EP4 – My Results On the GAPS Liquid Fast Plus How to Begin with Breathwork and Meditation
Health Transformations with a Liquid GAPS Fast and Mastering Meditation Techniques
Could a simple two-day liquid GAPS fast transform your energy levels and boost your well-being? In this episode, I share my own journey with this intriguing approach to health, revealing how it led to a three-pound weight loss, reduced bloating, and made my mornings feel more vibrant. As a holistic health specialist and GAPS practitioner, I even tackle the taboo topic of bowel movements, which tell us so much about our digestive health. You’ll also get a sneak peek into my plans for modifying stage one of the GAPS diet, as I consider incorporating solid foods like meats and vegetables in the evenings while continuing a liquid fast during the day, all while emphasizing the power of mindful eating.
Discover the art of circular breathing and how it can unlock deeper emotional access through continuous mouth breathing. This technique isn’t just for the adventurous—it requires careful practice, especially if you have health concerns like anxiety or heart issues. I’ll guide you on how to approach it safely and effectively.
Plus, learn practical strategies for managing intrusive thoughts during meditation, turning those pesky distractions into opportunities for mindfulness. Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned practitioner, you’ll find tips on embracing the unique ways meditation can connect you with your inner self, from feelings to sounds, and everything in between.
Want to reach out? Have any questions? Shoot me an email here: contact@shariseparviz.com
Transcript
Sharise Parviz: 0:00
Good morning. I wanted to do a quick little update of what my weekend was like. It is now Monday morning and I had two days on my liquid Gaps Fast and I feel amazing. So just to let you know how I am feeling, just in two days of being on my liquid Gaps Fast, my bloating is down. Two days of being on my liquid gaps fast, my bloating is down. I have lost three pounds and I have my energy is I feel so much more energetic and I feel good and when I get up in the morning I’m now really just able to hop out of the bed and just get moving right away. So just after two days and I’m just feeling really positive and and cleansed out.
Sharise Parviz: 0:50
There was a okay, so just real, real, quickly, just kind of remind me of something. There was a, there’s a, a, a naturopath, another naturopath, and she was saying that you know, bowel movements are a thing of joy, or bring life joy or something like that. I laughed, I thought I don’t know if they bring me joy, but, boy, when you have a good one, it sure does make you feel great. So sorry if that upsets you, but when you’re in the field that I am, which is a holistic health specialist, traditional naturopath, all herbalist and GAPS practitioner and doing all the things. I don’t know. Bowels are just a common conversation at this point. So it’s, you know, everybody tells me about their bowel movement. So sorry if that offended you at all, but hopefully it doesn’t. I mean, hopefully you know where this is coming from, so that doesn’t surprise you anyway. But so, yes, so you know, everything is moving beautifully and I’m just feeling, yeah, just great after two days.
Sharise Parviz: 1:48
So what I’ve decided to do today because today I was going to go ahead and get started and move into stage one of GAPS and the difference between, say, the liquid fast and stage one specifically, is really adding in meats and vegetables, just starting to eat, bring in solids and that’s really it. I mean, the stage one really only lasts about one to three days at the most, because it’s just really about. It’s just really about getting everything, you know again more cleaning out. But there’s not a lot of food in it. So you know it’s uh, it can cause constipation and things like that, but then again that’s why you have your enemas. So anyway, um, usually I it’s one to three days, it just all depends, as long as the food that’s, you know, someone is eating is, uh, tolerable, right, and and usually it is, you know because it’s a very, very mild, mild beginning.
