using wheatgrass shots in their pancha karma program (see Light on Ayurveda Journal, spring 2011). The Millers state, “We give each PK client four cups of vegetable/fruit/herb juice each day and a shot glass of wheatgrass juice.” They go on to describe, “these fresh juices are full of prams, enzymes and nutrients,” and mention the chelating effects of greens. While Dr. John Douillard is sticking to kitchari cleansing, he advocates a highly alkaline (fruit and vegetable diet) when not cleansing.

In a nutshell, here is my approach to what works:

• Fresh green juices

• Constitutional awareness
• Old school techniques (enemas, nostril oils, oil massage, skin brushing, tongue scraping, and agni worship – or keeping close watch of your digestive fire).
• Wild local superfoods
• Anusara yoga to loosen up the deeper tissue
• Hot water therapy (drinking hot water)
• Simple high nutrient enzyme-intact high prana foods

A cleanse should leave you (and your family) craving:

• Prana (life force of plants and sun)
• Enzymes
• Nutrients (vitamins, minerals, unquantifiables)
• Local and wild superfoods (see Indy with our local wild rosehips)
• To grow food in your kitchen (sprouts) and in your yard

And this is what I walk you through in my May Cleanse.
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