How our Environment Effects Us - Detoxification Part 1

Before we dive into the meat of things, lets take a look at fish.  Yes, fish.  As a child, I begged Mom and Dad for an aquarium because I wanted fish!  I wanted something to take care of and, lets face it, most kids love having something else alive in their room besides themselves.  Little did I realize as a small child the care that it would take to actually keep these fish alive and well.  Fish live in water, therefore the water and what is in the water sustain their life.  Water is the fish's environment.  A fish cannot live out of water and neither can it live in water that is toxic and out of balance.  The same goes for us.  Our environment matters; our bodies do not exist separately from the environment in which they live.  If the air we breathe is toxic, then so are we.  If the water we drink has chemicals, then we now have those chemicals.  If the food we eat has chemicals, now we do too.

Many of us are unaware of what is happening to our bodies.  We’re getting sick and do not understand why.  For now, two causes will be addressed; We are becoming our environment which is toxic and we are also ingesting foods that are toxic.

The ways we are becoming our environment is through our skin, our respiratory system, and our spirits.  The air we breathe is polluted by exhaust from our cars, buses, planes, and by industrial air pollution, etc.  In 1993 alone 1.67 billion pounds of toxic chemicals were released into our air, according to the EPA’s toxic Release Inventory of 1993. ¹   We also breathe in toxic chemicals from carpet, paint, wood finishes, and glues. ²   There are even pesticides in some shampoos, disposable diapers, air fresheners, mattresses, and carpet.  As you can begin to see, just like fish swimming around in an aquarium full of algae and “gunk”, so are we.   Even though our body was made to release toxins, the sheer amount that are encountered daily is far more than your body was ever designed to deal with.³   In the same way that we absorb these toxins on a daily basis without even realizing it, so do our spirits.  Day in and day out we interact with other people.  How they feel and what they say do affect you, it has an impact on your spirit.  You may know certain people that you are around and when you leave you feel uplifted and full of joy.  There are other people that you walk away from feeling worn out and down, when you were fine prior to seeing them.  Has anyone walked into a room where there was tension?  Not a word needs to be spoken to know this because your spirit has already picked it up.  We are also carrying toxins in our spirits which are a result toxic emotions and pain on the inside of them, and from our own emotional pain.  This is why it’s so important to set yourself apart for a time of cleansing, not only for your physical body, but for your spirit as well. Your spirit needs to be cleansed, just as your body does.

There is truth to the old adage, “you are what you eat.”  Every year approximately 1.2 billion pounds of pesticides and herbicides are sprayed on the crops that make up our food supply.⁴  These pesticides have been known to cause certain cancers such as brain cancer, prostate cancer, leukemia, and lymphoma.⁵  Also, many foods we ingest are processed in which “additives” are added to extend shelf life and to add flavor.  However, the added flavor just isn’t worth it.  Food additives are made from petroleum, coal tar products, bleaching agents, and even ethylene gas (sprayed on bananas to ripen faster).⁶  Our spirit and soul are very much a part of our being and are effected by toxins daily as well.  Our soul is the seat of our emotions.  When we have been bombarded with negativity, either from within or from someone on the outside, oftentimes we run to comfort food to help us feel better.  The comfort foods we run to are typically pizza, burgers, and sweets which are all processed foods that contain the chemicals mentioned above.  Now we have toxicity on all three levels of our being.  This cycle is making us sick and diseased due to the high levels of toxins we are absorbing and ingesting on a daily basis.

There is hope and there are ways to break this cycle.  We will address these in the next blog, Proper Ways to Detoxify – Holistically.

This Article was written by: April Grant

1. Online Source: EPA Office of Environmental Information, www.epa.gov/triexplorer/chemical.htm.
2. Dr. Don Colbert, Toxic Relief (Lake Mary, FL: Siloam, 2003), 9
3. Dr. Don Colbert, Toxic Relief (Lake Mary, FL: Siloam, 2003), 11
4. Dr. Don Colbert, Toxic Relief (Lake Mary, FL: Siloam, 2003 ), 13
5. G. T. Sterling, et al, “Health effects of phenoxy herbicides,” Scandinavian Journal of Work Environmental Health 12 (1986): 161-173.

Becoming through Change

"Nothing is stable. Nothing is absolute. All is fluid and changeable. There is an endless “becoming.”"

– Benjamin Cardozon

Change is often uncomfortable and sometimes even dreaded. We all tend to be creatures of habit and get set in our ways. Change is the driving force that pushes us out of our comfort zones and causes us to reach new or different levels in our lives that we otherwise would never have experienced.  Most would agree that as a whole, people tend to avoid pain or suffering if at all possible.  And why wouldn’t one avoid pain and suffering?

If the results of enduring suffering for a set amount of time would result in something far greater, would it then be worth it? The reality is, that although we naturally want to steer away from things that bring us pain, it is those things that we endure that result in something far more beautiful than we could have ever imagined.

Next time we are faced with a hardship, a trial, an end to a relationship, an end to a job, a change in lifestyle, the loss of a loved one, or a difficult trauma, we must look past the suffering and remain hopeful casting our vision on the end result of the matter. Solomon put it best when he said, “the end of a matter is better than its beginning.” – Ecclesiastes 7:8

This all goes back to the ashes to beauty concept. Like gold, we too have to go through a refining process before we reach our most valuable state. This cannot be done without change. Change is what helps us become.

References: 

Frank, L.R. (2001). Quotationary. New York, NY: Random House Inc.

Article Written By: Jessica Felix Jager, MSW/CBIS