Sharise Parviz: 2:47
But I’ve decided I’m going to kind of do a modified, because I’ve been feeling so good on the liquid gaps fast and I’m not too hungry at all, because every time I get hungry I just have another cup of meat stock. I’m just listening to the birds right now, so getting the morning sun time, so I thought what I’ll do, though, is I’d like to continue with the liquid fast, at least through the day, and then so drinking the fermented brine, the fermented drinks, having the meat stock with just the liquid stock only, and herbal teas, and then green juices and so forth, and then the evening for dinner and I have my dinner pretty early I try not to eat past six, meaning I want to be done with my meal by six, and the reason for that is I like to give myself and actually it’s really beneficial to give yourself at least, I say, three hours, two to three hours, you know time before you go to bed, between eating and going to bed, and so, especially for heavy food, now, sometimes, if I’m still like a little hungry, I may have a little bowl of my homemade yogurt or, you know, my cultured cream with a little bit of honey or what have you, you know, but I try definitely to not eat an hour before bedtime, but I prefer to be done by my food by six, and then I go to bed at nine and then I, of course, get up at four. So well, not of course, but I think I told you that yesterday. So anyway, so, yeah, so I think I’m going to modify it and have my later meal, my meal. I’ll have one meal where I’ll add in to my stock the meats and vegetables from it, and I made a meat shank, a beef shank stock, which is yummy, yummy, and so I’ll add the meat and the vegetables and that’ll be for my evening meal time and then the rest of the day I think I’ll do liquids and I think I’ll continue that until I’m ready, till my body tells me okay, I’m ready to eat more throughout the day, and we’ll see how that goes. And I will continue to do my enema and at least once a day for right now, and my detox bath and my prayers and my meditation. So, yesterday, what happened yesterday, yesterday has been this weekend’s been really good. I haven’t done a lot of physical activity because, being on a liquid fast, I’m not tired or a lack energy in that sense, like, oh my gosh, I’m dragging. Like I said, I feel better, I feel great, but you know, I also don’t want to overdo it, right. So I do what you know, mild work, whatever my body feels like, and my body just felt like maybe doing some walking. So I did some walking and, of course, I did my yoga, my gentle yoga, meditations, breath work that I mentioned, and the breath work that I did I thought I’d share that with you is a it’s called circular breathing.
Sharise Parviz: 5:51
Well, there’s different types of breathing techniques that are called circular breathing. This is one type that’s called circular breathing or continuous breath, and so what you do with it is it’s mouth breathing. So typically you want to breathe through your nose right, and I’ll talk about that another time but you typically you want to breathe through your nose and so, but in this particular case, this is mouth breathing and you’re not breathing fast, you know, through your mouth, but you’re just breathing continuously. You’re inhaling and exhaling without pausing in between. A lot of times. If you notice when you breathe, you may find that when you take an inhale. Between your inhale and your exhale you take a slight pause, and you may notice that you do that. So this, there is no pause, it’s just one breath, and it’s called circular breathing or continuous breathing, because you’re thinking about like you’re breathing in this circle and as I do this breath, I actually imagine it’s like my breath going up the clock, like inhaling up the clock and then exhaling down the clock, and up the clock and down the clock.
Sharise Parviz: 6:54
And when you breathe in this way, I’m not quite sure what the reasoning is. I’d have to like to research this a little bit more as I delve deeper into the breathwork, variations of different types of breathwork and why certain breathworks do certain things. But you know, I think a lot of it is just opening up the throat, and so what happens is that a lot of emotions and so forth come this way right, can come forward in breathing this way, and I think a lot of the reasons why that is is that accessing more emotions or accessing, I guess, just more emotional connection is. It’s almost the same way that singing does. You know one of the things you know, you as a singer, you know they say, speaking is the voice of the, you know, of the head right, but singing is the voice of the soul and you know, when you’re opening your mouth and you’re taking inhale and you’re exhaling and you’re singing and you’re singing a note and your throat is open and your mouth is open, it is such a vulnerable place to be right, I mean, because you’re making the sound and it’s just out there, you know. But the thing is, everything is open, everything is open and the deep breathing and the openness of the throat, I think just really brings up, allows the emotions to come up and come out, and I think it’s the same way with this breathing. So the way you do this circular breathing, if it’s something you want to try, up and come out, and I think it’s the same way with this breathing.
Sharise Parviz: 8:24
So the way you do this circular breathing, if it’s something you want to try and not everyone, this isn’t recommended for everyone to try and again, I’m not recommending it. This is not medical advice, this is none of that. This is all just for entertainment and educational purposes only. So, but there are some folks that probably shouldn’t try doing the circular breathing. Folks that may have anxiety are diagnosed and again, I don’t like to use the word diagnosed. But if you have been diagnosed schizophrenia or bipolar or so forth but if everything is good and you feel like, yeah, you know, I’m not doing too badly, all right, also maybe some heart problems I’m trying to remember all the disclaimers here the heart problems, bipolar schizophrenia, anxiety, right, hypertension, so forth. So if you’re, you know, good health and it’s not major. But if you’re in good health, then try it or not, right, this is all up to you to decide what to do.
