Claim Your Cleanse: Mind and Mood Detox

by Valerie Tate, MFT

“There is no cause for fear. It is imagination, blocking you as a wooden bolt holds the door. Burn that bar…” – Rumi

Stop! Before you read this, take a deep breath. Notice what is on your mind as you sit at your computer. Write down the first five things that come to your mind. If you are human, they likely include at least one of these five aspects: guilt, shame, fear, obligation or ‘shoulds’.

Guilt, shame, fear, obligation or ‘shoulds,’ are coping strategies that our mind uses to escape true feelings, desires or sensations. They take us into the past and the future and have a blind eye to the present moment. They are weighted blankets woven with past stories, cultural and familial conditioning.

Detox and cleansing is the theme of the month at Acupuncture Kitchen. January is a great time to take inventory of your mental and emotional system, and identify what can stay and what needs to go. Sometimes we are conscious of what is blocking us and other times we need tools to access our unconscious material.

The highest potential in cleansing, is to reveal our pure skills of intuition, presence and availability for our own life! This requires a desire to change, self-love, compassion, patience and experimentation.

When we peel away these layers, joy, playfulness and connectedness is revealed. It is often said that the most enlightened people are the most childlike. They are liberated to be who they are at any moment without apology. Consider how free you feel to fully express who you are moment to moment. Where do you stop yourself and why?

Before beginning a mind and mood cleanse, we must recognize that we are not our feelings and thoughts, we are experiencing feelings and thoughts. Making this distinction can make the cleansing process engaging and dynamic versus heavy or blaming.

Here’s a creative arts experiment for learning more from your unconscious mind about fear. Imagine a scenario in your life where FEAR stopped you from being available and present.

1) Take some drawing materials (oil pastels, markers, big paper) and in less than five minutes, draw the fear how it looks right now. Draw the shape of it, the color, the movement. Let go of thinking and just move your colors into form. If it’s difficult to let go, close your eyes while you draw or use your non-dominant hand.

2) Look at your drawing and free write for three minutes about what you see, feel and imagine about your fear.

3) Ask yourself, how would I react to this scenario if there was no fear. Imagine this scene, draw it, write it or just let it play out as imagery behind your eyes.

4) Open your eyes and imagine one experiment you could do to step towards the imagined scene with no fear. Set a reasonable goal or experiment that you can be successful with.

Every relationship in our life gives us an opportunity to experience where guilt, fear, shame, obligation and ‘shoulds’ are arising. Claim responsibility for your perception and what is blocking the view.

“Do the thing you fear the most and the death of fear is certain” – Mark Twain