I’m half way through a self-imposed 30 day mind-body detox.

With 2016 spewing various sized debris left and right—one of my horses died a sudden death, and last week I was in an accident, both of which score low on the “what will this mean in a year or five richter scale”—this year has been a challenge for my tender heart.

My lesson seems to be not so much how to negotiate the terrain of my own personal stumbling and angst and incident, but coping with an extremely heavy heart for the sake of people I love dearly.

As a few of my elephant writings have brought to fore, in response to the roller coaster that I call 2016—which many of you have been riding as well—I’ve called on this time to be one of growth, not surrender.

Approximately 15 days ago, my partner and I simultaneously decided it was time for a mind-body detox. We picked up Deepak Chopra’s Seven Spiritual Laws of Success (SSL) and we put down the increasingly frequent cocktail over which we processed the day.

What exactly have we done?

We jumped on the Whole 30 bandwagon and for 30 days we committed to no sugar, no alcohol, no grains, no processed foods, no dairy—basically, only real food. And on a whim I still can’t believe happened, my partner threw in, “why don’t we fast two days a week as well…”

And we are—we put down the sugar and picked up fasting a couple times a week.

Whole 30 is how I should eat all the time to maintain the self-healing I have accomplished for a quite nasty dis-ease (that’s another story), so for me this isn’t too far fetched, but my partner has never been quite able to wrap himself around that type of eating. The support I feel on this venture is profound.

Meditative practice has been amped up. A chapter a day of SSL serves as a beacon for that given day. Solitude and times of respite are not questioned and are encouraged.

My partner is rising at sunset, walking through the farm, reading his chapter and meditating. Church, you could call it.

I’ve been rising early and writing morning pages before the day (and the ride) starts full throttle—getting yoga in, walking, increasing my meditative practice and mindfulness throughout the day, and using my brain a bit more for good. My fast days are devoted to someone to whom I am sending healing and love.

We check in with meaningful, uninterrupted connection and see where we are both sitting with an SSL lesson, or a life lesson that may have been thrown at us.

What am I noticing?

So far it is profound.

I have been reminded that before, for my partner to consider any type of alteration in our lifestyle like this, he had to feel like things were going really smoothly. Why? Because of the habit of being an emotional consumer of food. This time ‘round, I’ve not heard one bit of rumbling. There is no should-we-shouldn’t-we dance, which, of course, always sabotages efforts.

Now, over this extended period of time, we are left to cope with our feelings without leaning on a “oh, let’s have (insert crazy-lovely-decadent meal) as a treat, we deserve it” mentality, while coming face to face with how frequently that, in fact, did happened

But now, half way though, we are faced to feel the feelings, and work with the feelings sans wine glass in hand or chocolate melting in mouth.

With a birthday coming up this week and other social engagements on the horizon, I’m no fool by writing this now: I want all my accountability soldiers lined up and ready to support me on the rest of this journey.

While the “body” part of this detox may sound significant, the clarity being gained serves to rid our lives of other toxicity and reminds us that, as much as we make that choice about what goes in our mouths, we have the choice to decide what and who to put in our lives.

And I’m sure there are more lessons to come.

I’ll see you on the other side.

Author: Becky Aud-Jennison

Editor: Catherine Monkman

Photo: MGDBoston/Morguefile