Sharise Parviz: 9:28
So what you do is just you find a comfortable position to either sit or lie down, but you want to be comfortable. But you also want to have a straight back, not rigid but straight. You want to make sure you have length through the torso so that you’re making room for the breath to come into the lungs and to leave the lungs, so we’re not sitting and collapsing. Or, if you’re laying down, you want to lay straight on your back and opening up the chest and opening up the diaphragm area which is right below your ribs, and allowing that to move and be free. Okay, move and expand. So in that position of sitting or lying down, in a not a rigid but in a very comfortable but straight position, you want to open your mouth and you’re going to inhale and exhale without stopping. It sounds like this. Hopefully that you heard that, um, and it’s just.
Sharise Parviz: 10:36
You know, you may find a little bit that like when I was doing it I know I did it for which is, if you’re not used to doing any kind of breath work, don’t do that. But you know, do it for maybe 30 seconds, Do it for a minute, do it for however long is comfortable for you. Anytime you do any kind of breath work or meditation work or anything really anything new, start small, low and slow is the game. That’s what I always say Low and slow. Go low and slow Because you’re breaking in, right, you’re testing the waters, but also it’s no different than going to the gym.
Sharise Parviz: 11:08
When you go to a gym, right, you don’t go to the gym and it’s the first time you’ve been to the gym in forever, or maybe it’s your first time you’ve ever been to the gym at all and you’re not really worked out or you’re new. So you don’t go. And you don’t go pick up the $100 or $100, 100 pound dumbbells and start doing biceps. You don’t do that, you know. Maybe you do biceps with no weight at all. Maybe you do biceps with five pounds, right, two pounds, whatever it is what’s comfortable for you that you can do at that time. And then, as you you know, you get. You continue to go to the gym and you keep working out and you keep progressing through. You begin to increase your weight, right, and there’s no difference.
Sharise Parviz: 11:46
When I was a personal trainer, you know I would develop a plan for a client and you know every two weeks we’d increase the weight, but we’d only increase the weight by two and a half to five pounds, right, depending on. You know how they were doing, but most of the time it was no more than five pounds and that was every two weeks. So you always want to start slow and slow and allow your mind. In this case, when you’re doing mental, or you’re doing meditations, or you’re doing breath work or you’re doing, or even if you’re doing like some of the life coaching strategies that I use and we’re practicing these strategies so that you can use them on your own in difficult situations. But you don’t. You start with less challenging situations to practice the tools. So you start less challenging and then you move into more challenging.
Sharise Parviz: 12:38
You never just want to jump in. I mean you can, but more than likely you’ll. You know you could get hurt, which we don’t want, or you just go too far too. I mean you can, but more than likely you’ll. You know you could get hurt, which we don’t want. Or you just go too far, too fast and then you burn out. And then you don’t do that. A lot of people do that, right. They go to the gym, they give all they got and they work out their you know, work their butt off and then they’re in so sore the next day they don’t go back to the gym.
Sharise Parviz: 12:59
It’s better to go low and slow and consistency and progression right, simple, simple. Keep it simple. Keep it simple. So you may just want to try this breathing. If you want to try this breathing, if you feel this breathing is something that could benefit you, or just want to give it a try and see what comes up. You know, 30 seconds, 15 seconds, whatever. Try it for five breaths total. That’s it. Inhale and exhale as one set and try five sets of the breathing. If you like it, continue. But be aware that there are some things. If you continue for like 45 minutes you might start to feel thirsty, your throat gets dry. Take time, take sips of water.
Sharise Parviz: 13:39
You may find that you want to take it slow because sometimes through breath work, if you’re not used to it, it could cause headaches. It could cause tension to happen in the body. You know so. You know like muscular tension, you just so. You really just want to go slow, okay. So I really don’t recommend if you’re listening to this you want to try it.
