At Home Cultural Detox Retreat

Video Introduction and Guidelines

Self-led At Home Cultural Detox Retreat

Introduction & Guidelines

Dedicate yourself to a week of Cultural Detox.  By following the gentle guidelines, and sinking into your own unique flow, you can appreciate feeling more and more yourself – greater ease in the body, increased peace, balance, and wholeness.

DISCUSSION TOPICS:

Monday – What Role Does Meditation & Prayer Play in Health?
Tuesday – The Great Outdoors Our True Home
Wednesday – Nutrition & Food Combining
Thursday – Detoxification as a Way of Life

Friday will begin a 3 day Cultural Detox Retreat in Kennett Square PA that begins with a ThanksGiving delicious meal, Saturday at the Spa and vision boarding / trance dance in the evening, closing with Shamanic Hike Sunday.  All meals are included and are delicious works of art!

Guidelines:

During the retreat you are asked to keep these 5 basic codes of conduct

• Abstain from intentionally killing or harming any living being.
• Abstain from taking what is not given.
• Abstain from sensual misconduct (excess and extremes and also sexual relations with someone in another relationship)
• Abstain from speaking lies, harsh speech, divisive speech, and gossip.
• Abstain from taking drugs or alcohol.

You are living Cultural Detox as a Way of Life during this retreat. This is interwoven into life and united inseparably.  Keep working, going to school, working at home, or doing whatever you normally do each day during this retreat. This develops the positive habits that are really valuable for day to day life.

Its a good idea to choose a “spiritual friend” who knows what you are doing, and is able to support you throughout your process – perhaps someone who is also doing the retreat and check in every day. 

Leave aside:

All forms of media; News Paper, Magazines, Radio, Television, Facebook,Youtube, unnecessary Website Browsing, Movies, Video Games

Enjoy:

Creative endeavors, art, poetry, dance, organizing, writing, painting, the great outdoors, meeting with friends, doing something new each day.

Breathing:

Practice your preferred breathing exercise every day.  Breathe deeply outdoors amidst nature.  Breathe throughout the day more and more consciously, relaxed, deeply – enjoy and appreciate the breath.  Take breaks throughout your day to practice -> you can find at least 3 different breathing practices at CulturalDetox.com.

Hydration:

Drink half your body weight in water oz a day.  First thing upon waking, before even getting out of bed, take the water you placed the night before and drink 16 – 32 oz of water to awaken the digestive system and flush out the old in preparation for the new.

Drink water free of fluoride.  Most ideally fresh spring water, distilled water, or reverse osmosis water.  Filtered tap water does not get rid of some of the elements that the body works to eliminate.  By putting these back into your body you are working against the natural processed of detoxification that your body is designed to perform.

Drink water before meals or between meals.  Wait at least an hour and a half after a meal before drinking water, as the water will dilute the digestive enzymes and stomach acid, making the digestive process less effective, and absorption not as efficient.

Nutrition:

Eliminate sugar in all forms (fruit and raw honey are okay), processed / packaged foods, flour, breads, caffeine, preservatives and chemical additives found in foods, spicy foods.

Enjoy fresh local organic fruits, vegetables, grains.  Prepare hearty soups.  Warm herbal teas.

Organic & or Raw Dairy, eggs, and free range grass fed animal products are acceptable, however if you are able to appreciate this week animal product free your body will have a lot more energy available to it to do other things.  And will not miss anything for a mere 7 days.  These foods are more complicated to break down, process, absorb, and use, and so require more energy that could be used in other processes.

Practice Food Stacking or Food Combining (See Combining Charts Below)
Some foods digest more quickly than others.  Some need a specific enzyme or unique combination of processes to digest than others.  Each time we eat, the body gathers as much information as possible about the food via the senses and begins to create exactly what is needed to digest the food.  When we mix a lot of different types of foods together, eat complicated or processed foods, or eat in an order or combination that is counter efficient – this can make the nutrients, minerals, and energy of the food we eat unavailable.  It can require a lot of energy to break down and make usable.  It can create undesireable effects such as gas, bloating, burping, upset stomach, dis-eases of all sorts.

So we want to focus on eating simply, in a way that works with our bodies natural processes – so that the minimum amount of energy is required, and our body utilizes maximum amount of resources from each meal.

In summary.  Water should be taken on its own before a meal.  Fruits digest fastest.  Then leafy greens, then veggies, then the more starchy veggies.  And then we have carbohydrates, and lastly the proteins.  If we decide to appreciate a nourishing meal consisting of all of those elements a harmonious way to eat them would be – first drink our water, ideally at least 15 minutes before the meal.  Then eat the fruit first, then a salad, then any cooked veggies, then our potato or rice or grain, then our heavier protein such as lentils or eggs.

Movement:

Every day practice yoga, run, or at least one form of exercise / physical movement.  Recommended daily 13 joint Exercises and Morning Bed Exercises can be found here.

Rest:

Every day go to sleep early, so that you have AT LEAST 8 hours of sleep each night.  Without unnecessary distractions there is more time for rest.  You will be amazed at how much more present you feel, how well the mind works, the improvement in memory, clarity, and countless other benefits.

Detox:

Ideas ~ Go to the spa, take a day to fast or drink only fresh juice or eat only fruit, use a neti pot, foot ionizer, or have a colonic.  Join us in Kennett Square for a 3 day Cultural Detox Weekend.

Cultural Detox Weekend Summary:
Friday evening we enjoy a very delicious, beautiful, and nutritious ThanksGiving meal together.  Saturday morning wake with Yoga, Prayer, and Meditation.  Enjoy a superfood smoothie and then head off to the Russian Banya for purification practices.  We return for rest, and an evening of life visioning, vision boarding, and trance dance.  Sunday morning we wake with movement and meditation, enjoy superfood smoothie, head off to the woods for a Shamanic Hike, and afterwards close with a warm meal.  The weekend is a harmonious healthy flow, with good company, good activities, high energy, and lots of love.

Meditation & Prayer:

Every day create 5 – 15 minutes to sit, be still, and go inside every morning and evening.  This is a time to just relax, to rest, to be.  Without judgement, without any need to achieve anything.  True meditation is beyond ideas of anything meditation IS – true meditation occurs when we just let go and be.  In this space, in this stillness, address the universe, god, creator, source.  Speak out loud or inside sincerely.  Share yourself.  Ask for guidance, for help, for anything you need.  Express gratitude for all that you have, and all the blessings that surround us every moment.  Ask for help for others, for people or places around the world.  Do this authentically, even if it may feel uncomfortable, be sincere in your uncomfortableness, you can say I feel uncomfortable.  Just do your best.  Every day first thing when you wake up, and last thing before you go to bed.  Sit, be still, and pray – to each their own way.

If you feel you’d like more guidance than this, you can see candle flame meditation, and heart breathing meditation or check out the Toolbox Section