The Toxin Avenger – Your Lymphatic System

Your body is such an amazing piece of art. When you really sit and ponder the human body, the mechanics behind it are mind blowing and confusing yet simple and very intuitive. Your body is the home of your spirit. The health of your body and mind is directly related to and affected by your soul, your spirit, your faith – whatever you may call it – god, universe, the almighty. All words for the same creative entity behind human beings. We were created for a purpose with a purpose. Let’s take a closer look at your home, and see if it needs some sprucing up. The Lymphatic System is your Toxic Waste removal system which requires Manual Stimulation from time to time.

Are you experiencing any of the following for more than a few days at a time:

• Lethargy

• Anxiety

• Mental fog

• Weight gain

• Cellulite

• Acne

• Skin irritations

• Digestive issues

This is a very short list of what is affected when the Lymphatic System is over wrought with toxic congestion.

When there is a lymphatic system issue, there is a digestive issue right behind it. Humans digest things in various ways – with your mouth(taste), eyes(sight), ears(sound), nose(smell) and skin(touch). What you see with your eyes, doesn’t stop at the eyes. If it’s powerful enough, it will soak into your being, into your cells until it gets understood by your brain and body. Sometimes, when no understanding comes, it sets up camp and lives as part of you, within you, until it is finally “digested” and either used or eliminated. This is how we are taught that the digestive system works. You eat; nutrients are transformed and sent out into the body to nourish cells that keep blood and organs and tissue and bone and muscle healthy; and eliminate that which we either cannot digest well or what is simply waste by-product. The same digestion happens with your other senses.

If your GI tract is not digesting food optimally, it may cause excess weight gain or loss, but it will eventually make you unhealthy. What is a healthy GI tract? Just to name a few:

• Unprovoked elimination within an hour of waking

• No gas or heartburn

• No bad breath

• Clear mental focus

• No constipation or diarrhea

• General overall sense of well-being and happiness

When food goes out into the body to be absorbed and used to perform their respective functions, the cells take what they need, discard the rest and it moves either, onto another cell for usage or moves through the lymph system to be cleaned and recycled or just plain eliminated. When we eat for our body, and not for comfort or sorrow, we are feeding the body the fuel it requires to function optimally. The system and cycles work like clockwork. We are more happy, focused, friendly, loving and gracious creatures.

Enter Toxic Avenger

Then, how do toxins build up in the body if we have a built-in toxin removal system? What causes it to malfunction? How can I prevent the break down?

When we eat foods and take drink that is not in our best interest i.e. eating when not hungry, too full, with unpleasant surroundings or people, eating on the run, eating processed foods and ice cold drinks…the body works very hard to transform these into usable nutrition for the body. One does not just overrun their immune system overnight. Since these things are toxic to our body, the lymphatic system becomes extremely slow moving and can start to create malfunctions of the very system that was provided to cleanse the blood. Congestion sets in and sometimes, even the lymph nodes become so full of toxins they leak. They leak into the spaces between structures in the body.

And what are they leaking? Literally, toxic waste. Unusable, unfiltered toxic waste. Because the lymph system’s job is to gather the waste in the body, get it filtered by the heart and lungs and liver and then either eliminate it, or turn it into fresh new healthy red blood cells. Again, this system doesn’t malfunction over night. Over time, these toxins build up, creating blockages, interstitial fluid retention – all leading to more serious health conditions.

We are the toxic avengers. We all are OUR OWN toxic avengers, should we choose to accept the challenge and responsibility. And here are a few ways I have found personally, gathered and researched that, if done consistently and consciously, will work wonders and promote your healthy, long life.

So where do we start? We start where you are today, right now. Ask yourself the questions presented here at the end of each explanation support action item. Tell you what it all means when you’re done.

Number One: Practice True Nutritional Support

• cooking from scratch. real food is real ingredients – free from chemicals and additives that are… toxic to your body systems over long periods of time. Eating as close to a foods natural state, like just eating an orange, is the best choice to make for certain body types. Others may need the added help of cooking (aka transformation) their food in order to get the metabolism moving and assimilation with less hurdles. Use less sugar and pink Himalayan sea salt. Learn how to use fresh cilantro, cucumbers, parsley, fennel and cumin in your cooking. Don’t forget the love.

EXERCISE: When was the last time you cooked from home?

