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CLEANSE, REJUVENATE & FORTIFY
Your BodyÕs Waterways Ð by Marci Javril, Vital Energist ©2001

          Have you been in touch with yourself lately? Do you find your head clear, your eyes bright, your stomach happy, and your sleep restful? If you can't yes, then your lymphatic system is probably sluggish. If you are extra tired, have irregular bowel movements, swelling in the extremities, chronic sinitus, allergies,  or breathing problems, then your lymphatic system is not functioning optimally. Perhaps it is just overloaded with wastes. Are you really eliminating everything you cannot digest or assimilate? 

	Get in touch with yourself... with a gentle massage that melts away fatigue, tension, head and chest congestion, achiness and stomach discomfort. Lymphatic touch can enhance the normal processes of your body, and helps revitalize your  filtering system (internal organs). Eat, breathe, rest and excercise more fully, by getting rid of unwanted material in your colon, lungs and sinuses. 

	As we accumulate toxins, the internal shower of the body (plasma washing out cellular wastes), instead of moving freely like water, can seem like aloe vera gel. It can become full of sludge from years of not getting rid of all the garbage (things you don't need or haven't used). When the mud in the river pathway gets thick, it flows slower and slower, until it creates stagnant corners where no activity is causing it to flow. Lymph, unlike blood which has the heart pumping it around, only moves where there is muscle contraction, and is helped a bit more through deep breathing and inversion. Your defense warriors (immune system) have to be transported through these waterways, and often get bogged down in swamps, septic pools, and forgotten lagoons.

	Take a bowl full of watered down cornstarch. If you shake it gently, the thickened fluid starts to turn more into liquid (a thixotropic effect). The earth demonstrates this quality, too. Wherever there is simply soil filled in, for instance at a beach or harbor with a landfill, this area becomes fluid-like when there is an earthquake! Loose debris is in your river, and you can soften and melt it out (liquefaction).

Think of your body as being like a waterway system, where small rivulets empty into larger streams, a river, and finally an ocean. Flowing from your face and neck, the fluid becomes a long river in a central channel that moves downward through the midline, and drains into the abdomen. This river pathway looks like giant Goggles on the face with Straps down the sides of the neck. a T-shape drawn on the chest, and a Big Circle going around the belly. 

	You can use a few simple massage strokes to help clear waste material out of your body's busy water filtration process. If you want to clean out the entire system, you have to pay attention to where it is most congested. The idea is to unclog the finish line (where it empties out), to make room for the debris upstream to flow out more easily. The massaging should be gentle and slow, and can be done using plain oil (sesame recommended), cornstarch or baby powder. You can do the same strokes on top of smooth fabric like a sheet or T-shirt, if you prefer.

Melting Touch for Lymphatic Clearing =
light feathering and slow steady skimming;
squeegee/spatula sliding with a slight squeeze;
gentle, slow stretching in stationery circles;
tiny pulsations that are fluidifying/liquefying

	Imagine you are painting, using thick blue finger paint.  Because you want to end up with a nice, even coating of blue, gently spread the imaginary paint with a spatula hand. Allow your fingers to be very soft spongy, floppy mittens that shape to the contour of the surface they are on. Use your whole hand, including the palm, like a squeegee, trying to stay very light, so light in your pressure that you leave a layer of thick blue finger paint behind, and yet continue to slide/glide along the pathway. 

	The rhythm and repetition are very important, because you want to imitate the way water acts, just like the ocean. Your movement is like a pebble tossed into a still pond Élittle waves ripple out. If you repeat the toss in the same place with a certain rhythm, you will make a standing wave: one that affects all sides of the pond, and keeps going, undulating with a snake-like motion throughout the body of water. This also encourages the central nervous system to shift away from fight/flight (sympathetic) to relaxation/rejuvenation (para-sympathetic). Immediately, the body softens into a deeply soothing state, restful and yet energizing.

	Smile to your belly, and cleanse yourself for better health maintenance. In order to drain the head, you must start from the bottom and work your way to the top. Begin with the colon (garbage disposal switch), proceed to the chest, and finally, do the face and neck. Thus, you have combed the entire pathway, and can now flush and clear everything from top to bottom. You can spend a little as two minutes, or as long as twenty minutes, melting away congestion in your waterways.  

	Always check with your health professional to be sure your health situation is compatible for this type of detoxification process. Many immune imbalances can benefit from the extra waste elimination help, but in extreme cases, caution is advised. Flushing out toxins should always been done in small stages to make sure the sewage system can handle the debris. 

HOW TO CLEAR YOUR INTERNAL WATERWAYS

My teacher, Lauren Berry, was a Registered Physical Therapist from Redding, CA, (1918-1983). From his point of view, solid waste material moves through the deep lymphatic drainage pathway, which runs downwards from the two sides of the head (cervical lymph nodes), then from the sides to the center of the chest (axillary lymph nodes)  and down through the chest, crossing through a vacuum pressured gate-like area just left of the midline and underneath the ribcage, then finally exiting into the colon. Just like a radiator overflow tank, our eyes, ears, nose and mouth exhibit an excess flow when our radiators (lymphatic fluid in the lungs) need flushing. 

