Guest Article
Cleansing and Dr. Stone’s Three Diets
By Sea Cummins RPP, RPE
Following your body and your intuition about food can be simple and clear. However, overriding a craving that “feels so right until afterward, when you feel so wrong”—could gently begin a new freedom from a downward spiral. Who hasn’t, due to life events, stress and busyness gotten into “fast” foods for instant gratification? Then suddenly realize you’ve given up on ever feeling your best. As Polarity Therapy teachers and students, we’ve been given an amazing tool so make sure you try Dr. Stone’s suggested food and drink for a significant interlude from stress eating.
I hear people say “I eat healthy” yet, many people have never experienced a significant stretch of time eating consistently whole, organic, plant-based foods in a setting where the kitchen was solely based on that.
As a teen I set up my own separate cupboard in my parents house for my whole grain and vegetarian items and tried to steer clear of their many tempting items right under my nose. Moving to a raw vegan organic farm community in the 70’s, provided me support from the environment, other people, harvesting vegetables each day for salads, and wild plant foraging. All of which really made a huge difference in integrating and creating new habits for my life. When I lived at Murrieta studying Polarity, it was also so supportive.
If there is any way you can clear your kitchen with cooperation of family members and agree to remove processed foods and experience vegetarian or plant-based food for at least ten days, the benefits could be significant and you might even have fun. I suggest journaling about what you notice physically, emotionally and mentally during the ten days. There may be ups and downs. Grumpy days and elated days. If your digestive tract needs time to adjust, you can blend raw vegetables in a high powered blender to avoid gastrointestinal distress due to rapid change. You can also try using supplements until your gut adjusts.
Consider that much of “normal aging” is often caused by lifestyle and is actually premature. Well, Dr. Stone knew all about this and thus, created Polarity Therapy. His zest for life, his curiosity to study theology and medicine from an early age and his compassion for others’ suffering created a perfect storm for a shareable, practical compendium of daily habits, self-assessment tools and ways to access one’s health potential. Polarity Therapy was his way of bringing his insights, genius and brilliance to a wider populace. In short, he cared and wanted those suffering to have simple tools that actually work.
When I took the Alive Polarity programs at Murrieta Hot Springs, California, we began our days with a small cup of Vitality Drink followed by a big mug of hot Polaritea. I had sensitive teeth so mine was made with apple juice and very little lemon.
Next we had Polarity Yoga class followed by breakfast. The Purifying Diet breakfast consists of citrus, garlic, ginger and olive oil. There’s a great recipe in the Murrieta Vegetarian Cookbook which blends and strains the citrus and is followed by Polaritea. Drink the Polaritea as hot and as much as you can right away.
During the 4-week Basic program at Murrieta, “Healing Yourself and Your Family: Spiritual Non-Violence,” we had a period of time on just the Purifying Diet. In the Advanced 6-week program, the purifying time culminated with a night of liver flush. The class met daily and we all had elegant glasses for the lemon and olive oil mixture (at least 4oz each if I recall correctly).
The Murrieta Vegetarian Cookbook (available on Amazon) is really the only book that has extensive recipes for the Purifying and Health Building diets. I highly recommend studying these diets and creating these meals during your training for Polarity students and, minimally, as a seasonal go-to. Health Building is a way of life for some Polarity therapists I have known since the 80s. I have practiced it most of the time. There were times I veered off, but the positive results on many levels keep me on track now.
The gourmet vegetarian recipes in the cookbook are more for holidays and parties, occasional use. I now recommend using plant-based cheeses in place of the dairy cheese used in the recipes.
Have you been craving a cleanse? Awesome! Springtime is an ideal time to begin one. I suggest you plan to start on the Spring Equinox, March 20th.
Here’s a sample day to get you started:
- Begin with the Purifying Diet “Vitality Drink” followed by Polaritea.
- Wait a few hours and have my Healing Green Soup (see the recipe under Polarity Nutrition in this newsletter).
- Have an early dinner, if you can, of a salad, steamed vegetables and maybe a baked yam.
A mixed vegetable salad with Ginger-Tamari Dressing is very satisfying. But the ideal way to do purifying is absolutely zero salt. So I recommend the Chili-French dressing. This is said to pull certain metabolic wastes from the cells more efficiently. Also zero caffeine. (Both dressings recipes are in the cookbook.)
If you want to let go of coffee, but don’t want a massive caffeine headache, taper off a few days before by drinking a small cup of green tea, or plain black coffee without cream or sugar of any kind. Wait at least an hour if you had black coffee, a half hour is fine if it was green tea then have your vitality drink and Polaritea.
Usually within a few days the taste of the coffee becomes foreign to you and you don’t even want it anymore. Then you will begin a restorative period of resting the adrenals etc. You may feel more sleepy at first and might experience a possible emotional roller coaster. It’s helpful to have a point person, create a group, or take the class that APTA and James Arena offers twice a year to get support for the ups and downs. My APP students in Portland, Oregon, and Baja Sur, Mexico experience this in a residential setting.
If you would like more articles about how to experience Dr. Stone’s three diets in your everyday life and support for making this part of a training curriculum for your school or students please reach out to me director.cummins@polaritytherapy.org