6 Simple Ways to Promote Natural Detox Daily!

If ya know me, you know my love for holistic wellness and optimizing our health through simple, daily practices. (Like heyoooo, exhibit A as to why I started this 'lil corner of the internet).

Throughout the last several years of navigating chronic illness, I personally have had to adopt, modify, and completely change some of my lifestyle practices to best serve my body and my health. Yet through my striving to cut back in all the areas of toxic exposures, I quickly became overwhelmed by the apparent complexity of "simplifying" my life.

But friend, I want to debunk the oxymoron that I held tightly for yeeeeaaarrs and share with you what I've come to know — that simplifying our life doesn't have to be complicated.

That's the main message I want the Simply Rooted Blog to convey — that though there are sometimes great health complexities we're faced with, a simplified (and healthier!) lifestyle doesn't have to be unattainable for us to live.

It is vital to start with detoxing what has already been pent up within us (for um, idk, our ENTIRE LIVES!) because toxic overload is one of the leading causes for weaker immune systems and chronic disease.

So, without further ado, here are 6 ways to promote natural detox daily —

01 | Move your body

I know... "Kristy, I've heard this one before..." But it's truly one of the most ESSENTIAL things you can do to help support your body. Regular movement not only supports your body physically, but it also is known to improve health at a cellular level — combating health conditions/disease, improving mood, boosting energy, and promoting more restful sleep!

But don't let movement feel daunting or unattainable, friend! It doesn't have to look like a perfect workout, 60 minutes straight, with tons of equipment. Move your body how you ENJOY to move it! Whether it's a brisk walk around your neighborhood, a few intervals of lifting weights, or jumping on a trampoline for a couple minutes throughout your day — each one of those activities counts towards moving your body. Consistency in showing up for movement everyday is truly what is key.

Physical movement increases blood circulation and the uptake of oxygen. This increase of fluid exchange helps to move the toxins stored up within us towards "exiting" — this may be through sweat, a bowel movement, or even rapid breathing! Ultimately, the more your leading detox organs (lungs, kidneys, liver, skin, immune system, etc.) are being utilized, the more they become efficient in the detox process.

02 | Drink more water

Again, I may be sounding like a broken record, but I can't talk about detoxification without talking about our water intake.

Water is involved in every. single. reaction. within our bodies — including the functioning of each one of our organs (like, haven't ya heard our bodies are made up of more than 60% water....?!) We quite literally need water to properly function!

You may have already made the correlations of improper hydration and the increase of headaches, brain fog, difficulty concentrating, dry skin/hair, low energy, poor digestion, etc... but have you ever correlated the fact that all of these symptoms are signs of toxic overload?

I have some good news for you though... Stimulating natural detox by drinking more water can be quite simple! A few things I do to increase my water intake include:

• Drink roughly 20 fl oz of water first thing in the morning (yes, even before I go to make my first cup of coffee)

• Adding chia seeds, a pinch of mineral-rich himalayan sea salt, and lemon essential oil to enhance (and prolong) my hydration

• Drinking AT LEAST half my body weight in water every day (though I typically shoot for 100 oz a day)

• On days where I get busy or it's easier to forget — I set a reminder to drink a glass of water every hour (hey, I didn't say these ideas were brain busters!)

Not only is having enough water in a day important, but having the right water is, too. That's why I wrote this blog post where I go into more detail on why WHAT we're drinking matters.

03 | Manage your stress

When we are under chronic stress, our body is continually living in "fight or flight", as opposed to "rest and digest". This means our body subconsciously is diverting resources away from the digestive and detox organs, and instead remaining hyper-aware of the stress in other areas of the body.

Because our detox organs and systems aren't getting the resources they need to operate, they begin to overwork... until they start shutting down.

Some of my hands-down favorite stress management tools are:

• Journaling

• Prayer and meditation

• Yoga

• Diaphragmatic breathing

• Going for a walk without distractions (& while practicing mindfulness)

Implementing just 15 minutes of any of these practices 3 times a day has shown to reduce overall stress and actually help re-wire your nervous system, decreasing its hyper-active alertness.

04 | Remember to ~ breathe ~

On the topic of stress management, I think it's important to further highlight the positive effects breathing specifically has on detoxification in our bodies.

Not only does deep breathing result in a calmer nervous system (which in turn enhances detoxification within our body systems), it also helps directly expel toxins through our breath.

The leading toxin we deposit through breathing is carbon dioxide. This is a natural toxic waste that comes from the body's metabolic process and needs to be removed from the body regularly and consistently. However, our normal, shallow, breath is often too weak to rid all of this toxin completely. Therefore, the detoxification systems within our bodies have to take over and do harder work to detox this additional waste.

Doing regular breathwork also supports the lymphatic system — a crucial detox system in our bodies that most people are fairly unfamiliar with. (Like, hi! Did you know we have TWICE the amount of fluid in our lymphatic system than we do blood in our body??) And unlike the circulatory system, which depends on our heart to pump it's fluid throughout our body, the lymphatic system relies on our breathing and body movement to set it into motion.

The importance of detoxification to our lymph system is this: Blood pumps oxygen and nutrients to the cells in our body. Once the cells absorb what they need, they excrete their waste, as well as other cellular debris and dead cells, into the lymphatic fluid to then rid our bodies.

I know what you're thinking — so how does this all relate back to breathing?

If our breath is what primarily moves the lymph system, shallow breathing can lead to a more sluggish and unproductive lymphatic drainage system. Regular, deep breathing helps to get our lymph fluids flowing as they should — creating a more effective detox process!

05 | Step outside

Okay, I'm going to need you to bear with me on this one because I'm about to let my CrUNchY-ness come out... big time.

The more I've learned about the unseen energies surrounding us, within us, and being passed between us, my mind has just about exploded with how detailed every. single. thing. is...!

Without going too much into detail, our bodies harbor high energy and frequencies that make us all out of wack.

As we're constantly surrounded by wireless connections through our phones, WiFi, Bluetooth, and "smart" devices, we start to pick up their frequencies and intersect their energy waves — which in turn alters the energy within our own body. We begin to build up a positive charge, overstimulating our nervous system and heightening our alertness, anxiety, sensitives, and more!

How does going outside help us "detox" from this though?

The earth has a negative charge so when our bodies come into direct contact with it, this overstimulated, positive energy is able to be neutralized. A neutralized body works more efficiently and is able to function properly. When our body is functioning properly, each organ, and organ system, is able to adequately do it's job — repairing cells, oxygenating tissues, and returning to homeostasis.

06 | Grant yourself sleep

Again, this is a common suggestion for people to improve their overall health, but quite honestly it often goes underrated... There are few things you can do in your day that are as simple and restorative for your body as this!

Getting adequate sleep is crucial for enhancing detoxification and your overall health. Not only does having proper sleep help to manage stress (keeping your nervous system calm and able to focus on "rest & digest" rather than "flight or fight" like I mentioned before), but it also allows your brain amble time to clean itself of harmful waste proteins that build up during your waking hours.

When your brain doesn't get enough sleep, and therefore, time to clear out this waste, it begins to store up these proteins and brain fog (or other cognitive issues), begin to develop.

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And there you have it, folks! 6 simple ways to enhance natural detoxification of your body daily.

My hope in writing this was to show you that it doesn't have to be over-complicated... That the process to implementing a simplified, healthier lifestyle doesn't have to feel overwhelming or be unattainable!

Start by picking a few of these areas to fully commit to. Then be free to swap things out and implement new ones.

Whatever you do, keep showing up. I promise you, it's worth stumbling through to find your groove!