How to Cleanse Yourself

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It’s similar to how the pipes in your kitchen or bathroom are initially crystal clean and totally free of any debris. After regular use, gunk can start to build inside. This can result in a clog if they aren’t given a break and cleaned out every now and then. Cleansing yourself helps release the ‘clogs’ in your body and mind.

Why Is It Important to Cleanse Yourself?

Cleansing yourself also leaves more space for positive things in your life. When you can get rid of your negative thoughts and emotions, for instance, it’s like cleaning out your closets. There’s now room for things that would be more beneficial in your life—things that are more positive and uplifting.

Regularly cleansing your body and mind helps them recoup, recharge, and return to their normal functions stronger than ever. It’s a way to feel energized and purified physically, mentally, and spiritually.

What About a Dietary Cleanse?While following a healthy diet filled with a range of nutritious foods is a good idea, dietary cleanses and detoxes are not recommended. There is no research showing that these practices improve health. They also don’t remove toxins (your liver, kidney, and skin already do that). For people with certain medical conditions, these detox practices can actually be harmful or even dangerous.

What About a Dietary Cleanse?

While following a healthy diet filled with a range of nutritious foods is a good idea, dietary cleanses and detoxes are not recommended. There is no research showing that these practices improve health. They also don’t remove toxins (your liver, kidney, and skin already do that). For people with certain medical conditions, these detox practices can actually be harmful or even dangerous.

How to Cleanse Yourself

Making it a priority to cleanse yourself mentally, physically, and spiritually regularly can help keep you feeling and functioning your best. Here are five things you can do today to cleanse your body and soul naturally.

Do a Digital Detox

There are a number of benefits to doing adigital detoxor taking a break from technology. If you’re always on your smartphone, a detox can help improve your mental well-being.Stepping away from electronic devices can alsoreduce stress,making it good for your body as well.

A few additionaltech-free activitiesthat can also help purify and cleanse you physically, mentally, and spiritually include:

5 Tips to Help You Put Down Your Cell Phone

Try Tongue Scraping

In Ayurveda—a form ofalternative medicinepracticed in India—the coating on the tongue is called “ama” and reflects metabolic debris. Using a tongue scraper to get rid of this coating or debris reduces bacteria in the mouth,which helps to improve oral health.

Oral health isn’t just important for the body, but also for the mind. A healthy mouth improves your ability to speak and smile, even making it easier toshow your feelingsand emotions with various facial expressions.

Dry Brush Your Body

All you need is a body brush, which you use to brush your skin gently. Your skin should be dry; you don’t need to bathe or shower beforehand. Start with your upper body and work your way down, being careful not to scrub too hard to avoid irritating your skin.

Once you are done, shower or bathe as normal, then apply lotion or body oil to moisturize your skin. Dry brushing is a fast and inexpensive way to feel refreshed and renewed.

Take a Contrast Shower

To do this technique at home, turn on your shower and set the water temperature as warm as you can handle. The temperature should be hot, but not unbearable or scalding. Use caution (and common sense) in order to avoid burning yourself or causing damage to your skin.

After standing in the warm/hot water for two to three minutes, switch the temperature to as cold as you can handle. The cold water will be uncomfortable, but you may also find it invigorating. Stand in the cold water for one minute before switching back to hot water. Repeat this cycle two to three times.

Write Your Troubles Away

When cleansing yourbody and mind, it’s also helpful to let go of the thoughts and emotions that you have unconsciously blocked from coming to the surface.Repressing emotionshas both mental and physical consequences, such as increasing your risk ofdepressionand raising the likelihood that you will develop a cardiac abnormality.

Start a personal ritual to begin to recognize these feelings and then let them go. One option is to write a letter to someone who has hurt you or let you down, using the letter to explain how their actions make you feel. You don’t have to send it! The point is simply to gain a better understanding of emotions you may have unconsciously suppressed, letting them escape from your body so they can’t continue to harm you.

Another option is touse a journalto give yourself a regular outlet for all your emotions, regrets, and worries. Seek to understand how you feel and, instead of trying to push these emotions away, harness them and use them to move forward in this world as a moreemotionally intelligentperson.

Press Play to Learn More About the Mind and Body ConnectionThis episode ofThe Verywell Mind Podcastdiscusses the mind and body connection. Click below to listen now.

Press Play to Learn More About the Mind and Body Connection

This episode ofThe Verywell Mind Podcastdiscusses the mind and body connection. Click below to listen now.

A Word From Verywell

Trying different ways of cleansing your mind and body can be a great way to feel refreshed and reinvigorated. They are no substitute for regular self-care, however. Making sure that you are getting adequate sleep, engaging in regular physical exercise, and other important self-care practices are long-term strategies that can help you feel stronger, healthier, and more motivated.

