Ready to Detox your Mind, Body or Space? Do this FIRST!
Posted by Sinead Duffy on
When it comes to any intention – be it a yogic detox or a new commitment to self-care – we need to dig deep into our own motivators if we are to stick with it.
In yoga we work with intention and visualisation. Both serve to get the brain and body pulling into reality what our heart and soul desires. It is said that if we can hold any vision in our minds for one whole minute, you can attain it. Bad news is that a minute can feel like a very long time.
So I’d like to introduce you to a tool that I highly recommend. It actually doesn’t come from yoga at all – but for me, it’s fundamentally Yogic. Even in that there are five levels – mirroring the Five levels of ourselves that I wrote about previsouly.
This technique also has 5 increasingly deep layers of awareness. It’s actually from Japanese management principles and I reckon a little zen efficiency in your manifestation process has gotta be a good thing!
It’s called the Five Whys. These 5 whys will dig down to the deep reasons behind our wanting to give up/take up/do something new. This preliminary work is vital for:
- ensuring that your new conviction is really congruent with your true values.
- Aligning your new conviction with your heart and soul’s deeper desires gives it sustainability and grit – but also a levity (almost a force of its own) that carries you.
How to do the Five Whys.
So, what is your new conviction? Write it down. Then ask yourself WHY you want to attain that goal. Five times.
You’ll get to depths you’ll find revealing, beautiful, humbling, inspirational, motivating and most of all ‘sticky’ so that that the goal takes on many more dimensions – it becomes like a prism reflecting such light and colour that you simply did not know that it had and that resonates with a whole new energy that propels you forward.
Give it a go – what’s your Detox goal:
- Clean up your diet.
- Detox your ‘shoulds’ (more on this later – sign up top right to be kept in the loop on this one – it’s powerful!)
- De-clutter your home
You know your goal that you want to achieve – so phrase it as a goal and ask yourself WHY five times. You’ll be amazed at what comes out!
My Five Whys
I had a simple pretty mundane goal. I wanted everyone to put stuff back where they got it. Not very inspiring! But it mattered to me. So I did the five whys to give it a bit more mojo. Here’s how it went:
Goal: I want everyone to put things back where they got them.
Why? So that when someone else needs it – it’ll be there!
Why? Because this gives us a sense of trust in each other (and in the world?)
Why? Because it takes time to put things back where they belong - it takes effort, and often that effort put in by one, will be reaped by another (the next person to need) so it shows a selflessness that we care enough about each other to put in that effort
Why? Because we are all busy with our own things - it shows that we will not allow our sense of what’s urgent come above what’s more important - putting the item back in its proper place for the next person who needs it.
Why? Putting things back shows that we are in service to each other. It shows a presence of mind that we will not succumb to the busy-ness of the moment, but will take the time to manifest the necessary mindfulness and love.
So as you can see – the most mundane goal in the world became a crusade of mindfulness and love! I did not see that coming and it made it so much easier both for me to stick to it (putting the remote control back where it goes IS mindfulness and love!) and to inspire others to do so also.
Give it a go yourself – you’ll be amazed at the depths of heartfelt desires you reach and this will carry you forward to get those goals realised! If you want to deepen the process – apply some Yogandha before you start delving. Yogandha Ground and Yogandha Relax both contain the fabulous herb Vetiver which helps to ground us and find our true path.
Please do share this post with everyone who's trying to get stuff done or works with Intention.
Over and Om for now!
Sinead x
Want to learn more about aromatherapy for yoga, meditation and wellbeing? Join our Facebook Group: