5 Ways to Cleanse Your Mind and Body

Key Takeaways

• Trying different ways of cleansing your mind and body can be a great way to feel refreshed and reinvigorated. However, they are no substitute for regular self-care.
• Getting adequate sleep, regular physical exercise, and other important self-care practices are long-term strategies that can help you feel stronger, healthier, and more motivated.
• Making it a priority to cleanse yourself mentally, physically, and spiritually regularly can help keep you feeling and functioning your best.

Cleansing your mind and body means taking intentional steps to reduce stress, reset your habits, and support your overall wellness. Cleansing yourself might involve eating a balanced diet, staying hydrated, and limiting harmful substances, but it can also involve strategies such as doing a digital detox, taking a contrast shower, or writing in a journal.

1. Do a Digital Detox

There are a number of benefits to doing a digital detox or 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 also reduce stress, making it good for your body as well.

Start small by leaving all devices in the house while enjoying some time outside. Once you’re ready, try switching off your television, computer, cellphone, and other electronics for an entire day. This can stop the urge to check or interact with the device out of habit. Even a brief break can be refreshing.

A few additional tech-free activities that can also help purify and cleanse you physically, mentally, and spiritually include:

• Attend a yoga class
• Do a few stretches on your living room floor
• Find a quiet place to sit and engage in mindfulness meditation
• Go for a walk in the park
• Practice deep breathing exercises
• Take a nice warm bath, maybe with some light music playing in the background

2. Try Tongue Scraping

In Ayurveda—a form of alternative medicine practiced 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 is important for the body and the mind. A healthy mouth improves one’s ability to speak and smile, even making it easier to express emotions with various facial expressions.

Start your day by gently scraping your tongue (don’t worry—it doesn’t hurt!). Tongue scrapers can be purchased for a few dollars at a drug or health food store.

3. Dry Brush Your Body

Dry brushing, also called garshana, is another technique used in Ayurvedic medicine that offers cleansing benefits. It works by stimulating the lymphatic system. This system is important for immunity, protecting us from infection and disease.

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.

4. Take a Contrast Shower

Another way to rejuvenate your body and mind is by taking a contrast shower. Contrast therapy is a technique that involves alternating between hot and cold water. Some alternative practitioners recommend this practice as a way to boost circulation and improve your energy.

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) to avoid burning yourself or damaging 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.

5. Write Your Troubles Away

When cleansing your body 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 emotions has both mental and physical consequences, such as increasing your risk of depression and raising the likelihood that you will develop a cardiac abnormality.

Start a personal ritual to begin recognizing these feelings and then letting them go.

• Write a letter (without sending it): 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.
• Write in a journal: Another option is to use a journal to 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 more emotionally intelligent person.

Why Is It Important to Cleanse Yourself?

Cleansing yourself regularly serves many purposes

• One is that it helps eliminate potentially harmful substances or thoughts from your body and mind. This can make you feel better mentally and physically by removing things that may be slowing you down.
• 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, including things that are more positive and uplifting.
• Regular cleansing helps your body and mind 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.

Press Play to Learn More About the Mind and Body Connection

This episode of The Verywell Mind Podcast discusses the mind and body connection. Click below to listen now.

Follow Now: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Google Podcasts / Amazon Music

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

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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.

4. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Oral health.

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

6. Kim J, Jung H, Yim J. Effects of contrast therapy using infrared and cryotherapy as compared with contrast bath therapy on blood flow, muscle tone, and pain threshold in young healthy adults. Med Sci Monit. 2020;26:e922544. doi:10.12659/MSM.922544

7. 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

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

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the “Everything Psychology Book.”

Thanks for your feedback!

What is your feedback?

Helpful

Report an Error

Other