Everybody wants to do a cleanse. It’s a juice cleanse. It’s a maple syrup and lemon cleanse. It’s an only watermelon cleanse. It’s intermittent fasting. It’s a detox. It will solve all of your problems, your skin will be clear, you’ll lose weight, and you’ll wake up full of energy and ready, willing, and able to meditate all of the time with a pure and open heart. The obsession with cleansing is a perfect example of the neurosis of wanting a quick fix, if you can just cut out the right thing or work harder. But, unfortunately, it rarely works like that. After a month of juice cleansing, maybe all you have is indigestion and a bad temper. Ayurvedist Kyle Roberts wants people to know that there’s another, more intuitive way to cleanse that comes from ancient traditions.
The five day Ayurvedic cleanse focuses on getting into alignment with your body and its desires, but also with the world around it. The tradition designed the cleanse to be sustainable and to ease you back into day-to-day life once you finish it. It’s not entirely fasting, and it isn’t prohibitive. Instead, Roberts replaces daily normal meals with intuitive eating and Kitchari, a bland but nutrient-rich porridge meant to simplify the desire for hunger. While the guidance of a practitioner is optimal for an Ayurvedic cleanse, it runs on principles anyone can integrate into their life.
Get in Touch with the Seasons
“There are four important times of year: the two solstices and the two equinoxes,” Roberts explained. “These are ideal times to change with the season and make sure we align with our environment. That’s the core of Ayurveda, to integrate yourself with your surroundings rather than working against it.” So, in the dregs of January, maybe it makes more sense to lean into calm and rest than to suddenly become a gym rat or long-distance runner.
As part of Roberts’ Ayurvedic cleanse, he and his students do “technology fasts,” which may not mean what you think it means. Yes, no phones, but no electric lights, either. “After the sun goes down, all the lights in the house go off. People just light candles at night. Some people are tech-addicted — there’s always another email,” he said. But you also don’t have to spend time just in silent meditation every moment. “I do tell people, ‘What are you going to do, just stare off into space?’ So I do recommend some leisure activities. I tell people to play cards, play scrabble, listen to a book, or listen to a podcast,” Roberts said.
One thing he noted is that doing a cleanse does require mental discipline and an understanding of self-sacrifice. “A cleanse is never convenient. There’s always going to be more work to do that you’re missing.” In order to really commit to the cleanse, you have to find a way to accept that.
Meditate on Your Meals
Ideally, you cook the Kitchari yourself in your own kitchen. “You’re there for the process and it’s your creation, so you’re intimately involved with it,” Roberts said. He admitted “It’s actually a really boring thing to do.” But part of the Ayurvedic cleanse is learning to be okay with boredom. The simplicity of the Kitchari is to rest the system and reset the body. “It’s more about rhythm and symmetry. I tell people to just eat when they’re hungry.”
But how do you know when you’re hungry? It can be hard to differentiate hunger from boredom or stress-eating. Part of the acceptance of boredom is then being able to separate out what you actually want. When you’re not looking at your phone or listening to the news while eating, you become present with it. “Part of this rebuilding is to build mental intelligence. Ask yourself, ‘Is this real hunger?’ and be patient.” Soon, you’ll be able to understand your body’s cues and what times of day you want to eat.
However, Roberts clarified that not eating at all and restricting yourself is the opposite of what he’s doing. “There are a lot of people who disguise their eating disorder as Ayurvedic eating or veganism,” he said. He cautions against doing full fasting, and he warns that things like intermittent fasting can have diminishing returns. The goal of the cleanse isn’t to starve yourself. Ideally, it’s not prohibitive, but rather additive. You gain a deeper understanding of your food and a meditative approach to eating where even simple flavors can feel deep and fulfilling. After the cleanse, you can also re-integrate sweet flavors into your diet through herbal jelly, honey, and milk. You might find you appreciate them more.
Understand Your Own Mind
Roberts does the cleanse with his students, and has practiced Ayurveda himself for over twenty years. “Five days is a decent entry point to do this cleanse,” he said. “You see where you mess up. Part of the sweet spot is doing it with a group, so that there’s accountability.” He sees it like running. If you want to run a marathon, do long runs twice a week. “What is hard can become easy,” he said.
And, if you come into a cleanse already frustrated at following a list of rules, you might not get the most out of it. “You’re trying to follow your intuition and figure out how your body works and how your mind works. The goal is to be more integrated into your daily life and into the season, so you can live in more alignment.”
You also understand what you gravitate towards and why you take things out of your diet or lifestyle. When do you want to drink alcohol? What do you feel when you want to eat snacks? “Certain things have a grip over us. Why we’re upset over that thing is that we’re powerless over the things that have a grip over us. Through cleansing, you might loosen that grip, not entirely, but just a little bit,” Roberts said. The cleanse shows you your desires, and once you go back to your day-to-day life, you can understand better whether or not you want to fulfill them.
If you want to try an Ayurvedic cleanse, Kyle Roberts’s Kitchari and Post-Cleanse Rejuvenation recipes are easy to make at home.
Story by Emma Riva
Photography by Dave Bryce
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