6 Effective Ways to Clear Your Mind

8 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.“Detoxes” and “cleanses”: What you need to know.Schmuck D.Does digital detox work? Exploring the role of digital detox applications for problematic smartphone use and well-being of young adults using multigroup analysis.Cyberpsychol Behav Social Network. 2020;23(8). doi:10.1089/cyber.2019.0578Anrijs S, Bombeke K, Durnez W, et al.MobileDNA: Relating physiological stress measurements to smartphone usage to assess the effect of a digital detox.Int Conf Human-Computer Interact. 2018;851:356-363. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-92279-9_48Dwivedi V, Torwane N, Tyagi S, Maran S.Effectiveness of various tongue cleaning aids in the reduction of tongue coating and bacterial load: A comparative clinical study.J Contemp Dental Pract. 2019;20(4):444-448.Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.Oral health.Pisani-Conway C.Ayurveda for modern obstetrics.Clin Obstetrics Gynecol. 2021;64(3):589-601. doi:10.1097/GRF.0000000000000632Juliff L, Halson S, Bonetti D, Versey N, Driller M, Peiffer J.Influence of contrast shower and water immersion on recovery in elite netballers.J Strength Cond Res. 2014;28(8):2353-8. doi:10.1519/JSC.0000000000000417Patel J, Patel P.Consequences of repression of emotion: Physical health, mental health and general wellbeing.Int J Psychother Pract Res. 2019;1(3):16-21. doi:10.14302/issn.2574-612X.ijpr-18-2564

8 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.“Detoxes” and “cleanses”: What you need to know.Schmuck D.Does digital detox work? Exploring the role of digital detox applications for problematic smartphone use and well-being of young adults using multigroup analysis.Cyberpsychol Behav Social Network. 2020;23(8). doi:10.1089/cyber.2019.0578Anrijs S, Bombeke K, Durnez W, et al.MobileDNA: Relating physiological stress measurements to smartphone usage to assess the effect of a digital detox.Int Conf Human-Computer Interact. 2018;851:356-363. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-92279-9_48Dwivedi V, Torwane N, Tyagi S, Maran S.Effectiveness of various tongue cleaning aids in the reduction of tongue coating and bacterial load: A comparative clinical study.J Contemp Dental Pract. 2019;20(4):444-448.Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.Oral health.Pisani-Conway C.Ayurveda for modern obstetrics.Clin Obstetrics Gynecol. 2021;64(3):589-601. doi:10.1097/GRF.0000000000000632Juliff L, Halson S, Bonetti D, Versey N, Driller M, Peiffer J.Influence of contrast shower and water immersion on recovery in elite netballers.J Strength Cond Res. 2014;28(8):2353-8. doi:10.1519/JSC.0000000000000417Patel J, Patel P.Consequences of repression of emotion: Physical health, mental health and general wellbeing.Int J Psychother Pract Res. 2019;1(3):16-21. doi:10.14302/issn.2574-612X.ijpr-18-2564

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.“Detoxes” and “cleanses”: What you need to know.Schmuck D.Does digital detox work? Exploring the role of digital detox applications for problematic smartphone use and well-being of young adults using multigroup analysis.Cyberpsychol Behav Social Network. 2020;23(8). doi:10.1089/cyber.2019.0578Anrijs S, Bombeke K, Durnez W, et al.MobileDNA: Relating physiological stress measurements to smartphone usage to assess the effect of a digital detox.Int Conf Human-Computer Interact. 2018;851:356-363. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-92279-9_48Dwivedi V, Torwane N, Tyagi S, Maran S.Effectiveness of various tongue cleaning aids in the reduction of tongue coating and bacterial load: A comparative clinical study.J Contemp Dental Pract. 2019;20(4):444-448.Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.Oral health.Pisani-Conway C.Ayurveda for modern obstetrics.Clin Obstetrics Gynecol. 2021;64(3):589-601. doi:10.1097/GRF.0000000000000632Juliff L, Halson S, Bonetti D, Versey N, Driller M, Peiffer J.Influence of contrast shower and water immersion on recovery in elite netballers.J Strength Cond Res. 2014;28(8):2353-8. doi:10.1519/JSC.0000000000000417Patel J, Patel P.Consequences of repression of emotion: Physical health, mental health and general wellbeing.Int J Psychother Pract Res. 2019;1(3):16-21. doi:10.14302/issn.2574-612X.ijpr-18-2564

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.“Detoxes” and “cleanses”: What you need to know.

Schmuck D.Does digital detox work? Exploring the role of digital detox applications for problematic smartphone use and well-being of young adults using multigroup analysis.Cyberpsychol Behav Social Network. 2020;23(8). doi:10.1089/cyber.2019.0578

Anrijs S, Bombeke K, Durnez W, et al.MobileDNA: Relating physiological stress measurements to smartphone usage to assess the effect of a digital detox.Int Conf Human-Computer Interact. 2018;851:356-363. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-92279-9_48

Dwivedi V, Torwane N, Tyagi S, Maran S.Effectiveness of various tongue cleaning aids in the reduction of tongue coating and bacterial load: A comparative clinical study.J Contemp Dental Pract. 2019;20(4):444-448.

Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.Oral health.

Pisani-Conway C.Ayurveda for modern obstetrics.Clin Obstetrics Gynecol. 2021;64(3):589-601. doi:10.1097/GRF.0000000000000632

Juliff L, Halson S, Bonetti D, Versey N, Driller M, Peiffer J.Influence of contrast shower and water immersion on recovery in elite netballers.J Strength Cond Res. 2014;28(8):2353-8. doi:10.1519/JSC.0000000000000417

Patel J, Patel P.Consequences of repression of emotion: Physical health, mental health and general wellbeing.Int J Psychother Pract Res. 2019;1(3):16-21. doi:10.14302/issn.2574-612X.ijpr-18-2564

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