A detoxification meditation (that's good for deep sleep, too)

Deep sleep and detox go hand in hand

This post is updated from its original.

So many of us healing chronic illness or Lyme disease need help nurturing deep, restorative sleep. Deep sleep is profoundly healing. During deep sleep we detoxify – our brains in particular, and what’s more important than that? The clean and refreshed feeling of waking up after hours of profound, peaceful sleep is nothing less than a blessing.

This post covers one of my favorite meditations. It cleanses toxins AND helps me fall deeply asleep. This meditation encourages movement within all the body’s fluids: blood, lymph, cerebrospinal fluid, and the interstitial fluid surrounding each cell. Each of those fluids supports detoxification and general wellness in their own way.

Your fluid systems

Every fluid system helps to detoxify the body (even if detox isn’t its primary job) by depositing unwelcome pathogens and debris into the lymphatic system. Here’s a short overview of each.

• Lymphatic fluid

Lymphatic fluid is the fluid system critical for detoxification, especially for those of us healing Lyme disease or other chronic infections. Lymph is responsible for killing and cleaning up viruses, bacteria, toxins, and debris from the entire body. Lymph moves through its own circulatory system, collecting in lymph nodes throughout the body, where white blood cells destroy anything that doesn’t serve your health.

Lymph can’t move by itself – we have to move it through exercise, massage, or dry brushing. We can also move lymph through visualization.

• Blood

Your blood carries oxygen to every single cell in your body. Without oxygen, mitochondria could not make energy. Mitochondria are responsible for just about ALL the energy in the body. (Chronic Fatigue? Definitely a mitochondrial issue in part.) Every breath you take brings oxygen into your bloodstream, and life-giving energy into your cells.

• Cerebrospinal fluid, the ghost in the machine

CSF (for short) bathes your entire nervous system in a clear, clean, supportive fluid system. It has its own pulse, originating in the center of your brain. From your brain, CSF flows down your spinal nerves, and out along every nerve in your body.

The flow of CSF is unbelievably calming. It is hard to feel your own CSF pulse, but you can feel it bathing your nervous system, soothing anxiety, and calming your mind.

• Interstitial fluid

This fluid surrounds and supports every single cell in your body. Interstitial fluid gets picked up through osmosis and incorporated into blood, lymph, and cerebrospinal vessels. There it’s circulated, cleansed, and returned to bathe the cells again.

Fluids in motion: meditation for detox and deep sleep

All of the fluids are essentially a closed system, nourished by what we drink and eat. One fluid becomes the next, becomes the next. This is why you can visualize them all as one – the tide that flows through your body always: detoxifying, soothing and healing. Here’s a wonderful meditation to move all the fluids. It will support your body in falling into a deep, restorative sleep.

Tune in to your heartbeat

Lie down and get cozy. You can be in any position. Start by feeling your heartbeat, gentle and ever-present. Feel your blood pulsing with your heart rhythm. Maybe you can feel this pulse in your face or hands, as well as in your chest. Stay with it until the subtle feelings become clear.

Feel your breath rhythm rising and falling in waves

Let your awareness expand to include your breath rhythm, overlaying the rhythm of your heartbeat. Imagine that the rising and falling of your inhale fills your body with warm water, and your exhale drains – like a wave rolling in to your body, then sliding back out. Stay with this until you can feel your breath in waves, and your heartbeat beneath.

Feel a tidal rhythm moving through all of your body

Let the water flow through all parts of you. Are there any areas that don’t seem to move with the flow? Soften those areas with your awareness until the warm, watery motion flows all through your body, no barriers, no restrictions.

I usually need extra time with my shoulders, neck, and head. Most of us hold tension in our neck and shoulders, and this tension blocks the movement of our fluids. (This can be a root cause of headaches.) Major byways for blood, lymph, and cerebrospinal fluid flow through the neck. Spend as long as you need feeling this tension melt away, allowing the gentle rise and fall of the warm tide within you, cleansing and healing, bringing deep rest and sleep.

In closing

I hope you enjoy this lovely meditation as much as I do. If you need extra support for fluid movement and detoxification, try my Cleansing - Lymphatic Flow meditation. It is 26 minutes long, and doesn’t guide you back to waking at the end. You can use it to drift off peacefully.

Wishing you the gentle sleep of my (now in heaven) cat Timo, paws over her face. She never has insomnia, and only rarely dreams.

Shona