Transparency and Confessions. People always ask me how I ease into detox mode. I have gone into this in the past, but I haven’t always been ready to give you all the nitty-gritty details.

Now I am.

I’m ready to get real with you. Instead of just telling you what YOU should do, I’m going to tell you how things actually go down for me.

After 15 years of leading this posse, I find my bio-rhythms shift into detox mode organically a week or two before the live detox begins. My kitchen starts to look ½ kitchen and ½ laboratory.

This October detox season, I’m going deeper into cold showers. I’ll be talking a lot about this, and about relaxing, receiving, and releasing. I always teach what is current for me.

Themes for Live Yogidetox (starts October 9)

1. Cold showers/ cold plunging and how it strengthens your immune and nervous systems.
2. Spending more time NOT doing to focus on relaxing, receiving, and releasing.

I have been talking about cold plunging for well over a year now. Those who have done a detox or course with me know how cold plunging and cryotherapy have changed my life.

For those who don’t know, listen to this episode of the Yogahealer Real Life Show for the full story.

Here are a few reasons why I love cold plunging:

• It wakes me up and increases my overall daily energy
• It challenges my neural pathways to be OK with discomfort
• My body runs more efficiently
• It helps to dissolve fat tissue (ama) because it reduces inflammation (therefore also reducing injury)
• I sleep better! (I’ll talk a lot about this in the detox)

If you’re curious and haven’t tried it yet, I recommend starting slow. At the end of your next shower, turn the water down a bit (until it feels a little uncomfortable) and count to ten. Then notice how you feel for the rest of the day!

Ok – back to how I ease into the Yogidetox.

2 shots espresso and 1 gallon green juice + 1 posse

= Cate’s Yogidetox Kick-off Party

We all love confessions. We rarely get the whole story behind the people we look up to.  But we all know that the devil is in the details, and that’s where my devil is, too.

Here’s my confession:

I won’t let go of espresso.. I have 2 shots every morning.

I’m not proud of the espresso shots. My liver isn’t thrilled, but the rest of me is.

The lighter I get from intermittent fasting, the more fun the espresso. My tolerance is dropping, so it’s a bit like tripping to have a double shot. I get off on it.

I have no plans to let it go, and yet, I know it will simply drop off when the detox kicks in.

First, I will start adding absurd quantities of green juice. I just called the local Grocer to speak to my buddy Art in the produce department. I ordered a fridge full of organic greens, lemons, and celery. I’ll make a gallon of juice at a time.

I’ll also shift from chocolate bars to raw cacao.

I never know exactly what will fall away when I go into a detox. But I enjoy getting very curious about it. The start of the detox is all I have to concern myself with. Just the start. Everything else will just fall into place!

Soon aloe juice and coconut juice will show up for the party. And turmeric. And coconut oil.

Definitely turmeric.

Right?

Do you follow?

See how happy my liver will become with the aloe, the coconut and the turmeric? And I’ll crave it.  Actually, I already do, so i made this smoothie this morning.

The next thing: I know I’ll be super into mate or just off stimulants b/c I’m high on prana and grounded in the absolute. Shazam.

After 20+ years of detoxing seasonally, I now know I just need to concern myself with the start.

You know how they say you are the company you keep?

I learned that from tantric scholar Douglas Brooks when I was 30. He learned it from his guru. This concept is slow for most of us to sink in due to the momentum of the past sneaking into our futures. But, Douglas said it like 29 times within a 2-day workshop, so I wrote it down and it stuck.

I’ve learned to keep good company during detox season.

I invite those I’m inspired by to be guest teachers. I invite detox leaders within Yogahealer to be course mentors.

The more potent the posse you detox with, the more potent, momentous, and easeful the experience is. Have you experienced that? It’s noteworthy. You can see how contagious a detox is. As soon as people start, they try to convince the people in their lives to detox too. But it’s not just about convincing SOME people to join you, it’s about convincing the RIGHT people.

I wasn’t taught the precept, “Those who detox together, evolve together.” But, I have found it to be true. Since I did my group detox with my Ayurveda classmates in 1998, I’ve never cleansed alone.

I even got my husband on the bandwagon. In fact, I roped Winston in even before I had all of you to join me. By 2001, I was haranguing Ayurveda clients about detoxing. In 2002 the Yogidetox kicked off in my yurt with the Teton Valley peeps – Suzanne + Karen – remember that? All 7 of us.

If you don’t detox with a posse, you like hairshirts.

I’ve come to this conclusion because both introverts and extroverts alike find that the group momentum makes the process more easeful. Together, we tap into the power of collective evolution. We tap into something that isn’t available when we go it alone.

Around 2014 I wanted to stop leading the Yogidetox. When I started the course, it was the only game in town. In state. In region. It was one of the first online detoxes. By 2014 the market had caught up to our delicious demographic. I knew if I didn’t have to lead it, I might not follow through on my own.

The posse pulled me back. They insisted I step up to the plate with my powers of organization and inspiration. I’m so glad they did. As a result, I had a few years of “light detoxes”… not the heavy duty kind. I now know the power to doing an easier, more superficial version – and that it still sets my body and household rhythms into better alignment.

Over time, as a posse, we now know that just committing to the detox is the hardest decision. After that, the posse and your intuition kick in and start delivering results. We prefer to be around thrivers than victims. Do you like to be around biohacking ego disruptors who are into exponential growth and awake living? Then you’ve found the right posse.

We all can come up with 20 tried and true reasons not to do a seasonal detox. And all those reasons are baloney. Dig deep into your reasons and you can call your own b.s. card on ones like, “I can’t give up espresso and dark chocolate and wine right now.”

So if you are planning a seasonal cleanse, like the Yogidetox, remember:

1. Add “y”in, don’t give “x” up. (I add sick quantities of green juice in, instead of focusing on giving up espresso).
2. Ease in. Don’t force anything or you will be more likely to rebound.
3. Get plenty of the good things you know your body needs.
4. Join and pull together a posse.