Juice Cleanse – Day 3

The focus for Day 3 was the third chakra, located on the spine directly behind the navel. The third chakra controls your feelings of fear, anxiety and power (hence getting a knot in your stomach, etc). When you’re third chakra is not balanced you tend to soak up a lot of stress and are easily influenced by any negativity around you (sounds pretty accurate in my case!).

The author mentions that the third chakra is “all about commitment”. That goes along perfectly with the third day of this cleanse. You are officially “fasting”, having gone without solids for three days. You also aren’t quite halfway. So making sure to stay strong and committed at this point is essential. There are a wide range of feelings that can come up on the third day, fully depending on the individual. You might feel absolutely comfortable, or ready to abandon ship. You could be full of energy, or in the throes of detoxing. Whatever happens, it’s important to listen to your body and acknowledge any feelings that might come up.

Yoga and Meditation – The yoga for Day 3 focused on the belly area, lots of poses that stretch and massage the digestive system. A specific exercise was The Breath of Fire.

Breath of Fire

1. Sit in your easy meditation pose, whether that be full lotus or sitting on your heels with a cushion, whatever works for you. Take several long, deep breaths with your eyes closed.
2. Lean forward slightly and stick out your tongue. Place both hands over your navel. Begin breathing as if you were a panting dog. Your belly will move as you breathe, feel this with your hands.
3. When ready, move your hands to your knees, close your mouth, and continue to breathe in the same way but through your nose. This is the Breath of Fire or pranayama.
4. Continue for 1 to 3 minutes. You will start to feel a warm sensation behind your navel, hence the name of this exercise.
5. If you get tired or uncomfortable, slow your breathing, but continue in a rhythm. IF you feel dizzy, stop for a moment, but continue as soon as you are able with slow rhythmic breaths.
6. Continue for 3 minutes, using a timer if it’s helpful.
7. Once done, stop and breathe normally. Sit quietly for a few minutes before moving on to the next exercise.

The Breath of Fire is an extremely cleansing exercise. Using a quote directly from the book “There is no better internal cleansing practice than the breath, and no breath more cleansing than the Breath of Fire.”

The color for the third chakra is yellow so time for yellow juice!

Yellow Juice

Day 3 was not too terrible for me. A few detox symptoms showed up, but I was mentally much more relaxed (which is always the harder part for me). When I woke up I had a strange film that seemed to coat my mouth. It was the type of thing that might happen if you eat a really sugary type of candy. But seeing as I hadn’t “eaten” anything in days I’m sure it was my body flushing toxins. I also had a tiny bit of a headache and some acne breakouts. On the upside, my body fat percentage went down again to 18.6%, yippee!!