Sharise Parviz: 13:59
If you’ve never done it, do five sets of breath. That’s if I were to recommend anything, which I’m not, but if I were to, that’s what I would do. I would tell someone who was just beginning no more than five sets, just test the waters right, and then, if you really want to get into breath work, you know you might want to get with somebody who could teach you some breath work. My goal is to start courses and get them out onto the internet. Right now I’m working in person, but eventually I will. Anyway, but the nice thing about that breath work is it just really starts to open up. Well, for me I’ll talk about for me my heart a little bit. A lot of different emotions came up right, a lot of different emotions, and I accepted him, you know, and talked with him and got to just become aware of them.
Sharise Parviz: 14:50
And whenever I do breath work or meditation, you know, a lot of times people get turned off by doing anything like that because they’re told you know, make your mind silent and you know, don’t think and you know, make sure that you’re focusing on this and keep turning your mind back and keep turning your mind back. Here’s what I want to say. I guess this is my big takeaway that I want to share with you, and because I think I could go a lot of different places right now, but let me just keep it clear and keep it concise. If you start meditating or breath work or anything like that, it’s okay for your mind to think. Your mind is going to do what your mind is going to do, right. Your heart, well, it beats right. Your heart beats. Your lungs they breathe right and your mind, it thinks. So your mind, your brain, is just doing what it’s meant to do, what it was created to do. We don’t want to beat it for what it’s created to do.
Sharise Parviz: 15:49
So how do you handle when thoughts, intrusive thoughts or thoughts you know that distract you come into your mind when you are meditating or doing breath work? You have a lot of different options, really. Well, not a lot, but you have quite a few different options and allow them, allow them. Oh, that’s interesting, okay. And if it’s something that’s just kind of interfering a little bit, you’d say, oh okay, I see you and I imagine putting it up on a shelf. I imagine two things. If it’s just a thought that I’m just coming in but it really doesn’t have any purpose in my life, it’s just kind of like, oh, that’s kind of a random thought, okay, then I will imagine it either floating away on a cloud or floating down a river and just letting it go, just saying hello, all right, you know, thank you for sharing, and let it go.
Sharise Parviz: 16:42
If it’s a thought especially if you’re doing meditation or breath work or something like that, trying to quiet the mind a little bit and you’ve got a super big day ahead or you’re coming off something, I do one of two things. One thing I’ll do is if a thought pops in and I know it’s something that I want to remember, I’ll put it on. I imagine putting it on a shelf saying thank you, let me deal with you after my time right now, after I meditate. Or let me deal with you after my breath work right, and I just imagine sticking it in a shelf or I imagine putting it in a bubble and just putting that bubble aside. So I’m saving it for later. Now, if I really know that I’ve got, my mind is busy, busy, busy, busy and I don’t feel like I can really calm it down to just breathe and just be. I’ll put some post-it notes by my side. I love my post-it notes, I gotta tell you, and I’ll take post-it notes and a pen and if I’m meditating and if I’m breathing or doing something that I would like to just calm my mind down a bit more. But something keeps popping up. If it’s something that’s important, I’ll just jot it down.
Sharise Parviz: 17:57
You know you can learn to come in and out of your meditation, which is a very important skill, useful skill to have as you learn to meditate, because you want to bring that mindfulness and that meditative. You know calming energy throughout your day and if you can learn to do that, then it just makes your day better. You know, in relationships and so forth, to be able to tune in to that meditative energy and one way to learn how to do that is when you’re meditating. You know, allowing yourself to come in and out of it. So one way is you come out, you jot it back, you jot it down, put it aside and you go back into your meditation or your breath work.
Sharise Parviz: 18:36
So, and the other thing, though, is that, whatever thoughts that come into your head, don’t judge yourself. Congratulate yourself, because if you catch yourself kind of drifting into something that’s kind of like, well, that’s not where I was going or that was not the intention of my meditation, right, If you have one, congratulate yourself because you just noticed it, you just became mindful and you were meditating and realized that you were no longer meditating, and so that’s a moment of success actually. So congratulate yourself for that. Also, understand that when we go to a place of meditation, when we bring our heart rate down and we’re settling down and our breath and our breathing is slowing down and our mind is opening and our heart is opening, you know answers could come. That’s another reason why post-it notes might be good, especially if you’re praying for something or you’re seeking guidance. When you seek the guidance and you ask the questions and you go into meditation. Sometimes, if you go into prayer and you pray and then you sit in meditation after the prayer, you know that’s when answers can come and that’s okay, that I mean, that’s wonderful, I’m not just okay. But allow it, jot it down, jot it down. There’s nothing wrong with doing that anyway. I guess that’s all I wanted to share is that if you started doing any kind of meditation or any kind of breath work, don’t be afraid or don’t feel you’re failing. I think that’s what it is.
