Grow

letting go of image

Shaving My Head

A Practice of Detachment, Reminder and Inspiration

Om Namah Shivaya

(I Bow To My True Identity)

ego detachment

My name is Elicia Woodford, I am 35 years old and currently living in Koh Samui, Thailand.  My business ePowerMe is about releasing thoughts, behaviors, beliefs, toxins, and stress that keep us from being who we really are and fully alive. I am launching another business called Samui Healing which is designed to provide cleansing information, services and resources to support ePowerMe’s mission. I’ve personally done many various body, mind and material cleanses this year. Cleansing is about getting rid of what we don’t need that is attached to the ego like stress, social pressure, and an image that is identified with the body and material things.  I decided to end my year of detox with a spiritual ego cleanse by shaving my head to detach from society’s pressure of looking a certain way and caring what others think.

Reasons, Reminders and Inspiration:

v    Spiritual Detox and Detachment

• Detaching from ego, image and identity

v    Source of Happiness

source of happiness

• How you feel is dependent of what you are thinking and the health of your body.  If you are overly concerned with physical appearance, and what others think, then you will cause unnecessary stress and unhappiness.
• Most people think that if they look good then they feel good.  If you dig deeper on what it is costing you in stress and worry to look good you will see that is not true. 
• Pay attention to your thoughts “My hair is too short, I wish my hair was straight/curly, my roots are showing, I want to look like Angelina Jolie, I can’t go out with this pimple, I need my teeth whitened, I wish I was skinny, my nail chipped…”
• All the physical things that seem to matter most are impermanent and will change.  Your hair will grow, your nails grow, you choose to adopt a clean natural diet and your skin and hair glow plus the extra 5 pounds comes off without trying.  With this awareness you can focus on what matters most in life: the health of your mind and body.
• I’m not saying to not care how you look and to let yourself go but instead let society’s pressure of how you should look go. Care more about what thoughts you let in your mind and what you are putting in your body.  Know what thoughts and food either feed you or deplete you.  Your happiness depends on them.
• Focus your energy up towards who you are, how you live, and your potential instead of down towards what you look like, what you have and comparing yourself to others.  Become aware by asking yourself, “Does it matter, does it make me happy and is it beneficial to my life?”
• Another thing to be aware of is how you treat others and your generosity.  When you give selflessly and are kind to others you feel good about yourself.  Practice compassion on yourself, while making changes, and you will feel good and be able to relate to others with a better understanding.

v    Cancer

prevent & heal disease

• Cancer is real and can heal.  Place importance on trying to prevent it by improving your lifestyle choices. 
• Cancer, and other illnesses, can only live in a toxic and deficient environment. The best defense towards disease is a healthy body.
• Focus on boosting your health with detox, cleansing and nutritional therapy.

v    Patience & Dedication

• Patience is needed for growth and development.
• Developing the mind with awareness and compassion for yourself and others requires practice and patience.
• Be excited to see what develops at each stage of the growth. It is about the journey and not the destination.

v    Embracing Natural Beauty

live & radiate from your heart and nature

• When you live from your heart and nature you radiate natural beauty.
• I am releasing what is not me (chemicals) to let my natural hair and self shine through.

v    Re-birth

• 2009 detachment & detox – from the things that I don’t need, that cause stress and unhappiness.
• 2010 birth & new development – caring and nurturing my mind and body like a newborn.

Let go of what you are not to find out who you are!

Credits:

Hairshaver – Dany Lopez,  samuihair@yahoo.com, +66 (0) 81 787 4893

Blue Sarong – Donated by Ta from Thai Organic Life

Photographer & Samui Healing Model - Carrie Bain

There is only one journey. Going inside yourself.
Rainer Maria Rilke

My Thailand journey just made a stop to go inside myself for a proper cleansing. Gandhi realized to change the world first he had to change himself. To heal the world I must first heal myself. I started The Spa Chiang Mai Resorts’ 7½ day Cleansing Program on Monday, September 14, 2009.

all signs point to health

When I arrived on Friday I did not know I was going to stay and go through the program, however, my body did. I’ve learned to pay attention to my body now and really listen to it. As soon as the driver pulled into the property I started to feel very uncomfortable and bloated. My digestion is so messed up from living in Thailand these past couple of months. The land of smiles overall is a healthy place to live since wellness is a part of their life and culture. Back in the US, my body had been used to mostly organic, raw, plant based foods, which is very rare to find in Thailand. We are so fortunate to have the choice.

