The sheer amount of extreme advice and number of expensive products claiming to calm and detoxify your body is hard to believe! Here’s a list of free and inexpensive ways to calm down your system and activate your parasympathetic nervous system to promote detoxification and healing.
1. Forest bathing
One of the most important methods of calming down and detoxing your body is through the practice of forest bathing. Forest bathing may look different for each of us. For me, it involves walking slowly, practicing mindfulness meditation, and/or practicing yoga or stretching by myself in a forest. Sometimes I even have a tea and snack to lengthen my stay and enrich the experience! I often practice grounding by removing my shoes when the weather is warmer. Forest bathing calms down the parasympathetic nervous system, and it also helps to negatively charge ions in the body which are depleted through spending time in synthetic environments that positively charge ions in the body.
2. Activate your right brain
As an adult, we spend a lot of time thinking, analyzing, judging, and trying to understand – these are all left brain activities. On the other hand, we tend to spend very little time “letting go” and drifting into more feeling-dominated sensual endeavours. To activate the right brain, let go of your inner dialogue and try an activity that requires your full attention and focus fully on the experience. Some of my current favourites include painting with natural inks, knitting, weaving willow, gardening, swimming in lakes, and forest bathing.
3. Nose breathing
Another way to activate the parasympathetic nervous system to calm down your body is through nose breathing. Take a moment and reflect on your breathing. Do you breath through your nose, or through your mouth? Breathing through the mouth activates the sympathetic nervous system which causes a stress response in the body. It can be difficult to switch to nose breathing, especially if you’ve been a mouth breather your entire life! Start by breathing through your nose while meditating, eating, and try taping the middle of your mouth shut over night with a small piece of hypoallergenic medical tape (leaving room at the sides open in case it’s needed). With a bit of practice, you will notice the benefits, gaining new airway muscles that make it easier and more enjoyable!
4. Maintain a regular wake and sleep schedule
Our bodies like routine and another great way to gain a greater sense of calm is to maintain a regular sleeping and waking schedule. The premise is simple – just go to sleep at the same time each day, and wake up at the same time each day. Aim to align your schedule as closely with the circadian rhythms of the sun as possible by getting up around sunrise and going to sleep around 10pm to ensure a minimum of 8 hours of sleep. To enhance your enjoyment of waking up early, try to go for a walk to see the sunrise each day. The red light has a calming and energizing effect on the body and is a great way to bring a sense of calm and peace before diving into the day!
5. Sleep in a cool, dark room
Ever find yourself waking up from being too hot over night? Our bodies do best when sleeping in a cool, dark room. Invest in some blackout window coverings (if you live somewhere with nearby outdoor lighting) and turn down the temperature to around 16-18 degrees Celsius for an optimal sleeping experience.
6. Intermittent fasting
When I first heard of intermittent fasting, my first thought was “no way, this will never be something that works for me!”, yet here I am, experiencing the benefits of intermittent fasting. It truly hasn’t been as hard as I thought it would be. Intermittent fasting involves condensing your calories consumed into a specific window each day, and not consuming calories during the remaining hours. For me, I find that eating between 8:30am and 6:30pm each day works really well for me with my schedule. Between 6:30pm and 8:30am I drink water and herbal tea, which gives the body time to rest, heal and regenerate cells, and detoxify. I found the trick is to ensure that you eat enough calorie dense food between 8:30am and 6:30pm each day and to not load up on foods that are high in sugar or simple carbohydrates.
7. Electricity and wireless technologies
Wireless internet, cell phones, and electricity stimulate the nervous system. One simple way to calm down the body and increase it’s ability to detoxify is to turn off the WIFI (ideally use only wired internet in your home for best practise), turn your cell phone off (or turn on airplane mode and turn off bluetooth) and store it away from your sleeping area, and turn off the electrical circuits around your sleeping area at night. This helps to reduce the levels of stress in your body to ensure a great night of sleeping!
8. Meditation and breathing
When was the last time you took time to yourself and focused on your breathing? Most people breathe fast shallow breaths, and many breathe through their mouth. Our breathing tells our bodies whether we are safe or in a stressful situation (even if we’re not!). By breathing slow deep breaths in and out through our nose, we tell our bodies that we are safe, which calms the body. If you are new to nose breathing, start by taking deep breaths in through the nose, holding for a moment, and then breathing out through the nose. You may also wish to try breathing in for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, and then breathing our for 4-6 seconds and see how you feel.
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