When you cleanse and release the poisons of this society, you start to become more in tune with cosmic cycles.

It also became clear to me that extended juice cleanses were something I needed to keep in my annual schedule - my version of a regular check-up and tune-in. Sebi, and tried to eat raw (even if it was just a salad with no cooked ingredients) as much as possible, a testament to another O.G. I ate alkaline, in the footsteps of the O.G. I found my power in having complete sovereignty of my own body, without an external entity (i.e., the medical industry) trying to govern me.Īfter my first extended cleanse, my body continued to detox, so I committed then and there to eating as clean as possible. Not only did I have physical detox symptoms - having experienced invasive medical procedures from abnormal pap smears - but emotional and mental detoxing as well. The place where we heal all of our old afflictions is in the ‘old way,’ in the kitchen of our ancestors, where foods contained the power to nourish our bodies, minds, and spirits.” SHOP WOMB WELLNESS Queen Afua writes in her book Sacred Woman, “Toxic thoughts and attitudes are created by the poisons on our plate.

But I didn’t know how deeply it would help me target physical, mental, emotional and spiritual trauma - especially dis-ease related to my divine femininity and womanhood. Sebi, so I understood that fasting was an important aspect of holistic healing and I was planning on doing a 3 day juice cleanse. I was already familiar with the herbalist Dr. And now he was passing me the torch, inviting me to go inward and create a sacred space of healing for myself. I was inspired by him, and even though I had never met his old 100-pound heavier self, I could visibly see the new light of peace that radiated from him. “You know what you have to do,” he would say, having recently finished his own extended juice fast that helped him lose 100 pounds and begin the process toward healing his trauma.

At the time, I was dealing with severe anxiety - I was on the other side of a traumatic experience that had forced me to figure out who I was, but I had no foundation to drive the healing I so desperately needed, and so I was moving through the world uneasy and insecure, questioning God, burying myself in work and holing myself up inside my Harlem studio apartment. My husband introduced me to the idea of taking a “solid food vacation” when we met that year. I went for 30 days, and it completely changed my life.

My first time doing an extended juice cleanse was in the summer of 2019.

Sacred Woman by Queen Afua