In Ban Phe, where I lived for my first month, there were no raw organic choices. I was at the mercy of overcooked (dead) stir-fried veggies that were smothered with cheap oil, MSG and who knows what else. The workload was a lot and I was drinking caffeine with sugar all day to stay focused. I was eating and drinking things I was not used to digesting. After the course I was able to cut out a lot of things that I knew were causing trouble but I still felt like I needed help. I love how my life works out; I always find what I need when I need it.

table reminder

I was excited to talk with Guy Hopkins, the founder and pioneer of healing health spas in Thailand, to learn about his journey and resorts. Our conversation inspired me to listen to my body and take a break from my Thailand journey to stay and go through the program. I did a pre-cleanse diet for 3 days to prepare my body for the fast. That consisted of eating just raw organic fruits and vegetables as well as drinking a liver flush twice a day. In addition to their extensive and delicious menu in the Radiance Restaurant, they also have a Faster’s Menu. The first 2 pages of the Faster’s Menu has a list all of the liquid choices you can have during the 7 day fast and what you can order on days 1-4 when breaking the fast. The fast list includes “spa” vegetable broth soup with a few variations, wheatgrass, liver flush, vegetable juice, carrot juice and my saving grace – fresh coconut water.

what feeds me

If you know me you know how much I love health and detox. I may be even a bit obsessed with it. I’ve done different detox cleanses on my own now for 17 years. It started in college when I was reading The Chinese Book of Health and History and the Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity. I found out that Guy Hopkins was also reading the Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity around the same time. I’ve tried The Master Cleanse 3 times over the years, fasted with juice and water, ate clean and took herbs to detox, spent a week in an Ayurveda detox spa for panchakarma and I’ve also enjoyed many colonics. What Guy Hopkins has developed over the 14 years here in Thailand has just blown me away.

detox center

This is the most thorough cleanse I have ever done and most likely the best deal around. The program is well organized and very supported. They start by emailing, as well as giving you on arrival, “Your Cleansing Fast Step By Step Instructions” booklet. You then meet with the health director before your cleanse to go over what to expect and to answer any questions. Afterwards you schedule a viewing of Guy’s introduction to the program and colema video. In the instruction booklet there is a cleansing schedule to follow everyday that keeps you busy and full.

Each day starting at 7am and ending at 9pm there is something to take or drink every hour and a half. At the detox center they specially prepare 5 detox drinks a day (a liquid bentonite and psyllium shake), provide filtered water, resources and FAQs. Each morning they give you 2 packets of intestinal cleaners and herbal nutrition tablets to be taken 5 times a day. Along with a flora grow probiotic to take before bed. The detox center also prepares the coffee colema that you administer yourself twice a day in the privacy of your own comfortable bathroom.

meditation sala

The Spa Resorts also offers a free meditation class every morning at 7:30am. Also available at no charge are many educational in-room videos, as well as, books to take out from the Sawadee (hello in Thai) Center. This is all apart of the Five Habit System to Longevity that Guy advocates throughout. Those five are: cleansing, breathing properly, food combining, exercise and meditation/peacefulness. The extra services available to help support you, and the cleanse, are: yoga, raw food and detox classes, herbal steam, Thai massage, reflexology, and ‘Ampuku’ (abdominal massage and pressure points for elimination). I chose to buy a package of 7 herbal steams and also a package of 7 Ampuku massages, 1 of each per day. A package of 7 only costs around $30.

For those who don’t think they need to clean the inside of their body, try it and see. It is truly amazing and motivating when you see the amount of toxic “stuff” that comes out once you stop digesting food. The right herbal support is also key to pull the toxins and mucoid plaque away that is wreaking havoc on our mind, body and spirit. This “gross” subject is the key to our health and needs to be talked about and addressed. I am reading one of the best books on health and the cause of disease from The Spa Resorts’ library; “Cleanse & Purify Thyself” by Dr. Rich Anderson. I highly suggest the book and this cleanse for radiant health and energy.

“The bowel feeds every organ, every tissue, and every cell in our bodies. When the bowel environment and function has become contaminated or inefficient, the cells and organs in the rest of the body will reflect that contamination and dysfunction. A toxic and acid bowel means toxic blood and lymph, toxic liver and other organs and cells, and poor health.”

organic garden

Our bodies produce this mucoid plaque for protection in an acid environment. To replenish the alkaline minerals and your health, eat raw organic plant based foods and stop (or limit) all intake of acid-forming foods. I will list those here:

Alcohol, all processed foods, anger, barley, bread, cake, canned fruit, cereals, chickpeas, chocolate, cigarettes, coffee, complaining, cooked grains (except millet and quinoa), corn, cornstarch, dairy products, drugs, eggs, foods cooked with oils, glazed or sulfured fruits, ketchup, legumes, lentils, meat, fish, birds, shellfish, mustard, nuts, seeds, beans, oatmeal, pasta, black pepper, popcorn, salt, soda crackers, soft drinks, soy products, stress, white and processed sugar, artificial sweeteners, black tea, overcooked vegetables, distilled vinegar, all forms of wheat.

Already after day 4 of The Spa Resorts’ cleanse my bloat is gone (most likely from all of the mucoid plaque and toxins released), I feel clear, inspired and happy. Seeing is believing and is also motivating to continue with the cleanse and an alkaline lifestyle.

wheatgrass pina colada

Remember to cleanse and purify to feel your power!