TOXICITY: Do you ever get irritable?

Toxicity is relative. If you are a plant, oxygen is toxic. If you are a human, oxygen is essential. What is toxicity for humans, how does it affect us and how do we detoxify?

It is my theory that excess toxins in the body and mind mask as irritability or distractedness. The next time you notice feeling out of sorts, which one of the following might have had the most effect on you?
Environmental toxins:
From my Manhattan days I recall never seeing a blue sky. All kinds of toxins leach into our water systems including mercury and arsenic. Newborns enter the world with as many as 200+ known toxins in their body. We have some ability to lessen our exposure by choosing healthier foods and we also have significant power over how to effectively process toxins out of the body. 
Drugs:

​
Inactivity:






​Illness:

​
Legal or illegal, drugs can cause toxicity in our systems. Some drugs cause noxious side effects while others never leave our systems. ​
When we are inactive all our processes slow: digestion, circulation, oxygen inhalation, oxygen absorption, and all the purifying processes the body provides. This results in toxin remaining in the system longer. As excess toxins remain in the body longer, they have a more and more profound and negative effect on health and well being.

​Illness can generate toxins in our system that represent the aftermath of the confrontation. Cleanses are wonderfully beneficial as you recover.
Toxic thinking:
We are what we think. Whatever occupies our mind provides the frame through which we live. The more negatively we think, the more we suffer and the higher the level of inflammation in the body.
Toxic people:









Toxic feelings:


​
I have personally come to understand the importance of maintaining boundaries, especially with some who are troubled. "Toxic people" include those who either do not honor boundaries or have poorly developed or deteriorated boundaries. These people can have a toxic effect on others around them. "Victims" can fall into this category. For example, someone who asks for advice but never takes it. Others lacking boundaries include abusers, chronic narcissists, bullies and substance addicts.
Personally directed anger can have an incredibly toxic effect on both the target and the angry one. Fear is such a difficult and inflammatory feeling. Any negative emotion that we dwell on becomes toxic to our systems.
Toxic politics:
We currently live in a political world that is toxic with barriers to communication that seem insurmountable. Lots of people talking at each other instead of with each other. Partisan realities as far apart as possible. How can one deal with this kind of toxic environment? Here's a clue: Breathe.

Excess toxins produce inflammation. Obstruction produces toxin. Many of the recommendations for reducing inflammation work equally well when thinking of flushing toxins from the body, including the recommendation to remove blockages from our system.

Our body is cleansed of toxins through the liver, kidneys, lungs, lymphatic system, intestines and skin. The blood is cleansed as it travels through the liver as impurities are removed. The kidneys filter extra water and toxins from the blood. While filtering, the kidneys produce urine to carry the toxins away. The lungs hasten the removal of carbon dioxide through exhalation. The lymphatic system works as a drainage system across the whole body in order to remove excess fluid and toxins. The intestines process nutrients and whatever is left including toxins is hastened out of the body. The skin removes toxins through the process of sweating.

How do toxins affect our feelings and our personality?

Inactivity causes toxin buildup in the body and in the mind. The longer we sit the less we want to do. When we are inactive we breathe shallowly, body processes stagnate and slow and our body stiffens, each causing toxins to increase. But the brain suffers from inactivity just as the rest of the body does. Often the more inactive we are the more irritable and stubborn we feel. Our thinking is affected by toxins stagnating in our system. You could say that our thought processes stiffen.

This is especially insidious because the thing we really need to do (get moving) is something we become more and more resistant to the longer we don't do it. I wrote a series of articles about this phenomena that are especially helpful. New ideas that really help clarify what is important for all of us at any age:​
Effects of Inactivity: Age is not the enemy. Inactivity is.
Do not believe everything you think: The mind plays tricks.
Now I know why we don't: Inactivity and delayed reactions.
Why have we failed? Why so many still do not exercise.

What does toxicity feel like?

Below I mention that one of the ways to detoxify is through massage. After a detoxing massage you actually might not feel good. The toxicity released from the muscles might make you feel nauseous, irritable, distracted or simply jumpy. You feel it more because the toxins, released by the massage, circulate in the blood and lymph systems on their way to be eliminated from the body. I will often sense toxicity as a irritating sensation that sometimes feels prickly. Maybe as if the hair on your skin stands up. Or something itches.

One of the best ways to sense what toxicity feels like is to take an Epsom salt bath. It is actually a fantastic thing to do if you have been sick or if your muscles have been under duress or if you feel stressed out. As you relax in the warm water you will notice sensations of irritation flowing out your limbs. That is real toxicity as it leaves your system. You can take them as foot baths or full baths. 

Emotionally, encountering toxicity can make me feel extra defensive or quickly upset. Rushing can indicate toxicity. "Rush to Judgement" is a red flag. Verbal toxicity is rife on the Internet with insult and rudeness very popular. To me, that kind of toxicity "gets my dander up". It is stimulating and exponentially inflammatory, meaning that the toxicity intensifies very quickly. As many have experienced the past several years, the anxiety this kind of dialog introduces is debilitating. Some useful hints are described in Deflame: Remedies for anxiety caused by incendiary rhetoric.

How can we detoxify?

Exercise is once again the elixir. No matter the cause of toxicity, movement helps to process it out of the body faster. As a result it affects us less. Jack La Lanne was an ardent vegetarian who ate only raw organic food. He famously said: "If man made it, don't eat it." But even though proper diet was essential to him, when asked which was more important diet or exercise, he unequivocally answered: "Exercise". I bet much of his reasoning included that exercise hastens toxin removal.

