I’ve been living at the Epic Self Headquarters for 3 days now, immersing in a beautiful raw organic, plant-based diet with my incredibly inspirational mentors and co-fellow.

I threw myself into this lifestyle full-on, as I do with most things – learning how to create gorgeous meals, starting the day with yoga and meditation, and working hard on my business. I felt so excited to begin feeling the vibrant, radiating plant-based energy that would get me bouncing out of bed before 5am, buzzing on plant vibes and sunlight – ready and inspired to create epic sh*t with my business and life!

Ha… not so fast.

So apparently, when you begin to detox or cleanse your body, whether that’s through fasting, a juice cleanse or a raw vegan cleanse, you feel WORSE before you feel GREAT. All the little scrubbers in all the kale and greens open up the fat cells that have stored toxins, and release those into the bloodstream, where they finally begin to exit the body.

In my case, it felt like a mix between a massive hangover, sinus infection, some sort of head injury, and food poisoning worse than what I had in Thailand… all at once. The detox is real, my friends. With the distinct feeling that my body was purging every toxin it had ever consumed, through every outlet possible… I could only surrender.

“No mud, no lotus” is the phrase that comes to mind when I think about this process. If we want to achieve greatness, and experience a life of freedom and vitality… we must go through the mud, the detoxification, the shedding of the old to come into the new.

The life I desire to create requires me to uplevel my habits in so many ways – not just food-related. Yes, jumping into a full-raw vegan diet overnight is a huge transition for the body – but so is the shift into the mentality of real success, getting sh*t done, and finally taking myself and my passions seriously.

To detox – whether physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually – requires a period of surrender, where it actually feels way worse before it feels better.

You have to suffer through the toxins moving through your system, as they get flushed out completely.

I love this metaphor – as it requires so much presence, patience, and acceptance of ourselves and our journey. It requires a fierce commitment to creating what we desire, for our mind, our body, and our soul.

And it requires a total surrender and faith in the process – knowing that after the pain of detox, comes the clarity and peace of cleansing.