Begin with the BELLY
To perform a simplified version of Lymphatic Clearing massage, begin at the colon (garbage disposal switch) and clear out what is waiting to be eliminated. This opens the way for excess solid waste material to move down the long pathway (river) that carries everything from the head down through the chest and into the colon.  Use a wave-like motion that replicates the bowels moving (peristalsis) in a clockwise circle, from ascending around to descending colon. Vibrate gently to break up congestion, sweeping slowly and repeatedly in a circle, covering the entire surface of the abdomen.

Proceed to the CHEST
Press and pulse gently all along the chest, feeling into where the ribs meet the breastbone, using a melting, light relaxing touch. Breathe full deep breaths, pumping gently or tapping underneath the collarbone, underneath the breast area, and along the midline. Sweep your hands one at a time from the sides to the center of the chest, as though you were hugging yourself.  Sweep along the midline, from the top to the bottom of the ribcage. Now gently detour to the left at the bottom of the ribcage, falling over the ribs and into the belly, just left of the centerline. Jiggle, vibrate, pulse and breathe here at the GATE, where congestion can often be found. The material gathered here is like silt at the delta of a river, where so many lymphatic flow patterns join and coagulate.

Next, do the HEAD
Now that the colon has been cleared, and has received the debris from the chest, the head can be cleared. Open the lymph nodes underneath the ear lobes, gently stretching the skin in slow pulsing circles all around the hinge of the jaw. Twenty percent of the body's lymph nodes are placed along the throat area, ready to capture any invading organisms as quickly as possible. Using sliding, melting, skimming strokes or tiny pulsing circles, massage the entire face, stroking or moving from the center to the sides. Pay particular attention to the eye sockets and cheekbones, pressing a little more gently along any congested points. 

Finally, SWEEP everything you just did
Finish your mini-massage by sweeping everything from the head (center to the sides, then down the two sides of the neck into the collarbone), to the chest (from the sides to the center, esp. underneath the breast area, then from the top of the midline down to where the left ribs meet the breastbone) and finally vibrating and breathing, release the GATE area in the middle-upper-left part of the abdomen, and massage the abdomen once again (following clockwise as the colon moves).

o  w h o    o   w h a t   o    h o w    o   w h y   o   w h e r e   o

o Who is Lymph?
	S/he is the water nymph inside your body, your internal ocean, the way your body takes a shower on the inside -  the water filtration, waste disposal, and defense transportation system all combined in one huge intricate Riversystem.S/he arranges for garbage removal, trash incineration, swamp dredging, backlog slow composting, and other tasks that must be done whenever you haven't cleared out your daily non-useful items. S/he works very hard whenever you get sick, because it's like a storm or a hurricane - all the waterways get piled with loose and dead stuff, everyone's on emergency alert. S/he is also in charge of transporting the daily patrols and the SWAT team in case foreign organisms have come on board.

o What is Lymph?
	Fluid made mostly of plasma - it is just like blood but without the red blood cells - a watery, milky liquid that slowly thickens when there become more and more non-useful items in the waterways. Lymph becomes mucous when it gets very congested.

o How does it move?
	VERY slowly, like jelly melting on a hot day, like mayonnaise dripping out of a jar. It circulates through the body slowly but surely, cleaning and patrolling. Many things help keep it moving: Using your muscles, emptying your bowels, breathing deeply, and just your heart beating. Gravity pulls it down if we stop moving.

o Why is there Lymph?
	To clean and to defend. Every cell needs to get rid of waste products, and the blood slowly leeches out plasma into the body's tissue like water in a sponge, so that each cell can be cleaned. The blood pushes all foreign material, wastes, and excesses into the lymph waterways where the Daily Patrols (lymphocytes) capture any invaders and take them to the Water Filtration Stations, otherwise known as the Immune Library checkpoints (lymph nodes). Here they are met by the SWAT team (T-cells) to be neutralized and rendered harmless, and sent away as non-useful items. 

o Where is the Lymph?
	Everywhere! There is lymphatic fluid everywhere, making tiny rivulets (capillaries). These waterways are most found in the hands and feet, and, as they move plasma and debris to be cleaned closer to the heart, they became bigger. In the torso, there is one long river (Thoracic duct).

	Lymph nodes are the water filtration stations, and there are 4 main pairs - under the earlobes, under the armpits, in the groin, and at the back of the knee. Lymphoid tissue holds the warrior components of the IMMUNE system (T-cells), which live in the Spleen, the Thymus, the Intestines (Payers patches, Lacteals, Appendix), the Tonsils, and the Adenoids (nose). 

o Ms. Javril  is Nationally Certified in Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork, and is a Certified Somatic Therapist with A.B.M.P. As an Ordained spiritual Minister and Movement Therapist, Marci heads the Vital Energy Center, and offers individual, semi-private and group experiences in the art and science of rejuvenation. Certification courses are Approved for Continuing Education Units by NCBTMB Category A Provider # 00 -É... Lymphatic  Clearing© Basic Massage-16 hrs; Abdominal Integrity -16 hrs; Pregnancy, Labor & Infant MassageÐ32 hrs.

edited version published in Whole Life Times, Los Angeles, CA  October 2001 (titled: "Lymphatic Cleanse")