Sharise Parviz: 20:06
A lot of people, oh, I can’t meditate, you can. It’s not that. It’s not that, there’s not that. When people make things so legalistic that you have to do it this way, that’s the problem.
Sharise Parviz: 20:18
Everybody has their own way of meditating. Everybody has their own way of being and what works for one person doesn’t work for all people. You know, when I work with guided meditations in my group classes, you know I say the word imagine because not everybody visualizes. Some people imagine through kinesthetically, they can feel it in their body, right. So if I lead someone through a guided meditation, some people are very visual and they will see my guiding, right where I’m guiding them. But some people will feel it, some people will hear, some people will or just imagine, or some people see words, right. So everyone, you know. So everyone has their own way of imagining. It isn’t always visual, and I’m a very visual person, but not everyone is, and that’s okay too. There’s nothing wrong with that. You don’t have to be a visual person to meditate. You can sense into your tune, into your sense of you know, hearing, sense of feeling. Right, it doesn’t have to always be visual.
Sharise Parviz: 21:26
So what I would suggest let’s get down to conclusion here, because I’m kind of rambling here, sorry about that, but what I would suggest is that if you try, if you’re new and you want to embark on any kind of breath work or any kind of meditation, go low and slow. Even if you start meditating. I would say no more than two minutes to begin, no more than two minutes. Allow thoughts to come, allow thoughts to go, welcome them in and then set them off, put them on a shelf, let them flow down the river or through the clouds, or put it down on a post-it note and go right back in to whatever you’re doing.
Sharise Parviz: 22:04
No judgment, just awareness, just acceptance. It’s all part of you, you know. We accept who we are, we accept what we are, we accept the good, we accept the bad. When we come to a point of acceptance, then guess what we can be free and then all those things that we work so hard to stop and we work so hard to, you know, restrain and put away and they’re no good. And all this, and you know what, those parts of us that we would like to see evolve into a higher part of who we are, the higher self, will happen. But it will happen through saying I see you, I acknowledge you, you’re here for a reason. Let’s find out why, right. So love yourself, accept yourself, be aware and allow. Allow your thoughts, allow your mind, allow your brain to do what it’s meant to do, which is to think it’s okay.
Sharise Parviz: 22:58
All right, I’m out of here. I’m just rambling and beating a dead horse, you know. Anyway, have a great day. I’ll let you know how. I’m not sure when I’ll be posting. I’m out of here, I’m just rambling and beating a dead horse. You know. Anyway, have a great day. I’ll let you know how. I’m not sure when I’ll be posting. I’ll be posting on a daily basis or if I’ll post a summary at the end of my first week.
Sharise Parviz: 23:14
But either way, go ahead and make sure that you subscribe to my email list on my website, wwwshariceparvizcom. I don’t know why everybody says www, just charisparvizcom. You already know it’s www and sign up for my newsletter. Also, there’s a lot of freebies on my website, as well as a Know your why, which is a wonderful exploration on why you want what you want, the real deep purpose of what will keep you driving to success, towards your goal, whatever that is, finding out the real reason why you want it. Anyway, and I will post these on trying to work out how to get these on Spotify and we’re figuring that out, but in the meantime it will be on my website and then I’ll also post it on X as well, if you have any questions about what I’m saying, because I’m just like I told you initially I’m going off the cuff.
Sharise Parviz: 24:08
It’s just me and you chit-chatting and I’m just sharing. I’m walking down my lane and I’m just seeing you standing beside me and we’re just talking. Seems like I’m doing all the talking. You should talk more, but you should, because what I would love for you to do is that if I say anything and you have questions on it or curiosities about it because I’m not going to depth like I would if I was working with clients or so forth I’m just giving you an overview. But if you have questions. Please feel free to email me contact at shariseparviz.com, and you can do it right from my website as well. All right, all right, have a beautiful day and we’ll chat soon. Bye-bye, get out in the sun.