Toxin cleansing is why we so often feel good after an exercise class. Toxins fermenting from inactivity cause us to feel irritable and distracted.

The Detox Big Three: Exercise, Deep Breathing, Hydrate.

Exercise: The very best thing you can do to improve your overall health and well being at any age is to consistently exercise. Huge amounts of research overwhelmingly confirm this. As a guideline, Kaiser Permanente recommends 30 minutes of moderate exercise each day at your choice of activity. In my experience it is essential that you be consistent. For detoxification purposes, exercise can be vigorous or gentle. Gentle seated joint release can improve toxin removal significantly. Click below for how to establish a great program that is easy and enjoyable.
Practice deep breathing: It is especially effective at reducing anxiety, depression and pain. But deep breathing quite directly reduces toxicity through more thorough exhalation of carbon dioxide, a toxic substance to the human body.

Breathing exercise to detoxify: 4-7-8:
Place the tip of your tongue against the ridge behind your upper teeth and exhale completely through your mouth so that you make a whoosh sound. Close you mouth and inhale deeply through your nose for a count of 4, hold for 7, exhale for 8. Additional tips: After inhaling, take in a little more air. After exhaling completely, squeeze even more out before allowing the lungs to refill.

Drink water: Think of drinking water as if it is taking a shower on the inside of your body. Many conditions are helped with a simple glass of water. One of the things dehydration can mask as is depression, distraction or anxiety. Drinking a glass of water should be the first thing you do to try to feel better. Adequate water is essential for proper functioning of the kidneys and liver, both such important purification organs. Along with the recommendations to exercise and practice deep breathing, this is the most important thing we can do to detoxify from any unfavorable substance or behavior.

My wonderful mother in law would keep a glass of water in a central part of her home and every time she passed it she took a sip. If you wait till you are thirsty, you have waited too long. Don't let yourself get to the point of being thirsty.

​Diet: In general, eat an anti-inflammatory diet. AABBC: The 5 most anti-inflammatory foods: Almonds, Avocado, Broccoli, Blueberries, Carrots. When choosing foods, choose the ones closest to their original preparation and therefore with the fewest preservatives and the freshest ingredients. Homemade is better than heavily processed. There are many specific detox diets available including fasting.

Fasting: This is an excellent way to detoxify physically and spiritually. New evidence has been coming out about the benefits of fasting for building a healthy physical foundation. Use organic fresh juices during your fast.

Massage releases toxicity stored in the muscles into the blood stream to be removed from the body through the kidneys and liver. Deep tissue massage can be particularly effective in this way. Past trauma is often stored in the tissue. As it is released through massage it will be processed out of the body. During that process you may feel awful. It is a natural and temporary effect of cleansing. You are feeling the toxins.

Body detoxes: Epsom salt baths leach toxins out of your body through the skin. They are particularly effective when done at the end of an illness to remove excess toxic debris left in the body from the battle. Saunas are wonderful as are steam baths and hot tubs. All help the removal of toxicity through the skin. The more you sweat the better.

Visualization and the energy sciences: We can work with the energetic forces of the body through the nervous system using visualization. The "energy sciences" refer to systems that organize, streamline and cleanse the flow of energy in and around the body. Blockages to this stream of life are responsible for many of humankind's woes. Through the power of suggestion we can unblock these forces. Grounding is an important element. A new article on these concepts is in development, soon to be published. Look for "How to Ground Yourself in Times of Trouble" in the coming months.

Effective visualizations:

Grounding: Sit with your feet flat on the floor, knees over your feet. Sit so that your lower back is upright. Imagine that you have 3 legs: One leg on the ball of each foot as it touches the ground. The 3rd leg is the center of your seat as it touches the chair. This is the center of your pelvic floor. Think of energy going straight down all 3 legs to the center of the earth and attach yourself there.

Relaxation: Imagine that you are floating effortlessly on a river of liquid gold. Imagine the gold running all around you and under you and through you. Allow blockages to dissolve as you relax on the river of life.

Other ways of detoxifying the mind: Structured meditation teaches invaluable skills for nullifying the effects of toxic thinking, but there are plenty of other tools available to us. Go for a walk to "clear the mind". Be of service to others to break out of negative thinking. 

Toxicity in others: Reinforce your own boundaries. Do not let others encroach on your own space. Do not fall into the enabler trap: A warning flag should go up if you constantly try to help those who do not want to help themselves.

Toxic feelings: Anger and fear can be so toxic. Negative emotions that we dwell upon become significant toxic forces in our body and mind. Release negative emotion in a responsible way. A link to an article detailing how to do that with anger is included at the end of this article.

Toxic Politics: Learn how to ground yourself. Refuse to engage in inflammatory rhetoric. Ungrounded commentary becomes fiery very quickly. It is extremely infectious and destructive. Decibels increase dramatically. Real communication becomes impossible. Do not participate. Step aside. A classic sign of political intractability is the current trend for purity tests. Any political viewpoint that includes the concept that one is wrong if one does not believe X should be considered suspicious. Balance is important in politics as it is in life. ​

Toxicity tip: Emerse your entire forearms and hands in cold water after using your hands working with others. This keeps you from absorbing others' toxicity by flushing it out through the back of the hands and arms.

Updated January 30, 2023.