Whole Detox: a 21-day personalized program to break through barriers in every area of your life. / Deanna Minich. Published by HarperOne, 2016. 432 p. including index and 22-page bibliography, with an extra set of color pages on each color.
Deanna Minich’s research into the nature and psychology of the human body and its processes shows that detoxification is a continuum of actions that require not just your mouth and gut, but the whole of you, from your body to your brain and emotional state. Her book is honest and simple, offering a way out of the dieting and toxic morass that individuals can find themselves hiding in. In the beginning, she allays concerns and questions readers might have about the process of detoxification. On p.5 under “Redefining toxin” she says, “ Toxins are better understood less as poisons than as barriers—obstacles to the life and health we truly want.”
Author Minich has a plan called Whole Detox and the Seven Systems of Full-Spectrum Health. This plan has a number of facets that address the utmost in a person, finding the best they can be, their native beauty. Besides the actual diet, each part of the plan starts with naming the disturbances, doing affirmations for how to relate to the world and community, performing (usually yoga) movements daily, journaling on specific statements, meditations, and the art and science behind the seven colors of healthy food.
If a person doesn’t, or can’t, let go of toxicity, that toxicity will continue to follow them even though they might otherwise eat right and keep themselves fit. Minich points out that since the mind, body and emotions are interconnected, even a person who possesses a clean, healthy body, may suffer from toxic emotions or beliefs, preventing them from the radiant health they have striven so diligently to find.
These are insightful conclusions. While there may be countless books on the mechanism of detoxification and which toxins are created by which processes and products, the function of Whole Detox is to engage the body and the mind in the Seven Systems. Since these systems are what runs our bodies, it’s only natural that we should know them more intimately, and understand how each of them impacts our day-to-day, physically and emotionally.
Both conventional and alternative medicine recognize the body as having the following systems: skin, skeletal, muscular, nervous, endocrine, cardiovascular, lymphatic, respiratory, digestive/excretory, urinary and kidneys, and reproductive. Minich’s groupings of these bodily systems arrives at 7 distinct categories, rather than the 11 above. In this way, systems are assigned colors relating to colored foods that are beneficial to a specific system. Each system is paired with emotional senses and lifestyle choices and represented as healthy and flowing or as unhealthy and stuck, in need of detoxification in order to serve the person well. All the systems together are fueled by the power of synergy that unites them in a single body.
The seven systems in Whole Detox are named “the Root, the Flow, the Fire, the Love, the Truth, the Insight, and the Spirit”. Notice how after “the Fire”, the systems more and more suggest matters of the heart and soul. Yet all the systems contain emotional attributes, because we are emotional beings. To illustrate two of these, the Root contains the skin and bones, adrenals, the immune system and DNA, and responds to self-defense, self-identity, survival, and the community or tribe. See p. 24. The Love contains the heart, thymus and respiratory systems, and responds to compassion, loyalty and service. See p. 27.
Under the skilled and careful direction of Minich, you will find each of the seven systems explained and why they support your outlook, appearance and livelihood. She recounts that in her research she came to understand “…how deeply mind, body and emotions all effect one another.” (p.7) and the miraculous disappearance of depression, anxiety, extra weight, and other toxicities due to engaging in the plan. Minich gives you the chance to discover whether your disturbances are body- or mind-related and show you the means to help you unload them and deconstruct the roadblocks to “full-spectrum” health.
Resources here are from Minich’s list of suggestions:
drdeannaminich.com
foodandspiritprofessional.com
functionalmedicine.org
[…] See my review of the book at Seven Colors of Detox. […]