Spring Cleaning: Body & Mind

Spring is the perfect time of year to clean our body/minds of accumulated toxins built over the past few months or even years. The idea of toxins and cleaning is not a new one. In Sanskrit, the term for toxins is AMA, and the opposite, OJAS, signifies nurturing and light.  

Cleaning your body/mind begins with awareness. How can you clean if you don't know what's dirty? When it comes to Body/mind, there is an easy exercise that makes everything clear. Basically, you look for both AMA and OJAS in your life via your five senses of sight, touch, smell, hearing and taste. Do the exercises below to identify each sensation, and label it accordingly: AMA or OJAS. Once labeled, you will naturally know where to begin your spring cleaning. 

Vision: Identify the sights that calm you- those sights that are beautiful to your eyes. When you open your eyes, what brings joy and peace? What sights disturb you, or leave you feeling restless, agitated, or make your mind race? Pay particular attention to how you feel after watching TV or after a few hours at your computer, after walking through the park or seeing an old friend.

Touch: This sense seems familiar enough, but start to pay attention to how things that touch you make you feel. Start by looking at fabrics, lotions, chemicals. Now expand out to your possessions, plants, clouds, food, and sunlight. What about pets, and even people? How do they make you feel? Do they touch you? Did you get hugged recently? How does touch make you feel?  What kind of touch makes you smile? When touch is OJAS you will feel connected and whole. When touch is associated with AMA, pain, violation, and loss are often not far away.  

Smell: Smell is one of our most powerful senses; we take it for granted, but if you pay close attention, you will find smell driving many of your daily actions. Begin with  the big smells, like those your home.  Do you smell pleasant fragrances in the air or do the windows need to be thrown open? Can you identify aromas from pets, cooking or mold? Perhaps floral fragrances sweeten the air? After examining your home, draw in your focus out to the people around you, and then finally back to yourself. What OJAS smells make you smile, what AMA smells feel toxic?

Hearing: Close your eyes, and drink in the sounds around you. Do sounds make you move? Are they OJAS or AMA? How does each sound make you feel? Does a child laughter make you smile? Does your cat's meow slow your heart? What about that TV blaring in the next room? Take your time to listen carefully, and try to place each sound as OJAS or AMA.

Taste: Now for the fun part, focus on the food you eat, and the tastes that nourish your soul.  This is more difficult that you might think, how much of that taste is sight? How much is smell? Really focus on taste. Closing your eyes might help.  You may also find it helpful to clear the clutter and turn down the distractions. How does your food taste? Salty, sweet, bitter, hot, etc. Does this taste make me want to eat slowly? Is there actually any satisfying taste to this food I'm eating? Can you identify it? Is this a taste I want to share with someone I love? Does it taste better when I share it? Does it taste nourishing and healthy? What does healthy taste like: fine wine, fresh herbs, a pot of homemade soup?  Try to taste the sunshine and soil the food you eat. What about those things you eat that are AMA (toxic)- those things that make your body sluggish, sick, or tired? What do they taste like? (hint: start noticing how much sugar, salt and fat manufacturers add to most processed food) What other tastes are toxic? What other tastes are nourishing? Love perhaps?  

Now that you have finished your two lists, what are those nourishing OJAS (nourishing)  things in your life that you want to cultivate? What AMA (toxic) things did you find from your life that you need to clean?  Ok, you have your list. It's time to clean, detoxify and rejuvenate. Best wishes to everyone for great health and a nourishing life!  

"The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace. With each step, the wind blows. With each step, a flower blooms."

-Thich Nhat Hhan

One Happy Mom

We are happy to report that, last week, one of our late term prenatal clients, in her 40th week, successfully delivered a healthy baby girl shortly after her Massage to Encourage Labor session here at Sage Spa.

This kind of thing doesn't happen this fast every time, but in this case, she started labor during her massage session with her husband and massage therapist at her side.

We couldn't be happier! Congratulations!

On a personal note: I have known Dr. Jeffery Morrison for many years. Jeffrey is a fantastic doctor, a very caring man, and a great healer. In his practice, he treats many of those people that have fallen through the cracks of modern medicine. Jeffrey has literally pulled patients back from the brink, when others had given up. It's no wonder that his patients love him. I can't recommend Jeffrey highly enough.  

- David Sumner, Sage Spa. 

Dr Jeffrey Morrison

is a medical doctor who champions a nutritional approach to healthcare as well as preventing and reversing degenerative diseases. Dr. Morrison's specific treatments are aimed at enhancing the body's ability to heal and detoxify itself. These safe, non-toxic and non-invasive therapies are proving to be more powerful than conventional treatments, which utilize often dangerous drugs and surgeries.

Dr Morrison completed his undergraduate training at the University of Rochester and received his medical doctorate from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia . He is trained and Board Certified in Family Practice and has completed additional training in Environmental Medicine.

In 2001, Dr Morrison was on the medical staff at the Atkins Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in New York City , where he worked under Dr Robert Atkins, developer of the low carbohydrate lifestyle. He then went on to become the medical director of the Wellness Medical Center of Integrative Medicine in New York City .

In 2002, Dr Morrison opened The Morrison Center on Fifth Avenue just steps from Manhattan 's Union Square . Since then, Dr Morrison has used his successful integrative medicine and nutritional approach for both Health Optimization and the treatment and prevention of degenerative diseases, like: arthritis, high blood pressure, hormone imbalance, obesity, diabetes, chronic fatigue, anxiety, depression, heavy metal poisoning and many other ailments.

Dr Morrison is a member of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) as well as a lecturer and Board Member for the American College for the Advancement in Medicine (ACAM). Dr Morrison has made television appearances, written journal articles, chapters for textbooks, and has lectured throughout the country in the field of integrative and complementary medicine.

Dr. Morrison has been featured as a health specialist on The Discovery Channel, Next Top Model, and several documentaries related to Anti-Aging. He has also contributed to articles in such publications as Cosmopolitan, Men's Journal, Shape, Fitness, New York Magazine as well as other health related resources around the country.

Conditions Jeffrey treats... 

The Morrison Center

103 Fifth Avenue, 6th Floor

(between 17th and 18th Street )

New York, NY 10003

 212-989-9828