Detox Mind, Body and Soul

Detox mind, body and soul! By Vanessa Finnigan

While most young people in the 80s were out partying and ingesting toxins, Dominique Finney (in her late teens) was experimenting with water and juice fasts and having cosmic conversations! Years later, Dominique is an internationally acclaimed author and medical herbalist who has just been voted ‘herbalist of the year’ in Australia by the National Herbalists Association of Australia (NHAA). I recently met up with Dominique in Noosa but to my surprise she did not ask me to poke out my tongue, nor did she look in my eyes with a magnifying glass or hold my pulse, phew! In fact Dominique’s approach is as intuitive as it is scientific!

What is detoxing and what are the benefits?

Dominique says detoxing is very individual and essential! “There is no doubt in my mind that all of us have to balance our environments, our mind, emotions, our physical body and spiritual practices and create that balance. Detoxing to me is about letting go and not being attached to specific parts of yourself. It’s about breaking habbits, changing the way you view things or altering a practice- and that’s very personal,” she says. Detox is not just about going on a strict diet. For example a ‘mind detox’ may be learning to keep your mind still, learning to focus and learning the process of completion on tasks. Or you may go from smoking one packet of cigarettes to half a packet. Even 40 days of being grateful is a detox! Dominique recommends taking small steps before getting really strict with your body, “that’s when you start looking at digestive detoxifications and as a naturopath, nutritionist and herbalist I love that side of detoxing,” she says.

After years of experience and research Dominique believes: when you don’t have toxic foods in your diet, when you have a sodium/potassium balance in your body that’s perfect on a cellular level, when your acid/alkalinity is sitting nicely in your body, when you haven’t got putrification throughout your digestive tract, when you’re not suffering ailments caused from bad digestion of foods or get headaches because of structural or muscular placement, then you are on your way to a long healthy life. She says, “You detox to feel better, you detox for a reason. You’re not going to feel better unless you have a clean mind, clean body, clean spirit and clean emotions.” Dominique comments that an holistic approach is important….. there is no point drinking carrot juice if you keep brawling with your partner or creating negativity every day. She says when you do something intensive like a juice or water fast, there is a lot of letting go occurring on an emotional, mental and spiritual level. “I’m not interested in just working on one level, intensive detoxing is all encompassing and we are encompassing beings and we don’t realise our potential; we are boundless.”

Dom’s Detox Tips

Dominique’s written about every possible detox you can physically undertake in her internationally acclaimed book the ‘Wellness Zone’. But water and Vitamin C are Dominique’s top two detox tools- Vit C works on the liver and it’s a super antioxidant and it sweeps toxins faster through your body than anything else. Dominique recommends Vitamin C therapy for a range of ailments. She says interestingly lemons are acidic but it creates alkalinity in the body and she uses lemon and honey for everyone and everything and says it’s very cleansing.

Milk thistle is the quintessential detox herb. But Dominique says you don’t necessarily need to take herbal medicine in order to detox, although herbs potentiate the results and protect your body through a detox. She believes people know intrinsically what they need and what’s going to work for them and people are very educated these days and she likes to discuss the research with them. She supports the medical system with their tools for diagnosis and doesn’t use naturopathic diagnostic tools in her work.

Dominique says don’t detox if you are pregnant or if you are taking prescription or illicit drugs (make sure you are supervised if you have chronic or serious health conditions or are wanting to come off or reduce medications). Dominique says you can take time off to detox or do mini weekend detoxing which fits around the working week and you can do it from the comfort of your own home.

What’s important to Dominique?

“I eat clean food from local producers, we haven’t had a TV for 10 years, I live in the mountains and we have our own water. I only have one day a week where I’m committed to a set place (at Eumundi Markets where I offer a free clinic and sell herbal medicines that I manufacture), every other day I have a flexible work schedule, I write and I follow my interests.

I eat as close to the earth as possible, we operate a certified organic farm, I don’t use anything on my skin other than what I make myself and I buy soaps from people I know locally.

I’ve been fanatical at times in my life but these days it’s about the thought process involved. Following the food back to the source is more important and the consciousness involved is what’s important to me.

I have almost finished my masters in public health and health promotion and I practice yoga every day and I am studying to be a Kundalini yoga teacher at the first level. I have a stable relationship with my husband and three children after 30 years of being married. I look after myself on all levels.

I run a project in India through our lip balm project, where we support six villages and we are paying for a homeopath, medicines, a mid wife and a nurse to support the six villages just through the sale of our $6 lip balms.

“I would love to see everyone work together for the common good. For the alternative ways to blend harmoniously with the orthodox ways. And a professional respect created between the different beliefs, educational, spiritual, physical and emotional status of practitioners, with the governing bodies recognising these differences, allowing medicine and science to grow to its true potential. Eliminating the greed and fulfilling the planet’s medical needs. Together we grow.”

Dominique will release her new book next month called ‘Kitchen Witchen’ which is all about food as medicine with plenty of yummy recipes and research on the active constituents of fruits, veggies and herbs. The official book launch will be at the Blue Lotus Venue on the 28th Dec at Woodford Folk Festival for more information visit:www.medicineroom.net. You can also pre-order the book now from this website and go in the draw to win a prize.