• warm or hot beverages. Anyone who’s been into our holistic center will tell you, they heard this from me. Humor me and trade your cold, iced beverages at meals times in for hot or warm clear, beautiful H20. For so many reasons, that I cannot go into in this article, but for the sake of the lymph system, take my advice. It will be the number one way of losing weight and cleaning out the congested pathways of your lymph system. Drink plenty of water, you say? Drink more.

EXERCISE: How much water do you really drink every day?

• developing and maintaining a positive self-worth – nutrition for the heart and soul. Maybe it’s the dilemma of women, the spiral of our generation or the burden of mankind – but having positive self-worth can be a daily, constant, annoying struggle to survive. If we don’t like who we are, why bother taking care of ourselves. If we don’t think we are worth the time and effort, meh, why bother. If no one tells me I’m great, does that mean I am not great? When did we become such sniveling, whiny victims? Maybe we learned the behavior from our elders. Maybe the media and marketing is to blame – it is everywhere and it is overwhelmingly obnoxious about being bigger, smaller, better, prettier, faster, more. Maybe this is just a by-product of this existence we call life.

EXERCISE: Go. Right now. And look into a mirror. Into your eyes. Stand there and look into yourself for 2 minutes. Ask yourself, “Do I feel worthy?” Set a timer. Go. I’ll wait.

What did you experience? Did you get a sense of connection to yourself or nothing at all? Was it just a blank stare back into the eyes of your long lost soul?

Number Two: Practice Getting Physical

• exercise to sweat. The body eliminates toxins in three ways. Your sweat, your bowel movements and your urine. If you are experiencing constipation (chronically – months), you are dehydrated – first and foremost. Dehydration is the leading cause of death. Period. { That’s the actual cause. Cancer and Bronchitis are merely the after effects. The real cause is chronic, long-term dehydration. } Sweating allows the skin to breathe anew. Sweat (toxin) comes out of the body via it’s closest exit. And since the lymph live just under the skin surface, it is easy to see how sweating cleans your lymphatic system quite nicely. Everyone needs at the very least, one hour per week of hard sweaty, something. 15-30min daily is optimal.

EXERCISE: How often weekly, do you work up a good sweat?

• Manual Stimulation. The Lymph system is the only system that must be manually stimulated in order to function properly. Exercise and sweating are the most natural and obvious ways to make this happen. Other great DIY option include facial steams, saunas, dry brushing or silk gloves for exfoliation (garshana) and herbal powdered therapeutic, salt and sugar body scrubs with essential oils and organic ingredients based on your own doshic qualities and situation. The last great way to get the lymph moving is to get regular massage. And by that I mean, specific Lymphatic and Ayurvedic Massage therapy treatments weekly. Yes, it can be expensive, but that is why we teach you how to do this at home on yourself, so that you can manually stimulate your own Lymph System – at home. If self-care is done on a routinely and consistent basis, this will do two things. Help the slow moving lymph to get motivated, and you will learn to appreciate your own body and what it can do for you – all on your own, in your own time. The later is an integral part of the art of promoting your self worth.

EXERCISE: Are you willing to fully commit to the responsibility of your own health CARE?

Your body is only providing you a safe place for your soul to reside. Do your body the courtesy of returning the favor – by providing the best preventative care possible.

Practicing vs. Trying One last note that we should all understand – the difference between trying and practicing. Try raising your hand, right now. Don’t do it, just TRY. You realize that there is no action in TRY. It’s an idea, and intention. Practicing is trying in action. If you want anything to become a habit, you must practice it daily. You didn’t learn how to do anything you currently do now, without practicing. So even when you are speaking of your new habits, or thinking about it, saying to yourself (or others), “I try to eat better… I try to exercise everyday…” That is just self sabotage and your cellular intelligence listens. Replace try with practice and watch your life change exponentially.

Mark which one best describes you.

____ I practice doing none of these actions

____ I practice some of these actions (2-5)

____ I practice just about every one of these actions (6-14)

____ I practice every single one of these actions.

If you marked any of these, it’s time to come talk with us about how you can incorporate these into your life and situation.

Why suffer, when you can prevent?

Prevention is better than cure and, therefore, it is important that we maintain a strong immune system. Our immune system requires balance and harmony to function efficiently. It can be efficiently and permanently improved by incorporating just a few changes in our diet and lifestyle. If your immune system is good, your lymph system working optimally, you set yourself up for a long healthy life.