“Are you high?” my friend asked me as I sat gazing at her with love and gratitude. “Yeah, off life!” I responded. It was day three of my seven-day juice cleanse. Every morning last week I drank bitters and roots before I delved into my daily meals of curated vegetables and fruit blends for breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner.
Juice For Life
Outside of grapefruit juice to energize me in the mornings, and occasional fruit and vegetable blends in between meals, I’d only done the infamous 2-day cleanse with Arden’s Garden. I stopped by Juice For Life with a friend one day as she was cleansing for an immunity boost; sitting with three older Black Women as they expressed the benefits of the cleansing and nutrients they gained from investing in their health, I was sold.
I walked up to and told the owner Joseph, a Panamanian and Nicaraguan Rasta Bush Man, I wanted to cleanse my mind and my womb. In his Caribbean accent, “Your two brains, okay.” He says with a smile, “You know it’s not just the juice that cleanses you, you have to prepare with what’s around you.”
Make Space
I already knew there were conversations I needed to have in order to really ground my Self toward this commitment to cleansing.
Even though I’ve been acting on maintaining personal integrity and being self-assertive, it still takes a commitment to practice. I must constantly ask my Self if everything is okay, especially when my body signals otherwise. When I’m out of integrity with my true desires my mind and body send signals, and I’ve learned through enough trial and error to listen and gain clarity.
I had to tell a friend that I didn’t want to continue on an idea that is soon manifesting into a business. I’d been working with her to bring a vision to life, and while I was honored that she saw me having an integral role in its fruition, I just didn’t feel aligned given the current season my life is in. It was tough to reveal that truth, yet after I honored it, she was accepting and understanding and I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders.
I had to explain to a client that I felt I needed to be more assertive in our engagement and that I also may not be the right fit. Another tough truth. Now that didn’t end up in a separation, it actually helped us to actualize our own personal and professional values of self-awareness and honesty. I feel like I can operate in my authority and zone of genius because there’s clarity.
Once I cleared this noise that had been taking up mental space, I was ready for my juice cleanse, ready to act on the clarity I would continue to receive.
Connect to Clarity
So. Many. Realizations. Alongside my cravings for turkey sandwiches and sour cream and onion chips, here’s a bit of clarity I gained on my cleanse.
I have so much time. Last month I wrapped up my Advanced Yoga Intensive, and that had me feeling the same. The cleanse really brought it home, there are so many ways to make proper use of your time versus sulking into the falsehood that there isn’t enough.
It is time to transmute. I have a budding framework around the processes of transition, transformation, and transmutation. I know I am undergoing transmutation, a growth spurt if you will.
When people trust you it makes it easier to move through life. I need a sense of freedom to be my best self, which comes with building trust in professional and personal relationships. It’s nice that people in my life trust me to be the best me I can be.
My mind masters my experience. People were unconsciously attempting to project their mindsets onto me. Whether it was questioning my level of hunger or even extending an offer for me to go against my commitment with a bite of solid food. None of it weighed on me, it was just interesting to observe.
What loops can we opt out of? What is repetitive and stagnant? My dad would always tell me, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” I am removed from stagnation for the sake of familiarity.
What is true for you may not be true for another. That is okay. Simple.
Meditation gets me high and I love it. I’m so grateful that I have the ability to just drop inward. To be both ignited and soothed by my own breath and self-reflection and affirmation.
Grateful. Grateful. Grateful. Grateful.
I know my Black church friends went straight for Hezekiah when they read the subtitle. Yes, I could go on and on about the work I feel God doing in my life.
This juice cleanse showed me how powerful I am and emphasized my choice to continue practicing what it takes to fully honor the highest expression of my Self. It revealed to me the power of the mind and how easily external projections could creep in.
The ultimate takeaway I received came today during my morning journal reflection. I am grateful for this awareness, and even more so to be in the position to acquire such realization.
The practices and commitments I required as I navigated through my darkness are different than what is required to embrace my light.
I maintain a practice toward being my best self by continuously recommitting to self-awareness and a positive and abundant evolution.
A Little Extra
Here’s a podcast my dear brother friend, Davion Ziere, was featured on where he’s discussing the embodiment and practice of one of my many realizations: TRUST. We have conversations like this often, I love that we both are using varying mediums to cultivate trust within Self and others.
This song has been carrying me since last October. Coax Marie is true to the affirmation tunes!