The craze to detoxify one’s body of deadly inorganic chemicals, food preservatives, fats, cholesterols through fasting, colonic or enema techniques may prove to be a fad or it could gain traction as a required addition to one’s regimen for healthy living. Regardless, the concept might be something transferrable to the marriage relationship.
Protection of the Liver - The Removal of Harmful Toxins Usually homeopathic doctors recommend a detoxification program as there are about 50,000 chemicals in production and 10,000 of which are used in food processing. The liver removes these chemicals from the bloodstream, and transforms them into safer substances for excretion. With poor diet and lack of exercise; the liver may be overwhelmed with the excess amount of circulating toxins which could be stored in the fat cells of our organs for years and even decades. What does this process have to do with marriage and committed relationships in general?
Protection of the Heart- The Removal of Harmful Thoughts, Images, Feelings
Practitioners of oriental medicine say that the heart is the heart or the control center of one’s being. Not just the organ of love, but it serves as the soul force that coordinates all activities- physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Click here for suggested methods for cleansing the heart. For the purposes of relationships, regular detoxification is vital. To cleanse this organ of negative thought patterns, memories, images and feelings is perhaps just as important as detoxifying the liver. For instance, it has been widely regarded that memories are stored in the brain organ. However, Paul Pearsall, a psychoneuroimmunologist and author of “The Heart’s Code” in researching 150 heart and other organ transplant recipients found that memories can be transferred through other organs besides the brain. So memories as created by imageries and thoughts can be so strong as to transcend life and live well beyond death.
Why the Heart Needs Protection
The assault of negative imagery on the brain and heart (adults watch 4.0 of television daily) could prove toxic. For instance, the American Psychiatric Association reported that by age 18, adults will have viewed at least 16,000 simulated murders and 200,000 acts of violence. A sample of television programming in 2001 to 2002, found that sexual content appeared in 64% of all television programs. The purpose of this article is not to place value judgments on sexual content in media (research shows that sexual content increases viewership as does violence). However, the cumulative effect of violent stimuli leads one to believe that this is a ‘mean world’ in which most viewers will perceive the world as unrealistically dark (Christian Science Monitor: 1996). An unrealistically dark perception of the world operates as a fertile ground for the poisonous ivy of negative thoughts, attitudes and opinions (lust, envy, hatred, anger, greed) that can choke the arteries of the heart and soul. Added to this global opinion of bleakness and societal demands in a down economy, a dampening of one’s own individual opinion and outlook is sure to follow. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” So, to counteract the onslaught of negativity in the world; perceived or actual, one must work to detoxify one’s heart, expunge it of the worldliness and replace it with innocence, a giving nature, trust and sympathy for all living beings.
We must strive to ensure that our heart is a sacred place. The heart, according to Pope John Paul II to an audience on July 23, 1980, “has become a battlefield between love and lust. The more lust dominates the heart, the less the heart experiences the nuptial meaning of the body. It becomes less sensitive to the gift of the person, which expresses that meaning in the mutual relations of man and woman.” When we fight the urge to defile our body by feeling or acting based upon lust, envy, greed and anger we in fact cleanse our hearts, we purify it and make room for more love to enter in. Like the liver, we move our humanness out of the way and let the heart do what it was created to do. As such, the love we experience with our partner; sexual, spiritual or platonic will embody the gift of unconditional love given by The One and not a mere happenstance or physical release of pent up energy. A heart that can restore your soul and make you whole again.
Web Resources
Detoxification Three Crucial Steps of the Detox Program Pope John Paul II Address Cellular Memory in Organ Transplants Acupuncture of Roanoke Sex, Violence, and Profanity in the Media Fact Sheet
Comments