april's shine - day 16/30 - oil pulling

coconut oil - with thanks to Marni Wasserman for the picture

I love natural virgin organic oils! There is something about these oils that gives me a great feeling - and the abundance of the great vegetable oils in our lives and their possible uses is amazing.

I am going to talk a few times about oils in the empowering tips, today only one simple possible addition to your daily I-take-care-of-myself routine: oil pulling.

My favorite oil by far is coconut oil at the moment. I also love the olive oil and the hemp oil as they are a both easy to use for oil pulling and take less time to get going:-)

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A word of *warning*, this is one of the subject that might "gross you out" - as I have heard some of you saying about the "sweat" stuff:-)

I do not give you these tips to gross you out:-) I do it because these things are simple to do and they made an amazing difference in how I feel, my energy levels and to how my body feels and lives. It seems much to change but take it incrementally and do as best as you can in this moment, incorporating one by one the things which appeal to you. If we take care of our body we do not have to get grossed out by other stuff that could happen down the road, like getting sick, having bad breath, bad teeth or other stuff in this family..:-) Your health is in your hands and with these articles I want to empower you to take control over it.

Oil pulling:
Basically in the morning it is a great time to clean our mouth before brushing your teeth - because whatever is detoxing via our mouth and tong we simply take back inside by not cleaning it.

After I took this habit, I was doing it a bit obsessively, maybe, trying to get to the oil pulling as soon as I woke up - and it was often not possible (and than I would be upset about it:-D).. 

Now that I relaxed into it I take the same attitude I recommend for everything I suggest on Shining Mama - and that is, do as best you can and in time things will sort themselves out:-)

What I do is the following: 
As I wake up, I go do the oil pulling as soon after waking up as possible. I take a spoon of oil in my mouth and I use it as I would mouth wash, until it becomes as liquid as the saliva. . Do not swallow much of the oil, if you can, as the oil starts being quite acid after it integrates your tong surface and other stuff . As it works holistically, it also washes your whole mouth, the gums and even the teeth. It takes away also microscopical rests from between the teeth.

After a while - if it helps, you might want to count up to 50 - slowly:-) - if I feel that the oil has dissolved into a liquid foam, I throw it out and brush my teeth. If you really want to get extra benefits, you could dissolve some organic pure salt in a cup of lukewarm water and spool with that - and only after that brush your teeth. Spooling your mouth with salty water helps your mouth become even more alkaline and that is what we are after in a world that is 90% acid.. I do that when I have time, though - and only in the periods of conscious detox I do that regularly.

I believe the only logistical less easy part of oil spooling is where to throw the used oil, as it is not that easy to get rid of it as one might think:-) I tried all kinds of variants living in the town as I did and still do and I will offer here some of them, see what appeals to you:-)

• you can let your tap run the hottest water and little by little let the oil fall in the water drain... After the oil in your mouth is totally gone, you should let the hot water run for a minute or so and take all the grease away. This has a few risks associated with it, one of them being you burning yourself (well, yes..:-) ) and another one being causing an oil clog on your water pipe.. Plus that it is not such a Earth friendly solution, being a big quantity of hot water you need to stay pipe unclogged..;
• you can spit the oily stuff in a container and only then get rid of it by throwing into the garbage.. This is a more "green" approach but it takes more determination to throw away the oil immediately and clean the container, etc. Be aware that this oil has a lot of organic stinky stuff from your mouth incorporated, thus making it an unwelcome sight and a potential smelly one if you keep it for longer than one day..
• or you could give it to the earth via a garden, in a ground or sand pot, etc. Be aware that the Earth is forgiving but this oil is really acid so unless you have a huge garden and you throw your oil on a huge compost hope, it will burn the plants around..

If you find out about other ways to get rid of your oil, I will be happy to hear about them.

And a world about toothpaste, I am going to write soon about it but you might want to migrate towards a healthier alternative that helps your teeth get healthy from inside, like an organic salty one without foaming substances or glycerin..

After the oil pulling, the eventual salt water rinse and the brushing of the teeth I use a tong scraper to take away from the surface of the tong all that white yellow stuff that is left. And if it seems that it does not go away in the beginning, be aware that in time it will go away and it is possible to have a clean, pink, wonderful tong. 

Oil pulling is also a good exercise for some of the  jaw muscles you did not think you have:-) And if you think I do not care about the muscles that you do not feel, think again: your body is like a mechanism that works perfectly if everything works.. Otherwise, in time, muscles that do not work could also block other muscles  and so on.

I learned about the oil pulling when I was doing yoga extensively many years ago but it became a habit only when, by practice, I discovered what it did for me. My mouth was never so fresh during the day and my breath cleared up. 

And as I believe that it was a combination of habits that helps me get stronger and healthier every day, I think that every bit is important. You can integrate the oil pulling in your every-morning easily because you can do it while doing something else (I am not going to suggest anything but you could know what I mean) - and the only down side is that you cannot speak during those 2 minutes (and that was a problem being a single mother while my son had just discovered speaking). 

The advantages of doing it regularly (the oil pulling, that is:-D) are amazing and to be wished for. The books about it even say that oil pulling helps pull all the inflammation out of your body and I believe it - but even if you see your body as a machine with different parts, bringing health to your mouth and breath is a big biggie.

If you need a film about it, I have here a link for you, featuring non other than Daniel Vitalis:-)