It's been over two years since I've done a dietary cleanse. But already on day two, I notice how differently my body is responding to this detox than last time. My meditation practice is stronger and I'm running longer, so I'm feeling the positive effects much sooner and stronger.
I'm still feeling the muscle tension from giving up caffeine, and a bit of bile from whatever junk is down there being cleaned out. But I'm also feeling, and tasting that particular pure energy that arises from a cleaner gut.
I am in such denial though, still, about the effect of crappy food on my life, on my mood, on my creativity and energy. I wonder what I can do to make this insight more stable and permanent.
I need to reframe it, I think, as not a giving up of pleasures, but a gaining of deeper, purer more permanent joy. The sublime bliss that the Tibetan Buddhists talk about.
If I focus on the abundant energy that arises during a cleanse, that energy in turn will keep me on the path.
I also need to make a commitment to cleanses, the way I now make a commitment to retreat. At least three times a year.
I will not let another almost three years pass before I do this again.
